''Collision Earth'' is a Canadian disaster television film directed by Paul Ziller. It was released in 2011 for broadcast on the

Syfy Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

and later distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment on Blu-ray.

Plot

In the year 2029, the ''Nautilus'' spacecraft is getting prepared to land on the planet Mercury. On board is

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain ...

Marshall Donnington,

Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

Lee Tahon, and Flight Cruiser Victoria Preston. However, during their orbit capture, a sudden and unpredicted

solar flare A solar flare is an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and other sola ...

erupts from the sun and hits Mercury and starts to magnetize and tear the planet apart. The ''Nautilus'' manages to escape danger at the beginning of the event but then is caught in it when the engines fail. Mercury then starts to fall apart but stays together because of the magnetism and is pushed out of its

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such a ...

, starting on a

collision course {{wiktionary A collision course, also known as a ''kamikaze run'', is the deliberate maneuver by the operator of a moving object (or often in Sci-Fi a spaceship) to collide with another object. It is a desperate maneuver since it often damages ...

with

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

. An instant later, in a university auditorium,

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...

James Preston explains how unpredictable the

asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

solar flares A solar flare is an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and other sola ...

, and

comets A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...

are. He then describes a planetary defense system called Project Seven. After the lecture, a person from mission ops with the ''Nautilus'' explains that they have lost contact with the craft. Preston quickly runs home and tries to contact mission ops, but is unsuccessful. He then contacts Jennifer Kelly, a scientist working at a facility called Sphere. While on the phone, Preston gets command codes for Project Seven just before the power goes out in his house. Later, a magnetic wave passes Earth, damaging several

satellites A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...

and moving anything metal. Meanwhile, the ''Nautilus'' is shown drifting in space with low

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as we ...

levels and damaged

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

and

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqu ...

systems. Marshall and Victoria both survived the event, but Lee did not. They find him with severe burns and is not breathing. Meanwhile, at Sphere, they find out that Mercury will miss Earth by a distance of 500,000 miles. Back on the ''Nautilus'', the oxygen levels are fixed and Marshall stabilizes the ship. They then start working on fixing the navigation and communication systems. Back on Earth, Preston arrives at his friend's

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. H ...

and explains to him that something is not right. Victoria manages to fix the communication and somehow connects to a

pirate radio station Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that Radio broadcasting, broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are receive ...

owned by two seniors at North Bay University in

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

. The ''Nautilus'' manages to connect to Christopher Weaver and Brooke Adamson. But they later lose the signal. Preston's friend Matthew Keyes explains to Preston that the sun became a

magnetar A magnetar is a type of neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field (∼109 to 1011 T, ∼1013 to 1015 G). The magnetic-field decay powers the emission of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, particularly X-rays and gamma rays.War ...

for one millisecond. Unexpectedly, magnetized pieces of Mercury start entering the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. ...

. After the

meteor shower A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extr ...

, Preston retrieves a

meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mic ...

and concludes that it is magnetized. Later, Brooke and Christopher regain contact with the ''Nautilus'' and want them to go to mission ops but it is

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

, so they go to Sphere south of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. When the guards at Sphere don't believe Christopher and Brooke, Victoria sends them to Preston's house in Pacific Grove. Preston arrives at Sphere and manages to get in even though he is not authorized. He tells his old boss Edward Rex to recalculate the planet's

trajectory A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete ...

. They then deduce that Mercury is on a collision course with Earth with impact in 18 hours. Rex decides to go with "Operation Recourse" instead of Project Seven. But while they talk, Preston manages to sneak his security badge off of him. When Christopher and Brooke arrive at Preston's house, he is not home, so they go in through his back door and accidentally turn on his computer and look at the Project Seven calculations as Preston walks in. They tell him that his wife sent them and proves it by turning on his radio and he manages to talk to Victoria. When she thinks of magnetism, she thinks of a slingshot maneuver to break free and go back to Earth. But then they lose contact again. When Preston gets on his computer, he realizes that the Project Seven

guidance system A guidance system is a virtual or physical device, or a group of devices implementing a controlling the movement of a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or any other moving object. Guidance is the process of calculating the changes ...

is damaged. Matthew comes up with a plan that the ''Nautilus'' can tug Project Seven in between the

planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...

. Preston then goes to a fallback facility where the

top secret Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to kn ...

files are located. While on his way to the fallback facility, his car gets stolen so he walks for a while and then gets picked up by Brooke and Christopher. Meanwhile, Victoria manages to pull off the slingshot maneuver, but as a result, the life support system is damaged; Victoria manages to fix it in under fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, not listening to Preston's science, Rex launches the missiles toward Mercury, but they explode before they get to the planet due to Mercury's magnetism forcing the missiles to go off course. When Brooke and Christoper's car breaks down because of the

alternator An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.G ...

, they decide to walk. While Victoria is headed back to Earth, Preston asks her to

tether A tether is a cord, fixture, or flexible attachment that characteristically anchors something movable to something fixed; it also maybe used to connect two movable objects, such as an item being towed by its tow. Applications for tethers include ...

Project Seven to in front of Mercury to deflect it. They then steal a police officer's car but get into an accident along the way, severely injuring Brooke. Since she is not breathing, they leave her behind and some time later they find Jennifer dead and so take her badge to access the fallback facility. When they get to the facility they find a computer and send activation codes for the energy field to Project Seven thus enabling the energy field. Victoria docks with Project Seven and guides it to Mercury and undocks with it before impact. Preston and Christopher then run outside and see Mercury moving away from Earth. They then contact Victoria, who managed to escape and they tell each other about their prospective views. A scene from outside of the ''Nautilus'', shows

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic o ...

debris from Mercury that had formed into

rings Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

around Earth.

Cast

Kirk Acevedo Kirk M. Acevedo (born November 27, 1971) is an American actor. He is primarily known for his work on television for the portrayals of Miguel Alvarez in the HBO series '' Oz'', Joe Toye in '' Band of Brothers'', and FBI Agent Charlie Francis i ...

as James Preston *

Diane Farr Diane Farr (born September 7, 1969) is an American actress, producer, and writer. She is known for her roles as the FBI agent Megan Reeves in the CBS television series ''Numb3rs'' and the firefighter Laura Miles in '' Rescue Me''. Life and ...

as Victoria Preston * Chad Krowchuk as Christopher Weaver *

Jessica Parker Kennedy Jessica Parker Kennedy (born October 3, 1984) is a Canadian actress. She played Melissa Glaser on the CW series '' The Secret Circle'', Max on the Starz original series '' Black Sails'' and Nora West-Allen / XS on ''The Flash'', and has also ap ...

as Brooke Adamson * Adam Greydon Reid as Matthew Keyes * Andrew Arlie as Edward Rex * David Lewis as Marshall Donnington *

Catherine Lough Haggquist Catherine Lough Haggquist is a Canadian actress, producer and entrepreneur. She has over 125 acting credits on film and television, including three seasons as Inspector Nora Harris on the sci-fi television series '' Continuum'' and recurring rol ...

as Jennifer Kelly

Critical reception

The film was criticized for overused plot elements and low-budget special effects.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1887703 Canadian disaster films 2011 television films 2011 films CineTel Films films Canadian action television films Disaster television films English-language Canadian films Films about astronauts Fiction set on Mercury (planet) Films directed by Paul Ziller 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films Canadian adventure television films

Plot

Cast

Critical reception

See also

References

External links