''Deep Impact'' is a 1998 American science fiction disaster film directed by Mimi Leder, written by Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin, and starring Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell, and Morgan Freeman. Steven Spielberg served as an executive producer of this film. It was released by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

in North America and by

DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG and commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film studio and Film distribution, distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action a ...

internationally on May 8, 1998. The film depicts humanity's attempts to prepare for and destroy a wide

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

set to collide with Earth and cause a mass extinction. ''Deep Impact'' was released in the same summer as the similarly themed '' Armageddon'', which fared better at the box office, while astronomers described ''Deep Impact'' as being more accurate. ''Deep Impact'' was slightly better received critically than ''Armageddon'', although both ultimately received mixed reviews. ''Deep Impact'' grossed over $349.5 million worldwide on an $80 million production budget, becoming the sixth highest-grossing film of 1998. It was the final film by cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann, who died before the film's release.

Plot

On May 10, 1998 in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, Leo Biederman observes an unidentified object in the night sky at his astronomy club's star party. His picture is sent to astronomer Dr. Marcus Wolf, who realizes it is a

on a collision course with Earth. Wolf dies in a car crash while racing to raise the alarm. A year later, Jenny Lerner investigates

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

Alan Rittenhouse over his connection with "Ellie", whom she assumes to be a mistress; she and Eric are confused when they find him and his daughter Lilly loading a boat with large amounts of food and other survival gear. Lerner is apprehended by the FBI and taken to meet President Tom Beck, who persuades her not to share the story in return for a prominent role in the press conference he will arrange. She subsequently discovers that "Ellie" is actually an acronym—E.L.E.—which stands for " extinction-level event". Two days later, Beck announces that the comet Wolf–Biederman is on course to impact the Earth in roughly one year and could cause humanity's extinction. He reveals that the United States and Russia have been constructing the ''Messiah'' in orbit, a spacecraft to transport a team to alter the comet's path with nuclear bombs. The ''Messiah'' launches a short time later with a crew of five American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut led by Captain Spurgeon Tanner. They land on the comet's outer-most layer and drill the nuclear bombs deep beneath its surface, but the comet shifts into the sunlight. Consequently, Oren is blinded and an explosive release of gas propels Gus into space. The remaining crew escape the comet and detonate the bombs. However, rather than deflect the comet, the bombs split it in two. Beck announces the mission's failure in a television address, and that both pieces—the larger now named Wolf and the smaller named Biederman—are still headed for Earth. Wolf is on a collision course with western Canada, and its impact is expected to fill the atmosphere with dust, blocking all sunlight for two years and creating an impact winter that will kill all life on the planet's surface. Martial law is imposed and a lottery selects 800,000 Americans to join 200,000 pre-selected individuals in underground shelters in

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

's limestone bluffs. Lerner is pre-selected, as are the Biedermans as gratitude for Leo discovering the comet, though his girlfriend Sarah and her family are not selected. Lerner's mother Robin, upon learning most senior citizens are ineligible for the lottery, commits ritual suicide. Leo marries Sarah in a vain attempt; while this saves her, the Hotchners are still not selected, and she refuses to go without them. A last-ditch effort to deflect the comets with ICBMs fails. Upon arrival at the shelter, Leo eschews his safety and leaves to find Sarah. He reaches her on the freeway and takes her and her baby brother to higher ground while Vicky and Chuck remain. Lerner gives up her seat on an evacuation helicopter to Beth and the latter's daughter Caitlin, and instead travels to her childhood beach home where she reconciles with her father Jason. Biederman hits the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Hatteras,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and creates a megatsunami that destroys several countries and much of the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coast, coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always pla ...

, reaching the

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and

Tennessee Valley The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to north Alabama and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North C ...

s plus Europe and Africa. Millions including Lerner, Jason, Vicky and Chuck perish while countless more are left homeless. Leo, Sarah, Sarah's brother and other survivors make it to safety in the foothills of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

. The ''Messiah'' crew, now dangerously low on life-support and remaining propellant fuel, decide to sacrifice themselves by flying deep inside Wolf and detonating their remaining nuclear bombs. They except Spurgeon, whose sons are on active duty, and Mick say goodbye to their loved ones by video call before executing their plan. Wolf is blown into a million pieces which burn harmlessly in the atmosphere and light up the sky for an hour, averting further catastrophe. Sometime after the waters recede, Beck addresses thousands at an under-construction replacement

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...

and announces the start of rebuilding their home that the ''Messiah'' has saved.

