Meteor (1979)

The U.S. must join forces with the U.S.S.R. in order to destroy a gigantic asteroid heading straight for Earth.

Director:

Ronald Neame

Writers:

Stanley Mann (screenplay), Edmund H. North (screenplay)

Stars:

Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Connery	...	Paul Bradley
Natalie Wood	...	Tatiana Donskaya
Karl Malden	...	Harry Sherwood
Brian Keith	...	Dr. Dubov
Martin Landau	...	General Adlon
Trevor Howard	...	Sir Michael Hughes
Richard Dysart	...	Secretary of Defense
Henry Fonda	...	The President
Joseph Campanella	...	General Easton
Bo Brundin	...	Rolf Manheim
Katherine De Hetre	...	Jan Watkins
James G. Richardson	...	Alan Marshall
Roger Robinson	...	Bill Hunter
Michael Zaslow	...	Sam Mason
John McKinney	...	Peter Watson

Storyline

After a collision with a comet, a nearly five mile (eight kilometer) wide piece of the asteroid "Orpheus" is heading toward Earth. If it hits, it will cause an incredible catastrophe which will probably extinguish mankind. To stop the meteor, N.A.S.A. wants to use the illegal nuclear weapon satellite "Hercules", but soon discovers that it doesn't have enough firepower. Their only chance to save the world is to join forces with the U.S.S.R., which has also launched such an illegal satellite. But will both governments agree?

---

Plot Keywords:

asteroid | meteor | nuclear weapon | astronaut | politics | 

---

Taglines:

There's No Place On Earth To Hide!

---

Genres:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA Hong Kong

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

19 October 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Meteoro

Filming Locations:

Richmond, Virginia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$16,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,250,000, 19 October 1979, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$8,400,000, 31 December 1979

Company Credits

Production Co:

American International Pictures (AIP), Meteor Joint Venture, Palladium Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A million pounds of Bentonite imitation mud were used to film the New York City subway disaster on Stage 30 of the MGM Studio. The stage housed a tank and high-speed drainage system, which was used for many of the old Esther Williams MGM musicals that featured swimming pools. The New York City subway system was constructed inside the empty swimming pool. The sequence took eight to fourteen days to shoot, runs less than four minutes on-screen, and cost around one and a half million dollars to shoot.

---

Goofs

The meteoroid is headed for Earth at about 35,000 miles an hour, and it will hit Earth in a week. At 35,000 miles an hour, an object would take at least six months to travel from the asteroid belt to Earth orbit.

---

Quotes

Dr. Paul Bradley: Why don't you stick a broom up my ass? I can sweep the carpet on the way out.

---

Crazy Credits

Info panel and Voice Over about a real defence project Icarus, similar to the one in the film.

---

Alternate Versions

In early television broadcasts, the "Fuck the Dodgers!" line was overdubbed by coughing or the entire toast was simply cut.

---

Connections

Referenced in Deep Impact (1998)

User Reviews

Perestroika Saves The World

Meteor and When Time Ran Out marked the end of the decade of the disaster epic. I guess that Hollywood was just running out of ideas and that the formula of getting a bunch of big name players and put them in harm's way was wearing thin.

You can see that just about everybody here is bored, they all say the lines without any real conviction. Except for Martin Landau. As an Air Force General and Cold Warrior of the first order, he's extremely upset that the USA and the USSR have buried their differences to work on a real immediate problem. He resents Russians Brian Keith and Natalie Wood in the war room and Landau overacts outrageously.

A comet hurtling through the asteroid belt hit one of the big asteroids and sent one big chunk of rock and a whole bunch smaller ones as space calling cards speeding to Earth. That big guy if it hits spells the end of life on the planet.

Some criticism has been made that the special effects were a bit cheesy. By today's standards of course they were. So are some of those of the great Cecil B. DeMille. That's progress for you.

I'm not sure but this may have been the first time that Natalie Wood played someone of her own ancestry on film. Too bad she and Sean Connery as the NASA scientist didn't get to do something better before she passed away.

All the stars got a good pay day out of this though Sean Connery said there were some real scary moments with the cast trying to escape through the subway system with all the mud. A few times some people came close to really being buried in it for art's sake.

And this isn't a film to give your life for.