# Deep Impact (1998)

### reviewed by
Chris T. Dias

    DEEP IMPACT

STARRING: Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Morgan Freeman, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave WRITTEN BY: Michael Tolkin and Bruce Joel Rubin. DIRECTED BY: Mimi Leder. **OVERVIEW**

Leo Biederman (Wood) studies the stars with his astronomy class. During his studies, he discovers a small bright spot. His teacher sends it off to be studied. He discovers that Leo has found a new comet. That, in of itself, is a career-making discovery. It quickly gets dashed when the astronomer realizes this comet is heading directly for Earth. But, as he leaves the tell the world, a runaway semi mows down his Jeep, preventing the world from knowing of the approaching comet.

Fast-Forward one year later, with a major Clinton-esque controversy arising. The president just might be having an affair with woman named in files simply as Ellie. Tea Leoni plays a reporter for MSNBC who suspects there's more to the story of a cabinet official's resignation. She accuses him of having an affair with this woman and he gets to say, "I know you're just a reporter, but you used to be a person."

Soon she discovers her error; he is resigning not because of Ellie but because of an E.L.E., which is jargon for "Extinction Level Event." He wants to spend more time with his family, and has stocked a yacht with dozens of cases of vitamin-rich Ensure. He must not have been invited to the briefing where it was explained that all surface life would be destroyed by the comet, or the other briefing about the 1,000-foot-tall tidal wave. My guess is, the president wanted him out of the Cabinet.

The president, played convincingly by Morgan Freeman, goes on TV to break the bad news to the world, and talks of the Messiah Project, which will send a manned U.S.-Russian space craft to plant nuclear bombs in the comet and blow it up. We meet the Messiah crewmembers, including old Spurgeon Tanner (Robert Duvall), called out of retirement because he once landed on the moon and might be able to land on the comet.

The younger crewmembers resent him, we are told, although dissension onboard is never followed up on. The veteran has a nice line about the youngsters: "They're not scared of dying. They're just scared of looking bad on TV." There's another good line at the high school assembly where the Leo who also discovered the comet is honored. A friend tells him, "You're gonna have a lot more sex starting now. Famous people always get more sex."

So, within 30 minutes of the film, the Messiah is launched...and 40 minutes in the film, they bounce along the surface. The first hour of the film runs like wildfire. By the end of the first hour, the Messiah pulls away from the comet and attempts to destroy it. The plan fails and instead of shattering, the comet breaks in two small parts. The 1.5 mile splinter will smack the Atlantic and cannot be avoided. However, if the larger 7-mile long one hits, there goes all life on the Earth.

So, to make sure life will go on, each country is constructing underground caves that a select few will live until the disaster passes. Then they will emerge to repopulate the globe. A lottery will be held and those lucky enough will be able live on. The others can only pray. As the time ticks down, Earth holds its breath.

    **REVIEW**

Deep Impact could have been really bad...thankfully it wasn't. It takes itself very seriously and never tries to be campy. It does this by trying its best to make things believable. This stems from making the Messiah ship realistic. It looks prefabricated, thrown together quickly in a year with an engine system I actually read about many years ago in a Carl Sagan book. But before I started liking this ship, the crew is on the comet, bouncing around 1/10 gravity and ready to plant the bombs. I wish this film was longer because then it would allow us to enjoy the epic scale of this movie. Instead it rushes into its drama of who would live and who will die.

And they do die. There are four major character in Deep Impact: Leoni, Duvall, Wood, Freemen. Then there is about six to eight characters surrounding each of them. Of those 30 plus speaking parts, about six survive. Morgan Freemen's role, if replaced by a no name, would be totally unimportant. He is delegated to simply sitting in front of a camera and reading off a teleprompter. Easy job.

The biggest role comes from Leoni and Duvall, two good actors in good roles. Obviously Duvall steals all his scenes and Leoni wasn't as bad some made her out to be. I couldn't find really any bad acting in the film, so what's left is its effects and story.

As for the story the film does teeter precariously on that tight rope between ID4 and Mars attacks where there are four or five totally different stories and you really only care about one or two, everything else is just boring. Luckily, Deep Impact only has three major pots running and you like them all, even though the Messiah mission was the leader for me.

When the first comet strikes, the effects are startling, but familiar. The initial tidal wave is amazing and jaw dropping but when it starts sweeping through Manhattan and Washington, its reminds me of the fireball sequences in Independence Day with the cars flipping and buildings falling. The best of these is an underwater sequence of Manhattan showing the head of the Statue of Liberty floating to the bottom.

Could Deep Impact be better? Yeah...there were some strange actions by some people and I think that some of the solutions people had to some problems were tossed aside. One example is that the President announces they launched nukes to take out the big rocket but then announces that they failed. No effects, no suspense, like this plot point was just tossed away.

I liked Deep Impact. It seems appealing to both disaster fans and science fiction nuts. I enjoyed it and the ending was very satisfying. As for that big rock...

...Well...I was sitting in my chair as Freemen announced the landing site. I mean here we are, in Prince George, high up, far in the continent. We should be okay. Then he says the second big rock will impact in Western Canada...Everyone in the audience just threw their arms up, "Well, we're screwed!!"

    PLUSES: +AMAZING SPECIAL EFFECTS
     +GOOD ACTING

    MINUSES: -SOME PLOT HOLES

    RATING:  * * * 1/2 STARS OUT OF FIVE

DEMOGRAPHIC: Deep impact has a high fatality rate but no one dies on camera. Millions die in the disaster but luckily, we don't see any. Language is minor and film can be very downbeat in its climax. Makes you proud to be a human being. Too bad there aren't any aliens to blast away...

    --
    ---  Chris T. Dias ---  "The man who runs with scissors."

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