Joe Versus The Volcano - Plot

Plot

Joe Banks (Tom Hanks) is a downtrodden everyman from Staten Island, working in a factory for an unpleasant, demanding boss, Frank Waturi (Dan Hedaya). Joyless, listless, and chronically sick, Banks regularly visits doctors who can find nothing wrong with him. Finally, Dr. Ellison (Robert Stack) diagnoses an incurable disease called a "brain cloud" which has no symptoms and will kill Joe within six months. Ellison says that Joe's ailments were psychosomatic, caused by his horrific experiences in his previous job as a fireman. Ellison advises him, "You have some life left... live it well." Joe tells his boss off, quits his job, and asks former co-worker DeDe (Meg Ryan) out on a date. It goes quite well until he tells her that he is dying. She becomes very upset and leaves.

The next day, a wealthy industrialist named Samuel Graynamore (Lloyd Bridges) unexpectedly makes Joe a proposition. Graynamore needs "bubaru", a mineral essential for the manufacturing of superconductors. There are deposits of it on the tiny Pacific island of Waponi Woo. The resident Waponis will let him mine it if he can solve a problem for them. They believe that 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 Joe credit cards to pay for whatever he wants to enjoy his final days, as long as he is willing to jump into the volcano at the end, recommending he "live like a king, die like a man." With nothing to lose, Joe accepts.

Joe spends a day and a night out on the town in New York, where he solicits advice on everything from style to living life to the fullest from his wise chauffeur Marshall (Ossie Davis). Joe purchases four top-of-the-line, handcrafted, waterproof steamer trunks from a fanatically dedicated luggage salesman (Barry McGovern).

Joe then flies to Los Angeles, where he is met by one of Graynamore's daughters, Angelica (also played by Ryan), a flighty socialite who labels herself a "flibbertigibbet". The next morning, Angelica takes Joe to a yacht, the Tweedledee, owned by her father. The captain is her half-sister Patricia (Ryan again). She had reluctantly agreed to take Joe to Waponi Woo after Graynamore promised to give her the yacht in return.

After an awkward beginning, Joe and Patricia begin to bond. Then they run into a typhoon. Patricia is knocked unconscious and flung overboard. While Joe jumps in after her, sinister lightning strikes and sinks the yacht. Fortunately, Joe is able to construct a raft by lashing together his steamer trunks. Patricia does not regain consciousness for several days. Joe doles out the small supply of water to her, while he gradually becomes delirious from thirst. Joe experiences a revelation during his delirium and thanks God for his life. When Patricia finally awakens, she is deeply touched by Joe's self-sacrifice. They then find that they have fortuitously drifted to their destination.

The Waponis treat them to a grand feast. Their chief (Abe Vigoda) asks one last time if anyone else will volunteer, but there are no takers and Joe heads for the volcano. Patricia tries to stop him, declaring her love for him. He admits he loves her as well, "but the timing stinks." Patricia gets the chief to marry them.

Afterwards, Patricia refuses to be separated from Joe. When he is unable to dissuade her, they jump in together, but the volcano erupts at that moment, blowing them out into the ocean. The island sinks, but Joe and Patricia land near their trusty steamer trunks. At first ecstatic about their miraculous salvation, Joe puts a damper on things by telling Patricia about his fatal brain cloud. She recognizes the name of Joe's doctor as that of her father's crony and realizes that Joe has been lied to. He is not dying and they can live happily ever after (if they can survive being on a raft in the middle of the ocean). During the credits, Joe and Patricia are shown being rescued by a boat in a background picture format.