Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.

This is not a movie. Or a drill.

But don't worry. Apparently, we've got this. Or at least NASA does.

On Monday, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft is supposed to collide with Dimorphos, a small "moon" orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Didymos. NASA's big idea here is to see whether using such unmanned hardware to nudge incoming space debris out of harm's way is going to protect Earth in the future.

It's admirable but somehow feels a little deflating after decades of what I call "Chicken Little" movies, where humankind is threatened from above by cosmic clutter that can't be reasoned away except through drastic means.

You know the routine. Somebody finds unmistakable evidence of a) an asteroid, b) a meteor, c) a comet, d) a rogue moon or e) a whole planet closing in on us. Who believes these warnings? Exactly nobody, until the skies are riddled with speeding debris sliding and shooting off the looming object. Then we either a) panic, b) submit or c) fly some of our own humans up there to save us all.

As recently as the turn of this century, we were so solemn and single-mindedly gung ho about our capabilities to engage perils from above that it was sometimes, well, laughable.

In 1998, multiplexes had not one, but two big, fat "Chicken Little" blockbusters: Michael Bay's "Armageddon" and Mimi Leder's "Deep Impact."

The former, whose threat was a Texas-size asteroid, was a crowded, bombastic action thriller, rippling with broad humor and even broader set pieces with barely enough time for audience members to catch their breath.

The latter movie, whose threat was, as with "Don't Look Up," a comet, was a more earnest, conscientiously assembled and far less flustered variation on this theme.

All we feel safe in disclosing is that the science in "Deep Impact" is far more reliable and trustworthy than in "Armageddon." Or for that matter in "Don't Look Up." Draw your own conclusions from that.

By the way, I bet you're wondering whether a feature-length "Chicken Little" movie was ever made.