Thursday, May 7, 1998
Special effects movie throws impact on future of
action-adventure genre
FILM: Emotional dilemmas focus
of big budget, star-filled thriller, placing cine on unbroken
ground
By Lonnie Harris
Daily Bruin Contributor
WASHINGTON — America’s top researchers recently discovered a
large comet heading on a path straight for Earth. Impact is
expected to occur within the next nine months, and the destruction
could be massive enough to be considered an Extinction Level Event
(E.L.E.)
If that article did indeed run in the New York Times or the
Washington Post, what would be the world’s reaction?
That is the question posed in "Deep Impact," the first big
special-effects film of the summer, and the first of two major
films about space debris colliding with Earth ("Armageddon," about
asteroids, opens July 2).
"Deep Impact" begins as Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood), a high
school student, discovers a comet hurtling toward Earth during a
routine science class project. After it is determined that the
comet will indeed collide with our planet, the film follows
Biederman, as well as a few other characters.
These auxiliary personalities include a news anchorwoman (Tea
Leoni), her mother (Vanessa Redgrave) and the president of the
United States (Morgan Freeman). As if all of those personalities
weren’t enough to juggle, the film also centers around a team of
astronauts (led by Robert Duvall) assigned to land on the comet and
destroy it with nuclear bombs.
The astronauts are not Earth’s last hope, however. A secondary
plan involves the construction of deep underground caverns to
protect thousands of citizens should the comet indeed hit the
Earth. They are not, however, big enough for everybody. Some people
will have to be left behind to die at the hands of tidal waves and
nuclear winters. These issues are what the characters in "Deep
Impact" are thrust into confronting.
"If an Extinction Level Event did actually occur, the reality of
that occurring would be absolutely horrifying," says director Mimi
Leder ("The Peacemaker"). "How do you portray that emotionally? How
do you tell that story? I chose the approach of the human angle,
which is the only way to approach anything."
All of this emotion and humanity doesn’t exactly make for a
typical summer movie. In a time when movies tend to be all about
spectacle and effects and explosions, "Deep Impact" is trying to
make a serious statement about the nature of humanity.
"I could have done scenes where people on motorcycles shot other
people on motorcycles, in a dog-eat-dog world," Leder says. "But I
think that’s somewhat of an assumption. That did happen off-camera,
but I didn’t want the focus of the movie to be on situations like
that."
It remains to be seen whether or not sentiment can be
competitive with large reptiles crushing New York or that other
"thing falling from space movie" no one wants to talk about –
namely Michael Bey’s "Armageddon."
"("Deep Impact") comes first, so that’s a good thing," producer
Richard Zanuck says. "We’re dealing with a totally different film.
That’s typical summer fare, nuts-and-bolts action. It’s the ‘Die
Hard’ version of the story. Outside of the basic notion of it,
there are very few similarities."
One similarity not mentioned by Zanuck is the requirement for
special effects and enhanced technology to make the situation seem
as realistic as possible. To accomplish the task of making "Deep
Impact" seem relevant and real, Leder brought technical consultants
Gerald Griffin and Chris Lucini.
Griffin aided the filmmakers especially in designing space suits
that could possibly be used by NASA if they were to land astronauts
on a comet, an event which he predicts will occur within the next
10 years.
Physicist Chris Lucini was brought in to work with the special
effects team in designing a realistic comet and help set designers
to construct a surface for the comet that looked reasonable.
"When you’re working on a movie now, you have to consider that
people are pretty smart," Lucini says. "They’ve seen shuttle
flights, and they know how people move around in space. They’ve
seen comets before as well. We all saw Hale-Bopp, so they know what
that looks like. You aren’t able to make a cartoon and have people
suspend disbelief for the movie."
Obviously, amid all of this pretend catastrophe, the cast had to
let off steam. Though Wood observes that "making movies is always
fun," it isn’t easy to be on a set for 14 hours pretending to cry
because your fictional mother will die at the hands of a comet. To
deal with the difficulty of the subject matter, some cast members
found it necessary to act silly or make jokes to lighten the
mood.
"If I could have laughed, I would have," Leoni says. "If I could
have cracked a smile, in one of my scenes, I would have. This isn’t
that type of movie. We all did need to be able to blow off steam.
When we heard the director say ‘cut,’ a lot of times people would
start giggling for no reason. It was because we needed a little
levity."
Levity was also necessary on the space shuttle set, where the
actors portraying astronauts were cooped up for hours on end.
Fortunately, it was somewhat fun for some of the actors (mostly
male) to get the opportunity to play the "hero" role.
"When you’re a guy, and you get into acting, you always
fantasize about playing a soldier, a cowboy and an astronaut," Jon
Favreau says. "Let me make it clear, for all you out there, I’m a
big wuss. I’m a lover, not a fighter."
FILM: "Deep Impact" opens Friday.
DreamWorks Pictures
Morgan Freeman stars as President Beck in "Deep Impact."
DreamWorks Pictures
Trapped on a jammed highway, onlookers watch in horror
as the comet approaches.