Elijah Wood’s Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Thriller Coming Soon to Streaming

When it comes to movies about asteroid disasters, Armageddon maybe that’s what you’re going to immediately, with Bruce Willis threatening Ben Affleck on an oil platform, Aerosmith screams and an A-list cast of oil workers learning to become astronauts in a week. But if you want a more realistic (no joke) take on the end of the world, look no further than Deep impact, led by Mimi Leader — even if you don’t have time to see it. Contrary to Armageddon, profound impact uses multiple intertwined storylines to explore how different people cope with impending global catastrophe.

Released in 1998, the film stars Elie Bois as Leo Beiderman, a teenage astronomy enthusiast who accidentally discovers a comet on a collision course with Earth – and then must watch the world grapple with what comes next. Léoni’s tea Jenny Lerner is a journalist who stumbles upon the government’s plans to combat the asteroid, while Robert Duval leads the mission to try to save the planet. As a disaster film, Deep impact has aged quite well and the themes of humanity coming together in crisis still hold. It is also one of the few disaster films that actually shows the asteroid hitting Earth and how humanity will attempt to survive it.

Is “Deep Impact” worth watching?

Critics generally thought Deep impact was more grounded and thoughtful film of both – compared to the literal emphasis of Michael Bayexplosions, fast cars and the scariest scene ever involving animal crackers, golden hour and Liv Tyler in underwear – but she felt the pacing was a bit uneven and the multiple storylines weren’t as compelling together as some of them were individually. It holds a 45% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to Armageddonthat’s 43%.

However, at the box office, Armageddon was the big winner. It reported $553 million worldwidemaking it the highest-grossing film of 1998. Deep impactalthough less strong, was still a huge success, winning $349 million worldwide against a budget of $75 million, and in doing so made Leder the director of the highest-grossing film in history directed by a woman at the time. It therefore occupies a special place in Hollywood history and is absolutely worth seeing.

Deep impact is streaming now on Netflix, but only until January 1st, so head over now and catch it while you can.