Earth is hit by dust-sized meteorites estimate 19,000 to 26,000 times per year. Earth's atmosphere is sufficient to stop meteorites up to a diameter of 10 meters. Fragments can still reach the surface. In1947 an iron-meteorite exploding above the Sikhote-Alin mountains in Siberia sending 100 tons of materials towards the surface, forming there 200 craters. Such celestial bodies are expected to impact every 10 years with earth, bolides, like the one responsible for Tunguska, are estimated to hit every hundred years.
Movies that deal with the impact of a meteorite on earth have a great advantage that they can almost completely define the scenario. No reference exists how an impact would destroy a city or the earth itself. Large impacts are relatively rare in historic times, the most famous (and still controversial) is the Tunguska event in 1908, however, because of the remoteness of the Siberian taiga the damage and the fatalities were limited. Interests on this kind of catastrophe aroused late, only in the mid 20th century the possibility that earth can be hit by large chunks of extraterrestrial material became largely publicized.
In 1994 the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted spectacularly on Jupiter, the event was strongly publicized by most mass media. Maybe influenced by this great interest by the public, since 1997 various movies on meteorites were released. All the movies have little story and content, a disadvantage of impacts is their supposedly short duration. The disintegration and explosion of the extraterrestrial body is followed immediately by firestorms and shockwaves - thus a movie to build suspense has to put the impact to the end. An advantage of an impact is the supposed catastrophic effects, especially of large objects more than 10km in diameter, which can affect the surface of earth worldwide.
"Asteroid" (1997) is a cheap production for television. After the discovery of the approaching asteroid, laser-beams are used to destroy it. However some fragments reach earth and still manage to destroy some cities.
In the more expensive, but nevertheless also stupid, "Armageddon" (1998, 140 million in the budget) a crew of unsympathetically characters is sent onto the approaching asteroid with an estimated diameter of more than 1.000km (the size of Texas) to detonate an atomic bomb and disintegrate the mass. The bomb is planted in just 250m depth on a more than 1.000km large mass - why even bother to drill? Also by detonating the bomb, and considering the inertia of the asteroid, simply a rain of minor chunks will bombard earth - causing worldwide havoc.
The introduction of the movie also mentions the Chicxulub-impact - it happened in the past, it will happen again.
Also, the "Super Mario Bros." movie (1993) starts with the premise of the Chicxulub-impact. Here the cosmic rock ripped apart space-time and produces an alternative earth, still ruled by the descendants of dinosaurs.
Movies that deal with the impact of a meteorite on earth have a great advantage that they can almost completely define the scenario. No reference exists how an impact would destroy a city or the earth itself. Large impacts are relatively rare in historic times, the most famous (and still controversial) is the Tunguska event in 1908, however, because of the remoteness of the Siberian taiga the damage and the fatalities were limited. Interests on this kind of catastrophe aroused late, only in the mid 20th century the possibility that earth can be hit by large chunks of extraterrestrial material became largely publicized.
In 1994 the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted spectacularly on Jupiter, the event was strongly publicized by most mass media. Maybe influenced by this great interest by the public, since 1997 various movies on meteorites were released. All the movies have little story and content, a disadvantage of impacts is their supposedly short duration. The disintegration and explosion of the extraterrestrial body is followed immediately by firestorms and shockwaves - thus a movie to build suspense has to put the impact to the end. An advantage of an impact is the supposed catastrophic effects, especially of large objects more than 10km in diameter, which can affect the surface of earth worldwide.
"Asteroid" (1997) is a cheap production for television. After the discovery of the approaching asteroid, laser-beams are used to destroy it. However some fragments reach earth and still manage to destroy some cities.
In the more expensive, but nevertheless also stupid, "Armageddon" (1998, 140 million in the budget) a crew of unsympathetically characters is sent onto the approaching asteroid with an estimated diameter of more than 1.000km (the size of Texas) to detonate an atomic bomb and disintegrate the mass. The bomb is planted in just 250m depth on a more than 1.000km large mass - why even bother to drill? Also by detonating the bomb, and considering the inertia of the asteroid, simply a rain of minor chunks will bombard earth - causing worldwide havoc.The introduction of the movie also mentions the Chicxulub-impact - it happened in the past, it will happen again.
