Deep Impact Leaves An Emotional Impact

Before watching Deep Impact, I was sure I knew what I was getting into. I'm kind of obsessive about the 1990's disaster movie, a subgenre that mixed in the hopefulness of the 1990s with all the then-brand-new digital visual effects technology to make movies about people uniting in the face of staggering disasters. Keeping that in mind, I was coming for some explosions, cities turning to dust and melodramatic line readings. What I didn't expect was that the movie would touch me so heavily. Granted, I've been in such a fragile emotional state during this whole self-isolation business that even the thought of a pug puppy makes my eyes water with tears. Still, Deep Impact did something quite right in lending a more intimate gaze to the traditional disaster movie.


Like any 1990's disaster movie, Deep Impact comes with an ensemble cast that allows for the viewer to see a variety of people responding to an impending armageddon. In this case, our central characters include aspiring news anchor Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni), who has a fractured relationship with her father. There's also Captain Spurgeon Fisher (Robert Duvall), a veteran astronaut, as well as Tom Beck (Morgan Freeman), the President of the United States. High Schooler Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) also factors into the proceedings as one of two people who discovers the meteor that's careening to Earth. If it makes an impact, it'll end all life on the planet within minutes. This is the object bringing about the forthcoming doom n' gloom uniting all these disparate storylines.

Usually, disaster movies, especially ones from the 90s, start with big end-of-world events just beginning. Think of how Armageddon opens with smaller asteroids crashing into New York City or the aliens hovering over famous Earth locales early on in Independence Day. Screenwriters Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin opt for a different approach for Deep Impact. This film begins not just by establishing a sense of normalcy but by masquerading as a whole other movie entirely. Lerner, who wants to find a story that can take her to the next level at her job, is investigating matters related to a former Secretary of the Treasurer (played by James Cromwell in a small but memorable performance) that make it feel more akin to All the President's Men.

It's only when she begins her snooping that she realizes that what she's stumbled onto isn't a potential extramarital affair but rather preliminary plans by the American government to prepare for an impending apocalypse. From there, Deep Impact becomes more about watching how people prepare for imminent doom rather than the spectacle of watching cities crumble away. This instills a number of unique narrative beats into the proceedings. Most notably, a mission to blow up the impending meteor led by Tom Beck, which would be the entire focus of a conventional disaster movie, ends up going awry by the midway point of the movie. The failure of this mission informs the ominous attitude of the production rather than serving exclusively as a vehicle for excitement.

In the middle of this despair-heavy atmosphere, Deep Impact focuses on its ensemble cast and how each member intends to grapple with an incoming armageddon. Not all of the character beats are fully original nor do they all work perfectly. However, the majority of them end up touching one's heart because of how director Mimi Leder fully commits to playing things in a straightforward dramatic manner. It's easy to see another film undercutting key emotional scenes, like a beachside reunion between Jenny and her father or Tom Beck comforting a recently-blinded astronaut, with cutaways to distracting gags or visual-effects heavy spectacle. 

Instead, Leder has enough confidence to opt for restraint and allow these intimate sequences the proper amount of time to breathe. This leads to a number of moments that deliver something you don't normally see in the 1990's disaster movies: discernable humanity. I love this subgenre, but I'm not gonna act like Volcano was rich in people I could buy as actual human beings. Meanwhile, Deep Impact is able to have a 110% serious scene where Elijah Wood & his High School girlfriend get married and still make me buy that these are all people I can get dramatically invested in. Before watching Deep Impact, I was sure I knew what I was getting into. Turns out, I didn't. Deep Impact is a much more emotionally engaging experience than expected, one that serves as the Gallant to Armageddon's Goofus.