A comet is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. As doomsday nears, the human race prepares for the worst.
Journalist Jenny Lerner is assigned to look into the background of Secretary Alan Rittenhouse who abruptly resigned from government citing his wife's ill health. She learns from his secretary that Rittenhouse was having an affair with someone named Ellie but when she confronts him, his strange reaction leads her to reconsider her story. In fact, a comet, discovered the previous year by high school student Leo Biederman and astronomer Dr. Marcus Wolf, is on a collision course with the Earth, an Extinction Level Event. A joint US-Russian team is sent to destroy the comet but should it fail, special measures are to be put in place to secure the future of mankind. As the space mission progresses, many individuals deal with their fears and ponder their future.—garykmcd
As the unstoppable, eleven-kilometre-wide Wolf-Beiderman comet is on a collision course with the Earth, the U.S. government prepares for the worst. Now, our fates rest in the hands of the grizzled astronaut, Captain Spurgeon "Fish" Tanner, and a joint team of American and Russian cosmonauts, who are entrusted with a mission a priori impossible. But, when all faith is lost, can Tanner's brave, self-sacrificing crew prevent the imminent Armageddon and the extinction of humankind?—Nick Riganas
A teenage astronomer and his teacher discover an object amongst the stars at night. Little do they know that it's a comet on a direct collision course for earth. After the teacher dies in a car crash trying to report his findings the President announces the comet's existence. He also states that there is no need to panic, because NASA is going to send astronauts on the space mission, Messiah. Their mission is to destroy the comet before it gets too close to the earth. When Messiah backfires, the President announces that special caves will have to be built, and the government will have to have a lottery-of-fate to randomly select 800,000 ordinary American citizens to go along with 200,000 scientists, soldiers, and other officials. These 1,000,000 people will be set aside to save the population from extinction when the comet hits.—Nathanael Wassmann <[email protected]>
A young man who's part of his school's astronomy club sees something in the sky that is not known. So they take a picture of it and send it to their adviser who, upon seeing it, jumps into his car and crashes. A year later a reporter who's investigating why a member of the President's cabinet resigns when she goes to speak to him he says he wants to be with his family. Later she's brought before the President who asks her to keep what she knows under wraps for now. She convinces him to call a Press Conference so that he can tell everyone what's going on. Later at a Press Conference, the President announces that a year ago that two astronomers discovered something; a comet. And eventually that it's course will take it to earth but the problem is that the comet is so big that if it strikes it will cause what is known as an Extinction Level Event which will wipe out all life on the planet. And he announces that for sometime the government along with a few others have been building a vessel that will sent to intercept the comet. The reporter then asks the President if the reason why his Cabinet member resigned is because he doesn't believe the plan will work. The President assures them that they have thought it out carefully. In the meantime the young man who found the comet is being hailed as a hero. And the crew who's going to stop the comet makes their farewells to their families.—[email protected]
Two students at the astronomy club are Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) and his girlfriend, Sarah Hotchner (Leelee Sobieski). Leo finds an unidentified object in the sky and his teacher Mr. Perry (Mike O'Malley), thinking it might be a satellite, suggests they take a photograph and send it to Dr. Wolf, a professional astronomer.
Dr Wolf (Charles Martin Smith) finds the object & sees that it's on a collision course to Earth. He tries to email his findings, but the server is down. He copies the data to a floppy disk & names the comet Wolf-Biederman. He takes a drive down the mountain to reach his HQ but has a fiery crash on the way that kills him.
Jenny Lerner (Téa Leoni) is a news researcher working for Beth Stanley (Laura Innes), her boss & the White House correspondent. Beth is denying Jenny the opportunity to become a journalist or an anchor. She asks Jenny to work on the recent resignation of US Sec of Treasury Alan Rittenhouse (James Cromwell).Jenny meets her mother, Robin Lerner (Vanessa Redgrave) for drinks and lunch. Robin is preoccupied with the courtship of her now ex-husband, Jason (Maximilian Schell) to a younger woman named Chloe (Rya Kihlstedt). Jason and Chloe have very young twin children together and have just married that morning.
Jenny meets Patricia Ruiz (Concetta Tomei), Alan's secretary, & finds that Alan talked to the President himself about Ellie, a possible mistress. Jenny tracks Alan down who is leaving with his family on a boat with a huge number of supplies. Jenny is then taken by the Secret Service to meet the President (Morgan Freeman). The President asks Jenny to keep E.L.E. a secret for 2 days when he will give a press conference & gives Jenny the privilege of the first question, knowing what it can do for her career.
Jenny researches and finds E.L.E. stands for extinction level event; an asteroid hitting the Earth!! She hides this from Beth. At the press conference, Beth is in the last row while Jenny is in the 2nd row & given the first question as the President explains about Comet Wolf-Biederman which will strike Earth in 1 year. A US-Russia joint mission is underway to intercept the comet & blow it up before it strikes. The ship's name is Messiah.
President Beck calls up a video conference to introduce the crew of the Messiah -- mission Commander Oren Monash (Ron Eldard), spacecraft pilot Andrea Baker (Mary McCormack), medical officer Gus Partenza (Jon Favreau), navigator Mark Simon (Blair Underwood), Russian nuclear physicist Col. Mikhail Tulchinsky (Aleksandr Baluev) who is serving as Messiah's engineer, and a NASA veteran, Captain Spurgeon 'Tanner' Tanner (Robert Duvall), who will land the spacecraft on the comet's surface so the warheads can be planted.
Jenny's MSNBC crew, in a frenzy over-preparing their coverage of the conference, are stunned to see her at the conference. Jenny presses her privilege, asking three questions before finally sitting. Beck finally acknowledges that all of human survival is at stake. But, he insists, life will go on, and he is determined that humanity prevail even over this potential catastrophe.President alludes that Biederman is dead, but Leo Biederman is very much alive & is now famous.Partenza explains the hazards of the mission: the comet's rotational period means the Messiah crew only has a seven-hour window before the sun will 'rise' on the section they will be working on, and during the time that the sun is shining on that segment, there will be dangerous and volatile gas eruptions from the comet's interior. The Messiah crew needs to work quickly to avoid this hazard.
Two months later, the Messiah crew is ferried by the space shuttle Atlantis to dock with the orbital station on which the Messiah was constructed. A news crew explains the Messiah's construction, and that it is powered by a prototype nuclear propulsion system code-named Orion, that was originally developed by Russian engineers for nuclear warfare. This propulsion system will allow the Messiah's crew to reach the comet well in advance of its arrival close to Earth.Five months after the Messiah's departure, Stuart Caley's (Bruce Weitz) MSNBC news crew is meeting for another conference, discussing their ongoing coverage of the Messiah's mission. Everyone is asked about their role and latest contributions. Caley announces (to Beth's shock) that Jenny has been given a news anchor position for the coverage program. Being known as the one who broke the story on the comet, Jenny has likewise gained a great deal of national status.
Baker and Tanner maneuver the Messiah for landing, they must fly through a veritable minefield of rocks caught in the comet's tail. A few rocks hit the ship and some minor damage is sustained. They nonetheless manage to bring the Messiah safely down. They have just under six and a half hours before 'sunrise' on their part of the comet.Almost immediately the mission begins going awry. The moles prove to be unable to drill as deeply into the comet's surface, as quickly as is required. They are at just over an hour and a half before sunrise. Baker and Tanner, waiting anxiously in the spacecraft, know it is taking too long.As soon as the sun rises on the portion of the comet that the Messiah is on, the surface temperature will rise 350 degrees in minutes, creating enough pressure to expel jets of super-heated gas up through the surface. This will make the mission akin to working in a minefield.
