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Sahara is a 2005 action-comedy adventure film directed by Breck Eisner and loosely based on the best-selling book of the same name by Clive Cussler.

Though it opened at number one in the US box office, grossing $18 million on its first weekend, Sahara is considered one of the biggest financial failures in Hollywood history since Ishtar. From a financial perspective, Sahara was unusual because it performed reasonably well, generating $122 million in gross box-office sales. However, the movie was beset by high costs, including $160 million in production costs and $81.1 million in distribution expenses. The film lost approximately $105 million according to a financial executive assigned to the movie; however Hollywood accounting methods assign losses at $78.3 million, taking into account projected revenue. According to Hollywood accounting, the film drew in revenue of $202.9 million against expenses of $281.2 million.

The Los Angeles Times presented an extensive special report on April 15, 2007 dissecting the budget of Sahara as an example of how Hollywood movies can cost so much to produce and fail; many of the often closely held documents had become public domain due to a lawsuit involving the film.

The film begins with a prologue set in Richmond, Virginia in 1865, showing the CSS ironclad Texas, carrying the last of the Confederacy’s treasure, trying to run a Union blockade. Captain Adrian Tombs is forced to move the Texas into the sea to avoid cannonfire from shore. The film then jumps to the modern day, when World Health Organization doctors Eva Rojas and Frank Hopper are investigating a disease that is spreading across Mali, Africa. Men attempt to murder Eva, but she is rescued by Dirk Pitt, the Special Projects Director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency, who happened to be nearby.

Dirk Pitt has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.