Half a million people live on a ticking time bomb of molten death. Science meets survival.
A team of scientists clambers down into the steep crater of an active volcano in central Africa, a lake of molten lava seething far below. The team's mission is to explore this deadly mountain up close to find out when and why it is likely to erupt next. the lives of half a million people living directly in its shadow are at stake. In January 2002, the ground close to the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo split open and rivers of lava swept through entire neighborhoods, killing some 100 people and leaving 120,000 homeless. The volcano towering over the city, Mount Nyiragongo, had awoken again. Now French volcanologist Jacques Durieux and his team worry that, next time, deadly lava could erupt from cracks directly under the city itself.
Cinematography
Crater descent footage that'll ruin your sleep
Direction
Tension-building that puts Hollywood to shame
Practical Effects
Actual lava, actual danger, zero CGI nonsense
Director
Antoine de Maximy
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Mount Nyiragongo's lava lake is one of only five permanent ones on Earth, and its unusually fluid lava flows can reach 60 mph — most volcanoes' lava crawls.
Goma sits on Congo's volatile eastern border where ongoing conflict complicates disaster response; the 2002 eruption displaced people who'd already fled regional violence.
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