On the comet's surface, one of the moles gets stuck at 75 meters. The crew knows this is not deep enough; the warhead will just break pieces off the comet's surface. Commander Monash decides to descend into the shaft dug by the stuck mole to try and free it up, despite warnings from the other crew about the time pressure. The stuck mole finally begins drilling again and Commander Monash desperately climbs his tether cable so the crew can get back to the Messiah.The horizon is bridged. Tulchinsky shouts urgently for the surface crew to lower their visors' solar shields. Just as Monash clears the surface, a gas jet shoots him upward before he can lower his visor's shield. The full brilliance of the sun shines through his visor into his unprotected eyes. The rest of the crew reels him in by the tether cable and races desperately toward the Messiah landing module. Partenza is blown out into open space and lost. The rest of the crew barely manages to reach the landing module.
Col. Tulchinsky coordinates the arming of the nuclear warheads. President Back is seen in a White House office with Morton Entrekin (O'Neal Compton), chief advisor to President Beck, the cabinet, and several leading military Chiefs of Staff. A phone rings and the member answering it looks at Beck grimly.President Beck goes on the air to deliver the news to the country. The warhead detonation only succeeded in breaking off a significantly large chunk of the comet -- 1.5 miles wide -- large enough to cause catastrophic damage to the planet in its own right. Both this chunk and larger, six-mile main piece of the comet are still heading straight toward Earth. Houston Mission Control cannot communicate further with the Messiah. Its condition and the status of the crew are unknown.Beck announces U.S. has also been excavating shelter caverns in the limestone cliffs of Missouri to use as a form of Noah's Ark. This shelter will be able to contain one million people, and enough animal and plant life to repopulate the Earth after all the dust settles. 200,000 people have been already selected -- leaders, doctors, scientists, engineers, teachers, soldiers and artists -- for participation in the Ark. In one month, a national lottery of 800,000 additional people will be chosen.
Jenny's MSNBC news program explains the lottery procedure. The lottery drawing will be on August 10th, picking 800,000 people by their social security numbers. The general lottery will exclude all men and women over the age of 50. Only the body of 200,000 preselected individuals, including people needed for the rebuilding of society due to expertise in particular fields of study, will have any persons over 50 years old.As Jenny continues her report, the Biederman and Hotchner families are watching together at the Biederman home in Richmond. Their phone rings. Ellen Biederman (Betsy Brantley), Leo's mother, takes the call. The Biederman family has been preselected. It is clear that an instant rift has formed between the Hotchner (Sarah's) and Biederman families.
On board the Messiah, Tanner tries to get a sense of what the crew wants to do. Monash wants to go home & the others concur.Leo tries to use his status to get Sarah's family on the list. He gets married to Sarah. But when the National Guard arrives, Sarah's family is not on the list. Sarah refuses to leave. Leo goes with his parents to the lime mountains.Jenny's mother Robin takes her own life. Jenny laces into her father, taking out all her long pent-up frustration at Jason having left Robin in the first place, out on him. She gloats when Jason mentions that Chloe, frightened for her own life, has ran home to her mother. Jenny cruelly tells her father that she feels like an orphan. Jason comes to Jenny's office & says she is not an orphan & shows her the pictures of them together. Jenny leaves.
As the Biederman family reaches the caves, Leo grows some balls & decides to go back for Sarah. His dad bids his good luck!!the Titan missile strike has just been launched at the two comets, that are now 14 hours away from impact. Jenny goes on the air for a news report to cover the missile strike.Cut to President Beck at the Oval Office to deliver the results. The missiles have failed to deflect the comets off course. Earth has exhausted all options to prevent direct impact, and massive casualties are now inevitable.
Biederman, the smaller fragment of the comet, will impact at 4:37 Eastern Daylight Time, striking in the Atlantic Ocean a short distance off of Cape Hatteras. A massive tsunami will be formed, racing toward the US Eastern Seaboard faster than the speed of sound. All settlements on the East Coast, including the megalopolis cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, and Miami, will be wiped out and destroyed.
