Sahara is an adventure novel by Clive Cussler. First published in 1992, it is the eleventh book in Cussler's Dirk Pitt series. In 2005 the film Sahara was released based on the book.

Plot summary

While working in Egypt on an archaeological mapping of the Nile, Dirk Pitt is able to rescue Dr. Eva Rojas, a scientist working for the WHO, from a mysterious attacker. Shortly thereafter, Eva flies to Mali with an international team of scientists to investigate a mysterious disease that has been reported from various desert villages. At the same time, Pitt and his best friend Al Giordino are hurriedly flown to a research vessel outside the coast of Mali. There they are informed by their boss, Admiral James Sandecker, of an algal bloom, in this case a red tide, that is growing unnaturally fast, and the growth speed is suspected to be fueled by some type of pollutant.

Dirk, Al and Rudi Gunn are ordered to cruise up the Niger River to search for the pollutant, and determine where it gets into the river. They do this aboard the Calliope, a high performance super yacht, equipped with comprehensive scientific laboratories, several defense systems and an array of communication equipment. The cruise is all well until reaching Benin, where they are forced to engage the Benin navy, which is completely destroyed. The continued trip is calm, during which they identify the pollutant, and at last find the spot where it appears in the river. The problem is just that there is no chemical facility in the vicinity.

By now, the Malian armed forces are on their way, along with the Malian dictator General Zateb Kazim, who wishes to seize the yacht for his own use. After dropping Gunn off to make a run for the Gao airport, Pitt and Giordino let the yacht self-destruct after jumping overboard and swimming to the houseboat of the ruthless French businessman Yves Massarde. On his yacht, they manage to contact admiral Sandecker about Gunn's escape before being captured by Massarde. A UN rescue team picks Gunn up at the airport.

After some interrogation at the houseboat, Pitt and Giordino manage to steal Mr Massarde's helicopter, which they fly north to Bourem, dumping the chopper in the river. Here they find (and steal) general Kazim's ancient car, an Avions Voisin. They drive the Voisin north, into the desert, toward the chemical waste processing facility Fort Foureau, the only facility that could possibly leak the pollutant into the river. En route to the detoxification facility, Pitt and Giordino run into an American nomad who is searching for a supposed sunken Civil War iron clad. They hide the car and sneak into the facility, only to be captured by Mr. Massarde's security guards, but not before they understand that the processing facility is just a disguise for an underground waste dump sitting right above an underground river.

Massarde decides to send them to Tebezza, a secret gold mine shared with general Kazim, where prisoners dig for gold under appalling conditions. Here they also find the WHO team, which had been coming too close to the truth about the diseases they were investigating, as well as the French engineers that were contracted to build the processing facility. Dirk and Al manage to escape from the mine, driving 300 km to the east, trying to reach the Trans-Sahara Route. When the gas runs out, they have to walk. They find a cave painting of a Civil War-era ironclad battleship, which local artists could not have drawn in such detail without having seen it. They also find a lost 1930-era airplane, which they rebuild into a land yacht. They determine that the crashed airplane had been flown by legendery record breaking female Australian pilot Kitty Mannock, whose disappearance was worldwide news at the time, shadowed only by that of Amelia Earhart. Mannock's body is laying with the plane, along with her diary, which details her attempts at walking out, her discovery of "an odd ship in the sand", her taking shelter inside the ship, and her eventual return to her plane in a lost hope for rescue, where she perished. Mannock had survived for ten days, and by her diary they were able to know how long she walked from the plane, and in which direction, giving them an area to search for the lost ironclad. Using the land yacht they built from Mannock's plane, they finally reach the Trans-Sahara Route and are picked up by a passing truck on the way to Adrar, Algeria. They quickly reach Algiers, from where they inform Admiral Sandecker about the appalling situation in Tebezza.

The UN team that rescued Rudi Gunn earlier is dispatched to Alger to pick up Pitt and Giordino, and is then flown to Tebezza. They successfully attack Tebezza and close it for good, but not before an alarm is sent to general Kazim. An aircraft from the Malian air force is sent there to investigate, and destroys the UN aircraft just as the team returns from the mine. They are now stranded, and decide to make a run for the real Fort Foureau, a French Foreign Legion fortress that gave the waste processing plant its name, and plan to later hijack a waste train to carry the team and the rescued prisoners to safety in Mauritania.

Unfortunately, while at the fortress their presence is discovered and the trains are withheld. Giordino and a commando uses a stripped attack buggy to reach a US Delta unit in Mauritaina, while the Malian army attacks the fortress with everything they have. After severe losses for both sides, the Delta unit comes to the rescue aboard a train, quickly defeating the Malian army, and killing general Kazim.

Now Pitt and Giordino borrow an attack helicopter and go to take over the Fort Foureau facility. They also force Mr. Massarde to lie out in the desert sun naked for three hours, after which he drinks several litres of water which was secretly polluted from the waste dump. They then let him board his chopper and leave, knowing that he will not live for another week.

In the end, the waste dump is cleaned up, the water pollutant is removed and the red tide growth rate decreases. The rescued Tebezza prisoners are treated for malnutrition and various injuries. The ironclad battleship is dug up and the lost airplane is restored and placed in a museum. Dirk Pitt also ships general Kazim's Avions Voisin to his own car collection.

A subplot involved a conspiracy theory regarding Abraham Lincoln, which suggested that Abraham Lincoln was captured by Confederate forces and brought on board the ironclad, CSS Texas, with the "Abe Lincoln" that was assassinated being actually an actor hired by Edwin M. Stanton. This was cut out of the film adaptation.

Error

When Sandecker meets Hala Kamil to persuade her to send a UN attack force to Mali to rescue his men, she initially refuses. But when Sandecker mentions that Pitt is one of the persons requiring to be rescued she says owes one to Pitt since he had rescued her twice from death before, once in Arizona and once more at the Straits of Magellan. This happened in Treasure, except that she was rescued three times in the same book, the first time when her plane Nebula Flight 106 crashes in the Arctic^[1].

2005 Film Adaptation

In 2005 Director Breck Eisner filmed an adaptation of the novel, starring Matthew McConaughey as Dirk Pitt, Steve Zahn as Al Giordino, and Penelope Cruz as Eva Rojas. The film had a rather large production budget of $145,000,000 and eventually grossed only $121,671,925, internationally.[1] As such, although Philip Anschutz and Crusader Entertainment originally obtained the rights to adapt a number of Cussler's books, it is doubtful that more will be made.

Additionally, due largely to contract interpretation regarding Cussler's authority over the adapted screenplay, he ultimately sued Crusader Entertainment. Amid litigation, Crusader eventually brought charges back upon Cussler, claiming he personally hindered the film's publicity and performance, as well as provided false information in the original contract.

The film had several alterations from the original novel, including but not limited to the removal of the events at Tebezza. By removing the Tebezza events, and omitting almost entirely the "Kitty Mannock" backstory, the film did not flow as the book had. The stand made at the original Fort Foureau was also omitted.