Cast

Crew of the ''Messiah'' spacecraft * Robert Duvall as Captain Spurgeon "Fish" Tanner, a widowed veteran astronaut and rendezvous pilot * Ron Eldard as Commander Oren Monash, Mission Commander *

Jon Favreau Jonathan Kolia Favreau ( ; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as ''Rudy (film), Rudy'' (1993), ''PCU (film), PCU'' (1994), ''Swingers (1996 film), Swingers'' (1996), ''Very ...

as Dr. Gus Partenza, medical officer * Aleksandr Baluev as Colonel Mikhail "Mick" Tulchinsky, a Russian cosmonaut and nuclear specialist * Mary McCormack as Andrea "Andy" Baker, pilot * Blair Underwood as Mark Simon, navigator * Kimberly Huie as Wendy Mogel, Mark Simon's fiancée * Kurtwood Smith as Otis "Mitch" Hefter, the mission flight director Government officials * Morgan Freeman as Tom Beck, the President of the United States * James Cromwell as Alan Rittenhouse, the Secretary of the Treasury who resigns in light of the Wolf–Biederman comet threat * O'Neal Compton as Morten Entriken, advisor to the President * Francis X. McCarthy as General Scott Lerner family and MSNBC associates * Téa Leoni as Jenny Lerner, an MSNBC journalist and anchor * Derek de Lint as Theo Van Sertema, MSNBC's co-anchor * Vanessa Redgrave as Robin Lerner, Jenny's mother and Jason's ex-wife * Maximilian Schell as Jason Lerner, Jenny's estranged father and Robin's ex-husband * Rya Kihlstedt as Chloe Lerner, Jason's 2nd wife * Laura Innes as Beth Stanley, MSNBC's White House correspondent, Caitlin's mother, and one of Jenny's co-workers * Mark Moses as Tim Urbanski, an MSNBC anchor, and one of Jenny's co-workers * Dougray Scott as Eric Vennekor, an MSNBC cameraman, and one of Jenny's co-workers * Bruce Weitz as Stuart Caley, Jenny's boss at MSNBC *

Suzy Nakamura Suzy Nakamura (born December 2, 1968) is an American actress and Improvisational theatre, improv comedian. She is known for her many guest appearances on sitcoms such as ''According to Jim'', ''Half & Half (TV series), Half and Half'', ''8 Simpl ...

as Lerner's assistant Biederman family and associates * Elijah Wood as Leo Biederman, a high school student who discovers the Wolf–Biederman comet * Charles Martin Smith as Marcus Wolf, an astronomer who discovers the threat of the Wolf-Biederman comet * Richard Schiff as Don Biederman, Leo's father * Betsy Brantley as Ellen Biederman, Leo's mother * Leelee Sobieski as Sarah Hotchner, Leo's girlfriend and fellow Astronomy Club member * Denise Crosby as Vicky Hotchner, Sarah's pregnant mother * Gary Werntz as Chuck Hotchner, Sarah's father * Jason Dohring as Jason Thurman, one of Leo's classmates * Mike O'Malley as Mike Perry, Leo's Astronomy Club teacher

Production

The origins of ''Deep Impact'' started in the late 1970s when producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown approached

proposing a remake of the 1951 film '' When Worlds Collide''. Although several screenplay drafts were completed, the producers were not completely happy with any of them and the project remained in " development hell" for many years. In the mid-1990s, they approached director Steven Spielberg, with whom they had made the 1975 blockbuster '' Jaws'', to discuss their long-planned project. However, Spielberg had already bought the film rights to the 1993 novel '' The Hammer of God'' by Arthur C. Clarke, which dealt with a similar theme of an asteroid on a collision course for Earth and humanity's attempts to prevent its own extinction. Spielberg planned to produce and direct ''The Hammer of God'' himself for his then-fledgling DreamWorks studio, but opted to merge the two projects with Zanuck and Brown, and they commissioned a screenplay for what would become ''Deep Impact''. In 1995, the forthcoming film was announced in industry publications as "Screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin, based on the film ''When Worlds Collide'' and ''The Hammer of God'' by Arthur C Clarke" though ultimately, following a subsequent redraft by Michael Tolkin, neither source work would be credited in the final film. Spielberg still planned to direct ''Deep Impact'' himself, but commitments to his 1997 film '' Amistad'' prevented him from doing so in time, particularly as

Touchstone Pictures Touchstone Pictures was an American film distribution label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featured ...

