A threat from asteroids? The Hollywood dream factory often uses the small astronomical bodies as a secret protagonist.
With a width of up to 1,000 kilometers, an asteroid could cause considerable damage if it hit the earth. A scenario that Hollywood repeatedly uses as a theme for disaster films. Will the next blockbusters appear in the minds of some filmmakers on International Asteroid Day (June 30)? These are the three most popular (so far).
"Meteor" (1979): Sean Connery saves the world from a new ice age
The earth is threatened in the science fiction film "Meteor" by an eight-kilometer-long, broken-off section of an asteroid. A strike would result in a new ice age, which NASA intends to prevent – with the help of scientist Dr. Paul Bradley (Sean Connery). Years ago, the expert had developed a satellite called "Hercules", which is armed with nuclear missiles in order to be able to shoot down dangers from space. The only problem: In the Cold War, the satellite was aimed at targets in the Soviet Union and China, of which the opposing powers must not know anything.
Director Ronald Neame (1911-2010) staged the fight to save the planet, which unites Americans and Russians in the Cold War, back in 1979. In addition to Sean Connery (89, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"), Natalie Wood ( 1938-1981, "West Side Story") as Russian Tatiana Nikolaevna Donskaya, Karl Malden (1912-2009) as NASA chief Harry Sherwood and Henry Fonda (1905-1982) as US President in the film. The film received an Oscar nomination in the "Best Sound" category in 1980, but was beaten by "Apocalypse Now" (1979).
"Deep Impact" (1998): Robert Duvall sacrifices himself
Filmmaker Mimi Leder (68, "The Vocation – Your Struggle for Justice") also took up the scenario in 1998. Her catastrophe film "Deep Impact" received the rating "valuable" from the German Film and Media Review FBW, but the critics were divided. In the film, the Earth is threatened with mass extinction due to the impact of a comet eleven kilometers wide that a young hobby astronomer (Elijah Wood) accidentally discovers. However, it takes a full year for reporter Jenny Lerner (Téa Leoni) to uncover a government secret and the US president (Morgan Freeman) announces the danger.
Leather's action film subsequently leads to a collaboration between the former opponents of the Cold War, the United States and Russia. Former Apollo astronaut Spurgeon Tanner (Robert Duvall) lands a spacecraft together on the comet. However, the attempt to destroy it using nuclear warheads fails. Instead, two smaller sections race towards the earth, where meanwhile people are drawn whose survival is to be secured in a bunker.
Ultimately, mankind survives when Captain Tanner and his team sacrifice themselves and fly with the remaining nuclear missiles into the gas-filled crater of the larger section. It is broken up into many small pieces that burn up in the earth's atmosphere. Actor Elijah Wood (39), who made his international breakthrough as Hobbit Frodo in the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003), won the "YoungStar Award" for "The Hollywood Reporter" magazine in the category "Best Young Actor".
"Armageddon – The Last Judgment" (1998): Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck save Liv Tyler
In 1998 "Deep Impact" fought with another catastrophe film for the earlier theatrical release – which the film won with Robert Duvall (89, "The Godfather"). However, his competitor was a greater success: "Armageddon – The Last Judgment" by action specialist Michael Bay (55, "Transformers"). The film opened in cinemas in July 1998, two months after "Deep Impact", and threatened to flop on the opening weekend. At the end of 1998, he was one of the most successful films of the year with worldwide revenues of over $ 553 million.
The parallels between the plot of "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon – The Last Judgment" are obvious. In the latter, a hobby astronomer also discovers a giant asteroid that is hurtling towards Earth. However, NASA chief Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) only has 18 days to use nuclear missiles to destroy the celestial body. Oil drilling expert Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and his men are trained as amateur astronauts to complete the dangerous mission. Complications are caused not only by a gas bubble, but also by the relationship between Stampers daughter Grace (Liv Tyler) and his Protegé A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck).
The critics sometimes did not give a good hair to Michael Bay's disaster film. Among other things, they complained about serious content errors regarding the physical laws and the superficiality of the figures.
Despite the criticism, the film received four nominations at the 1999 Academy Awards, but went away empty-handed. The title song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith, nominated for "Best Original Song", became a worldwide hit even without an Oscar. Action hero Bruce Willis (65) was awarded the Golden Raspberry as "Worst Actor" for his performance (as well as in "The Mercury Puzzle" and "State of Emergency") in 1999. However, this did not detract from the success at the box office. "Armageddon – The Last Judgment" is just a "guilty pleasure".