Volcano (1997)

A volcano erupts in downtown L.A., threatening to destroy the city.

Director:

Mick Jackson

Writers:

Jerome Armstrong (story), Jerome Armstrong (screenplay),

Stars:

Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Gaby Hoffmann

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Mike Roark
Anne Heche	...	Dr. Amy Barnes
Gaby Hoffmann	...	Kelly Roark
Don Cheadle	...	Emmit Reese
Jacqueline Kim	...	Dr. Jaye Calder
Keith David	...	Police Lieutenant Ed Fox
John Corbett	...	Norman Calder
Michael Rispoli	...	Gator Harris
John Carroll Lynch	...	Stan Olber
Marcello Thedford	...	Kevin
Laurie Lathem	...	Rachel
Bert Kramer	...	L.A. Fire Chief
Bo Eason	...	Bud McVie
James MacDonald	...	Terry Jasper (as James G. MacDonald)
Dayton Callie	...	Roger Lapher

Storyline

Something unspeakably chilling is ultimately starting to heat up at The City of Los Angeles! Beneath the famed La Brea Tar Pits, a raging volcano has formed, raining a storm of deadly fire bombs and an endless tide of white-hot lava upon the stunned city!

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Plot Keywords:

volcano | earthquake | lava | fire | exploding building | 

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Taglines:

There are 1,500 active volcanoes that we know about...and one that we don't.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense depiction of urban disaster and related injuries

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish German

Release Date:

25 April 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Vulkan

Filming Locations:

190th Street & Western Avenue, Torrance, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$90,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$62,600,000 (Non-US) (31 October 1997)

Gross:

$47,474,112 (USA) (1 August 1997)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Donner/Shuler-Donner Productions, Moritz Original

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The ash was made mostly of ground newspaper.

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Goofs

When Kelly is in the hospital, she has an injury several inches long on her left cheek. In the final scene of the movie, when they are standing out in the rain, the injury is gone.

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Quotes

Roark: [looking at the bodies on the ground at Macarthur park] Steam did that?

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Connections

Spoofed in South Park: Volcano (1997)

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Soundtracks

"I Love L.A."
Written and Performed by Randy Newman
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

Fun Albeit By The Numbers Disaster B-Movie

Head of Los Angeles Emergency Operations Mike Roark (Tommy Lee Jones) and plucky seismologist Dr. Amy Barnes (Anne Heche) find themselves dealing with a crisis of monumental proportions when Los Angeles is suddenly threatened by an erupting volcano!

While I have serious doubts with regards to the legitimacy of a lot of what's presented on screen, that's also true of most disaster films and make no mistake, that is what this is... a 1990s attempt at updating the classic 1970s style disaster B-movie. It has the usual disaster movie focus of looking at the crisis from the point of view of several key, barely fleshed out aside from our leads, characters. It is a little slow getting started but once the lava flows, I have to admit I just sat back, grabbed some popcorn and had fun watching this one. Where this movie best succeeds is in its portrayal of human courage in the face of impending doom and disaster, my favorite scenes being the hurried rescue aboard the stranded subway train, Roark running in front of a falling building in an effort to save his only daughter and Dr. Calder trying valiantly to save lives in the middle of a busy street. Where it falters is in its attempt to say something about race relations, those scenes proving absolutely groan inducing. Plus it offers very little truly new and surprising, very little we haven't seen in movies of this type before, but at the end of the night, I have to admit it held my interest as a fun, popcorn movie.