Did you hear the news? An asteroid passed within 8,700 miles of the planet on Friday. The craziest thing is that scientists only knew about it 15 hours before it flew by. So if you have any confidence that this planet is safe from giant space objects smashing into the surface, possibly destroying all life in the process, well, think again.
This particular asteroid wasn’t so big, measuring at around 23 feet across, that it would have caused mass destruction, but it just goes to show you: maybe one day, when the big one arrives, we’ll have a hot 20 hours to figure out what to do.
Can you even imagine what would happen? Scientists spot a gigantic asteroid that would surely cause planet-wide destruction, but they only discover it a few hours before it hits the planet. How would people react? How would society function when faced with mass carnage, if not certain doom?
Now you can see why asteroids represent my favorite sci-fi scenario: how does humanity react when it faces such a cataclysm? Do we band together in the interest of survival? Do we take the opportunity to invade Country A in order to secure resources that we could use?
Oh my God, how would Twitter react?
It should be noted that objects enter the Earth’s atmosphere all the time, and that relatively big ones pass by the planet about two times per year.
Done right, a doomsday scenario movie, unlike that hunk of junk 2012, could be really interesting. None of this, “pull the plane into the air even though we haven’t reached the speed necessary to generate enough lift to pull us upward to begin with,” but a serious look at how people would react.
Which is to say the movie could never be made by Hollywood, lest some American Joe Blow somehow save the day.
How about starting the movie 5 minutes before a huge asteroid destroys earth. Earth has known about it for 48 hours. The human civilization is going fucking bat shit since everyone knows the exact time of their impending doom. But for some crazy reason it misses. The planet is saved, but everything is already fucked. Then what…..
I watched “Knowing” on Blueray last night and although it doesn’t involve an asteroid it does show the panic that ensues when total annihilation is announced.
To quote Mr. Bonney in Young Guns 2….
“You remember the stories John use to tell us about the the three chinamen playing Fantan? This guy runs up to them and says, “Hey, the world’s coming to an end!” and the first one says, “Well, I best go to the mission and pray,” and the second one says, “Well, hell, I’m gonna go and buy me a case of Mezcal and three whores,” and the third one says “Well, I’m gonna finish the game.” I shall finish the game, Doc.”
Personally, I like the idea of a case of Mezcal and three whores myself, but that’s just me.
Isn’t there a Bradbury story about someone debating whether or not to tell the world that an asteroid is going to smash into the planet.
If it’s going to be an earth killing asteroid…I don’t want to know about it. Ignorance is bliss.
On the other hand, if it’s only going to be a city destroying asteroid, I want to know about it so I can go buy some ammo, aspirin, and ass.
To your points of whoring it up before we’re all destroyed: that’s all well and good, and it’s probably what a lot of guys would say, but why would a prostitute continue to work if she knows we’re all doomed? That’s her job, which she uses to earn money, which will be completely useless in a matter of hours.
Would you continue to do your job if you found out that the world was going to end in a few hours? I sure as heck wouldn’t be checking my RSS feeds for interesting video games stories, that’s for sure!
Prostitutes?
“Buying ass”? Or is there another way to interpret that other than prostitution?
Maybe he likes donkeys – I, however would most definitely spend my last hours on earth “buying ass”. Oh and I’d be playing on the skins team for sure. AIDS, SHMAIDS – No repercussions, remember? I would be so knee-deep in ass, I likely wouldn’t even feel the impact, you know, cause all the carnal impacting I’d be doin’.
That’s why the government didn’t tell us. I knew I would have taken Friday off had I known about it.
How would twitter react?? FAIL Whale of course!!
It sucks to think about it could really happen one day, i just hope if Earth’s about to be shit theirs a star fleet of ships awaiting with a great bunker , internet, and alien free.
Much rather we not know about it than knowing about it. The worst case is an object the size of a planet and everybody can see it coming closer and closer in the sky until it fills the whole sky. Ignorance is bliss.
“Can you even imagine what would happen? Scientists spot a gigantic asteroid that would surely cause planet-wide destruction, but they only discover it a few hours before it hits the planet.”
No risk at all, seriously. We spotted that one a few hours before BECAUSE it was small.
Big ones that will pass close in 2030 are already spotted.
Something scary to think about it.
Knowing my luck, I’ll find out the world is going to end in fifteen hours right after I get conformation that my Crunchpad has shipped… ;)
The first thing people would do? Loot and riot, that’s generally what happens, when something horrible happens they loot. Sure they probably realize that they can’t actually use it any more but what the hell, why not? Personally… I’d go back to playing games on my computer… not like I’d be able to actually rescue an entire planet, this is in fact not hollywood.
There would be too much chaos among the civilian population that the likelihood of the people who could save the planet actually getting together and making a plan (if they hadn’t already before announcing it) would be almost not likely at all. Even if they had not been able to get together and started using electronic means, unless they tapped in directly to a satellite, they probably won’t be in communication for long because the riots would shut down the power and knock over cell towers.
Once you announce the asteroid is coming, the world is doomed, so it’s best to not announce it and hope you can solve the problem before the problem solves humanity.
blah blah blah…2012blah!
I actually saw it, I was outside smoking with my buddy and it lit up the night sky like a giant spot light from a helicopter, but everywhere, looked up there was this massive streak in the sky that was rather wide silent, and the trail looked like a roaming candle with stuff exploding in the trail making it look like a catapillar, it was pretty sweet rtying to see if theres any images of it, I didnt have a camera and it was very unexpected.
It didn’t hit the atmosphere. No friction = no light. Maybe there was something special in your cig.
Did he mean that 23 feet across would create mass destruction?
If so, not true. Anything over a mile wide would kill a lot of us, but not a tiny 23 feet asteroid.
In a doomsday situation, I’ve always thought that I’d go ahead and do myself in at the moment of my choosing. It seems far better than waiting agonizing hours or even days for a horrific and violent death. Even worse, that I might actually survive the initial catastrophe and endure a far greater nightmare of dying a prolonged, slow death with any other initial survivors! We’d be plunged back into the stone age only to watch what remains of civilization devolve into a true hell on Earth! And each day the sky would turn darker, blocking out the sun and draining the life from every living thing that remains….
Not me! I’d be calling Dr. Kevorkian while communications were still functional…or just pass the cyanide, please! =)
“Last Night” is a great apocolypse movie. Disaster unspecified, but everyone knows when. Yes, it’s Canadian. Very Canadian in fact. Excellent because/despite that. Cronenberg is in it, but not directing.
the story is just like the movie RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN
Its not like it was the size of Delaware or worse. A 23 foot long asteroid might as well be counted among the space junk we have flying in orbit. The fact that they even found it is pretty surprising to me