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Meteor (film)
Encyclopedia
Meteor is a 1979 science fiction
Technicolor
disaster film
in which scientists detect an asteroid
on a collision course with Earth
and struggle with international, cold war
politics in their efforts to prevent disaster. The movie starred Sean Connery
and Natalie Wood
.
It was directed by Ronald Neame
and with a screenplay
by Edmund H. North
and Stanley Mann
, "inspired" by a 1967 MIT
report Project Icarus. The movie co-starred Karl Malden
, Brian Keith
, Martin Landau
, Trevor Howard
, Joseph Campanella
, Richard Dysart
and Henry Fonda
.
With universally negative reviews (it made numerous "Worst Of" lists for that year's movies), it proved unpopular with audiences, losing millions in the process, and is considered to be one of the reasons for the downfall of American International Pictures
. According to one biography of Natalie Wood, she and most others in the cast knew early on this film was going to be a dud, mainly due to the director and the script. Despite the failure and being disliked by the main cast themselves, it was nominated for an Academy Award and retained a cult following
as it was an influence on the more successful later films Armageddon and Deep Impact
.
and an asteroid
named Orpheus
, a five-mile-wide chunk of Orpheus is on a collision course with Earth, with devastating results expected on impact. While the United States
government and military engage in political maneuvering, other smaller and faster moving fragments rain down on Earth. The United States has a secret orbit
ing nuclear missile platform satellite named Hercules
, which was thought of by Dr. Paul Bradley (Sean Connery
) of the U.S. It was intended for defense against a massive space rock, but instead, it was demoted to an orbiting super weapon, its missiles now aimed at Russia. However, its fourteen nuclear missile armament is not enough to stop the meteor.
The U.S. government discovers the existence of another weapon satellite constructed by the Soviet Union
. The President (Henry Fonda
) goes on national television and reveals the existence of Hercules, explaining it as a foresighted project to meet the threat that Orpheus represents. He also offers the Soviets a chance to save face and join in by saying they had the same foresight and have their own satellite weapon. Bradley requests a scientist named Dr. Alexei Dubov (Brian Keith
) to help him plan a counter-effort against Orpheus.
Bradley and Harry Sherwood (Karl Malden
) from NASA have already arrived at the control center for Hercules, which is located beneath the AT&T Building (now known as 195 Broadway
) in Lower Manhattan
. Major-General Adlon (Martin Landau
) is the commander of the facility. Dubov and his assistant and interpreter Tatiana Donskaya (Natalie Wood
) arrive and Bradley works at breaking the ice of distrust held by Hercules commander Adlon. Since Dubov cannot admit the existence of the Soviet device, he agrees to Bradley's proposal that they work on the "theoretical" application of how a "theoretical" Soviet space platform's weapons would be coordinated with the American ones.
Meanwhile, further fragments of the meteor affect Earth, and the Soviets finally admit that they have the device and are willing to join in the effort. It appears that the satellite has a lot in common with Hercules, it was built with sixteen nuclear missiles for defense against a massive space rock, but it too was demoted to an orbiting super weapon, its missiles now aimed at the United States. The satellite is christened Peter the Great by the joint US-Soviet team working at Hercules control, and both satellites are turned around to aim into space. On Sunday morning, Peter the Great
Unfortunately, smaller fragments and "splinters" still cannot be prevented from reaching Earth and continue to strike many places on Earth, causing great damage, including Hong Kong
, where mega tsunami
waves devastate the city and flood miles inland, killing millions. Just after Herculess missiles are fired off, New York
is struck by a large fragment of the meteor. Several workers inside the control center are killed when the facility is partially destroyed. The survivors slowly work their way out of the control center by going through the New York subway system, which has become somewhat of a trap due to the East River
breaking into the tunnels. Meanwhile, the two sets of guided missiles link up into three waves of mixed nationality, each wave bigger than the last. The Hercules crew reach a subway station filled with other people and wait while others try to dig out. Back in space, the missiles reach the meteor. Two Russian missiles and one U.S. missile have been lost in the journey. The first wave of missiles strikes the space rock, making an explosion. The second wave follows with a bigger explosion. Finally, the third wave hits the meteor making an explosion that fills the screen. When the dust settles, the space rock is nowhere to be seen. Back at New York, the radio stations broadcast news of the result: Orpheus has been either obliterated or shifted to a harmless trajectory. Just then, the subway station occupants are rescued.
