Dante's Peak

Harry (Pierce Brosnan) is a volcanologist and travels to Dante's Peak in the Pacific Northwest to investigate some slight rumblings of a once thought extinct volcano. He meets divorcee, Rachel (Linda Hamilton), the mayor of Dante's Peak. Harry finds definite signs that the volcano will explode and puts the Mayor and city leaders on alert; however, his boss and the rest of the team arrives who disagree with his findings. Later that evening, Harry finds definitive evidence and alerts his team and the Mayor. The next day during a town meeting where they decide to evacuate, the volcano explodes. Rachel has a stubborn mother-in-law who doesn't want to leave her home near the lake up the mountain, so unknowingly to Rachel, Rachel's two kids drive up the mountain to get her (the kids are probably around 12 and 14). The remainder of the movie is dedicated to Harry, Rachel, the 2 kids and the mother-in-law trying to get to safety. The mother-in-law dies along the way. Harry, Rachel, the 2 kids, and the dog escape the volcanic explosion by slamming into an abandoned mine. They are found by rescuers and fly off together in a helicopter planning a vacation deep sea fishing.

Annette

Revealing mistake: After Dante's Peak explodes for the final time, the pyroclastic cloud rolls down the mountain toward the town. Harry shouts "Don't look back, kids, don't look back." and then we are shown a wide shot of the truck zooming down the ash-choked streets. Unfortunately, it's painfully obvious that this is either a miniature or CGI shot, because the truck isn't leaving any tracks behind it or trailing any clouds of ash despite its high speed. (01:28:19)

Phil C.

More mistakes in Dante's Peak

Harry Dalton: My 9th grade science teacher always said that if you put a frog in boiling hot water, it would jump out. But put it in cold water, and heat it up gradually, it would slowly boil to death.
Nancy: What's that Harry? Your recipe for frog soup?
Harry Dalton: It's my recipe for a disaster.

More quotes from Dante's Peak

Trivia: The ‘volcanic ash' you see in this movie is actually finely shredded newspapers.

More trivia for Dante's Peak

Question: Why is the rescue pilot helicopter such a selfish person? He complains about working over lunch, refuses to embark on a search-and-rescue mission without hiking his rates, and even extorts desperate townspeople trying to evacuate on his helicopter for all their money. Why was he such a greedy and insensitive egotist?

Answer: Because the character is written to be the stereotypical antagonist whose sole purpose is to create the obligatory plot conflict. This was such a silly, unrealistic, and all-around bad movie, that the two-dimensional villain guy fits right in. I live in Washington and remember when Mt. St. Helen's erupted. Dante's Peak, which was based on it, was nothing like the real-life event.

raywest

More questions & answers from Dante's Peak

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