The main body of the comet, Wolf, will strike land in Western Canada several hours later. This will be a full Extinction Level Event. Within two days after the impact, dust and debris will fill the sky and create an effect similar to a 'nuclear winter' that will make the skies dark for two years. Without sunlight reaching the Earth's surface, all plant life will die, followed by all animal life.But on board the Messiah, Captain Tanner has come up with one last option. He calls the crew together to explain his plan. They can do nothing about the Biederman fragment, but he believes they can still stop the main Wolf comet and give Earth hope for survival. Gas eruptions have created a very large fissure vent in the comet's surface leading well into its interior. The Messiah has four nuclear warheads remaining. If they can get these warheads into that vent, the comet should be blown into fragments far too small.
Tulchinsky and Simon know that the Messiah is dangerously low on both life-support and remaining propellant fuel. It is not likely they can get into the cargo bay, or properly maneuver the Messiah for a second landing on the comet surface... much less get back off the surface once the warheads are planted. It is a suicide mission; the Messiah making a kamikaze run into the comet's interior and detonating the warheads. The crew is grim at this reality, but all quickly accept their pending fate.As the final evacuations are underway Jenny gives her seat to Beth & goes to meet Jason at their beach house. Leo takes Mr. Hotchner's bike & looks for Sarah in a traffic jam. He finds her & her parents make her leave with her infant brother to the mountains.
Time has run out. The Biederman comet fragment breaks Earth's atmosphere and rushes for impact. Everyone for miles can see it race out past the coastline before it plunges deep into the Atlantic Ocean. A titanic mushroom cloud roars upward and outward from the point of impact. The skies turn dark; birds are tossed helplessly about in the air as the tsunami begins to race inexorably toward the eastern coast. At the Lerner beach house, Jenny gives a brief sob of fear before Jason pulls her head against his chest and closes his eyes. The tsunami strikes the coastline and begins its run of devastation. We're treated to the obligatory scenario of New York City being destroyed; the final shot showing the city immersed under water save for the very tops of the World Trade Center; the broken-off head of the Statue of Liberty bouncing like a dropped basketball down Wall Street.
On the Virginia coast, people have abandoned their cars, racing about in all directions, screaming frantically in a mad rush for higher ground. A few simply stand outside their cars and wait to perish. Among them are Chuck (Gary Werntz) and Vicky Hotchner (Denise Crosby), holding and stroking each other for a final moment of comfort. Leo and Sarah are part of a small crowd that has gotten off the road, racing for higher ground among the hills.
The Messiah has made final preparations for their interception of the Wolf Comet. The crew members have asked for their families to be brought to the Mission Control Center in Houston so they can say final goodbyes. Baker's husband and daughter, and Simon's fiance are on standby. But Commander Monash's wife is still on route and hasn't arrived yet... and Tanner's two sons were on active Naval duty and couldn't be reached. Accepting this, Tanner gives a quiet prayer to his late wife, saying he's coming home to her at last.
Baker and Simon say their final goodbyes tearfully. Transmission is just about to be terminated when officers come rushing to the control room with Mariette Monash (Jennifer Jostyn) in tow. She reaches the control room in the nick of time, holding her baby son, whom she's named Oren in her husband's honor. Commander Monash, although still blind, can hear Mariette and Oren Jr. He gives them an emotional farewell as Col. Tulchinsky sets the warhead timers and Baker and Tanner calculate the trajectory for the final interception run. They say farewell to each other; Baker closes her eyes and Simon closes his as Captain Tanner flies the Messiah through the vent into the comet's interior. The warheads detonate, shattering the Wolf comet into millions of tiny fragments. Leo, Sarah, and Sarah's baby sister are among a group that have gotten to the top of the highest hill they could find, barely escaping the tsunami. They watch as the shattered fragments create a firework-like light show in the sky.
Deep Impact closes with President Beck delivering an impassioned speech to a huge crowd in Washington D.C. after the waters of the Atlantic Ocean have receded and settled back into the ocean basin. Acknowledging the incalculable losses of lives in America, South America, Europe, and Africa, President Beck tells his people that they must remember those who died for them and carry on with their rebuilding of the human way of life. The camera pans out for the final shot showing the U.S. Capitol building under reconstruction as the people gathered there cheer.
