DANTE'S PEAK
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1997 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: This is a disaster film that has
nearly everything going for it but plot-
originality. But for a couple of nice touches in
the scenario, it is very much the story the viewer
expects. However, with the exception of a few
exaggerated scenes, this is pretty much what
volcanoes really do. For me that makes DANTE'S
PEAK the volcano film to see this spring. Rating:
high +1 (-4 to +4) Spoiler Warning: Following the
review is an excerpt from a U.S. Geological Survey
response to the film DANTE'S PEAK. While it will
certainly reveal in advance events of the film, it
also enhances the viewing experience by allowing
the reader then appreciate the film with an
educated palate.
New York Critics: 2 positive, 13 negative, 5 mixed
When I see a historical film I ask myself whether it is a good story and whether it is accurate to history. Similarly when I see a disaster film, particularly one in which the menace is caused by something scientific, I ask myself is it a good story and is it scientifically accurate. I tend to weigh the latter as important much more than most people since for me a good deal of the value of the film is to show me something that could happen to me. I can escape into a film much better if I think that what I am seeing is reasonably possible. Well, DANTE'S PEAK deserves only very lukewarm interest for its story, which is in large respects a very off-the-shelf disaster film plot. For me, however, a big plus is that most of the time it was not really very far from scientific accuracy. There are a few unrealistic scenes (most I recognized from having read the FAQ included below), but for the most part the film was fairly believable.
DANTE'S PEAK opens with a scene in a volcanic eruption. The force of the eruption has nature reversed in some fundamental ways. The sky is blotted out and flaming rocks are falling, seemingly from the clouds. Volcanologist Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) has allowed himself to get to close to the eruption he was studying and it paying the price. This is four years before the action of the story, but it effectively conveys the Biblical doomsday feel that is associated with being caught too near a volcanic eruption. A few years later he still works for the U.S. Geological Survey when he is asked to take a look at some seismic activity in a place called Dante's Peak, Washington. Even he points out that it is a cornball name for a volcanic mountain. This place was just voted to be the second best small town in the country. Shortly after he arrives Dalton decides that small town number three is due for a promotion and this region which has not seen an active volcano since some time about 5000 BC may be ready to go active again.
It will come as no surprise to the viewer that Dalton's suspicions are well-founded and the volcano does indeed erupt. The plot follows the familiar disaster film formulae of disagreement over whether there real is a threat to the small town, with Dalton's supervisor (Charles Hallahan) unwilling to commit to believing an eruption is coming. Having been involved with the politics of having called a false alarm in the past, he wants to avoid at all costs a false alarm here. But the cost turns out to be high with many people caught in the town at the time of the disaster. Once the eruption comes there are familiar sequences of people getting into danger and of rescue. But at least the threats are relatively realistic for the eruption as are the numbers of people killed.
There are some nice touches in the script. There are financial reasons for the citizens of Dante's Peak to want to ignore the warnings. However the townspeople, led by town mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton of TERMINATOR), are smarter than townspeople usually are in disaster films. If the U.S. Geological Survey says it is time to go, they seem ready enough. The film is much more about the USGS team's wrangling to decide if they feel the mountain is really going to go. That seems fully believable. Much of what we see seems realistic, even at the expense of some visual excitement. The sky is darkened and ash is falling so it looks a lot like a dismal snowy day. One scene that does seem to be driven by the effects rather than logic shows elevated highway just outside this tiny isolated town. The special effects work is very convincing particularly in a flood scene near the end. There is a somewhat contrived setting near the end of the film. I might almost believe it would be there, but that the ELF would work from there seems unlikely.
The makers of other recent disaster films could take a lesson from DANTE'S PEAK. Unlike VOLCANO or JURASSIC PARK characters you get to know and get to like do not survive. There is some risk in killing off a good character, but it maintains the dramatic tension of the film and keeps the story realistic. The team sent from the U.S. Geological Survey actually look like a team of people that the USGS might send, not a bunch of attractive young actors. Other nice touches in the script include the fact there is no human villain. You would think that a film with a volcano does not need a human villain, but the makers of a major film like OUTBREAK, for example, felt necessary to put in a human to defeat as well as the title threat.
