Volcano (1997)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Mick Jackson

Writers (WGA):

Jerome Armstrong (story)
Jerome Armstrong (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

25 April 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller | Drama

Tagline:

The Coast Is Toast

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Volcano | Lava | Earthquake | Fire | Reference To Hieronymus Bosch

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

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

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Australia:M | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:16 (w) | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #35122) | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Donner/Shuler-Donner Productions

Trivia:

Most of the fire trucks used in the movie were made by the Crown Corporation, a fire apparatus maker now closed down. The Crown fire trucks in the movie can be easily recognized by the double-vertical headlights.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Lava is much hotter than indicated, and approaching it as close as shown in the movie would cause certain death.

Quotes:

TV Anchorwoman: Well, we now have a *name* for this crisis. It is, according to the US Geological Survey, a *volcano*! As crazy as it sounds, a volcano, *here*, has been...
[continues on indistinctly]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "HBO First Look: The Making of 'The Day After Tomorrow' (#11.10)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Where the Day Takes You

Definitely a waste

Had this movie been made with a low budget camp attitude, it wouldn't be so bad, but it made a great pretense and put a lot of time, money, and effort into this badly written movie which is title "Volcano." I don't think this is a spoiler, so I'll say it. There is no volcano. There is lava. And it just sweeps along the city and eats everything in its path. The characters are all formula. In Hollywood tradition, any character who asks help from God gets killed. The movie is very heavy handed in a Rosicrucian ideal with which they bang you over the head with. Tommy Lee Jones, the so called actor who got outperformed by everyone in "Lonesome Dove," and was even shown up by later actors who took the same role, does his usual stony face bit here. It's good that a real actor wasn't wasted in this role. You will predict everything, and as I said, it would work for a B movie, but you get the impression they put too much emphasis on making this more. Just a waste.