Dantes Peak.jpg

Vulcanologist Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) has been called in from vacation to the Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington.

His colleagues have noticed unusual seismic activity under Dante’s Peak, a towering volcano in the north Cascades. Dalton is dispatched to check the activity and measure the danger.

Meanwhile, the mayor, Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton) of the town Dante’s Peak, which sits precariously at the volcano’s base, is hosting the Pioneer Days celebration.

A rich businessman is visiting. His promise of an $18 million investment would bring many jobs to the community (played admirably by the old mining town of Wallace, Idaho). Dante’s Peak has been ranked by Money magazine as the second most desirable town under 20,000 population in which to live in the United States.

Its future is at stake.

Dalton discovers unusual activity at a hot springs in the hills near town and believes serious trouble is brewing. The mayor calls a meeting of movers and shakers at the city council chambers so Dalton can warn them that it might soon be necessary to evacuate the citizenry.

Dalton’s boss, Paul Dreyfuss (Charles Hallahan) arrives with the rest of the volcano investigation team. Dreyfuss believes Dalton is overreacting. The town business leaders resist giving residents a warning, fearing mass panic with investment and jobs lost.

Dreyfuss advises town dignitaries that the team of scientists will monitor the situation. For now, he says, no public warning is needed.

Dalton resists being sent away. He stays to help with monitoring. Dalton and his colleagues fly by helicopter into the crater of the volcano (played by Mount St. Helens).

Chemistry sparks between the vulcanologist and the divorced mayor and mother of two children. Both are rebounding from loves lost, Dalton’s to a fireball in an eruption four years earlier in Colombia.

Then Dante’s Peak begins to blow. Characters battle against all odds to survive. Adrenaline flows like lava.

Just when things can’t possibly get worse, they do. Complications pile up like ash.

Nonstop, sometimes incoherent action takes the moviegoer on a wild ride. Melodramatic mayhem ensues along with the latest in special-effects wizardry from the 1990s.

The list of stunt people involved in the movie is long, and stunts come with furious intensity.

The climactic sequence features a daring rescue. Grandma Ruth (Elizabeth Hoffman) refuses to heed warnings and wants to ride out the eruption at her beloved lodge on the lake (much like Spirit Lake lodge owner Harry Truman did at Mount St. Helens, which erupted 17 years before the movie was released).

Grandkids Graham (Jeremy Foley) and Lauren (Jaimie Renée Smith) daringly try to save the stubborn old woman. The movie reaches a revved-up emotional pitch and then revs some more.

The film crew does amazing work. Filming a simulated volcanic eruption can’t be easy. John Frizzell’s music, especially in the introduction, proves compelling and establishes the mood.

Those familiar with Wallace will enjoy seeing the inside of the old high school gym (site of a town meeting). Other scenes show the historic mining town in bucolic bliss and when all hell erupts.

The movie is a trip to the 1990s. Old computers blink out data, dial phones ring with answering machines burping out urgent messages. The vulcanologist whips out his flip phone. An old boxy TV promises less entertainment than what is happening outside. Nobody is glued to cell phones. Rushing through ash, 1990s and older model cars and pickups beat a hasty retreat.

The movie is a reminder that dormant volcanoes can come to life in any lifetime, and Brosnan can play something more than James Bond.