In 1883, the volcano on the island of Krakatoa in the Netherlands East Indies begins to erupt, terrorizing the children at a mission school in Palembang on nearby Sumatra. Meanwhile, across the Sunda Strait at her home port of Anjer on the west coast of Java, the steamer Batavia Queen, under the command of Captain Chris Hanson (Maximilian Schell), takes aboard passengers and cargo, including a diving bell and a balloon. Among the passengers coming aboard are Douglas Rigby (John Leyton), the designer, owner, and operator of the diving bell; Giovanni Borghese (Rossano Brazzi) and his son Leoncavallo (Sal Mineo), who own and operate the balloon as "The Flying Borgheses;" Harry Connerly (Brian Keith), a diver; Connerly 's mistress Charley Adams (Barbara Werle), who is a professional soprano and former saloon hostess; four female Japanese pearl divers led by Toshi (Jacqui Chan); and Laura Travis (Diane Baker), a married woman who had an extramarital affair with Hanson in Batavia.
Rome, 79 après J.C. L’empereur Titus connaît les dernières années de son règne. Son neveu, Marc Tibere, sait que la sécurité de l'empire est fragile. Parmi les conspirateurs figure Thirtée, un marchand d'esclaves qui souhaite s'emparer du trône. C'est alors que le Vésuve entre en éruption...
In 1865 during the American Civil War, a massive storm sweeps through a Confederate prison camp. Union soldiers Cyrus Harding (Michael Craig), Herbert Brown (Michael Callan) and Neb (Dan Jackson), are planning an escape via a tethered gas balloon. When a new prisoner, Union war correspondent Gideon Spillet (Gary Merrill), is brought into their cell, they knock out the guard and escape from the prison house. Once they arrive at the balloon, they drag one of the Confederate guards named Pencroft (Percy Herbert) aboard. After he explains that he knows how to pilot the balloon, they let him join the group.
On the fictional Pacific island of Talua in French Polynesia, some 500 miles from Tahiti, Father Doonan (Spencer Tracy), has been relieved of his duties by Father Perreau (Kerwin Mathews). Father Doonan has fallen out of favor with the island's residents because he stumbled on the island's carefully hidden secret: Hansen's Disease (leprosy) among the children of the islands. He built a hospital for the children by the island's volcano.
Glaucus, a centurion returning to his home in Pompeii after a spell in Palestine, arrives on the edge of town just in time to see Ione, the beautiful daughter of the city's Consul, lose control of her chariot. Glaucus saves Ione's life and then heads into town to see his father. On the way, Glaucus intervenes in defense of a thief named Antonius, who is being severely punished on orders given by Gallinus, a Praetorian Guard. On arriving at his father's house, Glaucus discovers that it has been looted and his father murdered by a band of ruthless hooded thieves who have been terrorizing the city, always leaving a cross painted on a wall as a calling card. Glaucus vows revenge against the killers.
In 1883, the Boston, Massachusetts, company that owns the full-rigged sailing ship Gerrymander gives the ship's captain, Captain Boll, six months to show a profit for the company in the Gerrymander 's operations in the Netherlands East Indies. Facing both pirates and a trade exclusion policy that prevents him from carrying goods between ports in the islands, Boll looks for a way for the Gerrymander to make money. In Soerabaja on Java, Boll encounters an Indonesian whose life he once saved. The Indonesian tells Boll that native divers salvaged a fortune in diamonds from the sunken ship Pieterzoon, contrary to legend which says the diamonds were lost. The Indonesian directs Boll to a Chinese junk captain who has cargo that will lead Boll to the diamonds.
In Pompeii, in the year 79AD, Lysias, a wealthy young Greek, abducts the beautiful Hélène, who is a pupil of Arbax, the sinister High Priest of Isis. For revenge, Arbax causes Lysias to drink a magic potion to make him fall in love with his ally Julie, but Lysias becomes mad from the drink. Nidia, a young slave girl rescued by Lycias, has overheard the plot and accuses Arbax of trying to kill her master. Arbax kills the girl and has Lysias accused of the murder. Condemned to the lions in the arena, Lysias only escapes the punishment when the eruption of Vesuvius brings panic to the town, and he leads Hélène to safety.
In the time of Jesus Christ, blacksmith Marcus (Preston Foster) is content with his life, beautiful wife Julia (Gloria Shea) and six-month-old son. However, when Julia and their child are run down by a chariot in the streets of Pompeii, Marcus spends the little money he has to pay for a doctor and medicine. Needing more, in desperation, he becomes a gladiator. He wins his fight, but in vain; his wife and child die.
The story describes how the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa on the island blew half of the large island into the air that produced a tsunami, and an air wave that was felt seven times around the globe. The eruption also emitted tons of dust that dimmed the sun all over the world for many months.
À cause d'une rivalité amoureuse, Glauco, un bel Athénien aux multiples conquêtes, devient le pire ennemi d'Arbace, grand prêtre égyptien du temple d'Isis. Ce dernier a déjà éliminé un de ses proches qui menaçait de faire des révélations sur son compte et s'arrange pour faire accuser Glauco à sa place, qu'il fait jeter dans la fosse aux lions. Mais peu après, le Vésuve entre en éruption.
In Pompeii 79AD, Glaucus and Jone are in love with each other. Arbace, Egyptian High Priest is determined to conquer her. Glaucus buys the blind slave Nidia who is mishandled by her owner.