had just announced their own similarly-themed film '' Armageddon'', also to be released in summer 1998. Not wanting to wait, the producers opted to hire Mimi Leder to direct ''Deep Impact'', with Spielberg acting as executive producer. Leder was unaware of the other film being made. “I couldn’t believe it. And the press was trying to pit us against each other. That didn’t feel good. Both films have great value and, fortunately, they both succeeded tremendously." Clarke's novel was used as part of the film's publicity campaign both before and after the film's release and he was disgruntled about not being credited on the film. Jenny Lerner, the character played by Téa Leoni, was originally intended to work for CNN. CNN rejected this because it would be "inappropriate". MSNBC agreed to be featured in the movie instead, seeing it as a way to gain exposure for the then newly created network. Director Mimi Leder later explained that she would have liked to travel to other countries to incorporate additional perspectives, but due to a strict filming schedule and a comparatively low budget, the idea was scratched.Leder, Mimi and Farrar, Scott. Audio commentary. ''Deep Impact'' DVD. Universal Studios, 2004. Visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar felt that coverage of worldwide events would have distracted and detracted from the main characters' stories. A number of scientists worked as science consultants for the film including

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

s Gene Shoemaker, Carolyn Shoemaker, Josh Colwell and Chris Luchini, former

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

David Walker, and the former director of the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

Gerry Griffin Gerald D. Griffin (born December 25, 1934) is an American aeronautical engineer and former NASA official, who served as a Flight controller, flight director during the Apollo program and director of Johnson Space Center, succeeding Christopher ...

Soundtrack

The music for the film was composed and conducted by

James Horner James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American film composer. He worked on more than 160 film and television productions between 1978 and 2015. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements alongside tr ...

and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony.

Release

Theatrical

''Deep Impact'' was released by

in the United States and

internationally on May 8, 1998.

Home media

''Deep Impact'' was released on VHS on October 20, 1998,

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

on November 3 and DVD on December 15.

Reception

Box office

''Deep Impact'' debuted at the North American box office with $41 million in ticket sales. It managed to cross over '' Twister'', scoring the tenth-highest opening weekend of all time. For a decade, the film held the record for having the biggest opening weekend for a female-directed film until it was taken by '' Twilight'' in 2008. The film grossed $140 million in North America and an additional $209 million worldwide for a total gross of $349 million. Despite competition in the summer of 1998 from the similar ''Armageddon'', both films were widely successful, with ''Deep Impact'' being the higher opener of the two, while ''Armageddon'' was the most profitable overall.

Critical reception

''Deep Impact'' had a mixed critical reception. Based on 98 reviews collected by

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, 45% of critics enjoyed the film, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A tidal wave of melodrama sinks ''Deep Impact''s chance at being the memorable disaster flick it aspires to be."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave a score of 40 out of 100 based on 20 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Elvis Mitchell of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' said that the film "has a more brooding, thoughtful tone than this genre usually calls for", while Rita Kempley and Michael O'Sullivan of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' criticized what they saw as unemotional performances and a lack of tension.

Accolades

At the 1998 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film was nominated for Worst Supporting Actress for Leoni (lost to Lacey Chabert for '' Lost in Space'') and Worst Screenplay For A Film Grossing More Than $100 Million (Using Hollywood Math) (lost to '' Godzilla''). The film was also nominated for Best Science Fiction Film at the Saturn Awards but lost to both '' Dark City'' and another

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

film, ''Armageddon''.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Deep Impact (Film) 1990s American films 1990s disaster films 1990s English-language films 1998 films 1998 science fiction films Amblin Entertainment films American disaster films American science fiction films American survival films Comets in film DreamWorks Pictures films English-language science fiction films Fiction about comets Fiction about near-Earth asteroids Films about astronauts Films about families Films about fictional presidents of the United States Films about impact events Films about tsunamis Films directed by Mimi Leder Films produced by David Brown Films produced by Richard D. Zanuck Films scored by James Horner Films set in 1998 Films set in 1999 Films set in 2000 Films set in the 1990s Films set in the 2000s Films set in Tucson, Arizona Films set in Arizona Films set in bunkers Films set in Houston Films set in Texas Films set in Missouri Films shot in New York City Films set in New York City Films shot in New York (state) Films set in New York (state) Films set in North Carolina Films set in the Atlantic Ocean Films set in the White House Films shot in Virginia Films set in Richmond, Virginia Films set in Virginia Films shot in Washington, D.C. Films set in Washington, D.C. Films shot in Maryland Films set in Maryland Films shot in California Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in Malibu, California Films set in outer space Films with screenplays by Bruce Joel Rubin Films with screenplays by Michael Tolkin Paramount Pictures films The Zanuck Company films