Armageddon (1998 film): Difference between revisions

Armageddon
Directed by	Michael Bay
Written by	Robert Roy Pool Jonathan Hensleigh
Produced by	Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer, Gale Anne Hurd
Starring	Bruce Willis Ben Affleck Liv Tyler Billy Bob Thornton Will Patton Steve Buscemi Michael Clarke Duncan Owen Wilson William Fichtner Peter Stormare
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates	July 1, 1998
Running time	150 minutes
Language	English

For other films with this name, see Armageddon (disambiguation).

Armageddon is a 1998 disaster/science fiction film about a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers who are sent by NASA to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. It was directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. It stars Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler. The film's tagline is "For Love. For Honor. For Mankind."

Armageddon was released at a time when disaster films were seeing a comeback. Another asteroid impact movie, Deep Impact, was made in the same year as well as Godzilla (1998 film), not quite a disaster movie, but New York was devastated in all three. The previous year had seen two volcano-based disaster movies, Dante's Peak, starring Pierce Brosnan, and Volcano, starring Tommy Lee Jones.

A novelization was written by C. Bolin, based on the screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh and the story by Jonathan Hensleigh and Robert Pool.

Cast

Bruce Willis: Harry Stamper: Father of Grace and the world's best oil driller.

Billy Bob Thornton: Dan Truman: NASA Administrator.

Ben Affleck: A.J. Frost: Young member of Harry's oil rig team, marries Grace.

Liv Tyler: Grace Stamper: Harry's daughter and AJ's girlfriend/fiance/wife.

Will Patton: Charles 'Chick' Chapple: Harry's friend and team member who was banded from seeing his wife and child.

Steve Buscemi: Rockhound: A smartaleck roughneck who considers himself to be a genius.

William Fichtner: Colonel William Sharp: Pilot of the Freedom shuttle.

Owen Wilson: Oscar Choi: A spacey but brilliant geologist on the drill team.

Michael Clarke Duncan: Jayotis 'Bear' Kurleenbear: A 6'5" 270 lb emotional roughneck.

Peter Stormare: Lev Andropov: A somewhat looney Russian cosmonaut.

Ken Campbell: Max Lennert: A tough drill member who drives the first Armadillo.

Jessica Steen: Jennifer Watts: Co-pilot of the Freedom shuttle.

Keith David: Lt. General Kimsey: A high-ranked military soldier in charge of the mission.

Chris Ellis: Walter Clark: Mission Control Floor Manager at Houston.

Jason Isaacs: Dr. Ronald Quincy: A research scientist who comes up with the mission's plan.

Grayson McCouch: Gruber: Nuclear munitions expert of the Freedom.

Clark Brolly: Freddy Noonan: Drill team member and member of the Independence shuttle.

Marshall R. Teague: Colonel Davis: Pilot of the Independence shuttle.

Anthony Guidera: Tucker: Co-pilot of the Independence shuttle.

Greg Collins: Lt. Halsey: Nuclear munitions expert of the Independence.

Synopsis

Before the film’s title appears onscreen, a narrator (Charlton Heston) informs us that during the time of the dinosaurs, a six mile-wide asteroid struck the Earth at the present day Yucatan Peninsula, causing catastrophic damage to its ecosystem. We are also informed that the probability of a similar disaster in our time is very high (although in scientific reality the chances of a "global killer" asteroid hitting the Earth within a hundred years is very small).

Disaster

In the middle of an EVA in the late 1990's or early 2000's, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is struck by thousands of tiny meteoroids and explodes in space. Shortly after, an area of Earth between Finland and the southeastern United States is bombarded by more meteorites. Several landmarks and skyscrapers in New York City are destroyed, such as Grand Central Station and parts of the World Trade Center. In one of the more notable scenes, a meteorite slices the top of the Chrysler Building off and sends it plummeting into the streets below.

NASA scientists, led by Dan Truman (Thornton), determine that the smaller meteoroids were forced towards Earth by a much larger asteroid the size of Texas (the previous metoroids ranged in size from that of a basketball to that of a Volkswagen Beetle). The team also determines that this asteroid will strike the Earth in 18 days, causing the total destruction of all life. They work frantically to develop a plan to stop it. Most scenarios are dismissed as impractical due to the size and speed of the object. Finally Truman preposes a solution whereby they'll drill a nuclear warhead into the core of the asteroid and remote-detonate it, effectively destroying the asteroid.

