ReWatch: Deep Impact

1998, Mimi Leder (The Code) -- Netflix / The Shelf

What do they call it when two movies come out at the same time and are about the same topic? Oh yeah, Twin Films. In 1998, in May and July respectively, we got Deep Impact and Armageddon; both movies are about world ending astral bodies (one's a comet) heading towards the planet, and both are about sending teams of astronauts (and working men) up to destroy the rocks. That Guy instantly disliked the latter Michael Bay movie, for all the reasons everyone dislikes Michael Bay movies -- it was loud, crass, flag-waving and full of rock n roll. The former was more thoughtful, more about the human experience at the end of it all.

This Guy probably likes "Armageddon" more now because its just stupid fun.

Mimi Leder gives us a more human movie, a movie about the emotional impact it has on the world, instead of disaster porn. That I like it more is odd, considering my love of disaster porn, the bigger the scale, the better. But even now, I love the weights and measures of this movie. And like with every rewatch, I forget that there is almost no actual disaster until the very end of the movie. Ninety percent of the movie is about people. The rocks barely hit.

Speaking "the bigger, the better" disaster porn -- surprised I have not ever done a rewatch writeup of "2012", the ultimate in end of the world scenarios, by the master himself, Roland Emmerich. Maybe the next The Shelf post....

It starts with an observatory and a high school class. Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) notices something new in the sky. They send his findings to the scientist in the observatory who panics, loading his data onto a floppy drive (for you youngin's, its the physical representation of a Save icon) before dying in a firey crash on the road.

Cut to news people, Washington DC news people to be more precise. Some politician has unexpectedly retired and fledgling TV journalist Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni, Jurassic Park III) starts digging, and learns about "Elly", which immediately gets her detained by the secret service and interrogated by POTUS. Elly turns out to be ELE or "extinction level event" and her blundering forces the government to reveal the existence of comet Wolf-Biederman, which is on collision course with us.

Their plan? Two fold -- one, send a team in a big fancy space shuttle to blow it up, and two, to jam a million lottery winners into caves, to preserve "our way of life". Jenny has skyrocketed to the top of her news station, which is bittersweet, as the world falls apart around her. Meanwhile Leo and his family watch the ensuing chaos from afar. 

The timeline is long, in months, but as expected in these kind of movies, the mission is a failure. All the astronauts end up doing is breaking the big comet into two big chunks, one that will land in the Atlantic, flooding the eastern seaboard, and the other into Western Canada, which will effectively end life on Earth.

But the astronauts pull off a Hail Mary, igniting their own nuclear engine to destroy the bigger rock. The littler rock still hits, giving us a bit of actual disaster in this disaster movie. Jenny dies in the arms of her estranged father, a final touching moment of forgiveness and connection. Leo and his new bride, and her infant brother, escape high into the hills Appalachians, while everyone they knew is washed away. Leo could have gone into the caves, as his discovery afforded him and his family a place, but he loved his high school sweetheart too much. The world is saved by the sacrifices of the shuttle crew and a very ruined planet gets a chance to heal.

Now, all these years later, I am still surprised I (still) like this one more than the other one. It affords us a dozen lovely moments of pure emotional human element: Jenny giving up her seat on the helicopter out of DC to her boss & child, "Spurgeon" Tanner (Robert Duvall, Open Range) reading to the blinded shuttle mission leader, said leader Oren Monash's (Ron Eldard, Black Hawk Down) wife & child rushing into mission control to give last goodbyes to husband & father, the Hotchener's forcing their teenage daughter Sarah (Leelee Sobieski, Eyes Wide Shut) to take her infant brother and escape on Leo's motorcycle to higher ground as a wall of water washes up the grid-locked highway, President Beck (Morgan Freeman, Se7en) dispensing with the teleprompter to give his final "we failed" speech to the nation. There are so many moments that are not high-drama but sweet, tragic events that make the movie what it is.

Speaking of "a rock will smash the Earth, let's hide people in a bunker", the more recent disaster porn movie (which is more about the human element) "Greenland" is getting a sequel.