Dante's Peak (1997) on Netflix
PG-1319971h 48mActionAdventureThriller
After a deadly eruption in Colombia, volcanologist Harry Dalton is sent to Dante's Peak, Washington, to investigate the dormant volcano the town borders. Mayor Rachel Wando has two children.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.1/10109,632 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes30%
Trailer
Plot summary
Volcanologist Harry Dalton works for the United States Geological Survey. Four years after an eruption in Colombia, his superior Paul Dreyfus sends him to Dante's Peak, Washington, a small town beside a dormant stratovolcano, to investigate seismic activity. He meets Mayor Rachel Wando and her children, Graham and Lauren. Rachel takes him along when she visits her former mother-in-law Ruth, who lives by the lake below the volcano. Around the lake they find dead trees and dead squirrels, and a hot spring where two tourists have been boiled to death. Harry warns Graham off the spring, then asks Paul to bring a monitoring team. The survey finds no sign of volcanic activity, and Paul advises against putting the town on alert. Harry wants Rachel to get the town ready for a disaster.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dante's Peak (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The scene with the geological robot and the trapped scientist appears to be set inside the crater of Mount St. Helens, but it was filmed on the tarmac of Van Nuys Airport with the Mount Adams image composited in later, while Air Force One shot in hangars on the other side of the same runway.
- Exterior shots of the Point Dume Post Office in Malibu stood in for the USGS's David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory, a facility named in honor of David A. Johnston, a young scientist who precisely predicted the volatility of the May 18, 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption and perished during the event.
- To promote the release, the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood was updated with new theming and props, and the Glacier Avalanche rotating tunnel was rethemed with molten lava added inside the mines, which lasted four years until Curse of the Mummy's Tomb took over in 2001.
- The film drew geologists at the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Maryland to create information pages for students. The USGS page concluded that in many but not all respects the movie's depiction of eruptive hazards "hits close to the mark", while two professors at Lewis-Clark State College panned it for understating the effects of a possible false alarm.
- Sandra Bullock was initially considered for the role of Rachel Wando in Dante's Peak, but she turned the part down.
- Elizabeth Hoffman, who plays Ruth, Rachel's former mother-in-law, gave her final film performance in Dante's Peak before her retirement one year later.
