10 best comet, meteor and asteroid movies and TV
What distinguishes a meteoroid, meteor, meteorite, asteroid and comet makes little difference in a disaster movie (though comet seems by far the most popular choice). For all intents and purposes, it’s a big rock hurtling towards earth, threatening destruction and annihilation. Mankind vs a bit of rock? I’m always rooting for the bit of rock.
1. Coherence, 2013 [Comet]
One of the only films on the list with no special effects at all, it’s also the scariest and most confusing, containing tropes from horror and time travel films. In fact, it should do for comets what Primer did for time travel.
2. Melancholia, 2011 [Conjunction, giant-impact hypothesis or synestia]
Though it’s not a comet, meteor or asteroid, Melancholia (pictured) concerns a planet colliding with earth, so it still gets on the list as a big rock hitting us, plus it’s a beautiful and stunning film. The giant-hypothesis proposes that the moon formed from a planet the size of Mars colliding with a proto-Earth. A synestia is the proposed name for the molten rock that forms when two planets collide.
3. Day of the Triffids, 1981 TV series [Meteor shower]
Far superior to other adaptions of the classic John Wyndham novel, this one scared the hell out of me in 1981 and still packs a punch today.
4. Night of the Comet, 1984 [Comet]
A comet passing over earth turns most of the population to dust or zombies. Two valley girls survive and dance to Cyndi Lauper in a shopping mall – mostly having more fun than the Dawn of the Dead survivors. L.A. is all neon-lit interiors and empty, calcium-dusted orange skyscrapers and freeways. Fun and scary sci-hi horror.
5. Greenland, 2020 [Comet]
Gerard Butler and family embark on a perilous journey to find sanctuary in Greenland before a comet hits.
6. Deep Impact, 1998 [Comet]
A comet is hurtling towards earth. Luckily there’s Morgan Freeman as the President of the United States to explain imminent annihilation in soothing tones, and Robert Duvall to blow up the comet with nuclear bombs.
7. Armageddon, 1998 [Asteroid]
A bunch of oil riggers, including Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Billy Bob Thornton, are sent into space to blow up an asteroid with nuclear bombs. Sound familiar (see #6)? Released just weeks after Deep Impact, it fared much better at the box office, the blue collar characters and distrust of science stance apparently striking a chord with moviegoers.
8. Lifeforce, 1985 [Comet]
Three sexy, naked space vampires (two men barely seen, and a woman who bares all throughout) invades London and turns the population into zombies. A commercial and critical failutre, this ludricious film has since become a cult classic.
9. Maximum Overdrive, 1986 [Comet]
Stephen King’s only directorial outing is a comedy horror where machines start attacking humans after a comet passes nearby earth.
10. You, Me and the Apocalypse, 2015 TV series [Comet]
A bunch of people struggle with the apocalypse when they learn a comet is coming towards earth. British-American miniseries whose working title was Apocalypse Slough.
