''Supervolcano'' is a 2005

disaster A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and the affected community cannot handle it alone. '' Natural disasters'' like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by na ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

directed by Tony Mitchell and written by

Edward Canfor-Dumas Edward Canfor-Dumas (born 1957) is a novelist and an award-winning TV scriptwriter – and a specialist in conflict management. After winning a scholarship to Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, he read English Literature at New College, Oxford. A ...

. It is based on the speculated and potential eruption of the volcanic

Yellowstone Caldera The Yellowstone Caldera, also known as the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field, is a Quaternary caldera complex and volcanic plateau spanning parts of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. It is driven by the Yellowstone hotspot and is largely within Yel ...

, located in

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of

Michael Riley Michael Riley (born February 4, 1962) is a Canadian actor. From 1998 to 2000, he portrayed Brett Parker in ''Power Play (1998 TV series), Power Play''. He has acted in over 40 films and television series, including ''This Is Wonderland'', for wh ...

, Gary Lewis,

Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston is a Canadian movie and theater actor best known for his role as Jack Bartlett on the CBC drama ''Heartland'', which debuted in October 2007. He co-founded the Shadow Theatre in Edmonton and made his first professional forays in ...

Adrian Holmes Adrian Holmes (born March 31, 1974) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his role as Nick Barron on the crime drama television series '' 19-2'' (2014-17), for which won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Ro ...

, Jennifer Copping,

Rebecca Jenkins Rebecca Jenkins (born 1959) is a Canadian actress and singer. Acting She had starring roles in the 1990s CBC series '' Black Harbour'', and the films '' Bye Bye Blues'', '' Marion Bridge'', '' Wilby Wonderful'', '' Whole New Thing'', ''South of ...

Tom McBeath Tom McBeath is a Canadian actor. He is the winner of three Jessie Awards best known for playing Col. Harold Maybourne on ''Stargate SG-1''. In 2017, he started playing Smithers on '' Riverdale''. Biography He appeared in an episode of ''Street ...

Robert Wisden Robert Charles Wisden (Brighton, 2 June 1958) is an English actor who has an extensive career in Canadian and American film and television, for which he has won a Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting Role in a ...

Susan Duerden Susan Duerden (born 20 September 1973) is a British actress and audiobook narrator. Her roles include the character of Carole Littleton in the television series '' Lost''. She has performed on television, film, and theater. Filmography Film ...

, Jane McLean, Sam Charles, and Kevin McNulty. ''Supervolcano'' premiered on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

in the United Kingdom on 13 March 2005, before airing on

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

in Canada and the United States on 10 April 2005. The film was nominated for a

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

and a

BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...

for its visual effects.

Plot

Richard Lieberman, the scientist in charge of Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives a press conference with his colleagues Jock Galvin, Dave, Matt and Nancy, and their boss, Michael Eldridge, to present their new virtual imagery simulator VIRGIL, which Eldridge claims will greatly aid in their research. Reporter Maggie Chin asks about the possibility of an eruption, which Rick dismisses as a remote possibility. After an

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

triggers a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

on one of the park's lakes, Maggie interviews Kenneth "Ken" Wylie on TV about his new book on volcanoes. Rick and Ken are brothers-in-law. The two later argue, with Rick accusing Ken of creating a mass panic to sell his book. The undersecretary of

FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

, Wendy Reiss, eventually asks Rick about the worst-case scenario if Yellowstone does release a " super eruption". He shows her a simulation, revealing the devastating results of an ashfall across the US if the volcano were to ever erupt. After a hydrothermal event at the

Norris Geyser Basin The geothermal areas of Yellowstone include several geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park as well as other Geothermal activity, geothermal features such as hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. The number of thermal features in Yellowstone ...

and more questions from the press, Rick's team runs a simulation of possible eruptions on VIRGIL. They learn that even a moderate eruption could potentially destabilize the rest of the

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...

chamber under Yellowstone and trigger a super eruption. After more seismic events, the park is closed. Maggie comes to Yellowstone anyway, and Rick sends Matt to give her a tour of the park. They discover a

harmonic tremor A harmonic tremor is a sustained release of seismic and infrasonic energy typically associated with the underground movement of magma, the venting of volcanic gases from magma, or both in volcanoes, and with repetitive stick-slip or other impulsi ...

near Norris, indicating that an eruption of unknown scale is imminent. An email about the expected eruption leaks to the press, causing a national panic. FEMA schedules a press conference in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, at which Rick is pressured into saying that the eruption will not be large. While Rick is flying back from the conference, his colleagues in the field office finish plugging in the latest data for the eruption. They discover that the top of the magma chamber alone has more than enough eruptible magma to destabilize the chamber and trigger a super eruption. As they realize this, the volcano erupts, severely damaging their field office and injuring Jock. Matt investigates the eruption and contacts Dave about it to inform Rick. A

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...

forces the team to abandon the main

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

office and flee; Jock flees in the

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

while Nancy and Matt use their truck, but the flow outpaces and kills them both. Rick contacts Dave, another team member who left before the eruption to set up a backup office in a hotel in

Bozeman Bozeman ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. The 2020 United States census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it Montana's fourth-largest city. It is the principal city of the Bozeman, Montan ...

