Joe Versus The Volcano
| Joe Versus the Volcano | |
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Theatrical release poster by John Alvin.
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| Directed by | John Patrick Shanley |
| Produced by | Teri Schwartz |
| Written by | John Patrick Shanley |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Georges Delerue |
| Cinematography | Stephen Goldblatt |
| Edited by | |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million |
| Box office | $39.4 million |
Joe Versus the Volcano is a 1990 American romantic comedy film written and directed by John Patrick Shanley and starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Hanks plays a man who, after being told he is dying of a rare disease, accepts a financial offer to travel to a South Pacific island and throw himself into a volcano on behalf of the superstitious natives. Along the way, he meets and falls in love with the woman taking him there.
The film received mixed reviews overall, but positive reviews from some critics, including Roger Ebert, who described the film as "new and fresh and not shy of taking chances," and was a minor box office success in the US. It has since become a cult film.
Joe Banks is a downtrodden everyman from Staten Island, working a clerical job in a dreary factory for an unpleasant, demanding boss, Frank Waturi. Joyless, listless and chronically sick, Banks regularly visits doctors who can find nothing wrong with him. Finally, Dr. Ellison diagnoses an incurable disease called a "brain cloud", which has no symptoms, but will kill Joe within five or six months. Ironically, Ellison says that Joe's ailments are actually psychosomatic, caused by his experiences in his previous job as a firefighter. Ellison advises him, "You have some life left ... live it well." Joe tells his boss off, quits his job, and asks former coworker DeDe out on a date, but when he tells her that he is dying, she becomes upset and leaves.
The next day, a wealthy industrialist named Samuel Graynamore unexpectedly makes Joe a proposition. Graynamore needs bubaru, a mineral essential for manufacturing superconductors. There are deposits of it on the tiny Pacific island of Waponi Woo. The resident Waponis will only let him mine it if he solves a problem for them. They believe that the fire god of the volcano on their island must be appeased by a voluntary human sacrifice once every century, but none of the Waponis are willing to volunteer this time around. Graynamore offers to pay for whatever Joe wants to enjoy his final days, as long as he is willing to jump into the volcano within 20 days. With nothing to lose, Joe accepts.
Joe spends a day and a night out on the town in New York City, where he solicits advice on everything from style to living life to the fullest from his wise chauffeur Marshall. He also purchases four top-of-the-line, handcrafted, waterproof steamer trunks from a fanatically dedicated luggage salesman.
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Wikipedia