The scene then switches to an airport some time later, with a Soviet flag and an American flag on an open hangar door. From here, Dubov and Tatiana say goodbye to Bradley and others, then they board a plane with the Soviet star and it takes off for Russia.
", a report on the concept to use missiles to deflect an asteroid which was the "inspiration" upon which the movie was based. This refers to the report Project Icarus originally a student project at M.I.T.
for a systems engineering class by Professor Paul Sandorff in the Spring of 1967 to design a way to deflect an Apollo asteroid, 1566 Icarus
, found to be on a collision course with planet Earth. Time magazine ran an article on the endeavor in June 1967 and the following year the student report was published as a book.
, Aaron Rochin
, Michael J. Kohut
and Jack Solomon
).
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
disaster film
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
in which scientists detect an asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
on a collision course with Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
and struggle with international, cold war
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
politics in their efforts to prevent disaster. The movie starred Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
and Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
.
It was directed by Ronald Neame
Ronald Neame
Ronald Elwin Neame CBE, BSC was an English film cinematographer, producer, screenwriter and director.-Early career:...
and with a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Edmund H. North
Edmund H. North
Edmund Hall North , was an American screenwriter who shared an Academy Award for "Best Original Screenplay" with Francis Ford Coppola in 1970 for their script for Patton....
and Stanley Mann
Stanley Mann
Stanley Mann is a Canadian-born film and television writer. He began his writing career in 1951, and was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the 1965 film The Collector, based on the John Fowles novel of the same title. In 1957 he penned an adaptation of Death of a Salesman for television...
, "inspired" by a 1967 MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
report Project Icarus. The movie co-starred Karl Malden
Karl Malden
Karl Malden was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than seven decades, he performed in such classic films as A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, On the Waterfront and One-Eyed Jacks...
, Brian Keith
Brian Keith
Brian Keith was an American film, television, and stage actor who in his four decade-long career gained recognition for his work in movies such as the 1961 Disney family film The Parent Trap, the 1966 comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and the 1975 adventure saga The Wind and...
, Martin Landau
Martin Landau
Martin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...
, Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
, Joseph Campanella
Joseph Campanella
Joseph Campanella in Lewistown, Pennsylvania is an American character actor who has appeared in over 200 TV and film roles since 1955, including such shows as The Eleventh Hour, The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, The Road West, The Golden Girls and Mama's Family. He also had a role in...
, Richard Dysart
Richard Dysart
Richard A. Dysart is an American actor, perhaps best known for his role as Leland McKenzie on the NBC legal drama L.A. Law....
and Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
.
With universally negative reviews (it made numerous "Worst Of" lists for that year's movies), it proved unpopular with audiences, losing millions in the process, and is considered to be one of the reasons for the downfall of American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
. According to one biography of Natalie Wood, she and most others in the cast knew early on this film was going to be a dud, mainly due to the director and the script. Despite the failure and being disliked by the main cast themselves, it was nominated for an Academy Award and retained a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
as it was an influence on the more successful later films Armageddon and Deep Impact
Deep Impact (film)
Deep Impact is a 1998 science-fiction disaster-drama film released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks in the United States on May 8, 1998. The film was directed by Mimi Leder and stars Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Téa Leoni, and Morgan Freeman...
.
Plot
After a collision between a cometComet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
and an asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
named Orpheus
Orpheus
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
, a five-mile-wide chunk of Orpheus is on a collision course with Earth, with devastating results expected on impact. While the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
government and military engage in political maneuvering, other smaller and faster moving fragments rain down on Earth. The United States has a secret orbit
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
ing nuclear missile platform satellite named Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
, which was thought of by Dr. Paul Bradley (Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
) of the U.S. It was intended for defense against a massive space rock, but instead, it was demoted to an orbiting super weapon, its missiles now aimed at Russia. However, its fourteen nuclear missile armament is not enough to stop the meteor.
