Volcano (1997 film)
Volcano | |
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Directed by | Mick Jackson |
Screenplay by |
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Story by | Jerome Armstrong |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Theo van de Sande |
Edited by | |
Music by | Alan Silvestri |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 104 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $90 million[1] |
Box office | $122.8 million[1] |
Volcano is a 1997 American disaster film directed by Mick Jackson, and produced by Neal H. Moritz and Andrew Z. Davis. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Don Cheadle and Keith David. It tells the story of an effort to divert the path of a dangerous lava flow through the streets of Los Angeles following the formation of a volcano at the La Brea Tar Pits. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray, and was inspired by the 1943 formation of the Parícutin volcano in Mexico.
Volcano was released by 20th Century Fox in the United States on April 25, 1997. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $122.8 million worldwide on a $90 million budget.
Plot
In downtown
Early the next morning, Amy and her assistant Rachel venture in the storm sewer to investigate. While they take samples, another (more powerful) earthquake strikes the city. Rachel falls into a crack and is killed by a rush of hot gases. A subway train derails from falling debris, and a power outage occurs across the entire city. Later, in the La Brea Tar Pits, the volcano begins to erupt. As Mike helps injured firefighters out of the area, lava begins to flow down Wilshire Boulevard. The lava incinerates everything in its path and kills two firefighters in an overturned fire truck. The Roarks become separated, as Kelly is injured when a lava bomb burns her leg and is taken to Cedars-Sinai Hospital along with other patients. Meanwhile, Stan leads his team through the tunnel to the derailed train to search for survivors. While his team save everyone aboard, Stan rescues the driver just as lava reaches the train, causing it to disintegrate. Stan sacrifices his life by jumping into the lava flow to throw the driver to safety.
Mike, Amy, and
Mike devises another plan to demolish a 22-story condominium building to block the lava's path from flowing towards the hospital and the rest of the West Side of Los Angeles, redirecting it into a nearby storm drain. As the lava arrives, Mike's co-worker Gator and an LAPD Bomb Squad officer (trapped under debris) sacrifice their lives to detonate the final explosive charge. Mike then spots Kelly nearby, trying to retrieve a little boy she was watching who wandered off; the two are in the direct path of the collapsing building. Mike barely manages to save them from being crushed as the building collapses. The plan succeeds, and the lava flows directly into the ocean. As it begins raining, the trio emerge from the rubble unscathed and reunite with Amy before heading home.
The film ends with a view of the volcano, named Mount Wilshire. Status: A.C.T.I.V.E.
Cast
- Tommy Lee Jones as Michael "Mike" Roark, the O.E.M. director.
- Anne Heche as Amy Barnes, a geologist and seismologist from the California Institute of Geological Sciences
- Gaby Hoffmann as Kelly Roark, the daughter of Michael.
- Don Cheadle as Emmit Reese, the O.E.M.'s assistant director
- Keith David as Ed Fox, a lieutenant for the LAPD.
- Jacqueline Kim as Dr. Jaye Calder, an emergency physician
- John Corbett as Norman Calder, a businessman and Jaye's husband
- Michael Rispoli as Gator Harris, a co-worker of Mike and Emmit.
- John Carroll Lynch as Stan Olber, the chairman of the Los Angeles MTA.
- Dayton Callie as Roger Lapher, a supervisor for the Department of Water and Power (DWP)
- Susie Essman as Anita, Kelly's babysitter
- Richard Schiff as Haskins
- Valente Rodriguez as Train Driver[2]
- Marcello Thedford as Kevin
- Bert Kramer as Los Angeles Firefighters Chief
- Bo Eason as Bud McVie
- Laurie Lathem as Rachel
Production
Filming
Filming was primarily on location in
Music
The score for the film was originally composed and orchestrated by musical conductor
Reception
Among mainstream critics in the US, Volcano received mixed reviews.
