Deep Impact
1998
Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman
Premise: What if a comet was discovered that would strike the Earth in one year’s time? What would we do?
The truth is I really thought this would be ‘bad’ in ways similar to have Armageddon was ‘bad,’ but it wasn’t. Deep Impact is much more a human-interest movie than a science movie. The writers glossed over a lot of the scientific details to get to the story. Since I fancy myself a writer, I appreciate this. In truth, a movie or book or whatever can get itself into trouble by trying to be too realistic or accurate when such accuracy isn’t necessary.
On the whole, I liked the movie (except for that it made me cry a little). Nothing in the science made me groan because they omitted most of the science. I’m all right with that.
One thing I did enjoy, however, is at the beginning, when the journalist played by Téa Leoni discovered the meaning of E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event) on the Internet. She found herself on the UC Berkeley Department of Paleontology website. And you know, I think I’ve been there. More than once.
Yay! A nod to the science of paleontology.
That’s really all I have to say.
Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist 