Dante's Peak

Continuity mistake: When they are driving up the mountain to get to her kids, they cross a river and they get hit on the passenger side of the truck shattering the window, but later when they show them going up the mountain there is a new window there.

Factual error: After the volcanic eruption, there's a scene where we see our heroes going across a lake, which has been turned to acid by the lava. If this acid is strong enough to corrode the propeller, then surely the fumes would be destroying their lungs, in which case they should be dead, or close to it.

Davidian

Revealing mistake: After Dante's Peak explodes for the final time, the pyroclastic cloud rolls down the mountain toward the town. Harry shouts "Don't look back, kids, don't look back." and then we are shown a wide shot of the truck zooming down the ash-choked streets. Unfortunately, it's painfully obvious that this is either a miniature or CGI shot, because the truck isn't leaving any tracks behind it or trailing any clouds of ash despite its high speed. (01:28:19)

Phil C.

More mistakes in Dante's Peak

Trivia: When we see Paul in the van as it is taken over by the overflowing river, just as he hits the water, we hear the Wilhelm scream.

Trivia: The ‘volcanic ash' you see in this movie is actually finely shredded newspapers.

Harry Dalton: My 9th grade science teacher always said that if you put a frog in boiling hot water, it would jump out. But put it in cold water, and heat it up gradually, it would slowly boil to death.
Nancy: What's that Harry? Your recipe for frog soup?
Harry Dalton: It's my recipe for a disaster.

Harry Dalton: I've always been better at feeling out volcanoes than people and politics.

Harry Dalton: Get the hell out of there now, before it's too late.

More quotes from Dante's Peak

Question: I'm asking this because I don't really know a lot about volcanoes but, at the beginning of the movie, Harry was in the middle of a volcano eruption with: rain; rocks falling etc. When the volcano in Dante's Peak erupted, it was different from before, meaning that there was no rain (but ash), rivers strong enough to break a dam, burning water, dead wildlife etc. Even at the end of the movie, the volcano still had one more eruption before it finally died down. My question is, are all volcano eruptions not the same or are they just unpredictable when they explode? It just seems kind of odd that Harry was experiencing different things in nature after the volcano exploded. I hope I explained this enough; I'm just curious is all.

Answer: Volcanic eruptions can range from ash eruption to hot gas eruption to lava eruption to explosive eruption. Movies tend to inaccurately lump all of these eruptions together.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Volcanoes can differ because of type of volcano, type of eruption, and region. The Pacific Northwest has a history of volcanoes that erupt not lava, but rock, gas, and ash. Other regions (like Hawaii and Central Africa) erupt primarily lava. Age of the volcano is also a factor.

Greg Dwyer

Question: How come Graham was able to drive a car up to Ruth's house but couldn't for the life of him figure out how a telephone worked? When it was still ringing he said "Hello" thinking she'd answered.

Answer: He's young and he and his sister are alone. He's worried about his Grandma and she's not answering the phone. He's saying hello because he desperately wants her to answer so he knows she's OK. He feels helpless just letting the phone ring.

The_Iceman

Question: Why is the rescue pilot helicopter such a selfish person? He complains about working over lunch, refuses to embark on a search-and-rescue mission without hiking his rates, and even extorts desperate townspeople trying to evacuate on his helicopter for all their money. Why was he such a greedy and insensitive egotist?

Answer: Because the character is written to be the stereotypical antagonist whose sole purpose is to create the obligatory plot conflict. This was such a silly, unrealistic, and all-around bad movie, that the two-dimensional villain guy fits right in. I live in Washington and remember when Mt. St. Helen's erupted. Dante's Peak, which was based on it, was nothing like the real-life event.

raywest

More questions & answers from Dante's Peak

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