Its surrounding meteorites crash into various locations worldwide, including the small town of Taft, California, while the military is having little success eliminating it.

Astronomer Dr. Lehman (Christopher Lloyd), and his assistant, Imogene O'Neill (Marla Sokoloff), race against time to provide vital information to JPL rocket scientist Dr. Chetwyn (Jason Alexander).

After the United States launches numerous nuclear weapons at the approaching asteroid, Imogene discovers a flaw in Dr. Lehman's algorithm and finds that 114 Kassandra had been split in two by the comet that knocked it out of orbit.

By the time that Stark is finally shot dead from a shotgun, by the Sheriff and Jack, and the signal is restored, Kassandra has entered Earth's atmosphere.

The government decides to launch their remaining missiles in combination with the Russians and Chinese and accept the consequences - massive meteor storms that will still cause catastrophic damage.