Meteor

PG

Released Oct 19, 1979

1h 47m

Sci-Fi

List

5%

22 Reviews

Tomatometer

14%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

In this disaster movie, Americans and Soviets must put aside their differences to save civilization from a huge meteor bearing down on the planet. Paul Bradley (Sean Connery) enlists the expertise of fellow scientist Alexei Dubov (Brian Keith), who is joined by his beautiful assistant, Tatiana Donskaya (Natalie Wood). Although Paul and Tatiana are attracted to each other, they wisely focus on taking out the meteor, which may still cause massive destruction even if it is partially damaged.

Read More

Read Less

Prime Video

Rent Meteor on Prime Video, or buy it on Prime Video.

Critics Consensus

Meteor is a flimsy flick with too much boring dialogue and not enough destruction. At least the pinball game is decent.

Read Critics Reviews

Blu B

It's almost fasinating especially during the final 30 minutes how the mass destruction of NYC and escaping into the flooded subway is somehow the most boring part of the movie. The pacing is what is the deathblow to this above all else. It's horrifcally bad while everything else is subpar. The first 45 minutes is nothing but talking and talking and more talking about explaining the plot in a boring monotone way. This is also very boring to look at most of the time. The special effects aren't that good and use lots of stock footage and bad paintings. The space shots of the missles, missles hurling towards the meteor, the meteor itself are soooo boring to look at and are slower than a handicapped snail carrying a brick. It's mind boggling how the director looked at this and thought this was exciting and so cool that we had to keep cutting back to it tons of times. The destruction scenes are ok enough I guess except the NYC ending one and probably the best part. There is next to no character devlopment in this. Everyone just explains plot and has no chemistry. It's so evident Connery is just here for a paycheck. The music is barely used and when it is you almost don't even notice it playing. It's amazing howthe ending 30 minutes is the worst part and gets insanely boring and them escaping into the subway it comes out of nowhere and is so out of place and drags terribly. This alternates between talking about expose, show generic destruction, boring space, rinse and repeat. It's insane how boring this gets. The space shots needed to be completely reshot in a more exciting way or not have them at all. Fail Safe (1964) somehow made dots on a screen seem much more riveting than this does showing nuke and massive destruction. This also squanders any Cold War commentary this could've had about nations coming together to set aside their differences because of the poor execution and wanting to show brainless destruction. The first half is oddly enough the better part. Skip this completely. There is way better disaster stuff than this.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/15/24

Full Review

MATT M

It wasn't bad for a 70s flick. Good acting , Good actors, ok script. Worth a watch on a Sunday afternoon

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

09/21/23

Full Review

Richard B

A very good disaster movie starring Sean Connery with a strong supporting cast. Certainly worth watching and very enjoyable, as long as you remember it's from 1979

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/09/23

Full Review

Steve D

The only thing it does right is have the entire world involved in the mission.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

08/15/23

Full Review

antonis k

Not even the likes of Connery, Fonda and Landau can save 'Meteor' from the destruction of it's boring plot, uninteresting characters and just boredom. (4/10)

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"Meteor" is a latter day attempt to do a big budget version of the B-movie Sci-Fi ones from the fifties in the post Star-Wars era of big budgets and special effects. And in color. It stars Sean Connery and Natalie Wood along with a lot of other big names. The world is facing destruction from a large meteor headed towards us. It's part Science Fiction and part disaster movie and you can see remnants of both, but it doesn't work as either. Sean Connery is supposed to be our top scientist in handling this but he just walks around, talks a lot and doesn't actually do anything. Natalie Wood plays a translator for Connery's Russian counterpart, Brian Keith, in an attempt to say something about the Cold War. The special effects aren't bad for the time period but the movie is long and slow moving and fails to develop any suspense. Natalie Wood is good in an understated part, Connery looks like he'd rather be elsewhere. It's a time passer, but nothing else.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Ronald Neame

Director

Sean Connery

Paul Bradley

Natalie Wood

Tatiana Donskaya

Karl Malden

Harry Sherwood

Brian Keith

Dr. Dubov

Martin Landau

General Adlon

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

93%

82%

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

41%

45%

The Black Hole

83%

69%

Flash Gordon

52%

88%

Somewhere in Time

5%

25%

Empire of the Ants

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

Sean Connery Earns AFI’s Highest Honor

View more photos

Empire Magazine

If you're ever asked just how bad the disaster movie could get, this is the answer.

Rated: 1/5

May 25, 2015

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Meteor really combines several disasters in one continuous cinematic bummer.

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

Tom Milne

Time Out

See it on peril of death by boredom.

Jun 24, 2006

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…an absolutely laughable endeavour, Meteor is a can’t miss prospect when a sitting target for derision is required…

Rated: 2/5

Oct 22, 2023

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

The cast includes Martin Landau (in the hammy portion of his career) as a Russkie-hating officer, Sybil Danning as a skier who gets buried under a mountain of Styrofoam -- excuse me, snow -- and “Henry Fonda as The President.”

Rated: 1.5/4

Mar 5, 2023

Full Review

John Brosnan

Starburst

Meteor is more like something made by Irwin Allen on one of his bad days, and you can't get much worse than that.

Jul 25, 2022

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

In this disaster movie, Americans and Soviets must put aside their differences to save civilization from a huge meteor bearing down on the planet. Paul Bradley (Sean Connery) enlists the expertise of fellow scientist Alexei Dubov (Brian Keith), who is joined by his beautiful assistant, Tatiana Donskaya (Natalie Wood). Although Paul and Tatiana are attracted to each other, they wisely focus on taking out the meteor, which may still cause massive destruction even if it is partially damaged.

Director: Ronald Neame
Producer: Sandy Howard, Gabriel Katzka
Screenwriter: Stanley Mann, Edmund H. North
Distributor: American International Pictures
Production Co: American International Pictures (AIP)
Rating: PG
Genre: Sci-Fi
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 19, 1979, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 29, 2017
Runtime: 1h 47m

Most Popular at Home Now