History Film / DantesPeak

* InfantImmortality: Oh like you ''really'' believed the kids or the dog would die...even though Harry's team advised him against going after them. On the other hand, this movie did give [[spoiler: grandma]] third-degree burns...

* ChekhovsVolcano

* DisasterMovie

* HollywoodScience: Although it's known for being scientifically sound, it's still an action movie.
** Volcanic ash should have all the main characters either dead or dying because it's incredibly fine and will get into their lungs and kill them. But seeing as this is just a disaster movie, this is excusable.

* AttackOfTheTownFestival: The volcano ''just happens'' to wake up during the Pioneer Festival where the town receives the "Second most desirable place to live in the US" award.

[[caption-width-right:300:Rising from the ashes.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:Rising from the [[Floatingheadsyndrome floating]] ashes.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:Rising from the ashes...]]

* BittersweetEnding: The movie is quite happy to show that the Dante's Peak town, the namesake snowcapped mountain and everything around them is reduced to an uninhabtiable hellscape by the eruption.

* PercussiveMaintenance: How Terry "fixes" the survey robot.

* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Harry's fiance Marianne gets hit in the head by a Lava Bomb early in the film that was able to punch through the roof of the truck she was in like it was nothing, and yet only has a little blood on her head to show for it. In reality, such an impact would've turned her head inside out, with the rock coming to a stop somewhere in her stomach (if it didn't go all the way through her and continued through the rest of the truck]])

United States Geological Survey Vulcanologist [[IgnoredExpert Dr. Harry Dalton]] (Creator/PierceBrosnan) is sent to the area to check out the volcano; after a few incidents involving par-boiled skinny dippers and some flirtation with Mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), he tries to send the town on alert. Unfortunately, he is [[WeNeedToGetProof shut down by his superior]]. The town [[TemptingFate happens]] to be second place in the 'most desirable small town to live in the US' list, and they don't want any "crazy" accusations scaring away the tourists, which the town's economy depends on. Besides, there's [[MillionToOneChance a million to one chance]] that it could go off. [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong What could happen]]?

* ArtisticLicenseGeology: Despite the town being bombarded with so much ash it's literally piled up into faux-snowdrifts by the next morning after the eruption begins, it doesn't get to the point where a roof collapses despite volcanic ash only taking at least a few inches to collapse a roof.

''Dante's Peak'' is a 1997 DisasterMovie directed by Roger Donaldson, about a volcano set in the [[TheOtherRainforest Pacific Northwest]] named, obviously, Dante's Peak. At its foot is a town, also named Dante's Peak.

** [[spoiler:Grandmother Ruth refuses to listen to the warnings of a member of the ''[=USGS=]'' and stays on her mountainside home, and is still there long after it's started to erupt, to the point of actively denying that it's even erupting when it's raining ash all around her home. Subverted because Harry and Rachel then come to save her. Then double subverted when Ruth sacrifices her life to save Harry, Rachel, and the kids, which wouldn't have been necessary if she had left in the first place. It's even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by her in her last moments.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGeology: Volcanic activity is indeed known to turn lakes acidic, enough so to kill wildlife. However, this is still acidity in the range of a standard soda, nowhere near enough to create chemical burns, much less to dissolve a boat.

* DoomedContrarian: To be fair, [[spoiler:Dr. Dreyfus was only trying to prevent Harry from [[MyGreatestFailure repeating his mistake with Mammoth Mountain]]]] and had some good points. Also [[spoiler: Ruth]], who was just an irresponsible, cantankerous pain in the ass.

* HassleFreeHotwire: Harry Dalton can hotwire a pickup in about two seconds.

* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Harry's Fiance gets hit in the head by a Lava Bomb early in the film that was able to punch through the roof of the truck she was in like it was nothing, and yet only has a little blood on her head to show for it. In reality, such an impact would've turned her head inside out, with the rock coming to a stop somewhere in her stomach (if it didn't go all the way through her and continued through the rest of the truck]])

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Dr. Paul Dreyfus, despite being a bit of a CommanderContrarian, is a reasonable boss who respects Harry. While he is the most vocal in shutting Dalton's initial calls to evacuate Dante's Peak, the moment he sees irrefutable proof of an impending eruption, he immediately give the go-ahead for an evacuation and apologizes to Dalton for doubting him.

** [[spoiler:Dr. Dreyfus. Though he had sound reasoning, his guess was wrong and it cost lives. Once he realized an eruption was imminent he volunteered himself to stay behind. He brings up the rear in the USGS evacuation and is their only lost member.]]

