Dante's Peak is a 1997 American dramatic disaster thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, Charles Hallahan, Elizabeth Hoffman, Jamie Renée Smith, Jeremy Foley and Grant Heslov, the film was set in the fictional town of Dante's Peak where the inhabitants must survive a volcanic eruption and the resultant dangers. It was released on February 7, 1997 under the production of Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and Pacific Western Productions.
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Plot
In 1993, United States Geological Survey volcanologist Dr. Harry Dalton and his wife, Marianne, attempt to escape an eruption in Colombia. A piece of hot volcanic debris pierces through the roof of Harry's truck, killing Marianne.
Four years later, Harry is assigned by his superior, Dr. Paul Dreyfus, to investigate seismic activity near Dante's Peak, Washington, a town that borders a dormant stratovolcano. Harry arrives at the town and meets with the mayor, Rachel Wando, and her children, Graham and Lauren.
Rachel offers to take Harry with them as they see her former mother-in-law, Ruth, who lives near a lake at the base of the volcano. While exploring, they encounter multiple casualities, including two people boiled to death in a hot spring. Paul arrives with a USGS team that evening, and they set up base to monitor the volcano. Harry believes the disturbances to be signs of an impending eruption, so he stays at the town's motel for a few nights. During his tenure at the town, Harry and Rachael discuss about their lives and they grow closer. Harry also discusses with Paul about the volcano, but Paul dismisses the claim.
A few days later, Terry, part of the USGS team, ventures inside the mountain's crater with a programmed robot known as "Spider Legs". During his examination, a magnitude shakes the mountain, causing Terry to be buried in the rocky debris and breaking his leg. A chopper rescues Terry moments before a fissure opens inside the crater. Harry argues with Paul, saying that the magnitude was harmonic, and to put the town on alert, but Paul once again dismisses his claims. After days of no activity, Paul and his team prepare to leave town. During the night, however, when Harry goes to say goodbye to Rachel, they discover that the town's water has been contaminated, so they drive up to the towns water supply, revealing that it has been contaminated with sulfur dioxide. They then drive back to the town to the motel where Paul is, and Harry shows the contaminated water to him as well. The team realizes that it's only a matter of time before the volcano will erupt.
The next day, an emergency town meeting takes place at the high school. The volcano erupts, causing the residents to go on a panicking frenzy. Harry and Rachel drive through the carnage to get Graham and Lauren, only to find out that they left to pick up Ruth. Reaching Ruth's cabin, Harry and Rachael find the children and Ruth. As they are leaving the cabin, a lava flow engulfs it and destroys the vehicles. The five flee across the lake in a motorboat. Halfway across, they notice that all the fish in the lake are dead. Harry realizes that the lake has become acidic due to sulfur-rich gases from the volcano. The acid destroys the motor and starts eating away at the boat. Ruth jumps out of the boat and into the acidic water and pulls the boat to the dock, allowing those on the boat to get off. She collapses onto land, sustaining severe chemical burns and dies the next morning with her family and Harry at her side.
Meanwhile, the heat from the volcano melts the glaciers, and, combined with downed timber, ruptures a nearby dam on the peak, now becoming a lahar. Harry and the Wandos take a truck from a ranger's station and venture back to town, where the National Guard has arrived and is helping evacuate the town. While the USGS team makes it out of the town, the flood reaches the bridge, knocking it off its foundation. Paul, in the teams van, attempts to escape, but is washed away to his death when the bridge flips over. Meanwhile, Harry and the Wandos are stopped by a crusted lava flow. With more lava coming down the hill, Harry frantically tries to drive the truck out of the hole it's stuck in and finally gets free. While driving across, they notice Ruth's dog, Roughy, on a ridge, as Harry manages to get Roughy to jump into the truck as fresh lava flows over the road behind.
Harry returns to town, now a desolated ruin site, back to the motel and retrieves a distress radiobeacon. Before leaving, he checks the laptop that is monitoring the volcano. To his horror, he learns that the volcano is preparing for a final catastrophic eruption. As they head towards the town's abandoned mine, where Graham previously used as a clubhouse, the volcano laterally explodes. The pyroclastic flow rushes down the mountain, obliterating everything in its path. Harry enters the mine in time moments before the pyroclastic flow gets to him. The USGS team watch the eruption from afar, believing Harry to be dead.
Inside the mine, Harry realizes that he left the beacon in the truck. When he goes back for it, the mine collapses, causing Harry to suffer a broken arm in the process, but he manages to successfully activate the beacon.
Terry notices that the beacon has been activated, speculating that Harry is still alive. The USGS dispatches search and rescue teams. Harry and the Wandos are freed from the mine, and are airlifted out by helicopter. Harry expresses his true love towards Rachael, and the crew fly off from the devastated town.
