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Deep Impact is another in the long line of Hollywood disaster movies. (Americans seem to take great delight in watching their famous landmarks be destroyed on screen--maybe they feel it is a lucky charm to ward off the real thing.) This movie concerns a large comet which is about to strike the earth, destroying most life.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the movie is what it does not contain. There is only occasional profanity, much less than you would hear in most public places today. The movie also passes up numerous opportunities for sexual scenes, and there is an almost Christian approach to sexual ethics. For instance, there is a Washington sex scandal, which for once turns out to be rumour based on misunderstanding; Washington leaders are actually concentrating on their jobs. A television reporter highly disapproves of her parents' divorce, although in the end she offers forgiveness. A high school student loudly declares that the only advantage of being famous is that it provides the opportunity to have lots of sex. However, the student who discovered the comet barely gets to the hand-holding stage with his girlfriend. He eventually marries her in a Christian wedding, and makes a point of saying that the only thing he has used his fame for is to try to rescue his girlfriend and her family from the coming disaster.
There are other surprising elements. There are positive references to Noah's ark--although a manmade Noah's ark. The US president tells his people that even though many of them do not believe in prayer, he is convinced that God hears all prayers, even if the answer is sometimes no; he then prays for his people the high priest's blessing on Israel from Numbers 6:24-26. In another scene, an astronaut tells his girlfriend that when he returns from a mission to try to deflect the comet, he will marry her, but not in church since he is not religious; at the end of the movie, he tells her to keep doing "the church thing" and says he will be there with her. Most, but not all, people in this movie respond to their impending deaths with dignity. Examples of self-sacrificing love to save others abound. One wonders what is going on in the mind of co-producer Steven Spielberg, who has included positive elements in several of his recent movies.
Deep Impact is not a Christian movie. Technically, it is an average rather than a great movie. But it has elements of goodness that, compared to most of what Hollywood produces, are quite refreshing.
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