Deep Impact

Name: Deep Impact
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Drama, Thriller
Released: May 8, 1998
Duration: 120 min
Rating: 40
Cast: Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni

1998

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Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 116 Ratings

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5.8	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 116 Ratings

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Deep Impact

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: May 8, 1998 | PG-13

Starring: Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni

Summary: When a comet is on a collision course with earth, humans have to prepare for their survival.

Director: Mimi Leder

Genre(s): Action, Sci-Fi, Drama, Thriller

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 120 min

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Critic Reviews

Janet Maslin

Deep Impact confines much of its horror to television news reports and has a more brooding, thoughtful tone than this genre usually calls for. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Unfortunately, an A-list group of actors doesn't mean a lot when there isn't much of a script. Read full review

Roger Ebert

You can enjoy the way they create little flashes of wit in the dialogue, which enlivens what is, after all, a formula disaster movie. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

The season's first comet-targets-Earth special effects extravaganza is spectacular enough in its cataclysmic scenes of the planet being devastated by an unstoppable fireball, but proves far from thrilling in the down time spent with a largely dull assortment of troubled human beings. Read full review

Joshua Klein

If director Mimi Leder is really guilty of anything, it's of wasting three first-rate actors (Morgan Freeman, Vanessa Redgrave, and Robert Duvall) in underdeveloped roles while allowing Leoni's shell-shocked, unconvincing turn to become an embarrassment. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Maitland McDonagh

A three-hankie weeper in disaster-movie drag, and its tear-jerking bull's-eyes are separated by long stretches of tedium. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

For a suspense drama, Impact is a slack, oddly enervated and mawkish soup of largely lethargic performances. Read full review

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User Reviews

toronto905

Sep 29, 2015

One of my favourite science fiction disaster films of all time. Morgan freeman does an excellent job playing fictional U. S. President Tom Bec. The Plot is mysterious, dramatic, intense and powerfully moving as well as spectacular visuals. A really deep movie that does a good job of showingOne of my favourite science fiction disaster films of all time. Morgan freeman does an excellent job playing fictional U. S. President Tom Bec. The Plot is mysterious, dramatic, intense and powerfully moving as well as spectacular visuals. A really deep movie that does a good job of showing the world in this situation. I really like how it doesn't focus on just one person as the "hero," but rather select individuals. Although, Morgan Freeman does tend to steal the show, as usual. It's just as awesome as the day after tomorrow… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

norse

Apr 8, 2020

I am just rewatching it on Netflix, and it’s incredible how well this movie held up.

The pacing and story telling are pitch perfect, with no gimmicks real characters that behave smartly and rationally. Also: Morgan Freeman as the most presidentially president outside of The West Wing. TheI am just rewatching it on Netflix, and it’s incredible how well this movie held up.

The pacing and story telling are pitch perfect, with no gimmicks real characters that behave smartly and rationally. Also: Morgan Freeman as the most presidentially president outside of The West Wing.

The science is spot on and the graphics were way ahead of their time.

Thank you to every one who worked on this gem!… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

MovieThirst

Jan 9, 2023

This was a great concept and it was a great movie i enjoyed in my younger years and i still do, i wish they would make a remake. #MovieThirst

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Rox22

Feb 1, 2013

A really deep movie that does a good job of showing the world in this situation. I really like how it doesn't focus on just one person as the "hero," but rather select individuals. Although, Morgan Freeman does tend to steal the show, as usual.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

FilipeNeto

Jun 12, 2018

This film tackles the end of the world in the traditional American perspective: a newly discovered comet threatens to destroy the planet and the US leads the crusade to eliminate the threat. Despite the obvious American imperialist propaganda implied here, the film is good, especially forThis film tackles the end of the world in the traditional American perspective: a newly discovered comet threatens to destroy the planet and the US leads the crusade to eliminate the threat. Despite the obvious American imperialist propaganda implied here, the film is good, especially for those who enjoy catastrophe movies. His story bears a strong resemblance to "Armageddon" and some scenes remind us of "Independence Day", but there are big differences between these three films. One of the most notable is that this film gives more attention to the characters than to the tragic events. Unfortunately, this makes it a lot slower and monotonous than we might at first glance. There are people who see it as good, others want more action and they will get a little frustrated. I, in particular, have been able to appreciate this more leisurely way, although some scenes are perfectly expendable. The special effects have been quite well made and are grandiose, although they seem a little unbelievable.

