There are some actors that are part of a huge franchise that make other movies around the same that then get lost to time. That is true of one 1997 disaster movie as not only was its star better known at the time for recently taking on the role of James Bond but had to compete with another movie with a very similar premise. Just like the releases of Armageddon and Deep Impact or Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, 1997 was the year that blowing up part of the U.S. with an erupting volcano was the flavor of the month as Volcano and Dante’s Peak both unleashed fiery hell in cinemas. Now the latter of these is firing up again on free streaming platform Tubi after almost 30 years. While Volcano starred Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche, Dante’s Peak teamed up fresh-faced Bond star Pierce Brosnan and Terminator’s Linda Hamilton and managed to slightly win the battle, despite still ending up a forgotten flop.
Dante’s Peak is set in the fictional town of Dante’s Peak, Washington, as volcanologist Dr. Harry Dalton (Brosnan) investigates seismic activity occurring inside a long-dormant volcano next to the town. Despite Dalton’s warnings of imminent disaster, his worries are dismissed until it is too late and the town is engulfed in lava flows and acrid smoke. With the help of the town’s mayor (Hamilton) Dalton must lead an evacuation attempt to escape the continued destruction. The film leads into plenty of the usual tropes – Dalton is haunted by the death of his fiancee in a previous eruption, several stubborn residents refusing to evacuate, last minute escapes – and that didn’t help make it stand out with reviewers or in its performance in theaters. Although it marginally won the day over Volcano, Dante’s Peak ended up being buried in time.
Pierce Brosnan made his debut as James Bond in GoldenEye in 1995 and followed that up with Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997, in between Dante’s Peak was a movie that continued to push the Irish actor as an action hero but the execution of the movie and its extortionate budget did not help it stick in the memory for long. That is probably why the film is perfect for free streaming audiences, as a movie with two big star names attached, an action-packed premise and a non-existent legacy meaning most people have forgotten it even exists. When the movie originally hit cinemas with a colossal $116 million budget (one of the highest ever at the time) it was always going to struggle to make enough money from ticket sales alone to break even. With just $178 million worldwide, the final tally made it a flop, especially when compared to Brosnan’s Bond adventures.
Dante’s Peak did have an advantage of opening two months before Volcano (although that film did not fare any better on its release) after Universal pumped more money into the visual effects teams in order to get their film on screen first. When it debuted the visual effects were one thing that did their job, but for critics everything else was bad from the dialogue to the chemistry even though it is also regarded as one of the most scientifically accurate disaster movies every made. The film scored just 36% with critics and 39% with audiences, who seemed to be on exactly the same page in their assessment that when things were on fire, the film was great, but the rest of the time it was a bit of an ashy mess. However, this is exactly what free streaming is there for, so that people can reacquaint themselves with movies they would not necessarily pay to see again but pass the time when you don’t need to pay for a subscription to watch them.
Which movie was better? Dante’s Peak or Volcano? Let us know in the comments.
