Over 2,000 passengers and crew are celebrating New Year's Eve aboard the luxury cruise ship 'Poseidon' on the open sea. Without warning, at midnight, a rogue wave hundreds of feet high, slams into the ship and rolls it upside down. Most of the passengers and crew are killed outright, but several hundred remain alive in the ballroom, where the party was being held. Realizing their only hope of rescue lies at the surface of the water, a handful of survivors, led by Dylan and Robert start to make their way past falling debris, flash fires, and the ever-present threat of flooding. Their destination is the ship's propeller shafts.