Dante’s Peak (1997) – Review

Today, we’ll be diving into the fiery depths of Dante’s Peak, a disaster movie that’s hotter than a jalapeño pepper on a summer’s day and pits James Bond and Sarah Conner against one of Earth’s mightiest creations, of course, the film’s biggest foe wasn’t Mother Nature but the other volcano movie staring Tommy Lee Jones, which came out a few months later, but we’ll get to that one at a later date.

From the opening scene, director Roger Donaldson creates a sense of impending doom as we see vulcanologist Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) witnessing the aftermath of a volcanic eruption in Colombia, one that leaves him haunted and determined to prevent a similar catastrophe from occurring in the future, which eventually leads him to Dante’s Peak, a picturesque town nestled in the mountains where he discovers that the volcano beneath it is showing signs of activity and that a major eruption is imminent. Needless to say, this news is not very welcome to the residents of a town that was just voted “Second Most Desirable Place to Live in the United States” and tension builds as Harry tries to convince the town’s mayor, Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), that the volcano is about to erupt and unleash a deadly torrent of molten lava and ash on her unsuspecting town, not that this is the only tensions that are developed in this film, we also get sparks flying between the scientist and the mayor.

Not so much a “meet cute” as it is a meet Armageddon.

The plot is fairly predictable but it’s executed with such intensity and skill that you won’t really mind. The film also does an excellent job of building unease and suspense as the characters try to figure out how to escape the impending disaster even if some of these idiots deserve a lava bath. Pierce Brosnan as Dalton is so serious about his job that he could probably make a rock crack under pressure and watching him try to convince the townspeople of Dante’s Peak that they’re in danger is like watching a robot trying to interact with humans, and not only is he met with skepticism and resistance from the small-minded townspeople his boss, Paul Dreyfus (Charles Hallahan), also gives him a hard time about issuing an alert because he convinced that a false alarm could cause just as much damage as an erupting volcano.

Anyone who thinks Paul will survive to the end of this film please raise your hand.

If the drama of an impending eruption isn’t enough then strap yourself in as we also get some terrible forced drama in the form of Rachel’s ex-mother-in-law (Elizabeth Hoffman), a woman who refuses to abandon her home despite the fact that sits at the foot of the volcano, and she exists in this movie simply because the plot needs her to be a complete dumbass, one with the moronic belief that “The mountain will never hurt us” and this idiotic attitude puts her in the same survivability category as good old Paul Dreyfus.  But things get a little more complicated when Rachel’s two idiot children decide to steal their mom’s car and drive up to save good ole Gran…sigh. Now, I’m not one to wish harm on children but Charles Darwin had some salient points on the survival of the species and getting these two kids out of the gene pool would probably be for the best.

The family that flees together stays together.

Stray Observations:

• A couple of skinny dippers are boiled alive while making out in a hot spring, giving the volcano the appearance of a geological serial killer.
• Actor Grant Heslov, who plays one of Harry’s team, already had a close encounter with the “volcanic kind” when he starred in the adaptation of the Michael Crichton book Congo.
• The cast includes such characters as a mercenary helicopter pilot and a rich investor all because the film clearly needed a couple more people for us to cheer along with as they died.
• They use a small motorboat to cross a lake, which has been turned acidic due to volcanic activity, but as the type of boat they are using has a water-cooled engine the acid in the lake would have caused it to seize almost immediately.
• Harry and Rachel are somehow able to keep ahead of the pyroclastic cloud in a truck that has no bloody tires, which is a pretty impressive feat when you consider that a pyroclastic cloud travels up to 700 kilometres.
• The town of Dante’s Peak is completely wiped out and the ash-covered rubble gave off a very Terminator 2: Judgement Day vibe to me.

This would really feel like “old home week” for Sarah Connor.

What really sets Dante’s Peak apart from other disaster movies is the strong emotional core of the story, with Brosnan giving an excellent performance as the determined and brave Harry, but it’s his relationship with Linda Hamilton’s character, the town’s mayor, that gives the film its heart and keeps us invested in the story. For fans of the genre, this movie wastes no time in setting the stage for the impending disaster, with early scenes showcasing the idyllic beauty of Dante’s Peak and the charming characters who call it home and then the ominous rumblings of the volcano begin to disrupt the peace and quiet, and before you can say “Don’t fool with Mother Nature” volcanic ash is spewing over the town like a death shroud, acid lakes have to be travailed and rivers of lava driven over, and yes, Dalton has the most badass truck in the world as it can cross any terrain even if said terrain is molten rock. In reality, lava is capable of temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which would have melted the undercarriage and left them trapped, well, only until the gas tank exploded and then they’d be free to join Gran in Heaven.

Add a Sam Elliot voice-over and you’d have a great Dodge Ram commercial.

To bring this movie to life, director Roger Donaldson and his team of special effects artists really brought their “A” game here as both practical and computer effects are really quite impressive, with the volcanic ash, smoke, and lava looking convincingly realistic, but let’s get one thing straight, Dante’s Peak is not a perfect movie – some of the cliches really stack up poorly – but if you’re looking for a good old-fashioned disaster flick then buckle up, buttercup, because this movie is a rollercoaster ride from start to finish.