The characters have been very well developed, much better than most of the films of this genre, which helps a lot to catch the attention of the public. Elijah Wood and Leelee Sobieski can be particularly touching and, despite their young ages, get a good chemistry together. Even so, there are times when they exaggerated in sentimentality. The rest of the cast (where we can see experienced actors like Robert Duvall, Vanessa Redgrave or Morgan Freeman) has a much more contained and uninteresting record, which is a little surprising. Still, Freeman and Duvall have always been a little better than the rest of their peers, though their characters are relatively minor in the story (we may even think that the talent of the actors has been misused). Tea Leoni was clearly a casting mistake, she never really got her character.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MichMart

Mar 5, 2014

I think this movie is BETTER THAN ARMAGEDDON! It has nearly no stereotype "heroes" and a humanitarian side. It's too long for the story, but it has a good ending.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MovieMasterEddy

Apr 4, 2016

High Profile, Low 'Impact'

One down, one to go. The year's first of two much-anticipated movies about space-rocks hurtling toward Earth, "Deep Impact" is an underwhelming disappointment from executive producer Steven Spielberg. (That still leaves "Armageddon," scheduled to open July 1,High Profile, Low 'Impact'

One down, one to go.

The year's first of two much-anticipated movies about space-rocks hurtling toward Earth, "Deep Impact" is an underwhelming disappointment from executive producer Steven Spielberg. (That still leaves "Armageddon," scheduled to open July 1, whose asteroid the size of Texas could seriously one-up
"Impact's" merely Manhattan-sized comet.)

But the comet is not the only smallish thing about this film. For a suspense drama, "Impact" is a slack, oddly enervated and mawkish soup of largely lethargic performances by such normally robust stars as Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman and Vanessa Redgrave.

The story itself seems torn from recent headlines: One dark day, President Beck (Freeman) announces that a speeding ball of dirty ice is on a collision course with the third rock from the sun (whoops, that's us!). A joint U.S.-Russian team of hot-shot rocket jockeys, led by veteran mission commander Spurgeon Tanner (Duvall), is quickly assembled and sent up to plant six nuclear-warhead "moles" in the surface, which will theoretically atomize the comet into a harmless shower of hailstones. But somehow the scheme doesn't work as planned and now mankind must steel itself for an "extinction level event" – wonkspeak for the very thing that killed the dinosaurs.

So far so good. In a refreshing change from the more obvious disaster-movie theatrics, the movie wisely focuses on the individual human dramas of ordinary people facing their demise. But the bland script shows far more evidence of the schmaltz of writer Bruce Joel Rubin ("Ghost") than it does the hard-edged canniness of co-writer Michael Tolkin ("The Player" and "The Rapture").

For one thing, the human dramas are not all that dramatic – much time is wasted on an uninvolving subplot involving the comet's teenage discoverer, Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) and his efforts to save his white-bread girlfriend (Leelee Sobieski). It's difficult to care about these people when director Mimi Leder never asks them to furnish anything other than cheap, manufactured sentimentality.

There's one scene in particular where Tea Leoni as an MSNBC reporter is reacting to the telephoned news of a family member's off-camera suicide. We see only her face as the personal tragedy slowly sinks in. What could have been a nice, subtle moment, however, is ruined by the fact that Leoni's emotive abilities do not extend above well-trained eyebrows.

That's just one example from a laundry list of under-utilized talent and squandered opportunities. Early on, when an astronomer (Charles Martin Smith) is frantically trying to log on to e-mail to warn the world of the deadly comet, his computer freezes with the blunt announcement, "Opening mail server . . . Server down." It's a tiny, telling joke that hints at a genuine intelligence behind the film, but the theme of our betrayal by modern technology is quickly abandoned.

Another dashed hope comes one long hour into the story, when mild looting and profiteering start to break out among the panicked citizenry. It looks for a moment as though the film might finally generate some real electricity, delving into the savagery we hide within us, ala "Lord of the Flies," but then the pandemonium subsides and we return to our regularly scheduled programming about insipid teen love, predictably selfless sacrifice and tear-jerking family reconciliation. There are many such moments of button-pushing lachrymosity, but they are so false that you'll likely gag with anger at the lump in your throat.

Despite the fact that when we first see the comet floating in outer space it resembles a piece of styrofoam sprayed with that Christmas-snow-in-a-can stuff, there are a couple of nice special effects. The flying boulder looks much more terrifying the closer it gets to Earth's atmosphere. And a massive tidal wave does look rather realistic – water effects having come a long way since the parting of the Red Sea in "The Ten Commandments."

Much of the movie is set in and around Washington, D.C., so there is some modest pleasure to be gained from seeing the familiar sights of the city on the silver screen. Nevertheless, a tepid chase scene set on the Key Bridge and the Whitehurst Freeway is nowhere near as heart-pounding as a typical rush hour on that roadway.

When all is said and done, it is precisely such lackluster imitations of real life that prevent this lightweight melodrama from leaving any deep, or lasting, impact of its own.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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31	#31 Most Discussed Movie of 1998
38	#38 Most Shared Movie of 1998