History Film / Supervolcano

* DwindlingParty: Rick's group begins to fall to the eruption, one by one.

As you might guess from the title, the film revolves around a super volcano – in this case, the Yellowstone caldera that lies just underneath Yellowstone National Park. Geologist Rick Lieberman (Michael Riley) and his team of scientists in the park monitor the increasingly worrisome signs of an impending eruption, while pressure mounts from the media and Rick's own brother-in-law. When the caldera finally erupts, it proves to be a devastating eruption, and the film then focuses on the federal government's response as well as that of the public to this catastrophe.

As you might guess from the title, the film revolves around a super volcano – in this case, the Yellowstone caldera that lies just underneath Yellowstone National Park. Geologist Rick Lieberman and his team of scientists in the park monitor the increasingly worrisome signs of an impending eruption, while pressure mounts from the media and Rick's own brother-in-law. When the caldera finally erupts, it proves to be a devastating eruption, and the film then focuses on the federal government's response as well as that of the public to this catastrophe.

** Also a GiantWallOfWateryDoom early in the film, when a precursor earthquake to the eruption causes a landslide that in turn causes a flood that kills nine people.

* ApocalypticLog: The movie begins with one made by Rick being discovered. [[spoiler:Subverted as Rick himself is the one who finds it.]]
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Inverted. Dave is the last person to die onscreen.
** Also averted with Johnson, who survives with Rick and Kenneth.

* DoomedContrarian: Averted. Joe Foster, who previously told Rick to downplay the threat of an eruption, survives and actually hits the ground running when things start getting bad.
** Jock was also skeptical of the threat posed by Yellowstone. He's the only one of the team that survives the initial eruption and ashfall. [[spoiler:Aside from Rick, anyway.]]

* HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure: Kenneth demonstrates the size of a full-scale Yellowstone eruption by going up the Volcanic Explosivity Index from Mt. St. Helens[[note]]VEI 5[[/note]] with proportionately-sized cubes.

* OhCrap: Once when the anomaly above the magma chamber is revealed to be a magma pocket approaching the surface, again when the plane flies into the ash cloud and again when a second vent opens up as that means it'll chain-react into a caldera-forming eruption.

* OutrunTheFireball: Technically it's a pyroclastic flow, but otherwise the trope is intact when Jock, Nancy and Matt flee the incoming pyroclastic flow. [[spoiler: They don't survive, sadly.]]
** Jock manages to out''fly'' the flow in a helicopter by telling the pilot to keep going up as they fly away from the eruption.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The governor of Wyoming is a pretty reasonable guy when it comes down to it, and listens to Rick and his team, acknowledging that he's a politician, not a scientist. Wendy and Michael Eldridge also qualify.

* WhamShot: The final shot of the film is a series of satellite images of the United States, each encompassing more area than the last. [[spoiler: The final one reveals the gargantuan new caldera formed by the eruption as well as revealing that the eruption has buried the entire western half of the United States, and large chunks of Canada and Mexico in ash.]]
** Before that, Jock, Nancy and Matt are rightfully horrified when they notice the pyroclastic flow starting just as they're to flee Yellowstone.

* WhamShot: The final shot of the film is a series of satellite images of the United States, each encompassing more area than the last. [[spoiler: The final one reveals the gargantuan new caldera formed by the eruption as well as revealing that the eruption has buried the entire western half of the United States in ash.]]

-->'''Nancy:''' Fifteen hundred cubic kilometers of melt.[[note]]As in 1500 cubic kilometers of magma ready to blow, which is a ''lot''.[[/note]]

** The remainder of the team at the field office have a giant one when they realise that Yellowstone's finally gone off. Even the slept oval Jock realises what's happened and let's out a horrified "This isn't mud. It's started."

** The remainder of the team at the field office have a giant one when they realise that Yellowstone's finally gone off.
>'''Jock''': This isn't mud. It's started.

* WhamShot: The final shot of the film is a series of satellite images of the United States, each encompassing more area than the last. [[spoiler: The final one reveals that the eruption has buried the entire western half of the United States in ash.]]

