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Geologically, the type of volcano in the movie shouldn't erupt so much low-viscous magma; but due to make the volcano exciting to the audience, the movie makers probably deliberately ignored this mistake. See more...

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Dante's Peak (1997) - 18 corrections

Directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Linda Hamilton, Pierce Brosnan (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Mistakes
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That truck they're driving had better be fitted with a couple of powerful rocket motors, because they outdrive a pyroclastic explosion, which would be moving at about 300kmh. [The volcano is a good distance away from them and they are quite close to the mine so it's possible they barely made it.]
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Harry and Rachel call a town meeting because there is danger that the volcano is about to erupt, yet she chances leaving her kids alone at home instead of taking them with her. [How is that possibly a film mistake? It was her choice in the movie and obviously a stupid one.]
Edit
When Grandma is being carried through the woods (after walking the boat through the acid lake), the far shot shows her to have shoes on. The close-up, however, shows that she hardly has legs, much less feet. [Look at the shot of her legs frame by frame - if you stop at one of the frames right before the camera cuts back to Rachel, you can clearly see that Ruth still has legs - they're just bloody and raw from the acid. The way the fabric of her pants is gnarled, when seen at full speed the camera moves and cuts away so fast that it does give the impression of missing limbs.]
Edit Corrected by Chris Moyer Grice
When Harry, Rachel, and the kids drive into the mine at the end of the movie, there are already tire tracks there before them. Who would have been going in or out of the mine before that? [Toward the beginning of the movie, Rachel drove up to the entrance of the mine to pick up Graham. It is possible the tire tracks are from her previous visits to pick up Graham.]
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When Harry and the Wandos are crossing the lake which has turned into acid, you can hear the motor coughing right before it stops; and Harry turns the motor into the boat, and sees that the propeller is destroyed by the acid. Even though the propeller is gone, the motor shouldn't just stop, it would still run, but the boat wouldn't move. The director probably did this so that the viewers would understand that the motor was destroyed [Those types of boat motors use the water to cool itself by cycling the water through the internals of the motor. The acid would have indeed caused the motor to die by destroying it.]
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When they are crossing the river in the boat, the acidic water is eating through the blades of the motor, so Pierce Brosnan wraps his shirt around his hand to help them paddle manually, and nothing happens to his hand. Yet when Grandma, in her final heroic effort, leaps into the water to pull the boat ashore, she receives 3rd degree burns all over her legs. [Brosnan's hand is in contact with the water for just a few seconds, and he does react in pain. Grandma is standing up to her waist in the lake for a considerable amount of time, and as the acid soaks into the absorbent cloth of her trousers it will continue to eat away at her skin even after she is dragged ashore.]
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It's amazing how the helicopter flew to the town in the ash without any problems, then suddenly gets its engine shredded from the same ash. [The danger for the helicopter is that ash could block the air filter, overheating the engine and wrecking it; moreover, the heli was quite overloaded and its engine had to work harder with a cooling system that didn't work well or did not work at all.]
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During the end-credits, someone's title is listed as 'Assistant to Mr. Bronson' instead of Brosnan. [I searched the credits for the film on the Dante's Peak DVD and the credit for "Assistant to Mr. Brosnan" was spelt correctly.]
Edit
When Harry notices that the water in town is full of sulphur dioxide it's late in the evening, yet when they start calling for people to meet, it's daytime - why would they wait for so long (till 6 p.m. of next day) if the volcano was about to erupt? [Because obviously the measurements and information they had during the night led them to believe there was still some time. Harry, for example, who has been the most vocal about getting the town on alert, is relatively calm during the meeting, so it is evident that things aren't panic-worthy yet. Attempting to evacuate the town during the dead of night would be difficult and they would not be able to be sure everyone knew about it. Waiting until the next day would allow them to put an evacuation plan into effect and get everyone out safely.]
Edit Corrected by Phil C.
Pierce Brosnan drives into the mineshaft to avoid the lava flow, but at the end of the movie, the car headlights are facing out. [This is definitely incorrect. The truck is shown several times with the front end still buried in the mine, with rescuers actually standing in the bed of the truck. The bulldozer then pulls it free, still rear-end-first. No headlights are anywhere to be seen, only the truck's taillights, and the split bed and truck boxes are prominently visible.]
Edit Corrected by Phil C.
When Harry and Sarah go to get her kids they cross the bridge and all the cars are going the same way - to get out of town. When they find out that the kids went to get Grandma, they go back through the water, since the bridge is packed. A few cars follow their example and try to cross the river - why are these cars going back to the town rather than away from it? [The cars are not coming from the same direction that Harry took. They saw Harry drive down the bank on the "out-of-town" side, heading back towards town, and thought they could make it across the river FROM the "in-town" side, heading away from town.]
Edit Corrected by Phil C.
When the helicopter crashes, Harry calls and asks his friend to send for the fire services. Isn't it likely that they are busy in the town helping to evacuate the people? [Yes. And as soon as Harry does so, Greg responds, "Jesus, Harry. O-kay." in a frustrated tone, implying that they've already got their hands pretty full, but he'll do what he can.]
Edit Corrected by Phil C.
If the Mayor and Harry know that the volcano would erupt soon, then why would they run the risk of letting the kids stay up on the mountain? [They don't do anything of the sort. Harry and Rachel drive up the mountain despite the dangerous conditions in order to get the kids BACK.]
Edit Corrected by Phil C.
Harry says that the water supply has been contaminated but when he is at the Town Meeting trying to tell everyone about the evacuation plan there is a pitcher of fresh water on his table. [The water may not necessarily be tap water. Chances are it was bottled water poured into a pitcher.]
Edit Corrected by Phil Watts
The scene takes place near the end when Dalton and the Wandos are in the boat, after the volcano starts to erupt. The water is really acidic and is making the boat disintegrate. When Ruth jumps out of the boat it burns her flesh. Before this occurred and during the boat melting, there were bodies of fish floating all over the lake. [Is this suggesting that the acid would have dissolved all the fish entirely? All of the dead fish are seen to be partially or mostly eaten away by the acid as well. Even strong acids take a while to act, and since the volcanic activity has only been going on for a short time, it hasn't been long enough to dissolve everything in the lake.]
Edit Corrected by Phil C.
When Graham and his sister are driving in the truck, there is ash and dirt falling from the sky. But at the same time when Harry and Rachel are driving in their truck to look for the kids, there is no ash or dirt falling. [They're further down the mountain - it hasn't reached them yet].
Edit
When they are running from the lava, and see the boat, it is already in the water. Wouldn't it have melted by now with all of the acid in the water? The fish should have dissolved too, surely? [The boat is on the pier and Harry pushes it off into the water just before they get in.]
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When they are driving to escape the lava, the scene where the dog jumps in and is saved, they are driving through molten lava and their tires don't melt. [They catch fire - they're later seen driving on the rims]
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