Goliath Awaits is a mystery/thriller with crappy photography but an intriguing storyline that has lots of tension and enough action to keep most viewers happy. The good points almost nullify the bad camera work.

Goliath left London for New York in 1939. She carried 1,860 passengers and crew. At 1,000 feet long, she was the largest luxury liner in the world. Cruising in excess of 30 knots, she was also the fastest.

A German wolfpack was searching for her, so Goliath was taking evasive action and operating under radio silence when a German submarine torpedoed her. She went down without a trace.

Forty years later, the salvage ship Enterprise 4 finds Goliath far from where they thought she sank. She's on a volcanic ridge at 900 feet. The volcano keeps the water around the ship warm.

The first divers to reach Goliath are shocked to hear an SOS: "Goliath. Onboard 337. Danger. Air Toxic. Beware McKenzie."

The Navy begins emergency rescue operations, commanded by Admiral Sloan (Eddie Albert). He sends a team, led by commander Jeff Salkirk (Robert Forster), into the ship to find out what is going on. What they find is beyond their comprehension. The passengers have created a world where they extract oxygen from water, produce light and raise food.

However, all is not paradise. They are ruled by John McKenzie (Christopher Lee) and his faithful sidekick Dan Wesker (Frank Gorshin). McKenzie decides who lives and dies, who can marry and have children, what jobs they will do, and every other aspect of their lives. He rules with an iron fist.

The ship's population is divided and the "bow people" -- McKenzie's outcasts and the rebels against his tyranny, led by Ryker (Duncan Regehr) -- openly attack McKenzie's security guards. The security guards are assigned to protect the rescue team, who begin to question exactly what they are being protected from.

Romance blossoms between McKenzie's daughter, Leah (Emma Samms), and Peter Cabot (Mark Harmon). As the rescue team tries to prepare the passengers to leave, passengers begin mysteriously dying. Only when their vaccine is poisoned with algae bacteria do the rescue divers realize how dangerous their mission really is.

This film makes you do some heavy thinking. There is so much psychology involved. The writers pit the rescue doctor against the ship's doctor in numerous philosophical discussions. Then there are the many views on the differences in life down there and life on the surface. Some of these people, like Leah, were born in this ship and have never seen the sun, sky or clouds. The ones that have seen the world are remembering it from the time of the war and have no idea what life is like now.

This is an excellently written movie. It gets you so involved in the passengers' emotional and psychological situations that you can't stop watching. The overall large plot is predictable, but there several surprises and twists along the way.

Goliath Awaits is an intriguing piece that goes deeply into human mentality and the things that motivate us. It is ideal for when you are in the mood for something heavy, serious, and thought-provoking.