Volcano (1997)

A volcano erupts in downtown Los Angeles, 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!

---

Plot Keywords:

self sacrifice | boyfriend girlfriend relationship | child in peril | sea | teenager | 

---

Taglines:

It's Hotter than Hell!

---

Genres:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

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 USA:

$14,581,740, 27 April 1997, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$49,323,468

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$122,823,468

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox,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

Graffiti can be seen briefly at Rancho La Brea, with the quote "The magic is back". It refers to the New York Mets, being the slogan used by the team in its 1980 season.

---

Goofs

During the movie the transit employee sinks into lava after saving the life of the unconscious train operator. Simply put, basaltic lava (~3g/cm^3) is more dense than humans (~1g/cm^3). So if a person where to fall onto lava they would not be able to sink into it, instead they would rest on top and get very badly burned by the 900+ degrees Celsius lava.

---

Quotes

Amy: [calling Roark on his phone] How fast can you get to the corner of Wilshire and Western, we have a problem.
Roark: No, no. Not anymore. We have it stopped.
Amy: The volume of ash is too high to think that we're out of danger.
Roark: So, why did it just stop?
Amy: Well, maybe it didn't, maybe it went someplace else.
Roark: So, how do you know it didn't stop?
Amy: I don't. But what I do know is when Mount Saint Helens blew, the force was twenty seven thousand times greater then that of the Hiroshima bomb. Do you think that the vent ...
[...]

---

Connections

Referenced in Disaster Zone: Volcano in New York (2006)

---

Soundtracks

The Boxing Gym
Written by James Newton Howard

User Reviews

You have to laugh!

Australian Free-to-air TV is in such a poor state that this movie was the best thing I could find tonight. This cliché-ridden piece seemed to have been written by 'my film student nephew' who 'has Final Draft on his computer' with the visual effects done by his mate who owns a pirated copy of After Effects. That's not to say that this film doesn't have its virtues. With a little extra modern day post-production this could be an excellent comedy instead of just an accidental one. Just have Mel Brooks tweak the script (not too much!), then CGI replace Tommy Lee Jones with Rick Moranis, give Anne Heche the voice of Joan Rivers and call it 'Lava Balls'.