Spurgeon Tanner: Robert Duvall (The Apostle, Falling Down, Rambling Rose)
Jenny Lerner: Tea Leoni (Flirting With Disaster, TV: "The Naked Truth", "Flying Blind")
Leo Biederman: Elijah Wood (Forever Young, Internal Affairs, The Ice Storm)
Robin Lerner: Vanessa Redgrave (Camelot, The Devils, Howard's End)
President Beck: Morgan Freeman (Seven, The Shawshank Redemption, Kiss The Girls, Hard Rain)
Jason Lerner: Maximillian Schell (A Bridge Too Far, Topkapi, Judgement At Nuremberg)
Alan Rittenhouse: James Cromwell (Species 2, Babe, Eraser, L.A. Confidential, Star Trek: First Contact)
Oren Monash: Ron Eldard (Scent Of A Woman, Sleepers, The Last Supper, TV: "E.R.", "Men Behaving Badly (USA)")
Gus Parlenza: Jon Favreau (Swingers, Ruby, Very Bad Things, TV: "Friends")
Beth Stanley: Laura Innes (And The Band Played On, TV: "E.R.", "Party of Five", "My So-Called Life")
Sarah Hotchner: Leelee Sobieski (Eyes Wide Shut, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries)
Mark Simon: Blair Underwood (Just Cause, Gattaca, Set It Off, TV: "L.A. Law")
Mikhail Tulchinsky: Alexander Baluev (The Peacemaker)
Marcus Wolf: Charles Martin Smith (And The Band Played On, The Untouchables, American Graffiti)
Vicky Hotchner: Denise Crosby (Pet Semetary, Miracle Mile, TV: "Star Trek: Next Generation")
Otis Heffer: Kurtwood Smith (Robocop, Fortress)
When up-and-coming investigative journalist Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni)
hears of an affair between cabinet member Alan Rittenhouse (James Cromwell)
and a girl called Ele, she suspects she's hit upon the story of the year as she
believes it was not him who had the affair, but the President (Morgan
Freeman) himself. One frightening experience later and she realises that
Ele isn't a woman at all, but "E.L.E.", which stands for Extinction
Level Event.
A year beforehand a comet, discovered by Marcus Wolf (Charles Martin
Smith) and Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood), was found to be heading
directly for Earth, something that would cause worldwide devastation and
threaten the existence of mankind. As the President addresses the nation telling
them that there is another year to go before the comet is due, panic sets in
as he tells them there is to be a National Lottery in which 800,000 Americans
will be selected to accompany 200,000 scientists and other dignitaries in
special bunkers underground which will house them for two years. The rest of
the country will be left to their own devices.
A team of astronauts headed by Spurgeon Tanner (Robert Duvall) is
assembled to pilot the Messiah, a craft containing nuclear missiles which will
dock with the comet, at which point the crew will bury them beneath the comet's
crust so that detenation will blow it apart and save the human race. The
question is, do they work? Well, if you've seen the trailer you'll know that
it doesn't as the comet eventually hits the planet causing massive tidal waves
sweeping away skyscrapers and whole cities up to 700 miles inland. What hope
is there for mankind afterwards?
Director Mimi Leder is certainly making all the right moves in Hollywood.
After being responsible for episodes of L.A. Law and E.R., she
made her feature film debut last year with
The Peacemaker,
starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. That film had but two big names,
and the cast of Deep Impact dwarves that.
As mentioned earlier, Robert Duvall heads the rescue mission in space,
while reporter Tea Leoni, wife of The X-Files' David Duchovny hits
upon the story which will change her career and put her on the frontline as she
is promoted to helming the flagship news programme which stays on air
permanently as the fatal day draws near. Her role shows she can cope well with
drama as her main audience will come from her comedy shows The Naked Truth
and Flying Blind.
Elijah Wood uses his new found fame to get his girlfriend Leelee
Sobieski, who looks like a 15-year-old Helen Hunt, and her parents
(Gary Werntz and Star Trek: Next Generation's Denise Crosby)
a place in the underground bunkers.
Maximillian Schell and Vanessa Redgrave play Jenny's parents,
whom have grown apart from their daughter in recent years, but it begs the
question - can the fate of mankind bring the family back together?
Links between some cast members and the director are abound as the film features
two stars of E.R., namely journalist Laura Innes (aka Dr. Kerry
Weaver in the TV series) and astronaut Ron Eldard (aka Shep, the fireman
who dated Carol Hathaway for a time). Scientist Charles Martin Smith
appeared in the AIDS drama And The Band Played On, as did Laura Innes;
while Blair Underwood appeared in L.A. Law and Alexander
Baluev was last seen on the big screen stealing nuclear missiles in
The Peacemaker.
Another TV face is Jon Favreau who will be well-known to viewers of
Friends as Peter Becker, a Bill Gates-like billionaire who romanced
Courtney Cox.
The rest of the cast includes the always-excellent Morgan Freeman who
tirelessly attempts to ease the fears of the world as the President,
Robocop's Clarence Bodicker - Kurtwood Smith who controls the
space rescue mission from ground control, and James Cromwell as the
man accused of having an affair, but who gets such a small amount of screen
time given how high up in the credits his name is.
If I had a couple of criticisms of Deep Impact, they'd be that while
the film makes for compelling viewing, it may not have on repeat viewing. Like
1996's Independence Day, the world faces disaster and when several
characters are thrown together, the priorities within their relationships
change dramatically, although Deep Impact has the edge in that category.
As an aside, both films feature a few minutes of jaw-dropping special effects as
chaos rules for a brief spell.
The other problem is the ending - there is an immense build-up of tension and
drama for the best part of two hours, save for a bit of a slow start, then the
comet hits, many people die and the President addresses the nation again,
although it's not clear whether this was later the same day or after the
two-year period they were meant to be held underground for... and then that's
it.
Overall though this is a definite hit for Steven Spielberg's fledgling
film company, Dreamworks SKG, who began life last year with the
successful actioner
The Peacemaker,
and comes well-recommended to anyone who likes a good disaster-movie drama
followed by some first-class special effects.
This is the first of two films due this year in which Earth is threatened by
a comet, the other being Armageddon starring Bruce Willis,
directed by Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys and produced by
Jerry Bruckheimer (The Rock, Con Air, Crimson Tide).
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
