An earthquake shatters a peaceful Los Angeles morning and opens a fissure deep into the earth, causing lava to start bubbling up. As a volcano begins forming in the La Brea Tar Pits, the director of the city's emergency management service, working with a geologist, must then use every resource in the city to try and stop the volcano from consuming LA.
Practical Effects
Genuine 12-foot lava flows made of methylcellulose and lighting gel
Acting
Tommy Lee Jones commits harder than the script deserves
Production
Wilshire Boulevard actually built, then melted, on a parking lot
Director
Mick Jackson
Tommy Lee Jones
Mike Roark
Anne Heche
Dr. Amy Barnes
Gaby Hoffmann
Kelly Roark
Don Cheadle
Emmit Reese
Jacqueline Kim
Dr. Jaye Calder
Keith David
Lt. Ed Fox
John Corbett
Norman Calder
Michael Rispoli
Gator Harris
John Carroll Lynch
Stan Olber
Marcello Thedford
Kevin
Bert Kramer
L.A. Fire Chief
James MacDonald
Terry Jasper
Dayton Callie
Roger Lapher
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The production used 1,300 gallons of methylcellulose mixed with red dye and lighting gel to create flowing lava—no CGI was used for the main eruption sequences.
Released four months before Dante's Peak, sparking one of cinema's most ridiculous twin-movie rivalries; Volcano had the bigger budget but Peak had the better science.
US
