Dante's Peak
Short description
Dante's Peak follows volcanologist Harry Dalton, who is sent to the small town of Dante's Peak to investigate unusual seismic activity around the long-dormant volcano the town is named for. He finds signs that an eruption may be approaching, but his warnings meet resistance from his superiors and local officials who are reluctant to accept the danger. Only the town's mayor, Rachel Wando, takes his concerns seriously as the situation grows more threatening.
The film was released in February 1997 and runs 108 minutes. It was directed by Roger Donaldson, the eighth of fifteen films he has directed in chronological order, following Species and preceding Thirteen Days, from a screenplay by Leslie Bohem. Pierce Brosnan plays Harry Dalton and Linda Hamilton plays Rachel Wando, with Arabella Field, Jamie Renée Smith, Jeremy Foley and Elizabeth Hoffman among the credited cast of 34. Gale Anne Hurd and Joseph Singer produced for Universal Pictures and Pacific Western.
Made for about 116 million dollars, the film returned roughly 178 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.4 out of 10 from 86 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.3 out of 10 from 2,192 votes. A film critics' rating of 5.2 out of 10 from 34 reviews sits below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- To film a close-up of pyroclastic gases erupting from the volcano's mouth, gas pipes were run under the volcano set.
- The cast and crew of the film had to hurry, as the film company '20th Century Fox' was preparing to release its own film by Mika Jackson, 'Volcano' (1997). This film was released almost three months before 'Volcano,' and its box office receipts were significantly higher.
- The camera that Pierce Brosnan's character used during the first inspection of the volcano actually belonged to the actor himself.
- The volcanic eruption shown in the film is classified in volcanology as Plinian type. It is characterized by enormous columns of ash rising to altitudes of up to 45 km and is named after the Roman historian Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
- The print on Greg's shirt (played by Grant Heslov) on the first day of observing Dante's Peak depicts a graph of volcanic ash eruptions in the US over the last 4,000 years.
- Most of the filming took place in the small town of Wallace, Idaho. Mount Dante itself and the surrounding landscape were added using computer graphics.
- The volcanic ash in the film actually consisted of very finely chopped scraps of newspaper.
- Over 6 million tons of water were used in the scene where the massive mudflow breaks the dam. The dam model itself was built at three-quarters scale.
- The story of Ruth (played by Elizabeth Hoffman) and her refusal to leave was inspired by real events. In 1980, before the eruption of Mount St. Helens, one of the local residents (who lived in a ruined tourist hotel that he himself owned) also flatly refused to evacuate to a safe place. He stubbornly replied to all persuasions that the danger of the situation was exaggerated. Another local resident, a representative of the U.S. Geological Survey, took a position on the ground from which he began to observe the north slope of the volcano. At half-past nine in the morning on May 18, 1980, he transmitted a message over the radio about the start of the eruption, and he was never seen alive again. Initially, the speed of the pyroclastic flows was 224 mph, after which it exceeded 621 mph. In 1993, road workers discovered the remains of the Geological Survey employee's trailer, but neither his body nor the body of the stubborn hotel owner were found.
- The dog in the film is a wolf-Airedale Terrier mix.
- Scenes near the volcano crater were filmed on the active Mount St. Helens volcano, located in Skamania County, Washington State, USA. One of this volcano’s eruptions served as the basis for the film’s plot.
- When the lava reaches the mountain shelter, everyone runs to the shore to the boat. During the filming of the first take of this scene, the boat went underwater. It turned out that Jamie Rene Smith couldn't swim, and Pierce Brosnan had to come to her aid until the actress was pulled out of the water.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
