# Movies with astronomical events (but not space or SciFi movies)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [July 1, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324 "2025-07-01T00:12:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/1 "2025-07-01T00:12:00Z")
It’s the 50th anniversary of _Jaws_, so we watched it again. I pointed out to my wife the shots with the meteor streaks (towards the end of the film, after the rowdy song). Doing a two-minute Google search gives links doubting they were authentic (the sky is too bright, the motion doesn’t match the bouncing of the camera, etc.); I’m pretty sure it’s been discussed here as well. Steven Spielberg has other other films with meteors in them as well, such as _Close Encounters_, something that he enjoyed as a boy.
That got me thinking about other movies with “real” astronomical events, such as constellations, meteors, comets, and eclipses; perhaps auroras too. But I don’t want movies that are space or SciFi related, so no _Interstellar_ or _Armageddon_ or _Contact_ or DC/MU films. I’m interested in movies that show or comment (or ignore!) something in the (night) sky, but aren’t the major reason for the story.
What are some others besides _Jaws_? For example, _Dolores Claiborne_ has a solar eclipse as part of the happenings in the background of the film, but it’s not about the eclipse. Likewise _Apollo 13_ has people looking at the moon, but the movie isn’t so much about the moon as it about rescuing people.
I have another one in mind that I won’t name yet. Let’s see what you can think of.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/2 "2025-07-01T00:27:26Z")
I seem to remember that Neil DeGrasse Tyson pointed out errors in the night sky in James Cameron’s Titanic movie and that Cameron subsequently corrected them.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/3 "2025-07-01T00:28:15Z")
Theres a movie called _Aurora Borealis_
Donald Sutherland.
Never watched it. So I’m not sure what you see in the movie.
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### Author:  [@sweepkick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweepkick)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/4 "2025-07-01T00:38:01Z")
Ladyhawke had
a solar eclipse which allowed Navarre and Isabeau to break their curse by facing the bishop together in their human forms.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/5 "2025-07-01T00:40:29Z")
Barabbas (1961)
[a real solar eclipse during the crucifixion scene](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055774/trivia/?item=tr0710875&ref_=ext_shr_lnk)
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/6 "2025-07-01T00:48:36Z")
The first _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles_ has Donatello and Michelangelo watching the moon through the sewer grate. (“Nice night.” “Mhmm. Pizza dude’s got thirty seconds.”)
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/7 "2025-07-01T00:49:52Z")
In Richard Burton’s _ **Alexander the Great** _ (1956), the Greeks attack the Persians at Gaugamela during the lunar eclipse of 1 October 331 BC.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/8 "2025-07-01T01:00:34Z")
**Ghostbusters** mentions the Tunguska Blast.
**Apocalypto** has a solar eclipse in the middle.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/9 "2025-07-01T01:00:42Z")
In 1949’s _ **A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court** _, Bing Crosby escapes being executed by predicting a solar eclipse.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/10 "2025-07-01T01:03:20Z")
Nobody has yet mentioned [_Dolores Claiborne_](https://youtu.be/nOBE6ZMZpHI?si=h8RPhs2jSWeu-DR6)?
Stranger
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/11 "2025-07-01T01:03:56Z")
It’s in the OP.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/12 "2025-07-01T01:05:51Z")
So it was. My error.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/13 "2025-07-01T01:10:40Z")
**Gerald’s Game** is the same eclipse as **Dolores Claiborne**.
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### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/14 "2025-07-01T01:33:02Z")
nm + nm for Discourse
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/15 "2025-07-01T01:44:35Z")
**Meteor** with Sean Connery
**Fire in the Sky** a comet’s a-headin for Arizona
**Deep Impact** Tea Leoni is a reporter uncovering an extinction event meteor collision.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/16 "2025-07-01T01:53:39Z")
In Franco Zeffereli’s _ **Jesus of Nazareth** _ (1976), the three “Wise Men” (Zoroastrian astrologers) are shown discussing the Star of Bethlehem in terms of the conjunctions of Mars,Jupiter, and Saturn in 7–6 BC.
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/17 "2025-07-01T02:04:51Z")
_La Fin du Monde_ (_The End of the World_, 1931) – A comet is a-coming to destroy Earth, but the focus is on how humanity reacts: panic, desperation, orgies.
_King Solomon’s Mines_ (1937) and its remakes feature the classic bit where the heroes are saved from execution by a convenient eclipse (reused in _Apocalypto_).
_Valley of the Dragons_ (1961) - Two late-nineteenth century jabronis are fighting a duel when a comet brushing past Earth sweeps them up to the Moon where they discover a prehistoric civilization, a goofy-looking giant spider and a Playboy Playmate taking a swim. Incredibly, one of the jabronis makes gunpowder from available minerals several years before Kirk did the same thing fighting the Gorn on _ST: TOS_. Jules Verne’s original story was later reworked as _On the Comet_ (1970), which, unfortunately, was not one of director Karel Zeman’s better films.
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/18 "2025-07-01T02:11:13Z")
I was looking for movies that had something astronomical, but not about that thing (no doomsday comets). Thank you anyway.
For a movie with an “incidental” comet, I was thinking along the lines of _Roxanne_: Daryl Hannah is researching a comet, and the comet appears at the end, but the movie isn’t really about the comet.
There have to be others with an incidental comet or eclipse, etc. Isn’t there a movie about a sailor crossing the equator and perhaps seeing the Southern Cross for the first time? Or is that just the song?
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/19 "2025-07-01T02:16:26Z")
Apocalypto had a dramatic eclipse scene.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2025, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-astronomical-events-but-not-space-or-scifi-movies/1020324/20 "2025-07-01T03:13:54Z")
Little Shop of Horrors?
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