"The ads say The Coast Is Toast, but maybe they should say The Volcano Is Drano. This is a surprisingly cheesy disaster epic. It's said that Volcano cost a lot more than Dante's Peak, a competing volcano movie released two months ago, but it doesn't look it. Dante's Peak had better special effects, a more entertaining story, and a real mountain." |
—Roger Ebert, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times[13] |
Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times, "Volcano begins so excitably and hurtles so quickly into fiery pandemonium," but noted that "in the disaster realm, it's not easy to have it all. A film this technically clever can't get away with patronizing and familiar genre cliches."[14] Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times called the film a "surprisingly cheesy disaster epic" while musing, "The lava keeps flowing for much of the movie, never looking convincing. I loved it when the firemen aimed their hoses way offscreen into the middle of the lava flow, instead of maybe aiming them at the leading edge of the lava—which they couldn't do, because the lava was a visual effect, and not really there."[13] In the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle wrote that "Things go bad after Volcano plays its last card — the lava — and from there it has nothing to show but more of the same."[15] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said, "Volcano is cheese, all right, but it's tangy cheese. I'm not sure I've ever seen a disaster movie in which special effects this realistic and accomplished were put to the service of a premise this outlandish."[16]
Walter Addiego of the
Writing for
Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wondered why "there's no volcano in "Volcano"?...The hokey disaster drama features towering plumes of smoke, a splendid display of fireworks and brimstone, and rivers of molten magma, but I'll be darned if there's a burning mountain."[23] Todd McCarthy of Variety was more positive, writing that "first-time screenwriters Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray waste no time with exposition or scene-setting, starting the fireworks with a nerve-jangling morning earthquake that puts city workers on alert for possible damage."[5]
Box office
Volcano premiered in cinemas on April 25, 1997. At its widest distribution in the United States, the film was screened at 2,777 theaters. The film grossed $14,581,740 in box office business in Canada and the United States on its opening weekend, averaging $5,256 in revenue per theater.
Home media
Following its cinematic release in theaters, the film was released in
See also
- Dante's Peak - Another volcano based film released in 1997
References
- ^ a b "Volcano". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ "Volcano (1997)" – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ a b c "Volcano DVD". 20th Century Fox. March 9, 1999. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ a b c d "Volcano (1997) Cast and Credits". Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ a b McCarthy, Todd (April 27, 1997). Volcano. Variety. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ "Tower-ing Fiction #1: Beverly Heights apartment building, Volcano (1997)". The Vault of Culture. December 14, 2018. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
- ^ "Volcano - Production Credits". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2012. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ "Volcano: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Amazon. 1997. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
- ^ "Volcano (1997)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
- ^ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
- Golden Raspberry Award. Retrieved May 17, 2009.
- ^ a b Ebert, Roger (April 25, 1997). Volcano. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved July 14, 2010. Archived March 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Maslin, Janet (April 25, 1997). Volcano (1997) Very Mean Streets: They're Full of Lava. The New York Times. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ Lasalle, Mick (October 3, 1997). 'Volcano' Sizzles but Quickly Loses Steam. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (May 2, 1997). Volcano. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ Addiego, Walter (April 25, 1997). Lavapalooza!. San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ReelViews. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ Turan, Kenneth (April 25, 1997). "Volcano - Go With the Flow". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 24, 2007. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- Time Out. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ a b McGurk, Margaret (November 1997). 'Volcano' more of a blast than 'Dante's Peak'. The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ a b Savlov, Marc (April 25, 1997). Volcano. The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ Kempley Rita, (April 25, 1997). 'Volcano': 1 on the Richter Scale. The Washington Post. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ "'Volcano' Blasts Into Top Spot With $14.7 Million". Los Angeles Times. April 28, 1997.
- ^ "Weekend Box Office April 25–27, 1997". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ "Weekend Box Office May 2–4, 1997". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ "Weekend Box Office June 6–8, 1997". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ "Volcano Domestic Total Gross". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ "1997 Domestic Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
- ISBN 0793960398.
- ^ "Volcano Widescreen DVD". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ "Volcano Blu-ray".
External links
- Volcano at IMDb
- Volcano at AllMovie
- Volcano at Rotten Tomatoes
- Volcano at Metacritic
- Volcano at Box Office Mojo