NASA's plan

File:NASA's plan (Armageddon).jpg

The crews of the Freedom and Independence spacecraft standing together prior to launch.

NASA finally decides to recruit Harry Stamper, reputed to be the best deepcore driller in the world. They find him on an oil platform in the South China Sea where he is in the process of drilling for a Japanese company and firing one of his lead crew members, A.J. Frost, for insubordination. We also find out that A.J. has been intimate with Stamper’s daughter, Grace, for several months, a fact that Harry is infuriated to discover, prompting him to go after A.J. with a shotgun.

Harry agrees to take on the job of destroying the asteroid. The plan is to approach the asteroid from behind, land on it, drill to 800 feet, plant a nuclear bomb in the shaft and detonate it remotely after evacuation. The deadline for detonation is a distance from Earth called "zero barrier," which will allow the two halves of the asteroid to miss Earth when split apart. Harry recruits a motley crew made up of his best workers and they prepare for the mission through rigorous space travel drills, modification of their equipment and pointed psychological tests to determine whether they are able to work in space. Near the conclusion of the training phase, Rockhound borrows money from a loan shark and is later arrested in a strip club. Chick attempts to make amends with his estranged wife and their son. A.J. proposes marriage to Grace and she accepts: they will marry when (and if) he returns from the mission.

At the end of the training missions, a meteor penetrates the Earth's atmosphere and collides with Shanghai, annihilating the city and causing the deaths of some 50,000 people from a massive tsunami. This triggers massive press attention, and light is shed on NASA's once-covert operation as the world fixes its eyes on Stamper and his team.

Mission setback

The two shuttles take off into space and head for the Russian space station orbiting Earth to stock up on the fuel required for the mission. Once both successfully docked in the station, the two teams meet Russian cosmonaut, Lev Andropov, who has been in the station for 17 months. Lev sends AJ down a shaft to keep an eye on the pressure of the fuel exchange, and if it goes up high, the whole station will explode. Ironically, some of the fuel leaks into the electrical system and the crew must abandon the station, Lev and AJ barely escaping as it explodes. The crews escape all accounted for, with 90% of their fuel and Lev now onboard the Independence.

The next day, the two teams proceed to phase two of the mission - to practically slingshot themselves around the far side of the moon so they can land on the asteroid from the back as it goes by. The phase is successful, but the two shuttles fling themselves right into the middle of the tail of the asteroid. The Independence shuttle's primary boosters are destroyed by a rock and it hurtles out of control, preparing for a crashlanding. However, another piece of rock smashes the front windows, sending pilots Davis and Tucker flying into space, and killing crew members Oscar, Freddie and Lt. Halsey. The shuttle crashlands and only AJ, Lev and Bear survive. The Freedom sustains damage as well, but crashlands 26 miles away from its original landing point.

On the asteroid

File:The asteroid (Armageddon).jpg

Harry’s crew lands safely on the asteroid despite damage to the shuttle. Communications are out, leaving the crew with no way to contact Earth. They also determine that they have overshot their landing site and are sitting on an area comprised of iron, making it extremely difficult to drill. The crew begins their project anyway but quickly figures out that the drilling will be nearly impossible: they destroy one drill bit and a transmission in the first two hours.

Their troubles are compounded when the shuttle commander, Colonel Sharp, informs NASA that they will not be able to complete the mission on time. The President decides that the nuclear bomb will be detonated early in the hopes that it will deflect the asteroid’s path enough to miss Earth. A military adviser to the President activates the bomb from the NASA Mission Control room on Earth. A fight ensues on the shuttle between Sharpe and Stamper over whether to shut it off. Stamper convinces the Colonel that he can make the depth of 800 feet. Colonel Sharpe and his lieutenant defuse the bomb mere seconds before it detonates.

One of Stamper’s crew, Rockhound, has a negative psychological reaction to working in space, aptly named space dementia. He causes a distraction while playing with a Gatling gun, nearly shooting a few crew members. While they attempt to bring him under control, the drilling vehicle hits a gas pocket, blasting it off the asteroid, taking crew member Max with it. On Earth, the media report that the mission has failed. An asteroid fragment penetrates the atmosphere and strikes Paris, sending a shockwave that topples the Eiffel Tower, rips the roof of Les Invalides and destroys the gargoyles of Sacre-Coeur.