The U.S. government discovers the existence of another weapon satellite constructed by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The President (Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
) goes on national television and reveals the existence of Hercules, explaining it as a foresighted project to meet the threat that Orpheus represents. He also offers the Soviets a chance to save face and join in by saying they had the same foresight and have their own satellite weapon. Bradley requests a scientist named Dr. Alexei Dubov (Brian Keith
Brian Keith
Brian Keith was an American film, television, and stage actor who in his four decade-long career gained recognition for his work in movies such as the 1961 Disney family film The Parent Trap, the 1966 comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and the 1975 adventure saga The Wind and...
) to help him plan a counter-effort against Orpheus.
Bradley and Harry Sherwood (Karl Malden
Karl Malden
Karl Malden was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than seven decades, he performed in such classic films as A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, On the Waterfront and One-Eyed Jacks...
) from NASA have already arrived at the control center for Hercules, which is located beneath the AT&T Building (now known as 195 Broadway
195 Broadway
195 Broadway is a 29-story building on Broadway in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was the longtime headquarters of American Telephone and Telegraph, as well as Western Union for a time. It occupies an entire block on one side of Broadway, running from Dey...
) in Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...
. Major-General Adlon (Martin Landau
Martin Landau
Martin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...
) is the commander of the facility. Dubov and his assistant and interpreter Tatiana Donskaya (Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
) arrive and Bradley works at breaking the ice of distrust held by Hercules commander Adlon. Since Dubov cannot admit the existence of the Soviet device, he agrees to Bradley's proposal that they work on the "theoretical" application of how a "theoretical" Soviet space platform's weapons would be coordinated with the American ones.
Meanwhile, further fragments of the meteor affect Earth, and the Soviets finally admit that they have the device and are willing to join in the effort. It appears that the satellite has a lot in common with Hercules, it was built with sixteen nuclear missiles for defense against a massive space rock, but it too was demoted to an orbiting super weapon, its missiles now aimed at the United States. The satellite is christened Peter the Great by the joint US-Soviet team working at Hercules control, and both satellites are turned around to aim into space. On Sunday morning, Peter the Great
Unfortunately, smaller fragments and "splinters" still cannot be prevented from reaching Earth and continue to strike many places on Earth, causing great damage, including Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, where mega tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
waves devastate the city and flood miles inland, killing millions. Just after Herculess missiles are fired off, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
is struck by a large fragment of the meteor. Several workers inside the control center are killed when the facility is partially destroyed. The survivors slowly work their way out of the control center by going through the New York subway system, which has become somewhat of a trap due to the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
breaking into the tunnels. Meanwhile, the two sets of guided missiles link up into three waves of mixed nationality, each wave bigger than the last. The Hercules crew reach a subway station filled with other people and wait while others try to dig out. Back in space, the missiles reach the meteor. Two Russian missiles and one U.S. missile have been lost in the journey. The first wave of missiles strikes the space rock, making an explosion. The second wave follows with a bigger explosion. Finally, the third wave hits the meteor making an explosion that fills the screen. When the dust settles, the space rock is nowhere to be seen. Back at New York, the radio stations broadcast news of the result: Orpheus has been either obliterated or shifted to a harmless trajectory. Just then, the subway station occupants are rescued.
The scene then switches to an airport some time later, with a Soviet flag and an American flag on an open hangar door. From here, Dubov and Tatiana say goodbye to Bradley and others, then they board a plane with the Soviet star and it takes off for Russia.
Cast
- Sean ConnerySean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
as Dr. Paul Bradley - Natalie WoodNatalie WoodNatalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
as Tatiana Donskaya - Karl MaldenKarl MaldenKarl Malden was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than seven decades, he performed in such classic films as A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, On the Waterfront and One-Eyed Jacks...
as Harry Sherwood - Brian KeithBrian KeithBrian Keith was an American film, television, and stage actor who in his four decade-long career gained recognition for his work in movies such as the 1961 Disney family film The Parent Trap, the 1966 comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and the 1975 adventure saga The Wind and...
as Dr. Dubov - Martin LandauMartin LandauMartin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...
as General Adlon - Trevor HowardTrevor HowardTrevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
as Sir Michael Hughes - Richard DysartRichard DysartRichard A. Dysart is an American actor, perhaps best known for his role as Leland McKenzie on the NBC legal drama L.A. Law....
