Movie · 1979 · Science Fiction, Thriller, Action · 1h 47m · PG · English
Curator score: 0.4/10 (13K ratings)
It's five miles wide... it's coming at 30,000 m.p.h... there's no place on Earth to hide!
Overview
After a collision with a comet, a nearly 8km wide piece of the asteroid "Orpheus" is heading towards Earth. If it hits it will cause an incredible catastrophe which will probably extinguish mankind. To stop the meteor NASA wants to use the illegal nuclear weapon satellite "Hercules" but discovers soon that it doesn't have enough firepower. Their only chance to save the world is to join forces with the USSR who have also launched such an illegal satellite. But will both governments agree?
Ratings
Curator score: 0.4/10
IMDb: 5.1/10
Letterboxd: 2.56/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 5%
Metacritic: 27
TMDB: 5.2/10
Director
Ronald Neame
Production
American International Pictures, Meteor Joint Venture, Palladium Productions
Cast
Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Richard Dysart, Henry Fonda, Joseph Campanella, Bo Brundin, Katherine De Hetre, James G. Richardson, Roger Robinson, Michael Zaslow, John Findlater, Paul Tulley, Allen Williams, Bibi Besch, Gregory Gaye, Clyde Kusatsu
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, TCM, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A star-studded, old-school disaster movie with some amusing Cold War tension and a few effective spectacle beats, but it’s also slow, stiff, and often feels underpowered for its premise. Worth it mainly as a glossy late-70s curiosity rather than a great disaster film.
Best for
fans of 1970s disaster cinema
viewers who enjoy Cold War-era political melodrama
people curious about all-star ensemble oddities
fans of so-bad-it’s-interesting effects and production design
Skip if
you want fast pacing or constant destruction
you need polished visual effects
you dislike earnest, procedural disaster plotting
you’re looking for a top-tier entry in the genre
Overview
Meteor is a very late-70s kind of spectacle: earnest, overcast, and packed with serious faces trying to sell a wildly implausible crisis. The premise has a strong pulp hook, and the Cold War angle gives the movie a little extra tension beyond the usual “save the planet” mechanics. When it works, it’s in the old-fashioned disaster-movie pleasures: officials arguing, scientists improvising, and cities getting reduced to rubble in broad, expensive-looking strokes.
Worth noting
The problem is that the film often feels more dutiful than thrilling. The pacing is sluggish, the effects are uneven, and the script spends a lot of time on setup without generating much momentum. Even with a cast this stacked, the movie doesn’t always know how to use them beyond giving the proceedings a veneer of prestige.
Bottom line
Still, there’s a certain charm in its scale and seriousness. If you like your disaster movies with a retro, slightly creaky texture, Meteor has enough atmosphere and period flavor to make the journey worthwhile. If you want a lean, suspenseful catastrophe film, this one is more of a historical artifact than a must-see.
Top Letterboxd reviews
pirateneckbeard (2.5★) · 153 likes
I wish I could shower Meteor in praise but alas I got asteroid belted by silly story construction and a 70's want to make a grand spectacle of a disaster film.
Even with this illustrious cast and Ronald Naeme as the director who has helmed these controls before we couldn't navigate around these fireballs "cometing" at us. Seriously Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Richard Dysart, Henry Fonda, Joseph Campanella must have thought this… more I wish I could shower Meteor in praise but alas I got asteroid belted by silly story construction and a 70's want to make a grand spectacle of a disaster film.
Even with this illustrious cast and Ronald Naeme as the director who has helmed these controls before we couldn't navigate around these fireballs "cometing" at us. Seriously Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Richard Dysart, Henry Fonda, Joseph Campanella must have thought this… more
Ian Curran (3★) · 74 likes
This movie has a 5% rating on rotten tomatoes, which means 95% of the world is wrong—that’s how it works, right?
I’m not saying this movie is cheap, but any 70’s production that won’t spring for a wig guy for Connery is clearly penny pinching.
Personally I loved the cheap aesthetic and schlocky story. It’s like a warm comfort blanket to me. ☺️
Josh Gillam (3.5★) · 72 likes
Meteor was one of a string of disaster movies made just before the genre came to a close at the end of the decade, standing out for one especially starry cast: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda, Brian Keith, Karl Malden and Trevor Howard bring more class here than there would be on paper, great to watch them bounce off each other as the world-ending threat looms closer.
It’s well done, but I guess problem with using an asteroid or meteor… more
Yo_Roboto (2.5★) · 45 likes
Very boring, but in that very cozy way. They even get a ski scene in somehow.
Interesting in that it's very much a product of the Cold War, where the primary driver of the drama is less “how we gonna stop the meteor” and more about whether the US and the USSR will be able to cooperate to stop the meteor.
The destruction of the Twin Towers by a meteor fragment might be the second craziest coincidental pre-vision of their… more
FiLMLOFTET | Frank (3.5★) · 29 likes
Junesploitation - Day 11: Disasters!
Karl Malden, Henry Fonda, Sean Connery, Richard Dysart, and Martin Landau playing presidents, scientists, and generals is a total blast.
It rides the Star Wars wave (the opening!) and borrows Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek score-element: THE BLASTER BEAM (Worlds coolest instrument). The old-school disaster scenes deliver. Snow buries an Alpine town. A massive tidal wave wipes out Hong Kong. A direct hit smashes New York to pieces.
But the politics are the best part. The… more
1989 · Adventure, Thriller, Science Fiction · 2h 20m · PG-13 · Curator 5.9/10 (360.1K ratings) · Where to watch: Disney Plus
A later, more polished example of crisis-driven science fiction with technical problem-solving and escalating stakes.
Topics
disaster film, Cold War, asteroid threat, nuclear weapons, ensemble cast, 1970s sci-fi, political thriller, catastrophe, retro spectacle, procedural drama