While the story values are weaker than they might be, DANTE'S PEAK is a good cinematic recreation of what it must be like to experience an erupting volcano. It is certainly the better of the two volcano films being released this spring. Not a great film but worth a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler...
The following is an excerpt from the U.S. Geological Survey web site at http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/ DantesPeak/dantes_peak.html. I am very pleased that the U.S. Geological Survey created this information page, as I think it much enhances the enjoyment of the film and also sets the record straight where the film strayed from accuracy. There are references to the film throughout the site, thought this section most directly discusses the science of DANTE'S PEAK.
DANTE'S PEAK FAQ'S (frequently asked questions)
U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards Program February 10, 1997
MOVIE FACT OR FICTION?
Q: Is the eruption depicted in Dante's Peak realistic?
A: In many but not all respects, the movie's depiction of eruptive hazards hits close to the mark, especially as regards the enormous power unleashed during an eruption. Stratovolcanoes in the Cascade Range and Alaska erupt explosively and produce pyroclastic flows, clouds of volcanic ash, and debris flows (lahars) that behave much as shown in the movie. Lava flows at these volcanoes, though, are usually thick and slow moving, unlike the fluid flows in the movie. Fast- flowing flows of basalt lava are common in Hawaii, though. Real eruptions may be considerably larger or smaller, and affect larger or smaller areas, than those shown in the film.
Q: Can eruptions really threaten helicopters, as in the movie, and other aircraft?
A: Yes. Encounters between aircraft and clouds of volcanic ash are a serious concern. Jet engines and other aircraft components are vulnerable to damage by fine, abrasive volcanic ash, which can drift in dangerous concentrations hundreds of miles downwind from an erupting volcano.
During the past 15 years, at least 80 aircraft have accidentally encountered volcanic ash clouds, and in 6 cases jet engines temporarily lost power. An international consortium of government agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, Federal Aviation Administration, and National Weather Service, is now monitoring ash-producing volcanoes and tracking volcanic ash clouds to reduce the likelihood of future encounters.
Q: Can the temperature of hot springs near a restless volcano change quickly enough to injure bathers?
A: Temperature changes can and do occur, but usually more slowly than shown in the movie. In fact, the temperature of hot springs may increase, decrease, or stay the same during volcanic unrest. Increases in water temperature, when they do occur, usually take days or weeks to develop, rather than a few seconds as shown in the movie.
In rare cases, earthquakes can suddenly disrupt a volcano's hot groundwater system, changing its temperature. And earthquakes have been known to temporarily increase the flow of water from hot springs, sometimes causing geyser-like activity that could threaten bathers.
Q: Do earthquakes large enough to collapse buildings and roads accompany volcanic eruptions?
A: Not usually. Earthquakes associated with eruptions rarely exceed magnitude 5, and these moderate earthquakes are not big enough to destroy the kinds of buildings, houses, and roads that were demolished in the movie. The largest earthquakes at Mount St. Helens in 1980 were magnitude 5, large enough to sway trees and damage buildings, but not destroy them. During the huge eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, dozens of light to moderate earthquakes (magnitude 3 to 5) were felt by several hundred thousand people. Many houses collapsed, but not primarily because of the shaking. Heavy, wet ash from the eruption and a hurricane accumulated on roofs and crushed them.
Stronger earthquakes sometimes DO occur near volcanoes as a result of tectonic faulting. For example, four magnitude 6 earthquakes struck Long Valley caldera, California, in 1980, and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, in 1975. Both volcanoes were quiet at the time. The Hawaii earthquake triggered a small eruption at the summit of Kilauea. No eruption has yet occurred at Long Valley, but the area has been restless since the 1980 earthquakes.