** [[spoiler:Grandmother Ruth refuses to listen to the warnings of a member of the ''[=USGS=]'' and stays on her mountainside home, and is still there long after it's started to erupt, to the point of actively denying that it's even erupting when it's raining ash all around her home. Subverted because Harry and Rachel then come to save her. Then double subverted when Ruth sacrifices her life to save Dalton, Rachel, and the kids, which wouldn't have been necessary if she had left in the first place. It's even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by her in her last moments.]]

* HeroicBSOD: Harry through a brief one when Marianne is killed.

* CloserThanTheyAppear: Dr. Dalton keeps an eye on the pyroclastic flow in his driver's side mirror while attempting to outrun it. However, there's no "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" label.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: Dr. Dalton manages to drive a car over a flow of magma and manages only to melt the tyres, and lava flows into the living room of a log cabin and only catches the immediate area on fire. The commentary on the DVD says the lava-crossing sequence was mostly done for real. Wait... [[BigWhat WHAT?]]

* DoomedContrarian: To be fair, [[spoiler:Dr. Dreyfus was only trying to prevent Dr. Dalton from [[MyGreatestFailure repeating his mistake with Mammoth Mountain]]]] and had some good points. Also [[spoiler: Ruth]], who was just an irresponsible, cantankerous pain in the ass.

* IgnoredExpert: Dr. Dalton, although the movie does subvert how the trope is usually played - Dr. Dalton ''doesn't'' have enough conclusive evidence, and the economy of the town could be ruined if he was wrong. The second Dr. Dalton finds proof that is more concrete, it's immediately taken seriously; the town was in the middle of a town meeting discussing the evacuation plan when the volcano started erupting.

* ItsPersonal: Dr. Dalton's first warnings aren't taken wholly seriously because he's a bit too tightly wound, thanks to losing his fiancée in an eruption.
* JerkAss: The helicopter pilot. He complains about working over lunch, refuses to embark on a search and rescue mission without hiking his rates, and extorts desperate townspeople trying to evacuate on his helicopter for all their money. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard In the end all he gets is himself and his passengers killed.]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Dr. Paul Dreyfus, despite being a bit of a CommanderContrarian, is a reasonable boss who respects Dr. Dalton. While he is the most vocal in shutting Dalton's initial calls to evacuate Dante's Peak, the moment he sees irrefutable proof of an impending eruption, he immediately give the go-ahead for an evacuation and apologizes to Dalton for doubting him.

* RomanceEnsues: Between Dr. Dalton and Rachel.

** [[spoiler:Rachel's two kids steal her truck so they can drive up the mountain to rescue grandma. [[LampshadeHanging Even they realize that it's a dumb idea]]. Dr. Dalton and Rachel save them before the lava flow can kill them, making this a subversion.]]
** [[spoiler:Grandmother Ruth refuses to listen to the warnings of a member of the ''[=USGS=]'' and stays on her mountainside home, and is still there long after it's started to erupt, to the point of actively denying that it's even erupting when it's raining ash all around her home. Subverted because Dr. Dalton and Rachel then come to save her. Then double subverted when Ruth sacrifices her life to save Dalton, Rachel, and the kids, which wouldn't have been necessary if she had left in the first place. It's even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by her in her last moments.]]

* NeverMessWithGranny: Ruth saves everyone by [[spoiler: jumping into a lake of sulfuric acid and pushing along a boat ''with four people in it'']] so they can get to the docks. God''damn''. It actually makes up for the fact that she was the reason they were there in the first place.

* ShownTheirWork: Although not perfect, it does get a lot more of the science right than usual, maybe 60% to 70% of it. That's a ''good'' percentage for Hollywood.

United States Geological Survey Vulcanologist [[IgnoredExpert Dr. Harry Dalton]] (Pierce Brosnan) is sent to the area to check out the volcano; after a few incidents involving par-boiled skinny dippers and some flirtation with Mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), he tries to send the town on alert. Unfortunately, he is [[WeNeedToGetProof shut down by his superior]]. The town [[TemptingFate happens]] to be second place in the 'most desirable small town to live in the US' list, and they don't want any "crazy" accusations scaring away the tourists, which the town's economy depends on. Besides, there's [[MillionToOneChance a million to one chance]] that it could go off. [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong What could happen]]?

''Dante's Peak'' is a movie about a volcano set in the [[TheOtherRainforest Pacific Northwest]] named, obviously, Dante's Peak. At its foot is a town, also named Dante's Peak.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Dr. Paul Dreyfus, despite being a bit of a CommanderContrarian, is a reasonable boss who respects Dr. Dalton.

** [[spoiler: Harry's coworker at the beginning of the film. Seriously, if she'd just left earlier, they'd have missed being in the path of the rock that killed her. Although, considering that lava bombs were unpredictable and falling everywhere, it may have been more shit luck than anything. But it still counts due to the fact that she wanted to ''stay behind and record results while everything was going to hell''.]]
Not wise.