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YMMV / Dante's Peak

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  • Cliché Storm: Protagonist lost his spouse in the same disaster many years ago and is still hung up about it? Check. Jaded superior who insists that they need proof only for him to be, of course, wrong, and subsequently die a Karmic Death? Check. Most annoying character who refused to come down from the mountain and thus endangered the lives of the others dies? Check. Dog survives? Check. Big final blow-you-out-of-your-seat special effects sequence? Check. Token Romance? Check... And yet, for all that, it still manages to be good. The dog surviving is more of an Acceptable Break from Reality than a Cliché, though. Anyone who kills a dog has just lost their audience, even if it is fiction. (Unless they are aiming for an award... Or revenge).
  • Ending Fatigue: The volcano has blown, he's trapped in the truck, the team discovers the blinking light, the rescue, fly away. Could've been condensed. Still a good movie which tries to get the science right.
  • Funny Moments:
    • Greg's overly enthusiastic reaction to Rachel's coffee:
      Greg: It's coffee time! Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee! Cappuccino, java, YES!
    • Then there's this moment from Terry while going to kick Spider Legs:
      Harry: Terry...um...why don't we just forget Spider Legs for now, and you get your backside back up here, eh?
      Terry: Not a chance. After the $450,000 we put into this beast...it oughta be able to stand on its head...split the atom, and fart "The Star-Spangled Banner!"
      (the rest of the team cracks up)
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Karmic Overkill: The only major sin Paul Dreyfuss committed was not immediately believing Harry 100% that the volcano was going to erupt at the very start. Not only did Paul have very legitimate reasons for waiting to push the panic button, he even has the team stay long after they normally would at any other investigation, waiting for something to happen, even beyond the time frame he initially allotted. When the seemingly inactive volcano finally does show legitimate proof that it is preparing to erupt, he immediately presses the panic button, does everything he needs to do to get the town prepped, apologizes to Harry, and orders the rest of the team to safety while offering to stay behind himself in the danger zone to try and help Harry off the mountain (the rest of the team stay too). Despite all of that, he dies from drowning after the military orders their evacuation and the bridge he's on collapses from under him. Definitely a heavy-handed death for someone that was nowhere near an outright villain, or a Mayor Vaughn. Aside from Harry, Rachel, and the kids, he's literally the last one out of Dante's Peak.
  • Narm:
    • The group singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" as they float across the acidic lake while it's eating through the metal hull. Or it could be Nightmare Fuel. Or one followed by the other.
      • Ruth dragging the boat to get it close enough that the survivors can get off? Heroic. Her continuing to walk the entire length beside a long and still intact dock to shore while reacting in pain as if stepping on pointy rocks (rather than climbing up onto the dock right next to her and possibly saving her life)? Narmtastic.
    • If you want to ruin an important character's death, using the Wilhelm Scream is a good way to do it.
  • Paranoia Fuel: You'll probably be afraid to go skinny dipping on a lake for the first time after watching this film.
  • Squick: Let's say that you really don't want to skinny-dip in boiling water or fall into a lake full of sulfuric acid, you see mangled third-degree-burns both on the skinny dippers and Ruth.
    • Also, the visible after effects of Harry getting his arm broken near the end is enough to make any audience member's arm hurt. When you consider the character was supposedly trapped for at least a day with that injury and no treatment, it makes it all the more squick-worthy.
  • Spiritual Successor: To the 1981 TV film St. Helens; both are inspired by the eruption of Mount St. Helens (duh), feature a geologist/vulcanologist dealing with stubborn townsfolk, one of whom is an Obstructive Bureaucrat, as well as a budding romance with a local single mother. Both films also feature a cranky old coot who refuse to leave their lakeside cabins.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Paul is seen as a jaded superior and his death via falling into the lahar with his van is therefore viewed as a Karmic Death. However, while him not evacuating Dante's Peak earlier did most likely cost lives, he had good reasons to not do so since the evidence he was provided the first time Harry confronted him about it was inconclusive and he knows from past experience that the consequences of a false alarm can be disastrous for a small town. And outside of not believing in Harry's claims, he still respects Harry to the point that he even decides to monitor the mountain for a week when he initially promised Harry that he'd do it for two days. Later, when Harry shows him actual proof that the volcano will erupt, he reverses his position, gives the go-ahead for an evacuation and apologizes to Harry for doubting him. Later, when the volcano erupts he tries and fails to stop the helicopter from taking off and stays behind to assist in evacuation and orders the scientists to leave which eventually leads to his death. Sure he was jaded but he wasn't really much of a jerk and he definitely didn't deserve to die.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Ruth's admittedly awesome Heroic Sacrifice is meant to be seen as heroic and her repenting her earlier wrongdoings. However, said wrongdoings include being a cranky old lady who mistreated her daughter-in-law and refusing to evacuate with the town until it was almost too late meaning that she caused the problem that led to her sacrifice and her own death. If she hadn't refused to evacuate earlier she'd be still alive. Not only that but her actions endangered not only her own life but also the lives of Harry, her daughter-in-law and her grandkids as their vehicles are lost to the eruption when they try to rescue her. Also, the fact that she continued to drag the boat beside a long and still intact dock rather than climb up onto the dock herself which would've possibly saved her life doesn't help.
    • That said, the dock was also being weakened by the acid and collapsed milliseconds after Harry, Rachael and the kids ran across it so Ruth probably knew that she couldn't climb up onto the dock without risking it collapsing when they were on it.
  • Vindicated by History: While it was a Box Office Bomb and got mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, nowadays it's more well-regarded for its (mostly) accurate depiction of volcanology, as well as its impressive practical effects.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome:
    • Although some CGI was used (specifically for the lava), the majority of the film's visual effects were done either practically, or with very large miniatures, such as the bridge sequence, and holds up quite well today.
    • The dam burst (the miniature was something like 30 feet tall) and the pyroclastic flow are particularly impressive.

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