By Bradley Towle
SCHOHARIE & OTSEGO COUNTIES — Asteroid is a 2021 sci-fi comedy disaster film based and shot in Oneonta and Schoharie County during the Covid-19 pandemic in August 2020. The film follows a family of three who relocates from New York City to a remote home just outside of Oneonta. We learn early on that Spencer, the family patriarch, made the decision to move his wife, Lynn, and daughter, Zoe, back to his hometown after the death of his father, much to the chagrin of the teenage Zoe, who struggles to understand why they would have moved to a home with no internet and poor cell service. They barely have time to adapt to their new environs when NASA makes the rather inconvenient announcement that an asteroid is going to hit the United States. Specifically Oneonta. Specifically Spencer, Lynn, and Zoe's new home. While chaos ensues and many residents flee, some remain, including Spencer and, at first, his family, but they soon realize the madness of staying behind. At a town hall meeting, the mayor informs the remaining residents that Secret Caverns, "near Cobleskill," will be a safe location when the asteroid hits. The famed Schoharie County roadside attraction gets plenty of screen time in the film's last act as the refuge for the doomed residents of Oneonta. The entrance of Secret Caverns is so prominently displayed that Secret Cavern employees have reported increased calls from people who saw the phone number in Asteroid, which is currently streaming and finding a larger audience. At the helm of Asteroid are Oneonta natives and filmmakers Dylan Avery and Korey Rowe, who are perhaps best known for the Loose Change documentaries, which explored the events of 9/11 from the perspective that the U.S. government had planned the attacks. Cataclysm and conspiracy seem to be their thing, both of which have a decidedly more comedic and absurdist tone with 2021's Asteroid. Asteroid is currently streaming across several platforms.
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