Brace for impact, our best asteroid movies, ranked article is coming in hot!

From drama to comedy to unintentional comedy (we’re looking at you, Armageddon), there have been a host of movies, TV shows and miniseries focused on themes of conflict and chaos after a small body whacks our planet.

Happily, real life is not so bleak: NASA and its partners scan the skies regularly for threatening small bodies and so far, in real life, they have found nothing imminently worrying (unless you count Jeff Bezos). But there is a rich history of movies dealing with the consequences of comets and asteroids hurtling themselves towards Earth.

In our rundown of the top asteroid movies, ranked worst to best, are movies that involve a threatening asteroid or a comet and how those who are affected respond to the threat. In the name of inclusion, we’ve got multiple types of beings on this list: humanity, aliens and even some dinosaurs. We've also got some recent additions to our list, including Netflix's hit spoof, Don't Look Up. 

By Elizabeth Howell

Release date: January 24, 2020

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur 

This movie stars Nicholas Cage in a literal H.P. Lovecraft plot based on a 1927 tale of the same name. The plot begins with a somber tone, as Nathan Gardner (Cage) moves his family to a rural area due his wife’s illness. A meteor crashes into their front yard and scares the kids, but that’s not the worst of it. Before long, the space rock gets hit by lightning, the groundwater starts to get infested, and strange beings emerge from the property. It’s a rather oddball horror plot, but Cage – as usual – does a good job keeping a straight face and carrying us viewers through the movie.

Release date: June 21, 1985

Cast: Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, Peter Firth 

Look for a pre-Star Trek: The Next Generation Patrick Stewart in this very British science fiction horror flick. In the movie, a space shuttle crew visits Halley’s Comet (which, at the time, was safely approaching Earth in real life) and discovers a bunch of bat-like lifeforms inside. The crew attempts to take the creatures back with them and, of course, the space shuttle soon disappears and a rescue mission must find out what happened – we’re getting some Alien vibes from this. Bonus points for this plot being a bit creative and where the comet itself didn’t threaten Earth, but comet-dwelling creatures did.

Release date: November 16, 1984

Cast: Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Robert Beltran 

With a bit of an innocent beginning, this movie begins with the Earth passing through the tail of the same comet that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years before. Everyone hosts skywatching parties to celebrate its passage, even though we (the viewers) know that something bad is bound to happen. True to form, the movie quickly progresses from showing terrible relationships and then-cutting edge video games to portraying zombies in the streets. That’s quite the plot twist, but yes, the comet is responsible. The movie is now said to be a cult classic.

Release date: December 18, 1957

Cast: Grant Williams, Lola Albright, Les Tremayne 

Starring Grant Williams (also star of The Incredible Shrinking Man from the same year), this movie shows a huge meteorite crashing into southern California. What happens next isn’t exactly modern-day realistic science, but it’s great fun to watch. The meteorite fragments grow very large when exposed to water, and then they have unexpected effects on the typical small town that seems always in the way of such cosmic events. Soon, there’s worry that these fragments will begin taking over Earth’s entire ecosystem.

Release date: April 27, 1963

Cast: Howard Keel, Nicole Maurey, Janette Scott 

Based on the 1951 novel by John Wyndham of the same name, this film takes threatening small bodies in a very unusual direction. The plot sees most of Earth’s inhabitants blinded by what appears to be a meteor shower (the book speculates it could have been nuclear weapons in orbit accidentally detonating, so take your pick). Then a species of plant, perhaps sensing an opportunity to finally gain control of our planet, begins killing people and taking over cities. This was said to be an inspiration for the much later zombie movie 28 Days Later.

Release date: May 1, 2014

Cast: Tia Carrere, Jason Brooks, Tim Russ 

Following in the footsteps of many movies before this, Asteroid vs Earth comes with a threatening asteroid about to hit the Earth and the American military mobilizing as quickly as it can to save the world. The solution, as they see it, is to blow up the asteroid with nuclear warheads. If that fails, their backup idea is to alter the Earth’s orbit itself to move out of the way. We’ll let you watch the movie to see how successful the military is with this, er, highly implausible idea. The science obviously isn’t so great in this movie, but the plot is entertaining enough.

Release date: May 22, 2001

Cast: Julie Strain, Jeff Wincott, Zerha Leverman 

There’s very little science to this film and many would say there is also little plot, but here goes. Basically, a comet hits Earth and only a few lucky inhabitants of our planet remain. So, of course, evil emerges and somebody has to protect the weak, right? Bonus points, however, for having that strong person be a woman – Julie Strain, trying her best to carry this B-movie plot to a sensible conclusion. Astute viewers may also recognize a young Jeff Wincott, now far better-known for his role in Sons of Anarchy.

Release date: July 22, 2016

Cast: Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo 

This is the fifth movie in the popular Ice Age series of animated films, this time with the ragtag troop facing an accidental launch of deadly meteors to Earth. (We say   “accidental” because it took place while one of the characters was trying to bury an acorn; you’ll have to watch it to believe it.) This is definitely a movie where you’ll have to sort of accept the science explanations as they come, but it is a cute attempt at involving aliens, electro-magnetic properties, and a few other things as prehistoric animals try to stop an incoming threat.

Release date: December 1, 2007

Cast: Cristian Solimeno, James Wilby, James Cosmo 

A comet slams into Ireland with predictable terrible consequences, and naturally the United States is next in line and we have to do something about it this time because… it’s America, we guess? It’s an interesting movie for involving NASA and for everyone’s attempts to try to evacuate 900 million people from the affected area, but the science gets a light touch in favor of the plot. The movie is pretty poorly rated, but might be worth a watch for the entertainment value.

