Collision Earth

Collision Earth
Written by	Ryan Landels
Directed by	Paul Ziller
Starring	Kirk Acevedo Diane Farr
Music by	Michael Neilson
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Joseé Bernard Tom Berry Lisa M. Hansen Paul Hertzberg
Producer	John Prince
Cinematography	Tom Harting
Editor	Christopher A. Smith
Running time	95 minutes
Production companies	Colliding Pictures CineTel Films
Original release
Network	Syfy
Release	March 26, 2011 (2011-03-26) (U.S.)
Release	December 31, 2011 (2011-12-31) (Canada)

Collision Earth is a Canadian disaster television film directed by Paul Ziller. It was released in 2011 for broadcast on the Syfy Channel and later distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment on Blu-ray.

Plot

In the year 2029, the spacecraft Nautilus is getting prepared to land on the planet Mercury. On board is Commander Marshall Donnington, Pilot Lee Tahon, and Flight Engineeer Victoria Preston. However, during their orbital insertion, a sudden and unpredicted solar flare erupts from the sun and hits Mercury and starts to magnetize and tear the planet apart. Their ship Nautilus manages to escape danger at the beginning of the event but then is caught in it when the engines fail. Mercury then fractures but stays together because of the magnetism and is pushed out of its orbit, starting on a collision course with Earth.

Meanwhile, in a university auditorium on Earth, scientist James Preston explains how unpredictable asteroids, solar flares, and comets 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 and moving anything metal.

Meanwhile, Nautilus is shown drifting in space with low oxygen levels and damaged navigation and communication systems. Marshall and Victoria both survived the event, but Lee did not; they find his body covered with severe burns. Meanwhile, at Sphere, they calculate that Mercury will miss Earth by a distance of 500,000 miles. Back aboard 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 and explains to him that something is not right. Victoria manages to fix the communication and make contact with a pirate radio station owned by two seniors at North Bay University in Oregon. 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 for one millisecond. Unexpectedly, magnetized pieces of Mercury start entering the atmosphere. After the meteor shower, Preston retrieves a meteorite and determines that it is magnetized.

Later, Brooke and Christopher regain contact with Nautilus and want them to go to mission ops, but it is in Houston, so they go to Sphere, south of Seattle. 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. Recalculating, they realize 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 Edward's 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. Once informed of the magnetism, she has the idea of using a slingshot maneuver to break free and go back to Earth. Unfortunately, they lose contact again.

When Preston gets on his computer, he realizes that the Project Seven guidance system is damaged. Matthew comes up with a plan that Nautilus can tug Project Seven in between the planets. Preston then goes to a fallback facility where the top secret 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, and in under fifteen minutes, no less. 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, they decide to walk. While Victoria is headed back to Earth, Preston asks her to tether Project Seven to the front of Mercury to change its vector. They then steal a police officer's car but get into an accident along the way, severely injuring Brooke. They leave her behind, and some time later 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 respective views. A scene from outside of Nautilus shows asteroid debris from Mercury that had formed into rings around Earth.

Cast

• Kirk Acevedo as James Preston
• Diane Farr as Victoria Preston
• Chad Krowchuk as Christopher Weaver
• Jessica Parker Kennedy as Brooke Adamson
• Adam Greydon Reid as Matthew Keyes
• Andrew Arlie as Edward Rex
• David Lewis as Marshall Donnington
• Catherine Lough Haggquist as Jennifer Kelly

Critical reception

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

See also

• Mercury in fiction
• List of Canadian films
• List of Canadian films of 2011

External links

• Collision Earth at IMDb