Maps Dante's Peak
Cast
- Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Harry Dalton
- Linda Hamilton as Mayor Rachel Wando
- Charles Hallahan as Dr. Paul Joseph "Paul" Dreyfus
- Jamie Renée Smith as Lauren Wando
- Jeremy Foley as Graham Wando
- Elizabeth Hoffman as Grandma Ruthleen "Ruth"
- Grant Heslov as Gregory "Greg"
- Arabella Field as Nancy
- Tzi Ma as Stanley "Stan"
- Bill Bolender as Sheriff Turner
- Peter Jason as Norman Gates
- Jeffrey L. Ward as Jack Collins
- Kirk Trutner as Terry Furlong
- Brian Reddy as Lester "Les" Worrell
- Susie Spear as Karen Narlington
- Walker Brandt as Marianne
Production
Principal photography began on May 6, 1996. The film was shot on location in Wallace, Idaho, with a large hill just southeast of the town digitally altered to look like a volcano. Many scenes involving townspeople, including the initial award ceremony, the pioneer days festival, and the gymnasium scene were shot using the actual citizens of Wallace as extras. Many of the disaster evacuation scenes that did not involve stunts and other dangerous moments also featured citizens of Wallace; dangerous stunts were filmed using Hollywood extras. Mount St. Helens also makes an appearance at the very end of the movie; during the start of the closing credit crawl, the scene shows an image of a destroyed Dante's Peak community with the camera shot moving out to show a wider scene of disaster, and then showing what remains of the volcano itself. The volcano that remains is actually an image of Mount St. Helens taken from news footage just after the May 18, 1980 eruption.
Exterior shots of the Point Dume Post Office in Malibu, California were used as the USGS's David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory headquarters in Vancouver, Washington. The facility was named in honor of David A. Johnston, a young scientist who had precisely predicted the volatility of the May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens eruption and perished during the event.
A brief scene was actually shot inside the crater of Mount St. Helens. The scene involving the geological robot and the trapped scientist was shot inside the crater, as evidenced by a brief appearance by Mount Adams, a dormant 12,776-foot (3,894 m) peak 35 miles (56 km) east of Mount St. Helens, as the view focuses on the scientists. The scene itself was actually filmed on the tarmac of Van Nuys Airport, while the Mount Adams image was composited in later. Production was completed on August 31, 1996.
Extensive special effects surrounding certain aspects of the film, such as the lava and pyroclastic flows, were created by Digital Domain, Banned from the Ranch Entertainment and CIS Hollywood. The computer-generated imagery was mostly coordinated and supervised by Patrick McClung, Roy Arbogast, Lori J. Nelson, Richard Stutsman and Dean Miller. Although the film uses considerable amounts of CGI, the volcanic ash in the film was created using cellulose insulation manufactured by Regal Industries in Crothersville, Indiana. Between visuals, miniatures, and animation, over 300 technicians were directly involved in the production aspects of the special effects. Despite the complexity of its visual effects, Dante's Peak was not nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects that year, as it faced stiff competition from Titanic, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers.
Locations
- Agua Dulce, California, US
- Baker Hot Springs, Mount Baker National Forest, Washington, US
- Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington, US (establishing shots)
- Wallace, Idaho, US (town exteriors)
Music
The original score was co-composed by John Frizzell and James Newton Howard. Howard wrote the main theme (heard during the opening titles) and a number of cues, while Frizzell wrote the bulk of the score.
30 minutes of the score was released by Varese Sarabande; the short album length being due to high orchestra fees at the time of release. An expanded bootleg exists which contains almost the entire score.
The contents of the CD release can also be found on the region 1 DVD, and Blu-ray on an alternate audio track during the 'Creating a Volcano' documentary.
The "Main Titles" cue is also featured on Varese's "The Towering Inferno and Other Disaster Classics" compilation album.
Released
The film was released on February 7, 1997 in 2,657 theatres. It debuted at #2 at the box office behind the special edition re-release of Star Wars with $18 million in its opening weekend. After 8 weeks in theatres, it went on to gross $67.1 million in the U.S. and $111.0 million overseas, it went on to earn $178 million worldwide, making it a box office success.
Reception
Despite having wider financial success and being slightly more scientifically accurate than Volcano, Dante's Peak received negative reviews compared to its rival: Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 25% rating based on 28 reviews, compared to a 46% rating from 41 reviews for Volcano.
See also
- Mount St. Helens
- 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens
- Mount Pinatubo
- Volcano (1997 film)
- Galeras tragedy
References
External links
- Volcanoes in Historical and Popular Culture "In The Movies" - Dante's Peak at U.S. Geological Survey website.
- Dante's Peak on IMDb
- Dante's Peak at Rotten Tomatoes
- Dante's Peak at AllMovie
- Dante's Peak at Box Office Mojo
- Dante's Peak at the TCM Movie Database
- Dante's Peak at the American Film Institute Catalog
Source of article : Wikipedia
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