Whether you’ve realised or not, film is chock full of the Earth Sciences, better known as geology, geophysics, palaeontology and, to a lesser extent, oceanography (Oceans are part of the earth, right?). During my time, I have watched many of these delights which have displayed a seemingly wide range in quality. Some good, some bad, but most suffering a horrifyingly weak basis in science and even general common sense. With this series of reviews/discussions, I would like talk about some of the hits and misses of geological cinema and ramble about the science on show.
Filmmakers obviously need to have a bit of creative license when constructing their films to keep moviegoers entertained – Unfortunately for those of us who study it, science is not all action and explosions like a Michael Bay movie. However, some films have managed to stay admirably true to the science while providing a tangible sense of excitement and action. One of these films is 1997’s Dante’s Peak directed by Roger Donaldson and written by Leslie Bohem.
n.b. I will be discussing spoilers in these reviews, so if you don’t like that sort of thing, feel free to skip ahead to the later sections where I will discuss the geological context of the films as well as give a general consensus.
The Plot *SPOILER WARNING*
The film follows USGS volcanologist Harry Dalton (Jimmy Bond himself, Pierce Brosnan) as he investigates the increased seismic activity recorded around the fictional town of Dante’s Peak in Washington, recently named the 2nd most desirable place to live in the US, population under 20,000 (hmmmm, wonder how long that’ll last for). Unfortunately for this picturesque town, it lies in the shadow of a supposedly dormant, giant stratovolcano. When Harry enters town, he meets the mayor Rachel Wando (The Terminator’s Linda Hamilton) and her two children Graham and Laura, who offers to take him up the volcano while they visit her mother-in-law Ruth who lives on the volcano slope (not a wise choice of habitation I would say). During this time, Harry is mildly insulted at being called a geologist (gosh, he’s a volcanologist guys, get it right) and stops to check out the local rocks (who’s not a geologist now buddy?). the family decide to go off to the hot springs for a swim where they encounter some dead wildlife and trees, possibly from C02 poisoning. Harry decides to sample the chemistry of the waters and stops Graham from jumping in after he spots a dead couple, boiled alive by the superheated waters. (Maybe geothermal isn’t our friend after all…). These findings concern Harry, as he calls for a monitoring team to be brought in to keep an eye on the activity of the area. At the same time Harry has a meeting with the council and cautions them that the volcano could possibly be reactivating. The council don’t seem keen on the idea of raising an alarm, especially with a massive $18M investment from a wealthy businessman on the horizon. Harry’s boss Paul steps in and tells the council not to worry – he has seen first hand the economic damage a false alarm can cause.
The following day, the team enter the crater of the volcano to monitor gases and test out their fancy new equipment. While there, they experience a relatively large earthquake. Harry states it was caused by shallow, magmatic activity and wants the town evacuated immediately. His fears are confirmed during the night when he sees the towns water supply has been contaminated with Sulphur Dioxide as well as recording the swarming of earthquakes. These signs were noted before the Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines as is mentioned by Harry. The initial eruption occurs the following day during an emergency town meeting, with a massive release of ash that covers the town as well as intensely strong earthquakes that destroy bridges and collapse buildings (tad excessive but got to embellish a bit I guess for maximum entertainment). Harry and Rachel rush off toward the volcano to rescue the kids and Ruth who had stubbornly refused to evacuate off the mountain. Ruth’s house is destroyed by some suspiciously fast moving and sketchily CGI’d basalt lava flows (I’ll come back to this). The group escape onto the lake which has been turned highly acidic by the gas releases. Ruth is killed by chemical burns as she pulls the boat to shore when it starts to sink (to be honest she could have made it too if she’d stayed in the boat, but hero’s death right?).
The following morning, the group carries on back down the mountain into town, managing to traverse their 4X4 across a red hot lava flow and still have a functioning vehicle afterwards (HOW?!). As they re-enter the town, the top of the volcano goes and the most menacing movie villain of all time emerges – The pyroclastic cloud. Given that a flow can travel at speeds over 400mph, Harry did tremendously well to outrun it in a car doing at most 60mph. The group escape by hiding in a disused mine while the cloud flattens the whole town and collapses the mine around them. Thanks to Harry’s quick thinking, he picked up a prototype distress signaller from the USGS work office when the group arrived back in town which he then uses to call in the rescuers to dig them out of the collapsed mine.
Geological Context
This film is clearly inspired by the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption in Washington state – the deadliest and most economically destructive eruption in the United States’ history. Fifty-seven people are known to have been killed, while swathes of homes, railways and highways were demolished. The mechanisms of the eruption have found their ways into geological folklore via a tale of vindication and tragedy. David Alexander Johnston was a volcanologist working for the USGS and was a part of the team that predicted the eruption and convinced authorities to evacuate the surrounding area, thus, in turn saving thousands of lives. David held a different view to the other USGS scientists and believed the volcano would erupt through a lateral blast rather than a conventional one. On May 18th 1980, he was busy manning an observation post 10km away collecting data to support his theory when the blast hit. He was the first to report the incident and is immortalised by his final transmission “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” before he was engulfed by the very blast he had predicted. Truly poetic tragedy.
The lateral blast was triggered by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake which dislodged 2.9km3 worth of material from the northern slope of the mountain; the largest in recorded history. This removal of weight allowed a massive release of pressure causing explosive outgassing and a Plinian style eruption, spewing ash and debris up to 24km into the atmosphere and creating large-scale pyroclastic flows flattening vegetation for tens of miles around. The collapsed material mixed with snow, ice and water to create lahars (volcanic mudflows) not dissimilar to the ones seen in the bridge destruction scene of the film.
St Helens has a cameo appearance in the film, starring as the Dante’s Peak volcano in the helicopter scenes. The iconic horseshoe shaped crater left by the lateral blast is clear to see as well as the lava dome within the crater.
Hit or Miss?
While this film does possess its glaring flaws, most notably the after effects of the eruption (why were there basalt lava flows in a clearly rhyolitic eruption?!), it does it’s best to stay scientifically accurate. The film accurately displays the precursors to a volcanic eruption – increased number of microquakes, bulging of the ground, release of volcanic gases (and acidification of local water sources). The effects are very solid for the time, the CGI lava flows are rather dated but the use of matte paintings to create backdrops still look stunning to this day and the practical effects used in the pyroclastic flow scene are astounding. The film fully deserved its best SFX Oscar nomination from what I’ve seen. The director Roger Donaldson had previously studied geology and clearly had a vision of creating the most geologically accurate depiction of a natural disaster put to film, and by golly it shows. This is certainly a hit in my book.
7/10
Join me for the next installment of ESONBS where I will be reviewing and discussing the gem that is Jon Amiel’s ‘The Core’!
Geology Musings 