Super Comet: After the Impact

As a huge comet hurtles towards certain collision with planet Earth, America launches a nuclear warhead in a last, desperate attempt to explode the comet in order to avoid catastrophe. When the attempt fails, survivors of the disaster must try to find a way to live in a world stripped of life's essentials as the comet triggers worldwide tsunamis, molten surface temperatures followed by a new ice age, months of total darkness, and mass extinction of both plants and animals. This “what-if?” Science Channel-aired documentary appears to borrow much of its premise from the fictional films Armageddon and Deep Impact, as it interweaves scientific information with a hypothetical scenario that follows the fortunes of a few individuals and families as they search for ways to deal with the unimaginable. Lacking food, electricity, and means of communication, what's left of the social order threatens to unravel as people migrate toward the coastlines, which seem to offer the best chances of survival. Eventually, the sun returns and nature's wasteland begins to slowly heal, although humankind's future may be radically different from its past. Combining special-effects-laden docudrama sequences with expert interviews, the film mixes sensationalism with science, when a more straightforward approach might have better conveyed the information. Optional. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)