MovieChat Forums > Deep Impact (1998) Discussion > Why didn't the people on the East coast ...

Why didn't the people on the East coast of the US get out in time?

posted 9 years ago by AdmiralRaddus
16 replies | jump to latest

They knew the comet would hit in the atlantic ocean and cause a massive tidal wave. Yet we still see a very crowded New York city and Thea Leoni and her dad were even on the beach. Why didn't everyone evacuate long before the impact? Were they all suicidal?

Otherwise good movie. I always prefered it to Armageddon. It presents the impending comet impact and the effect it has on society in a realistic way, keeps all the spectacle low and the buildup to the impact is perfect. The effects also still hold up very well imho. Definately one of the best disaster movies ever.

Damn you Lindelof!

[–] MoviemanCin 9 years ago

I wondered that too. That was stupid. The effects were pretty good, and it was poignant to see the WTC towers again, even as they were about to be destroyed, again.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.

[–] SpiltPersonality 9 years ago

Well, if you have no chance for survival (which is what the perception was), why move?

[–] artsavant 9 years ago

Getting out of NYC or any big northeastern city quickly without a helicopter is pretty much impossible. I live in the Capital, and the evacuation plans include closing mass transit and directing everyone north on one major street. In other words, if you're not rich or in line for the Presidency, you don't get a chance.

Since I'd never make it to the 25-mile radius beyond ground zero in the 20-minute warning period we'd have, I keep a chilled bottle of Veuve Clicquot to take up on the roof and watch the incoming missles, wave, gargantua, UFO, and/or zombies.

[–] KingCobra686 9 years ago

Most people living in the city dont have cars either. What are they gonna do? Take a subway to Avis and pick out a nice rental?

I like your plan a lot better.

[–] MoviemanCin 9 years ago

LOL!

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.

[–] keysersoze (1) 8 years ago

Unfortunately people were not allowed to leave until the selected million were all at the underground destination.

President Morgan Freeman announces the rules after the first attempt to blow up the comet fails.

The plan was save humanity. On August 10th 800,000 people would be randomly selected and at that point he declared marshal law (National curfew).
And then MSNBC reporter lays the rules out:
On August 12th the people who are randomly selected and the other pre-selected would evacuate to the caves which would take no longer than two days. No one else in the country would be permitted to travel (e.g. making sure the 1 Million people would make it to the caves traffic free).

So essentially the rest of the country was sitting ducks so when they finally knew where the comet would impact, no one could get away in time in the major metropolitan cities. It's quite sad actually.

When I think of a major city trying to evacuate, the thing I remember was Houston when everyone was fleeing the hurricane back in 2008:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Hurricane-Rita-anxiety-leads-to-hellish-fatal-6521994.php

It was disastrous and no one could go anywhere and Houston is no where near as congested as the northeast cities and Washington DC.

[–] TexasJack (12516) 8 years ago

Very dumb plan. Why not get the "Ark" people selected and moved sooner? Why not evacuate the coasts since there is a 70% chance that the thing lands in the water? And why was Morgan Freeman still President after making these stupid decisions that cost countless lives??

[–] The LA Baker (971) 8 years ago

They didn't know where it would impact until a couple hours ahead of time. Had they evacuated millions of people to central US, and it hit there, that would be even worse. What makes no sense to me is why they didn't know where it would hit until so close to impact. Surely they could have calculated that at JPL or something, but maybe not. I'm no rocket scientist.
What bad decisions did the president make? I can't remember.

[–] Apis (1624) 8 years ago

I guess the authorities didn't expect anyone on surface to survive. Remember, nobody knew that the comet will split in half. They expected the whole comet to strike the Earth and wipe out all the life on planet. In that case it's all the same if you drown in initial impact (tidal wave) or later when food runs out.

[–] liscarkat (18410) 8 months ago

Why is a man still president, after so many stupid decisions? A question rational people keep asking in March of 2024.

[–] fani (431) 6 years ago

You forget that there was an even larger piece comet about to hit somewhere. Maybe North America, maybe Asia. It wasn't really clear.

So what really is the point of going anywhere. You can't really do much except take chances with the tidal wave

[–] Costumer (1822) 5 years ago

It was very clear. They specifically say it would impact in Western Canada.

[–] ramcha (62) 5 years ago

but that comet was expected to cause worldwide extinction. reports of plant lasting few weeks and animals lasting few months was shown in the news.

[–] Forky (1739) 5 years ago

This! No plans were made for a smaller piece hitting somewhere else.

[–] fani (431) 8 months ago

It was not initially clear. It was clear basically only a few hours before impact.

And then they said the smaller piece will hit Cape Arcturus or something like that (maybe near Massachusetts? In the Atlantic Ocean. And the big piece would hit Western Canada and basically decimate earth.

The smaller piece caused a mushroom cloud to hit the atmosphere and then double back down in like 3 seconds. So it was honestly devastating. That itself must have spewn so much dust and ash. Also the waters hit east coast and wiped out NYC but likely a huge chunk of DC several hundred miles south along with Europe, Africa and Virginia.

They said waters came in as far inland as Ohio and Tennessee which is a goof because I think that was supposed to be the 2nd and larger piece doing that?

It probably decimated London too along with most of United Kingdom and Iceland and Portugal and maybe Paris and parts of France etc.

Given the trajectory wasn’t known till the end I guess no one knew where to go although the NY scenes were odd. Like the guy reading a newspaper (Morgan freeman said it will hit 425p Eastern) like he’s out on a stroll during office lunch break.

Anyways I loved this movie

[–] oubrioko (103) 4 months ago

The president stated that they were confident that the backup plane of using Titan missiles would work, but the attempt could only occur a few hours before the two comets entered the atmosphere. When that failed, they detailed where the two comets would impact, and authorized people on the eastern seaboard to evacuate.