. Meanwhile, the vent is blowing ash east across the US and across major commercial air routes, prompting FEMA to clear American airspace and take other protective measures. Rick's plane flies into the ash cloud, damaging the engines, and they make an emergency landing in

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...

. Rick and Ken decide to go to the FEMA office in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

but are caught under the ashfall and decide to look for a nearby

military installation A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and Military operation, operations. A military base always provides ...

instead. The motel roof collapses due to heavy ashfall after more caldera vents open, destroying the backup office and killing Dave. Rick and Ken reach the military installation safely. Weathering the eruption inside the installation, Rick contacts FEMA and determines that the vents will merge into one massive caldera in an eruption on the scale of the Huckleberry Ridge Eruption, the largest in Yellowstone's history. Government officials try to design a plan to save the 25 million people trapped by the ashfall, but Rick convinces them that they cannot possibly hope to do so; the ash will make it impossible for planes to safely evacuate people or drop supplies. Instead, following his advice, FEMA creates the "Walk to Life" program, telling people to walk through the ash to safety. One week after the eruption starts, the ground above the magma chamber begins to fall into the empty space left by the ejected magma, signalling the end of the eruption. However, the damage has been done; the lingering atmospheric effects causes a

volcanic winter A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, sulfur-rich, particularly explosive volcanic eru ...

to occur. Much of the US is rendered uninhabitable, some are liquidated by the eruption without the possibility of restoration. The Walk to Life program saves 7.3 million of the 25 million people trapped by the ash, including Rick and Ken.

Cast

as Rick Lieberman * Gary Lewis as Jock Galvin *

as Matt *

as Dave Price * Jane McLean as Maggie Chin * Jennifer Copping as Nancy *

as Wendy Reiss *

as Michael Eldridge *

as Kenneth Wylie *

as Fiona Lieberman * Emy Aneke as Sergeant Jeffrey Johnson *

Garry Chalk Garry Chalk (born 1952) is a Canadian actor. He has provided the voices for Optimus Primal of '' Beast Wars: Transformers'' and '' Beast Machines: Transformers'', as well as Optimus Prime in the anime English dubs of '' Transformers: Armada'' ...

as Billy Marshall *

Garwin Sanford Garwin Sanford (born 14 March 1955) is a Canadian film and television actor known for his roles on ''Stargate SG-1'' and ''Stargate Atlantis''. Career Sanford's most notable roles are Narim in ''Stargate SG-1'' and Simon Wallace in ''Stargat ...

as Bob Mann * Sam Charles as William Lieberman * Kevin McNulty as Joe Foster * Shelagh Mitchell as Fiona's Mother * Jay Hernandez as USAF Airman * Leslie Reyes as Rachel *

Joanna Gosling Joanna Marie Nussett Gosling (born 5 January 1971) is an English broadcaster, currently presenting a weekly programme on Classic FM (UK), Classic FM. Gosling was a newsreader and presenter at BBC News (British TV channel), BBC News from 1999 t ...

as Herself *

Chris Lowe Christopher Sean Lowe (born 4 October 1959) is an English musician, singer and songwriter, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Neil Tennant in 1981. Biography Christopher Sean Lowe was born and raised in Bla ...

as Himself * Anna Jones as Herself

Production

''Supervolcano'', which cost £2.8 million, is one of the most expensive programmes the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

has ever made. It was funded by the BBC along with

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

s in the United States, Germany, France, and Japan.

Reception

Critical response

Brian Lowry of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote: "As disaster pics that make you want to play hooky from work go, ''Supervolcano'' has its unsettling moments." He also stated: "The biggest problem, actually, is that there's no action to be taken in response to this "What if

goes kablooey?" threat, except perhaps to get the hell out of North America."

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 0419372 2005 films 2005 television films 2000s British films 2000s Canadian films 2000s disaster films 2000s English-language films 2000s science fiction drama films BBC television docudramas British disaster films British docudrama films British drama television films British science fiction drama films British science fiction television films Canadian disaster films Canadian docudrama films Canadian drama television films Canadian science fiction drama films Canadian science fiction television films Disaster television films English-language Canadian films Films about Yellowstone Caldera Films directed by Tony Mitchell Films set in the future Films set in the Yellowstone National Park Films shot in London Films shot in Vancouver Films shot in Wyoming Science docudramas Science fiction disaster films Discovery Channel original programming English-language science fiction drama films