The story of Deep Impact directed by Mimi Leder begins with Leo Beiderman at a night astronomy class and tries to get the lovely Sarah Hotchner to notice him, but inadvertantly discovers the start of disaster.

MSNBC news reporter Jenny Lerner, played by the gorgeous Tea Leoni, struggling to find a good story. She latches onto a possible story that the President of the USA, President Beck played by Morgan Freeman was having an affair with a woman called Ellie. After a hastened chat from the suspiciously retired secretary Rittenhouse., Jenny realises that Ellie might not be a woman at all.

On her way to work, she is pulled over by the FBI and taken to a hidden location where she is confronted by the President. He asks her what she knows about Ellie and realises that Jenny does not know the truth. He realises that the secret could be kept no longer and decides to go public in 2 days time, asking Jenny to keep quiet until then. In return she gets front row seats and the first question in the conference.

Now realising that this secret is more serious than an affair with a woman, Jenny goes onto the internet at the Tv station and looks up E.L.E. and realises it stands for extinction level event with a picture of an huge comet beside it. The relationship with her father was not a good one as Jason, played by Maximilian Schell, had left her mother for a much younger woman.

The day of the press conference comes and it is broadcast on prime time tv. The President begines his talk saying that in 2 years time on August 6th, the Wolf Beiderman comet would strike the earth. He tells of its destruction and how they plan to stop it with the Messiah mission and a back up plan of missiles.

A huge underground chamber was being built to accommodate 1 million people that would keep them alive for 2 years, enough time for the dust to settle. 200,000 pre selected people included doctors, teachers, artists etc and a further 800,000 people would be selected in a lottery where social security numbers were picked to see who went into the chamber. Anyone over 50 years of age would not be entered in the lottery.

Jenny's mother who was over 50 decided to have one last good time and then she committed suicide just before the comet struck.

The Beiderman family were selected to go into the chamber but Sarah's family weren't so they has to get married in order for Sarah to get in too. Her family were not selected and she decided to stay with them, Leo went to the chamber but went back for Sarah in the end and they climbed a mountain on a motorbike before the wave came.

The Messiah mission to blow up the comet failed and two pieces were now on their way to earth. They could not do anything about the little one but had 4 nukes left. A large crack had opened up in the larger comet, Wolf, and they could fly in and discharge the nukes, the crack was deep enough to destroy the comet, but they would not have enough time to get back out, so they go on a suicide mission for the good of mankind. After a tearfull goodbye to their family and loved ones the crew fly into the crevice and destroy the Wolf comet.

The many people not selected in the lottery were now cramming up the roads with vehicles and trucks trying to get out of the city. Jenny decides to make up with her father and goes to their childhood home on the seafront to find him. They make up and stand on the beach holding each other, waiting for the wave to come. Jenny was selected but gave up her place so a friends child could go with her mother.

Beiderman comes crashing through the earth's atmosphere and shoots over the heads of the petrified people trying to escape the city. The comet soars over the ocean and parts it slightly due to its shear size and force. It nose dives into the Pacific ocean and the shockwave rims the earth. The huge tsunami hurtles to shore instantly killing Jenny and her father. New York is taken out like a toytown in a bath, skyscrapers topple.

But, as the President says in his closing speech, the waters did subside and rebuilding could begin again.