A Fire in the Sky (1978)

Undescribable Perfection

Simply Perfect

Perfect cast and a good story

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Most people probably won't believe this, but I was actually in this movie. I was an extra, from the 997th Aviation Company, AZ National Guard. I was the driver of a jeep for Col. Standers. I almost didn't get in the movie. I blew two takes, before the director accepted it..... :) I'm looking for a copy of the movie to share with family and friends that have never seen it. Columbia Pictures sent me a check for $25 and change after taxes. They called me for a speaking part that paid $600, but I wasn't able to make the commitment; a couple guys I knew did... and one was shot by a looter in the movie. There was another movie titled Fire In The Sky, about alien abduction in Arizona that my friends think of when I tell them about my part in the other one. I would like to do another flick someday with a small speaking part, but that probably won't happen............ :(

A long forgotten about classic disaster movie, this one was certainly far superior to bigger budget, moronic trash like "Armageddon". Scientists discover a large comet is heading towards a possible collision with earth, while many believe it will ultimately miss or burn up hitting the atmosphere, two astronomers are convinced its going to hit just outside Phoenix Arizona, and with the help of a news station owner try to warn a skeptical public. If you watch this movie expecting spectacular effects like "Deep Impact" you'll be disappointed, although the special effects it does have are very good for its time, they are not really this movie's highlight. But what this movie does do exceptionally well is explore the kind reaction one would expect from the public and officials to the prospect of such a bizarre, massive and seemingly unlikely disaster, which is total disbelief and denial. Then panic and chaos sets in as they realize that not only is the destruction of Phoenix inevitable, but they may have waited too long to evacuate everyone. The final 30 minutes or so are particularly effective, even grim at times as evacuation crews and the military run out of time and are themselves ordered to leave, with one peering down from a helicopter at thousands trapped on a jammed highway saying "These people are on their own". Performances range from effective to rather weak, the late Richard Crenna is pretty good as astronomer Voight whom desperately pounds-podiums left and right trying to get people to listen to him, and delivers some of the more memorable one liners, such as "You can't miss us, there's a big white arrow pointing right down at us!" 7 out of 10, perhaps a bit too long and not for everyone, but a personal favorite and worth a look if you can find it.

Hilarious attempt at a small-screen version of a big-screen disaster film, complete with ersatz astronomy, the impassioned pleas of the ignored and scoffed-at scientist, and mandatory death and scale-model destruction scenes. The hysterical nurse who rushes from the subterranean shelter only to be ripped from life by the wake of the comet impact scene is a definite must.Look for the definitive sequence of astronomical photographic plates that feature a parade 'o planets with the coment growing ominously bigger and closer in each shot.Crenna's ending smokin'-peyote-with-the-Pima-Indians as we watch the comet streak toward its mark is also "to die for."Scale modelers, arise against abuse by bad made-for-TV movies! Let's give it three meteors out of ten.

As a kid, I saw two movies in the late 70's about celestial bodies heading towards earth, A Fire In the Sky and Meteor. This movie was quite different from Meteor in premise alone. This was not about a collective effort to avert a disaster; it was about how to collectively get the hell out of town. Richard Crenna played Jason Voight, an astronomer who somehow knew that this desert metropolis was doomed the split second after the words were uttered from the Presidents mouth, as he explained to a group of scientist that the comet was probably heading for earth. Although this movie to me was extremely cheesy, over acted and sometime under acted, and you got to see down town Phoenix high-rises crumble one by one, I liked it. I would have to say that it is one of my GUILTY PLEASURES