2024 - Le Pic de Dante: was the film shot on a real volcano?

On the occasion of the broadcast of the film entitled Le Pic de Dante on Saturday January 22, 2022, from 5:05 p.m. on RTL9, Télé Star reveals to you whether the production of this disaster feature film went to shoot on a real volcano or not.

Released in cinemas in 1997, the disaster movie titled Dante’s Peak, worn by Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton, will be rebroadcast on Saturday January 22, 2022, from 5:05 p.m. on RTL9. Directed by Roger Donaldson, this feature film features the character of volcanologist Harry Dalton, played on screen by Pierce Brosnan. Employed by the Volcano Observatory Waterfalls, dependent on United States Geological Survey USGS in Vancouver, Northwestern United States, he lost his partner Marianne during a volcanic eruption in Colombia.

One day, he leaves to carry out a surveillance mission “routine“, after signs of seismological activity have been noted on Dante’s peak, a Pelean-type volcano located in the northern Cascade Range in Washington State. The arrival of the volcanologist at Dante’s Peak, a small town at the foot of the volcano, obviously does not delight Mayor Rachel Wando, performed by Linda Hamilton, as investors prepare to launch real estate projects in the small town. Mainly shot near the town of Wallace in Idaho, which is a volcano-free region, Dante’s Peak required various techniques to create the murderous volcano.

Le Pic de Dante: sequences filmed inside the crater of a real volcano

Entirely created digitally by the teams of Digital Domain, so that it can then be integrated into the wide shots of the city, the volcano was also reconstructed on an imposing model 30 meters long 10 meters high. Finally, the shots of the scenes supposed to take place inside the crater were filmed on Mont St Hélène, a famous volcano in the United States that exploded in 1980. At the time, this natural disaster had left a lasting mark on the entire northwestern United States, with 57 human victims, 1,500 elk, 5,000 other deer, as well as 11 million fish. The lava flow that resulted from this explosion had burned everything over an area of about 600 square km, which concretely represents a quadrilateral of 20 km by 30.

Loading-widget

Subscribe to the Telestar.fr Newsletter to receive the latest news for free