Q: Can a town's water supply become contaminated when a volcano is restless?
A: Yes, but probably not as quickly as shown in the movie. If a town's water supply originates directly from a volcano's groundwater system or from a stream that has been covered with volcanic ash, the water could become contaminated with foul-smelling gases or fine ash and other sediment. Some volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide dissolve in groundwater, making the water acidic. Sulfurous odors, however, are caused by hydrogen sulfide gas, which smells like rotten eggs.
Q: Do scientists drive across moving lava flows?
A: No. Any attempt to drive across an active lava flow, even one that has partly solidified to form a thin crust, is likely to lead to disaster. With a temperature of 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, fresh lava will quickly melt rubber tires and ignite gas tanks. And if a vehicle gets stuck in moving lava, well, you know the rest of the story.
Q: Can carbon dioxide gas from volcanoes kill trees and wildlife?
A: Yes. At several volcanoes around the world, carbon dioxide gas released from magma has accumulated in the soil in sufficient concentrations to kill vegetation or has collected in low areas and suffocated animals. At Mammoth Mountain in California, carbon dioxide has killed about 100 acres of trees since 1989, and visitors to this area have occasionally suffered symptoms of asphyxiation when entering cabins or below- ground excavations. USGS scientists have concluded that the gas is escaping from a magma body beneath Mammoth Mountain. The magma itself is not currently moving toward the surface, but the USGS is monitoring the situation carefully.
Q: Can volcanoes suddenly become restless and erupt within one week of the first signs of activity?
A: Yes. The first steam eruption at Mount St. Helens on March 27, 1980, was preceded by only 7 days of intense earthquake activity. The climactic eruption, on May 18, followed seven weeks later. An eruption of Redoubt Volcano in Alaska on December 13, 1989, was preceded by only 24 hours of intense earthquake activity. But other volcanoes have been restless for months or years before an eruption occurred, and sometimes a period of unrest doesn't produce an eruption at all.
Q: Are robots used by the USGS to monitor volcanoes?
A: No. We rely on observations and measurements made by experienced scientists and on critical data sent by radio or satellite relay from monitoring instruments installed around a volcano. These instruments include seismometers, tiltmeters, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, gas sensors, mudflow (lahar or debris flow) sensors, and temperature probes.
NASA has tested a robot named Dante at Mount Erebus volcano in Antarctica and Mount Spurr volcano in Alaska. The USGS believes that, on Earth, experienced volcanologists are a better and more cost- effective alternative for monitoring dangerous volcanoes.
Q: Can volcanoes produce large explosive eruptions and rivers of fluid lava at the same time?
A: Not usually. During a single eruption, a volcano CAN produce both lava flows and ash, sometimes simultaneously. The red, glowing lava fountains and lava flows in Dante's Peak (including the active flow across which Harry Dalton drives) are characteristic of a fluid magma, called basalt. In contrast, explosive gray ash columns and pyroclastic flows shown in other scenes are characteristic of more viscous magmas, called andesite, dacite, or rhyolite. It's uncommon for a volcano to erupt magmas of widely different composition at the same time.
Q: Can lakes near volcanoes become acidic enough to be dangerous to people?
A: Yes. Crater lakes atop volcanoes are typically the most acid, with pH values as low as 0.1 (very strong acid). Normal lake waters, in contrast, have relatively neutral pH values near 7.0. The crater lake at El Chichon volcano in Mexico had a pH of 0.5 in 1983 and Mount Pinatubo's crater lake had a pH of 1.9 in 1992. The acid waters of these lakes are capable of causing burns to human skin but are unlikely to dissolve metal quickly. Gases from magma that dissolve in lake water to form such acidic brews include carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen fluoride. However, the movie's rapidly formed acidic lake capable of dissolving an aluminum boat in a matter of minutes is unrealistic.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
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