Also, the "Super Mario Bros." movie (1993) starts with the premise of the Chicxulub-impact. Here the cosmic rock ripped apart space-time and produces an alternative earth, still ruled by the descendants of dinosaurs.
"Meteorites!" is another TV-production from 1998 dealing with a shower of meteorites that cause havoc and destruction in a small American town. "Tycus" (1998) and "The Apocalypse" (surprisingly released in 1997) are also both cheap productions intended for the video-market and dealing somehow with comets. "Meteor Apocalypse" (2009) is produced and distributed by The Asylum Films, a company famous for their movies ripoffs. Here the melting ice from a comet contaminates the groundwater of earth.
A much earlier movie on meteorites is "Meteor" (1979), with an only 8km in diameter large meteorite that will hit earth in 6 days. To build up suspense smaller chunks (it seems that meteorites in movies never travel alone, however, we could assume that gravitational forces split up larger asteroids/comets, like Shoemaker-Levy 9) hit earth also during the last week of the earth. Finally, again rockets are used to blast the nearby meteor into pieces, but again chunks fall on earth causing havoc. The special effects are terrifying cheap, even considering the year.
The movie mentions also the source of the idea of using bombs to stop the meteor: "Project Icarus", developed in 1968 it was an assignment by Professor Paul Sandorff for a group of MIT graduate students to design a way to deflect asteroid "1566 Icarus", found to be on a collision course with planet Earth, using rockets. Just in 1960 the geologist Eugene Shoemaker settled the debate about the origin of a crater in Arizona, confirming an older hypothesis that it was not of volcanic origin but formed 50.000 years ago by an impact.
However, the prototype for all these movies seems to be "When Worlds Collide" (1951), where an entire planet is hurling towards earth. The movie concentrates mostly on the construction of a 20th-century ark, a spaceship that will evacuate samples of animals and a bunch of people to a new home.
"The Day The Sky Exploded" (1958) is an Italian science-fiction story with a slightly modified
version of the asteroid-scenario: here a lost spaceship with an atomic engine first explodes inside a swarm of asteroids, changing their orbit towards earth.
To prevent the final impact all nations of earth fire contemporary their nuclear weapons towards the swarm.
It's interesting to note that movies produced previously of 1960 (when most advances in the investigation of impacts were done) use mostly planets rather than asteroids as a threat to the earth.
The movie mentions also the source of the idea of using bombs to stop the meteor: "Project Icarus", developed in 1968 it was an assignment by Professor Paul Sandorff for a group of MIT graduate students to design a way to deflect asteroid "1566 Icarus", found to be on a collision course with planet Earth, using rockets. Just in 1960 the geologist Eugene Shoemaker settled the debate about the origin of a crater in Arizona, confirming an older hypothesis that it was not of volcanic origin but formed 50.000 years ago by an impact.
However, the prototype for all these movies seems to be "When Worlds Collide" (1951), where an entire planet is hurling towards earth. The movie concentrates mostly on the construction of a 20th-century ark, a spaceship that will evacuate samples of animals and a bunch of people to a new home.
"The Day The Sky Exploded" (1958) is an Italian science-fiction story with a slightly modified
To prevent the final impact all nations of earth fire contemporary their nuclear weapons towards the swarm.
It's interesting to note that movies produced previously of 1960 (when most advances in the investigation of impacts were done) use mostly planets rather than asteroids as a threat to the earth.
"Planet on the Prowl" (1966) is another Italian movie, following the tradition of meteors-movies, however here it is the gravitational force that unleashes storms, waves and disasters on earth. A team is sent into space to destroy the planet, but here they discover that the celestial body is a living (!) cybernetic organism that will not simply surrender without a fight. A very similar plot was already used by director Antonio Margheriti in "Battle of the Worlds" (1961), where the mainframe of an alien spaceship, mimicking a planet, is attacking earth.KAY, G. & ROSE, M. (2006): Disaster Movies. A Loud, Long, Explosive, Star-Studded Guide to Avalanches, Earthquakes, Floods, Meteors, Sinking Ships, Twisters, Viruses, Killer Bees, Nuclear Fallout, and Alien Attacks in the Cinema!!!! Chicago Review Press: 402
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