Dante’s Peak (1997)


Another film viewed on TV while on holiday. Pierce Brosnan plays a volcanologist who recently lost his girlfriend in a volcanic eruption in Colombia. He now has to convince the town of Dante’s Peak to evacuate before everything kicks off. Then everything kicks off.

It’s a compelling disaster film with a genuinely dramatic visualisation of a town being destroyed by an eruption, with its ensuing rivers of lava, toxic ash clouds and devastating pyroclastic flows. Brosnan is just right for the role – it’s partly a James Bond action scenario, partly a step forwards into a more “human” part. The “love interest” is the town mayor, played by Linda Hamilton.

My only criticism is that there seemed to be a scene missing near the end at the very climax of the film. While it’s not emotionally gruelling or upsetting like The Impossible (with which it shares a family-in-peril theme), it’s an entirely believable thriller.

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