The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 plus 4 letter word FEATURE FILM
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
F
E
A
T
U
R
E
F
I
L
M
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "like Towering Inferno" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case like towering inferno = feature film.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.