Volcano (1997 Film)

''Volcano'' is a 1997 American disaster film directed by Mick Jackson, written by Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray, and produced by Neal H. Moritz and Andrew Z. Davis. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones in the lead role, with 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 story 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 was a box-office success grossing $122.8 million worldwide on a $90 million budget.

Plot

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 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 7 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.

The following day, Amy and her assistant Rachel venture into the storm sewer to investigate. While they take samples, another — and 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, the small volcano erupts in the La Brea Tar Pits. 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 they 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 dumps water collected from the ocean to subdue the lava and volcano, forming a crust and making the plan a success. However, Amy thinks the magma is still flowing underground through the subway because the ash still falls. 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.

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 emerges from the rubble unscathed and reunites with Amy before heading home.

At the tar pits, the volcano has taken shape above ground and has since been named "Mount Wilshire." As the movie concludes, it remains active.

Cast

Production

Filming

Filming was primarily on location in Los Angeles, California. Various filming sites included MacArthur Park, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the La Brea Tar Pits. Extensive special effects surrounding certain aspects of the film such as the lava flow were created by ten separate digital effects companies including VIFX, Digital Magic Company, Light Matters Inc., Pixel Envy and Anatomorphex. An 80% full-size replica of Wilshire Boulevard, which was one of the largest sets ever constructed in the United States, was assembled in Torrance, California. The computer-generated imagery was coordinated and supervised by Dale Ettema and Mat Beck. Between visuals, miniatures, and animation, over 300 technicians were involved in the production aspects of the special effects.

Music

The score for the film was originally composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. Recording artists James Newton Howard and Dillinger among others, contributed songs to the music listing. The audio soundtrack in Compact Disc format featuring 8 tracks, was officially released by the American recording label Varèse Sarabande on April 22, 1997. 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.

Trivia

In the making-of featurette, Tommy Lee Jones revealed that his Mike Roark character is from Missouri, which explains his throwaway joke of "I'm not in St. Louis" early in the film. But it could also explain his expert knowledge on dams (beaver or man-made), based on his plan to stop the flow of lava from Wilshire Boulevard with k-rail barriers, and then deciding to knock down a 22-story skyscraper and turn it into a makeshift "dam" to stop the flow of lava in the third-act climax.

Reception

Among mainstream critics in the US, ''Volcano'' received mixed reviews. 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." 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". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. 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''.

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." 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." 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." 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."

Walter Addiego of the ''San Francisco Examiner'' opined that "''Volcano'' offers a bit of humor, a minimum of plot distraction and the joys of watching molten rock ooze down Wilshire Boulevard." Left equally impressed was James Berardinelli of '' ReelViews''. He described the character of Mike Roark as "a wonderfully heroic figure — a man of action who never has time to rest. The fate of the city rests on his shoulders, and he knows it." He added: "''Volcano'' has opened the "summer" movie season at an astoundingly early late-April date... This isn't the kind of film where it's worth waiting for the video tape — it's too big and brash, and demands the speakers and atmosphere of a state-of-the-art theater." Kenneth Turan of the ''Los Angeles Times'' asserted that the film "glows with heat. Lava heat. The coast may be toast, but it's the lava, covering everything like a malevolent tide of melted butter, that makes this a disaster picture that's tastier than usual."

Writing for '' Time Out'', author TCh said, "The most striking aspect of this fun, old-fashioned disaster movie is the novelty of seeing the most familiar of backdrops used as a creative resource in its own right."TCh (April 1997)
Volcano (1997)
. '' Time Out''. Retrieved July 14, 2010. Not entirely impressed was Margaret McGurk writing for ''The Cincinnati Enquirer''. She stated that the high-caliber special effects were "still fun, but all this lock-step storytelling is wearing thin." In a hint of commendation, McGurk added, "On its own escapist terms, ''Volcano'' dishes up a textbook serving of low-I.Q., high-energy entertainment."McGurk, Margaret (November 1997)
'Volcano' more of a blast than 'Dante's Peak'
''The Cincinnati Enquirer''. Retrieved July 14, 2010. Marc Savlov of ''The Austin Chronicle'' called ''Volcano'' was a "laughably ridiculous take on what we all secretly dream of: Los Angeles, washed away in a huge, molten tide of cheese — uh, lava, I mean." Savlov added, "Screenwriters Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray have crammed the script with...reams of very, very bad dialogue. So bad, in fact, that the screening audience I viewed ''Volcano'' with seemed to enjoy it immensely, hooting and hollering and laughing as though it were an old episode of ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''."Savlov, Marc (April 25, 1997)
Volcano
. ''The Austin Chronicle''. Retrieved July 14, 2010.

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."Kempley Rita, (April 25, 1997)
'Volcano': 1 on the Richter Scale
. ''The Washington Post''. Retrieved July 14, 2010. 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."McCarthy, Todd (April 27, 1997)
Volcano
'' Variety''. Retrieved July 14, 2010.

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. During that first weekend in release, the film opened in first place beating out the films '' Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion'' and '' Anaconda''. The film's revenue dropped by 37% in its second week of release, earning $9,099,743. In the month of June during its final weekend showing in theaters, the film came out in 12th place grossing $602,076. 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. For 1997 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 39.

Home media

Following its cinematic release in theaters, the film was released in VHS video format on May 26, 1998. The Region 1 Code widescreen edition of the film was released on DVD in the United States on March 9, 1999. Special features for the DVD include interactive menus, scene selection and the original theatrical trailer. It is not enhanced for widescreen televisions, though the international DVD releases do. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc on October 1, 2013 by Starz/Anchor Bay.

See also

* '' Dante's Peak'' - another volcano-based film released in 1997

References

External links

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{{Billy Ray

1990s American films
1990s disaster films
1990s English-language films
1997 drama films
1997 films
1997 thriller films
20th Century Fox films
American disaster films
American thriller films
English-language thriller films
Films about firefighting
Films about fires
Films about volcanoes
Films directed by Mick Jackson
Films produced by Lauren Shuler Donner
Films produced by Neal H. Moritz
Films scored by Alan Silvestri
Films set in California
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films with screenplays by Billy Ray
Original Film films
Rail transport films