Release date: July 1, 1998

Cast: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck 

Released just weeks after Deep Impact, this movie is probably the most famous among space buffs in terms of ‘worlds colliding’ movies. To stop a huge asteroid from hitting Earth, NASA sends a bunch of oil drillers (led by Bruce Willis and a very young Ben Affleck) to intercept the comet and try to divert it. There are also a few scenes of the space station Mir, which the astronauts visit while on the way to their destination. 

While widely lampooned for its poor science (so it’s safe to say it did not make our top 5 most realistic space movies list), Armageddon was a box office star in its day and had some pretty impressive special effects, so you don’t want to close your eyes, don’t want to fall asleep, ‘cause you’ll miss it baby, and you don't want to miss a thing.

Release date: May 8, 1998

Cast: Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood 

A teenage astronomer (Elijah Wood, prior to his more famous Lord of the Rings trilogy role as Frodo) discovers a comet that before long, poses a serious threat to Earth. Astronauts try to counteract the extinction-level-event by planting nuclear bombs on the surface, which echoes some of the real-life science performed in how to nudge threatening bodies from the path of our planet. The movie gives a glimpse into how to prepare for a comet strike, both from the ground and from space.

You would think with the star power of David Duchovny (X-Files) and Julianne Moore (years before 2006’s Children of Men), Evolution could provide a cute, comedic, space-themed twist to the alien aftermath of a comet hitting Earth, but alas. There are great moments in this film, but it’s pretty uneven. That said, its commitment to science — or at least, lampooning how science is done — is fantastic. 

Look for the scene near the beginning when Duchovny and a colleague are working to figure out this weird blue liquid squeezing out from a meteorite. Also watch for Duchovny’s snarly line to a federal judge later in the film: “We're asking you to make sure that the local scientists who actually made the discovery continue to play a significant role." A+ for inclusion, C- on comedy. 

Release date: May 19, 200

Cast: D. B. Sweeney, Julianna Margulies, Samuel E. Wright 

This early computer-animated film from Disney follows the adventures of an Iguanodon who grows up in a family of lemurs in the tropics. The space connection comes after the family finds themselves under threat from a really bad meteor shower, and not the kind that produces pretty trails in the sky, but a highly unusual shower of meteoroids that slam into Earth. It’s a dinosaur movie that mainly goes into the whole predator-versus-prey problem of nature, but it does integrate a bit of space into the plot.

Release date: July 25, 1986

Cast: Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington 

Complete with Emilio Estevez and an amazing AC/DC 1980s-style soundtrack, this deliberately campy Stephen King story sees Earth going through the tail of a comet. Before long, inanimate machines begin, well, animating (our favorite being the ATM that insults King himself, in a cameo role.) Of course, these machines soon try attacking humans and the humans need to fight back. One person muses that perhaps interstellar aliens did this to take control of our planet, we guess because it seemed too easy to just fly to Earth Independence Day style and take out our infrastructure that way.

Release date: December 18, 2020

Cast: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd 

An interstellar comet turns from a daytime astronomical wonder into a civilization threat. We see the destruction (and how humans either panic or help, depending on their personality) from the eyes of a dad (Gerard Butler) and his struggling family. The movie makes an attempt to integrate real-life science on interstellar comets and how comets strike the Earth. Long-time space fans will also recognize a near-cameo by Scott Glenn, who played Al Shepard in the 1983 Hollywood version of The Right Stuff.

This lampoon of science process, and how the public and politicians react to a potentially deadly comet, is meant to act as a metaphor for the lack of urgency everyone has had in addressing climate change. 

It’s a cute film full of memes and jabs at everyone involved in science communication, with Leonardo DiCaprio starring as a hapless astronomer and Jennifer Lawrence finding out the hard way that PhD astrophysics research can thrust you into the limelight in the worst possible line. Also, Meryl Streep gleefully plays a U.S. president with the worst commander-in-chief qualities you can imagine.

Release date: November 25, 2015

Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Maleah Nipay-Padilla 

This is a cute alternate timeline movie for kids that ask ‘what would happen if the dinosaurs weren’t made extinct by an asteroid slamming into Earth 66 million years ago?’ Without spoiling too much of the adorable plot, millions of years after the asteroid cruises past Earth, an Apatosaurus named Arlo meets a little human in a very strange landscape. While this is more a dinosaur movie than an asteroid movie, in media reports, Pixar did say it deliberately wanted to explore how the Earth’s history would have been different if the asteroid had passed us by.

Release date: June 22, 2012

Cast: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Melanie Lynskey 

Starring a more sweet Steve Carrell than from his more famous role as Michael Scott in The Office, and Keira Knightley after her breakout role as Elizabeth Swann in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the movie sees these two people forming a special relationship just before a killer asteroid hits Earth. The movie focuses more on the strange adventures that this pair has in what we think are the final days of their lives, and the ending is sure to make you want to reach for some tissues.

Release date: November 7, 1997

Cast: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer 

Based on a Robert A. Heinlein 1959 novel with the same name, this famous science fiction film follows the exploits of a futuristic military force trying to fight insectoid aliens and includes a young Neil Patrick Harris among the cast (before his Emmy-nominated performance in How I Met Your Mother. 

The asteroid portion of the film is admittedly a cameo appearance, but you may remember the Arachnids – meaning, the aliens – launching an asteroid to Buenos Aires and wiping out the population there, prompting a key plot twist. Would you like to know more?

Release date: October 7, 2011

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Suntherland 

Okay, technically in this flick it’s a rogue planet about to hit Earth and not a rogue asteroid or comet, but it’s still a fun ride. The plot is more arthouse-focused than others in this list, but essentially it involves two sisters. One of the sisters (Kirsten Dunst) is planning her wedding when the planet is approaching Earth. The planet doesn’t really make an appearance until quite far in the film, but when it does, it’s a pretty cool naked-eye view in the daytime sky.