as Secretary of Defense - Henry FondaHenry FondaHenry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
as The President - Joseph CampanellaJoseph CampanellaJoseph Campanella in Lewistown, Pennsylvania is an American character actor who has appeared in over 200 TV and film roles since 1955, including such shows as The Eleventh Hour, The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, The Road West, The Golden Girls and Mama's Family. He also had a role in...
as General Easton - Bo BrundinBo BrundinBo Brundin is a Swedish actor. He has appeared in 43 films and television shows between 1970 and 2002. He starred in the 1970 film A Baltic Tragedy, which was entered into the 20th Berlin International Film Festival...
as Rolf Manheim - Katherine De Hetre as Jan Watkins
- James G. Richardson as Alan Marshall
- Roger RobinsonRoger Robinson (actor)Roger Robinson is an American actor who won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for the 2009 revival of Joe Turner's Come and Gone....
as Bill Hunter - Michael ZaslowMichael ZaslowMichael Joel Zaslow was an American actor. He was best known for his role as villain Roger Thorpe on CBS's Guiding Light, a role he played from 1971 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1997.-Life and career:...
as Sam Mason - John McKinneyJohn McKinneyJohn McKinney is the name of:*John McKinney, winner of the 1946 Scripps National Spelling Bee*John McKinney *John P. McKinney, Connecticut State Senator*John McKinney , Michigan Secretary of State and Treasurer...
as Peter Watson
Source
The voiceover at the end of the film mentions "Project IcarusProject Icarus
Project Icarus refers to three unrelated projects. Two at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967 and one current international effort between the Tau Zero Foundation and the British Interplanetary Society .- 1967 :...
", a report on the concept to use missiles to deflect an asteroid which was the "inspiration" upon which the movie was based. This refers to the report Project Icarus originally a student project at M.I.T.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
for a systems engineering class by Professor Paul Sandorff in the Spring of 1967 to design a way to deflect an Apollo asteroid, 1566 Icarus
1566 Icarus
1566 Icarus is an Apollo asteroid that at perihelion comes closer to the Sun than Mercury, i.e. it is a Mercury-crossing asteroid. It is also a Venus and Mars-crosser. It is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun...
, found to be on a collision course with planet Earth. Time magazine ran an article on the endeavor in June 1967 and the following year the student report was published as a book.
Awards
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound (William McCaugheyWilliam McCaughey
William McCaughey was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for four more in the same category.-Selected filmography:...
, Aaron Rochin
Aaron Rochin
Aaron Rochin is an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for eight more in the same category.-Selected filmography:Rochin won an Academy Award and was nominated for eight more:Won* The Deer Hunter...
, Michael J. Kohut
Michael J. Kohut
Michael J. Kohut is an American sound engineer. He has been nominated for seven Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-Selected filmography:* Meteor * Fame * Pennies from Heaven * WarGames...
and Jack Solomon
Jack Solomon (sound engineer)
Jack Solomon was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Sound Recording and was nominated for five more in the same category...
).
Similar films
- Many elements of the movie's plot were used in the 1998 films Armageddon and Deep ImpactDeep Impact (film)Deep Impact is a 1998 science-fiction disaster-drama film released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks in the United States on May 8, 1998. The film was directed by Mimi Leder and stars Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Téa Leoni, and Morgan Freeman...
. - A 2009 film with the same title and a similar plot, Meteor (TV miniseries)Meteor (TV miniseries)Meteor is a 2009 disaster television miniseries about the asteroid 114 Kassandra on a collision course with the Earth. The surrounding meteorites crash into various locations worldwide, including the small town of Taft, California, with little success in their elimination by the military.The first...
, was broadcast by NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
as a 4-hour, 2-part miniseriesMiniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
.
See also
- Asteroid deflection strategiesAsteroid deflection strategiesAsteroid mitigation strategies are "planetary defense" methods by which near-Earth objects could be diverted, preventing potentially catastrophic impact events. A sufficiently large impact would cause massive tsunamis or an impact winter, or both...
- 1979 Stern Electronics released a pinball machine named Meteor. The backglass art was very close to one of the versions of the movie poster art for the film Meteor.