Director: Ronald Neame
Starring: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Henry Fonda, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard
Running Time: 107 minutes
Synopsis: A huge meteor is discovered hurtling towards Earth, with seven days to impact. Head of NASA Harry Sherwood (Karl Malden) recalls retired scientist Dr. Paul Bradley (Sean Connery) to duty, and the US President (Henry Fonda) places Bradley in control of Hercules, a satellite-based nuclear missile system that can target the meteor. Bradley works with his Soviet counterpart Dubov (Brian Keith) to overcome Cold War tensions and add the Soviet Union's equivalent space missiles to the attack on the meteor. Bradley also tests a romance with Dubov's interpreter Tatiana Donskaya (Natalie Wood), while advance fragments of the meteor start to strike Earth.
What Works Well: The special effects (particularly the close-ups of the space-based missile systems) are sometime adequate, and the combined presence of Sean Connery, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Natalie Wood, and (briefly) Henry Fonda elevates the material. The imperative for the US and the USSR to pause the Cold War and join forces to save Earth is a good subtext.
What Does Not Work As Well: The repetitive scenes of a rock trundling through space are accompanied by a laughable music soundtrack that alternates between bewildering faux triumphalism and befuddling synth horror. Martin Landau as the obstructionist military commander marches into over-the-top territory, and when the special effects are bad, they are really bad: the avalanche in the Alps and the milkshake sewage in New York are particular lowlights. Sean Connery's clumsy attempts to woo Natalie Wood in the midst of an annihilation event are just cringey.
Key Quote:
Bradley (sarcastically trying to impress Tatiana about life in the United States): You'd like it here, you know. We've got everything. Power cuts, strikes, unemployment, race riots, and a terrific crime rate.
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