12 Blatant Copycat Movie Pairs (And Which Was Better)

Back in 1997 volcanoes were all the rage, or at least that’s what Hollywood would have you think with the release of Universal Pictures’ Dante’s Peak in February and 20th Century Fox’s Volcano just a couple of months later.

In Dante’s Peak we see Pierce Brosnan play a volcanologist who travels to Washington state to investigate seismic activity in a small town with its very own dormant volcano, whereas Volcano stars Tommy Lee Jones as a disaster management officer who must rally to protect the city of Los Angeles and its people when a random volcano suddenly emerges from the La Brea Tar Pits in the aftermath of an earthquake.

Which One Was Better?

Well, neither movie was a massive hit with critics at the time though Dante’s Peak fared a bit better at the box office. To Dante’s Peak’s credit, it’s the more scientifically accurate movie and is at least set in a place where an actual volcano erupted recently.

But disaster action movies and scientific accuracy don’t always make good bedfellows and though Volcano is definitely the sillier of the two films, it’s also the most fun so we’re declaring Volcano the winner.