| Director | James Goldstone |
|---|---|
| Budget | $20 million |
| Box office | $3.8 million |
Shelby Gilmore, an international hotel magnate who owns the Kalaleu Gilmore, a resort hotel on a Pacific island, wants desperately to marry his secretary, Kay Kirby and proposes to her under the impression that she'll become his seventh wife. Kay is in love with Hank Anderson, an oil rigger whose scientists are warning him that the island's active volcano, Mauna Nui, is about to erupt.
Shelby's partner is Bob Spangler, who inherited the island from his father, a sugar cane baron. Spangler is determined to diversify into tourism and assures hotel guests that the threat of the volcano is exaggerated. Spangler married Shelby's goddaughter Nikki to help get the Kalaleu Gilmore built, but is cheating on her with Iolani, an executive at the hotel. Iolani is engaged to Brian, the hotel's general manager.
Guests at the hotel include: a fugitive bond thief, Francis Fendly; the New York City cop tailing him, Tom Conti; and Rene and Rose Valdez, retired circus tightrope walkers.
Hank's oil well comes in but Hank is concerned about high levels of subterranean pressure. He and Spangler descend into the volcano in a special observation pod, and are almost killed when lava erupts unexpectedly.
Hank and Kay go for a picnic on the beach. While there, the volcano erupts and they flee by his helicopter. Hank's workers are killed by a tsunami generated by Mauna Nui's eruption. Sam takes Mona and two of his "bar girls," Delores and Marsha, and escapes by car, while Hank and Kay rescue in the helicopter Nikki and some others at a horse farm. At the hotel, guests panic and steal the helicopter, which is destroyed. Hank offers to take the guests to safety on the other side of the island, but Spangler insists the hotel is safe and most refuse. The volcano spews fireballs, which land at the hotel, and Conti is burned and blinded by one of them, to Fendly's horror.
Hank and Kay leave the hotel with Shelby, Brian, Rene and Rose, Fendly and Conti, Sam, Mona and the girls, plus a few more. At the hotel, Nikki stumbles upon Spangler's affair with Iolani, but now it is too late for her to follow the others.
Vehicles carrying the survivors manage to travel as far as a mountainside gorge, where the road has fallen away. Everyone must cross the gorge on foot, and one of the survivors falls and dies. Conti is guided by Fendly, and the two become friends. From there, the party comes upon a rickety wooden bridge over a river of molten lava. Hank crosses first to see if it is safe. The others go in pairs. Two native children, whose father died crossing the gorge, are afraid and run away. Rose, who had stopped to rest with Rene because of her weak heart, dies after telling her husband to find the children.
After an explosion beneath the bridge causes Sam and Marsha to fall to their deaths into the lava, Rene hoists a child onto his back and recreates his old tightrope act to get the child safely across. Hank guides the second child to safety after almost falling himself. The survivors take refuge in a cavern, during which time large fireballs streak across the sky. A huge fireball arcs directly towards the hotel; destroying it and killing Spangler, Nikki, Iolani and all who chose to stay. The next morning, the survivors emerge from the cave, and walk down the other side of the island, to the waiting rescue ships.