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Dante's Peak

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Dante's Peak
Theatrical Release Poster
Directed byRoger Donaldson
Written byLeslie Bohem
Produced byGale Anne Hurd
Joseph Singer
Starring
CinematographyAndrzej Bartkowiak
Edited by
Music byJames Newton Howard
John Frizzell
Production
company
Pacific Western Productions
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • February 7, 1997 (1997-02-07)
Running time
109 minutes
LanguageEnglish
Budget$116 million[1]
Box office$178.1 million[1]

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.

Plot

In 1993, United States Geological Survey volcanologist Dr. Harry Dalton and his partner, Marianne, attempt to escape an eruption in Colombia. A piece of 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 find dead trees, dead squirrels, and even two people boiled to death by a hot spring. Harry tries to convince Rachel and the executives to prepare the town for a possible disaster, but while he is discussing this, Paul arrives with his own team. He explains that years ago, he raised concerns that Mammoth Mountain was close to an eruption. The warnings were determined to be a false alarm, but the rumor had been leaked out to the public and caused a drop in tourism that nearly bankrupted a nearby town. He mollifies the town officials by assuring them that he and his team will monitor the situation, but cautions them against going public for fear of another unnecessary scare.

Harry begins a budding romance with Rachel. As they talk, he warns her that if the volcano does erupt violently, the eruption would reach the town within a minute. A few days later, Harry and Terry, a geologist, go up the mountain and send a robot invented by Paul's team known as "Spiderlegs" down into the crater of the volcano to investigate. The robot sticks partway into the crater, and Terry descends after it to fix it. As he does, an earthquake shakes the mountain, causing an avalanche that buries him. Harry immediately follows into the crater to save him and sees that he is trapped with a broken leg; the team, watching through the robot's camera, sends a helicopter up to rescue them. Harry attaches himself and Terry to the helicopter and the two are airlifted out of the crater. They safely return to town, where Terry is taken to the hospital. Harry argues with Paul, saying that the earthquake was harmonic, and to put the town on alert. Paul dismisses Harry's concerns once again, claiming that the earthquake was merely tectonic and telling Harry that unless he has proof before they leave in a few days' time, he should calm down. Harry tries to discuss the threat with his colleagues instead, but they aren't convinced either. After another week with no activity, they suggest that the worst is over and prepare to leave the following morning.

During the night, Harry and the USGS team are preparing to leave. Harry pays a last visit to Rachel at her home, where she discovers that the local water has become contaminated. Harry and Rachel drive up to the town's water supply to find that a fissure in the rock is pouring sulfur dioxide and other volcanic byproducts into the cistern. Harry tells Rachel that Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines had shown the same signs before it erupted. They drive back to the town, and Harry shows the contaminated water to Paul. The next day, earthquake and gas levels rise dramatically, and the team realizes that it is only a matter of time before the volcano will erupt. Paul alerts the National Guard, but they won't be able to arrive until the next day. Harry calls Rachel about the imminent disaster, and she sends out an emergency broadcast advising the townspeople to meet at the high school for a meeting discussing evacuation plans. Later, Rachel tries to tell her mother Ruth to come down from the mountain, but she claims that she doesn't want to leave and hangs up. Harry and Rachel proceed to the town meeting, but as they start to prepare the town for an orderly evacuation, another tremor announces the sudden eruption of the mountain, sending everyone into a panicked frenzy.

