Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) on Netflix
Joe Banks, a hypochondriac, learns he has a brain cloud and months to live. A wealthy industrialist pays for his final days if Joe jumps into a volcano on a Pacific island.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb5.9/1042,544 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes64%
Trailer
Plot summary
Joe Banks works a clerical job at American Panascope, a factory where his boss, Frank Waturi, keeps him under constant pressure. Chronically sick, Joe sees doctors who find nothing wrong until Dr. Ellison names an incurable condition called a brain cloud, which will kill him in five or six months. Joe quits his job, asks DeDe, a former coworker, out on a date, and tells her he is dying. Samuel Graynamore, a wealthy industrialist, will cover whatever Joe wants for his final days if Joe jumps into the volcano on Waponi Woo, where the islanders need a volunteer sacrifice before Graynamore can mine bubaru. Joe spends a night on the town in New York, flies to Los Angeles, and boards the yacht Tweedledee, whose captain is Graynamore's daughter Patricia.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Patrick Shanley modeled the film's dreary American Panascope factory on a company he worked for at 18 that made medical equipment, including catheters, endoscopes and artificial testicles. He based Joe's office on that workplace, down to its fluorescent lighting and a pipe valve reading "Do not touch".
- Georges Delerue's score was not released in 1990, the year the film came out. Because of Delerue's strong following, a sub-label of Varèse Sarabande put out a CD in 2002 limited to 3,000 copies, and again in 2016 limited to 2,000.
- The American Panascope factory was a real building in Los Angeles. Its approach pathway and signage were added for the film, and smokestacks were matted onto the building in post-production.
- The ocean scenes, including the sequence in which the Tweedledee is caught in a typhoon, were shot using a large indoor water tank at a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio.
