A deadly meteor storm has been labeled a one-time celestial occurrence, but astrophysicist Steve Thomas believes something worse is yet to come. After discovering his asteroid tracking satellite is secretly being used for military surveillance, Steve leaks the truth to the press, and it costs him his reputation, his job, and his friends. With the backlash of being a whistle-blower, the pressure threatens to tear his family apart, just when Steve discovers a threat to the entire planet: a giant dark asteroid invisible to current detection systems will soon strike the Earth. Barred from using his own satellite to prove the asteroid's existence, Steve is forced to work in the shadows in a desperate attempt to save humanity.
Deep Impact is a 1998 American science fiction disaster film directed by Mimi Leder, written by Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin, and starring Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell, and Morgan Freeman. Steven Spielberg served as an executive producer of this film. It was released by Paramount Pictures in North America and by DreamWorks Pictures internationally on May 8, 1998. The film depicts humanity's attempts to prepare for and destroy a 7-mile (11 km) wide comet set to collide with Earth and cause a mass extinction.