* AdvancingWallOfDoom: The first vent undergoing a column collapse triggers a massive wave of pyroclastic flows which flatten every tree they touch and kill Nancy and Matt when they try to flee the scene in their vehicle.

* GloryHound: The reason Maggie Chin is investigating Yellowstone. Matt talks her out of it.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Maggie gives up on covering Yellowstone on-site when Matt makes her aware of just how big an eruption would be.

* SmallNameBigEgo: The reporter who constantly harasses Rick's team for information regarding Yellowstone is bent on getting a big scoop and the glory from it. As time goes on, she eventually realizes the gravity of the situation and backs down after a harrowing tour of the caldera.

* HolographicTerminal: Virgil, the modeling computer they use to look at the magma chamber, uses one to display results.

* MillionToOneChance: Done by Rick in terms of betting odds with Maggie Chin.
* NoAntagonist: Joe Foster is the closest thing to an antagonist and the governor follows along with him, but they both act more reasonably when the chips are down.

* OhCrap: Very often, given the scale of the cataclysm.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Matt gives one to Maggie Chin for trying to cover the eruption for her own personal fame. He makes it absolutely clear that if she tries to film the eruption, she will be killed by it.

-->'''Nancy:''' Fifteen hundred cubic kilometers of melt. (As in 1500 cubic kilometers of magma ready to blow, which is a ''lot''.)

* BittersweetEnding: Rick, Jock, Johnson, and Kenneth survive the eruption, and ultimately Rick's suggestion of "Walk to Life" saves 7.3 million people. However, [[spoiler: the eruption has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, wreaked havoc on the entire global ecosystem, rendered 20% of the United States uninhabitable, triggering mass famine and a volcanic winter.]]

This film provides examples of:

* ImAHumanitarian: Jokingly discussed when Kenneth proposes that he and Rick eat Johnson to survive. Johnson smirks and accepts the challenge.

* EndlessWinter: The sulfur gasses expelled by the eruption cause a volcanic winter that lasts for years. One of Jock's interview segments after the facts has him saying that things are starting to get better, but probably won't be back to normal within his lifetime.

* MillionToOneChance: This time given in terms of betting odds.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Joe Foster, director of Homeland Security, outright asks Rick to lie about the eruption, and when Rick says there's a possibility that the worst case scenario will happen, Joe throws it back in his face by demanding Rick make a statement playing it down. Even when the eruption starts, Joe arrogantly refuses to listen to Rick until there seems to be no hope.[[note]]However, it's made clear that his choice is in part based on concern that if the full danger's known the resulting panic will ultimately increase the lives lost in the disaster.[[/spoiler]]

-->'''Nancy:''' Fifteen hundred cubic kilometers of melt. [[note]]As in 1500 cubic kilometers of magma ready to blow, which is a ''lot''.[[/note]]

* AwfulInLaws: How Rick sees Kenneth at first, partly because Kenneth's sensationalism has been making Rick's job harder.

* CkekhovsVolcano: DoubleSubverted. The Yellowstone Caldera doesn't look like your average volcano, but it's the setting of most of the first half. The threat it poses is built up for the entire time and the eruption lasts for days on end.

* OutrunTheFireball: Technically it's a pyroclastic flow, but otherwise the trope is intact when Jock, Nancy and Matt flee the incoming pyroclastic flow.

* IdiotBall: Dave completely forgets about the potential for ash piling up on a roof and collapsing it. [[spoiler:He dies cursing himself for forgetting about it.]]

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Joe Foster, director of Homeland Security, outright asks Rick to lie about the eruption, and when Rick says there's a possibility that the worst case scenario will happen, Joe throws it back in his face by demanding Rick make a statement playing it down. Even when the eruption starts, Joe arrogantly refuses to listen to Rick until there seems to be no hope.

* WhamShot: The final shot of the film is a series of satellite images of the United States, each encompassing more area than the last. [[spoiler: The final one reveals that the eruption has created a new caldera that's roughly the size of the entire ''western half of the United States''.]]