Vulkan (2009)

Things are bubbling beneath Lake Lorchheim: gas bubbles rise to the surface, causing a swimmer to lose consciousness. But the people of the Eifel village of Lorchheim are too preoccupied with their personal problems to notice the first signs of an impending catastrophe. Young firefighter Michael Gernau argues with his girlfriend, Andrea Matting, about whether they should move to Frankfurt am Main, where she has been offered a place at university. He is also having problems with his parents because his father, who has a heart condition, is dying, and his mother wants to give up the hotel. Gerhard Maug tries to maintain a luxurious lifestyle through criminal financial dealings, while his daughter Paula wants to establish herself in the local clique. The municipal enforcement officer Walter Röhricht is also fighting for recognition, including by cracking down on young people who race their cars. During a visit home with her twin babies, Kirsten Friedrich runs into her former love, Gernot, while her husband works in Frankfurt, where Yvonne seduces him. When an earthquake shakes the village, Daniela Eisenach, a young doctoral student in geology from the University of Potsdam, comes to Lorchheim to investigate the seismic activity. She is convinced that magma moving beneath Lake Lorchheim caused the earthquake. At first, nobody listens to her. Neither the rescue center in Mingen nor the district administrator takes her warnings seriously, and her professor, Dominic Merkt, tries to silence her. Only Gernau believes her. He wants to prove himself as a disaster relief worker and is also personally interested in the attractive scientist, so he tries to convince those in charge that precautionary measures are necessary. The warning signs of a volcanic eruption keep multiplying. Another swimmer dies in the lake after encountering a gas bubble; the young racers are stopped by a crack that suddenly opens in the road, and an entire flock of sheep collapses dead in a pasture. At last, those in charge are convinced that danger is imminent and arrange for Lorchheim to be evacuated with the help of the German armed forces. While the first buses carrying evacuees are still on the road, the lake explodes, and a hot cloud of steam spreads across the surrounding area. Further eruptions follow, turning Lorchheim into a disaster zone filled with ash and fire. Gernau regains consciousness in Lorchheim with a severe leg injury and sees the massive destruction in the village. Paula Maug, meanwhile, wakes up among the wrecked buses and realizes that everyone fleeing, except her, has been killed. She then comes across the dead Kirsten Friedrich and takes the twins with her. Meanwhile, Gerhard Maug loots the Volksbank vault, and Röhricht shoots Maggi and Lupo, who had previously humiliated him in front of the village community with an intimate video. After the situation in Lorchheim settles somewhat, the volcano erupts again. The village community splits into two groups. The group consisting of Gernau, father and daughter Maug, the two Friedrich twins, and Röhricht heads toward the castle ruins to take shelter there. The rest, led by Ludwig Schöngau, flee the village, aiming to get as far from the volcano as possible. As the media report on events in the Eifel with breaking news and dramatic images, the crisis team withdraws to a secure building to coordinate measures, which have so far been very chaotic. Eisenach provides scientific analyses of the effects of pyroclastic material and the possible further course of the volcanic activity. During the crisis team’s assessment of the situation, a disagreement arises over what to do about Lorchheim. Fire Director Martina Albers wants to abandon the village at the center of the disaster zone because she sees no chance of finding survivors there. But Eisenach, who feels emotionally attached to Gernau, wants to send rescue workers into the village. At an emergency shelter, helpers from the German Red Cross and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief care for the evacuees. Renate Maug falls into deep despair, believing that her husband and daughter died in the natural disaster. When Matting and Phil Friedrichs see the volcano’s ash clouds from Frankfurt too, they set off for Lorchheim and meet on the way. Neither the checkpoints on the road nor the mortal danger deter them. On their journey to Lorchheim, they also encounter the rest of the village community, who are now completely traumatized. Ludwig shoots Phil with a rifle, hitting him through the shoulder. Meanwhile, Michael Gernau hides in an underground chamber in the castle with Gerhard and Paula Maug, Walter Röhricht, and the Friedrichs babies. They also find Nadine Schöngau, who is severely weakened; Paula Maug had deliberately locked her in there earlier. The hiding place quickly becomes untenable, however, as they run out of water and lava threatens to get inside. The effects of the eruption of Lake Lorchheim are being felt in Frankfurt am Main as well. Yvonne dies in the Hessian city during the ashfall, suffocated by the ash. Rossi also discovers at the crisis headquarters that the volcanic eruption in the Eifel is now affecting all of Europe, as power has failed across large parts of Western Europe. Meanwhile, Daniela Eisenach warns the crisis team that ashfall could continue for weeks, creating ash deposits several meters deep. She also points out the danger if the volcanic column collapses, since the resulting pressure wave would be felt as far away as Paris. The crisis team also learns how the rescue efforts have gone so far. Rossi reports that around 4,000 people have survived. Dirk Kammerer and Martina Albers are shocked by this figure, since at least 20,000 people live in the area that was evacuated. When he hears that at least around 16,000 people in the Eifel region around Lorchheim have died in the eruption, Kammerer realizes that the rescue measures he planned contributed significantly to the death toll. Immediately after the fatalities are announced, Albers orders that no risks are to be taken during the rescue efforts that follow. With the Lorchheim refugees sheltering in the castle ruins with Gernau running out of water, Michael Gernau and Gerhard Maug set out on foot for Lorchheim to get food. They repeatedly risk being hit by falling lava bombs. Along the way, they see the bodies of Lupo and Maggi, who have gunshot wounds. Several lava bombs strike very close to Gernau and Maug at that very moment, and Maug assumes Gernau has been killed. Gerhard Maug then makes his way back to the castle ruins alone. Just before Gernau is about to give up, crippled by his leg injury, utter exhaustion, and hopelessness, he hears Eisenach’s voice over the radio in a German military bus in the now completely devastated Lorchheim and asks her to send a helicopter. After several discussions and Albers refusing to authorize further rescue efforts in Lorchheim, there seems to be no hope left for Gernau and the other remaining refugees there. But with help from Rossi and district fire inspector Dirk Kammerer, who knows a pilot flying privately into the disaster zone, the requested helicopter arrives and picks up the people in hiding. On the way, they find Matting and Friedrichs in the middle of the lava flows. Since the helicopter can carry only a limited number of people, Gernau stays behind and dies. The others are rescued. At the emergency shelter, the Maugs see Renate again. Walter Röhricht volunteers to help coordinate the relief effort, and Andrea Matting is left alone in her grief.