Harry and Rachel drive through the crumbling village to her house and find that her children have gone up to the mountain to get Ruth. Heading after them, they discover that the bridge out of town is hopelessly crowded, and Harry fords the river instead. A helicopter attempts to fly one of the wealthier townsfolk out, but the clouds of ash stall it, causing it to crash. Nearly hitting Harry and Rachel as it crashes. As Harry and Rachel race towards Ruth's lodge, they are hit by a landslide that blocks the road behind them, but arrive to find the children and Ruth unharmed. Ruth suggests that they leave immediately, but Rachel tells her that they can't, as the road back the way they came is gone. Just as they pack up some belongings, a lava flow engulfs the cabin and destroys the cars. The five attempt to retreat by crossing the lake in a motorboat. Halfway across, they notice that all the fish in the lake are dead. Harry sees steam rising from the bottom of the boat and realizes that the lake has become acidic due to sulfur-rich gases from the volcano, destroying the motor and eating away at the boat itself. Sacrificing herself, Ruth jumps into the acidic waters and pulls the boat to the shore, only to die from severe chemical burns.

The heat from the volcano melts the snow and ice on the peak, forming a lahar which spills over a nearby dam and causes it to collapse. The flood races down the river towards the town. Elsewhere, the family takes a truck from a ranger's station and start driving back to the town. The National Guard arrives and volunteers to help the USGS team evacuate, but as they cross the bridge the lahar strikes, causing the bridge to break up. Paul, still on the bridge in a van, is thrown into the river below and killed.

Harry, Rachel, and the kids are stopped when their vehicle gets stuck in a field of hardening lava, and narrowly escape another lava flow bearing down on them. They spot and retrieve Ruth's dog, Roughy, from a rock ledge in their path, then continue their escape as the lava flows over the road behind them. They make it back to the deserted, ash-caked town, where Harry runs inside to the motel to retrieve a distress radiobeacon. He checks a nearby computer on his way out to see that the volcano is headed toward a final, catastrophic eruption. Leaving town with the beacon in tow, he speeds towards the entrance to an abandoned mine that Graham had been caught using as a clubhouse. Moments later, the volcano violently and laterally explodes. A pyroclastic flow descends, destroying everything in its path. Harry pulls into the mine, followed closely by a cloud of debris. Outside town, the USGS team watch the eruption from afar, fearing that Harry is dead.

Harry, Rachel, and the children explore the mine, but Harry realizes that he forgot the beacon in the truck. When he tries to go back and get it, the mine collapses, causing a rock to fall and break his arm. He manages to reach the truck and get inside, but another collapse nearly crushes it and traps him inside. Even so, he still manages to activate the beacon.

Terry notices a beeping light on his monitor, realizing that the distress beacon has been activated, and Harry is still alive. The USGS dispatches search and rescue teams. Harry and the Wandos are freed from the mine and airlifted out by helicopter. The movie ends, showing the obliterated town before turning to the foreboding remains of the volcano, now reduced to a menacing caldera which bears an eerie resemblance to Mount St. Helens, and hints that just such a disaster may happen again in the future.

Cast

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.[citation needed]

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.[2]

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.[3] The computer-generated imagery was mostly coordinated and supervised by Patrick McClung, Roy Arbogast, Lori J. Nelson, Richard Stutsman and Dean Miller.[3] 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.[3] 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

Music

Untitled

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.

Dante's Peak: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.TitleLength
1."Main Titles"5:30
2."The Close Call"1:49
3."Trapped in the Crater"5:03
4."On the Porch"2:31
5."The Evacuation Begins"4:12
6."The Helicopter Crash"1:28
7."Escaping the Burning House"2:32
8."Sinking on Acid Lake"2:37
9."Stuck in the Lava"1:44
10."The Rescue"3:05
Total length:30:22

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.[5] 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.[1]

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 27% rating based on 26 reviews,[6] compared to a 44% rating from 39 reviews, for Volcano.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Dante's Peak (1997) - Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  2. ^ Topinka, Lyn (2009-12-08). "Establishing the David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2010-04-03.
  3. ^ a b c Dante's Peak (1997) - Cast and Credits - Yahoo! Movies
  4. ^ Dante's Peak at IMDb
  5. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for February 7-9, 1997 - Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Dante's Peak". rottentomatoes.com. 7 February 1997. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  7. ^ "Volcano". rottentomatoes.com. 25 April 1997. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
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