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.
In downtown Los Angeles, an earthquake strikes. Mike Roark, the new director of the city's Office of Emergency Management, insists on coming to work to help out with the crisis even though he has been on vacation with his daughter Kelly. His associate Emmit Reese notes that the quake caused no major damage, but seven utility workers are later burned to death in a storm drain at MacArthur Park. As a precaution, Mike tries to halt the subway lines near the location of the earthquake. MTA Chairman Stan Olber opposes, believing that there is no threat to the trains. Seismologist Dr. Amy Barnes believes that a volcano may be forming beneath the city due to the earthquake opening a fissure in the fault line; however, she has insufficient evidence to make Mike take action.
That night, 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 LAPD lieutenant Ed Fox devise a plan to use concrete barriers to create a blockade, which obstructs the lava in its path. A fleet of helicopters dump water collected from the ocean to subdue the lava and volcano, forming a crust and making the plan a success. However, Amy thinks that the magma is still flowing underground through the subway because of the amount of ash still falling. When Mike helps her confirm her suspicions, she calculates that another eruption will occur at the end of the Red Line at Cedars-Sinai and, after calculating the speed of the flowing lava, determines the lava will reach the end of the tunnel in thirty minutes.
The score for the film was originally composed and orchestrated by musical conductor Alan Silvestri.[7] Recording artists James Newton Howard and Dillinger among others, contributed songs to the music listing.[4] The audio soundtrack in Compact Disc format featuring 8 tracks, was officially released by the American recording label Varèse Sarabande on April 22, 1997.[8] The sound effects in the film were supervised by Christopher Boyes. The mixing of the sound elements were orchestrated by Jim Tanenbaum and Dennis Sands.[4]
Among mainstream critics in the US, Volcano received mixed reviews.[9] Rotten Tomatoes reports that 49% of 47 sampled critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 5.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Volcano's prodigious pyrotechnics and Tommy Lee Jones' crotchety sneers at lava aren't quite enough to save this routine disaster film."[10] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average using critical reviews, the film received a score of 55 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[11] In 1997, the film was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award in the category of "Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property", but lost to Con Air.[12]
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]
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.[24] During that first weekend in release, the film opened in first place beating out the films Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion and Anaconda.[25][26] The film's revenue dropped by 37% in its second week of release, earning $9,099,743.[27] In the month of June during its final weekend showing in theaters, the film came out in 12th place grossing $602,076.[28] The film went on to top out in the United States and Canada at $49,323,468 in total ticket sales through a 7-week theatrical run. In other markets, the film took in an additional $73,500,000 in box office business for an international total of $122,800,000.[29] For 1997 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 39.[30]
Volcano lurches uneasily back and forth between these extremes. It has some of the most unintentionally funny scenes I've ever seen in a movie. The subway scene, in which a character steps into a pool of lava to throw an injured person to safety and then literally melts*,* is the kind of thing bad movie afficionados discuss in hushed tones for decades thereafter. The whole premise of a volcano emerging under LA, and the authorities using flood control methods and quickly demolishing a newly built apartment tower to direct the lava to the ocean, is gloriously insane, and the filmmakers had to know this.
I expected to see a mountainous volcano in "Volcano,'' towering high over Los Angeles. But the movie takes place at ground level; It's about how lava boils out of the La Brea Tar Pits, threatens a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard, and then takes a shortcut through the city sewer system. 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. "Volcano'' is an absolutely standard, assembly-line undertaking; no wonder one of the extras is reading a paperback titled "Screenwriting Made Easy.'' The movie stars Tommy Lee Jones, professional as always even in this flimsy story, as the chief of the city's Office of Emergency Management. He races through the obligatory opening scenes of all disaster movies (everyday life, ominous warnings, alarm sounded by hero scientist, warnings poo-pooed by official muckety-mucks, etc.). Soon manhole covers are being blown sky-high, subway trains are being engulfed by fireballs, and "lava bombs'' are flying through the air and setting miniature sets on fire.
There were 56 confirmed eruptions at some point during 1997 from 52 different volcanoes; 26 of those were new eruptions that started during the year. A stop date with "(continuing)" indicates that the eruption was considered to be ongoing as of the date indicated. Data is reported through the last data update (11 October 2023). Information about more recent eruptions can be found in the Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report.
Geologist Dr. Amy Barnes (Anne Heche) believes a volcano may be rapidly forming beneath the city with magma flowing underground (similar to the formation of the Mexican volcano Parícutin which emerged and grew tremendously in just one week) but unfortunately, she has insufficient evidence to make Roark take action.
Roark helps injured firefighters out of the area. However, minutes later, a newly formed volcano erupts from the tar pits and lava begins to flow freely down Wilshire Boulevard, incinerating everything in its path, including Roark's truck and an LAFD fire truck, killing two firefighters trapped inside.
The death toll is nearly 100 people and thousands are injured. It starts to rain, rinsing the ash and dust off the surviving civilians. Roark soon returns to work. The film's epilogue displays a graphic stating that the volcano, named "Mount Wilshire" is still in an active state.
The Washington Post's Rita Kempley openly 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."
A huge cloud of volcanic ash and gas rises above Mount Pinatubo, Philippines, on June 12, 1991. Three days later, the volcano exploded in the second-largest volcanic eruption on Earth in this century. Timely forecasts of this eruption by scientists from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and the U.S. Geological Survey enabled people living near the volcano to evacuate to safer distances, saving at least 5,000 lives.
Precursors to the 1991 EruptionsOn July 16, 1990, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake (comparable in size to the great 1906 San Francisco, California, earthquake) struck about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Mount Pinatubo on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, shaking and squeezing the Earth's crust beneath the volcano. At Mount Pinatubo, this major earthquake caused a landslide, some local earthquakes, and a short-lived increase in steam emissions from a preexisting geothermal area, but otherwise the volcano seemed to be continuing its 500-year-old slumber undisturbed. In March and April 1991, however, molten rock (magma) rising toward the surface from more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) beneath Pinatubo triggered small earthquakes and caused powerful steam explosions that blasted three craters on the north flank of the volcano. Thousands of small earthquakes occurred beneath Pinatubo through April, May, and early June, and many thousand tons of noxious sulfur dioxide gas were also emitted by the volcano.
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