Deep Impact

PG-13, 1998, *** ½
Starring: Elijah Wood, Leelee Sobieski, Tea Leoni, Morgan Freeman

By: Meredith A. Iager

Many individuals believe this film is a better representation of how all life on earth could end, unless the terrorists get to us first.

A teen astronomer, Leo Beiderman (Elijah Wood) discovers an object in the sky during a class project and reports his sighting to a noted Astronomer, Marcus Wolf (Charles Martin Smith). Upon receiving the teens information Wolf examines the sighting and sees the unimaginable—a larger comet headed toward earth—but is unable to report his findings due to an auto accident in which he is killed. Fortunately, the information is discovered and the government realizes the seriousness of the Wolf/Beiderman discovery and it’s clear a disaster of global proportions is possible. The government tries to keep the finding a secret until a plan can be developed to deal with the event, however a broadcast reporter (Tea Leoni) puts a few pieces of information together, which expedites the governments announcement of the impending disaster.

The President of the United States (Morgan Freeman) tells the American people of the news and that NASA has organized a space mission to destroy the comet before its arrival. This film is exciting and terrifying at the same time. It is a film that will give you a shred of hope, because some individuals do survive. The concept of a comet plummeting toward earth might even be more science fact than fiction, and the hope is that our worlds astronomers will always be combing the stars looking for anything that might be coming our way.

This film has an array of many great actors, and many of the performances are emotional, intense and unforgettable. Robert Duvall plays the head as the head of the NASA mission; Morgan Freeman is the President of the United States, Elijah Wood as Leo and his girlfriend Sarah is Leelee Sobieski. Among natural disaster films this is one of the good ones and definitely promotes the sale of telescopes for young astronomers and probably a few Chicken Littles.