As they wait out their ultimate fate, the crew discovers that A.J. has survived the crash of the Independence and has arrived at the drilling site in the second Armadillo. They continue the operation and despite some arguments between A.J. and Harry, drill to 800 feet. Following a few more mishaps, including A.J. being trapped in the shaft, they plant the nuke and prepare to evacuate. However, another earthquake occurs, killing nuclear technicain Gruber, and further still, the bomb has been damaged and remote detonation from a safe distance is now impossible.

Sacrifice

File:Sacrifice (Armageddon).jpg

The bomb is detonated, splitting the asteroid.

The remaining members of Stamper’s crew draw straws to see who will stay behind and activate the bomb. A.J. draws the short straw. As he and Harry return to the drilling site, Harry pulls out A.J.'s oxygen feed tube and forces him back into the shuttle, telling him to take care of Grace. He then rips off the mission patch on his suit and tells A.J. to give it to Dan Truman.

The crew manages to fix the shuttle and they take off, leaving Harry behind. Harry contacts Grace at NASA headquarters and they exchange their last, emotional goodbyes. Harry is hindered by several quakes, but manages to reach the detonator. His last thoughts are of Grace as he pushes the button just before zero barrier is breached. The asteroid is blasted in half and the two pieces miss colliding with Earth by 400 miles.

File:Safely back (Armageddon).jpg

The surviving crew members arrive back on Earth.

The Freedom crew lands safely back on Earth and are met by NASA officials and their loved ones (including Chick's wife and son and the stripper Rockhound had been seen with earlier) with the US Air Force Thunderbirds overflying the landing site in a missing man formation to honor those who didn't make it back. Grace and A.J. are reunited and the final scenes of the film are of their wedding. Right before Grace says "I do," she looks over at the portraits of her father and the other members lost on the mission and she smiles.

Deaths

Colonel Davis and Tucker - Pilots of the Independence shuttle. The shuttle's windscreen is smashed by a piece of debris and he and co-pilot Tucker are sucked out into space, their bodies hitting the Freedom during the crashlandings.

Freddie Noonan - Part of the Independence crew. Although his death is unseen, he is briefly seen, appearing to try and get into the cargo bay door, which is sealed. AJ later mentions that "I lost two of my friends", hinting to his death.

Oscar Choi - A geologist and member of the Independence crew. When the windscreen is shattered, glass and debris fly at the astronauts still remaining. Oscar's helmet is penetrated as he couldn't get it on properly, thus imbedding his face with glass and killing him. His body is found by AJ, lying in the destroyed cargo bay, as his chair was blown off its hinges and blown to the back of the shuttle.

Lt. Halsey - The Independence crew's nuclear munitions expert. He actually has no lines in the film, but dies onboard the shuttle. His death is unseen, but he could either be the astronaut seen holding onto a piece of machinery, or the one in the chair that gets flipped off its hinges.

Max Lennert - Driver of the Freedom crew's Armadillo drilling vehicle. He accidentally drills into a gas pocket on the asteroid, triggering an earthquake. He isn't quick enough to either get his helmet on or escape the vehicle, as the ground beneath explodes, sending the Armadillo (and Max), flying into the sky and exploding upon hitting a clifface. Max's death appears to be the most upsetting for the crew and jeopardises the mission, until the surviving members of the Independence shuttle arrive with the second Armadillo.

Gruber - The Freedom crew's nuclear munitions expert. During the second earthquake, pieces of large rock fly everywhere. One smashes into the gas pocket near Gruber, causing an explosion which sends him flying into some large crystalline shards, stabbing his body and shattering his helmet, killing him.

Harry Stamper - Harry sacrifices himself to save Earth by remaining on the asteroid to manually activate the nuclear weapon while the rest of the crew escape. Template:Endspoiler

Reception and criticism

The film was an international box office success, but it received a large amount of criticism from film reviewers. On the website Rotten Tomatoes, which collects film reviews, Armageddon scores only 41% due to a large number of negative reviews[1]; on a similar website, Metacritic, it similarly scores 42%. The film is on the list of Roger Ebert's most hated films: in his original review, he stated "The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained."[2]

The film received the Saturn Awards for Best Direction and Best Science Fiction Film (where it tied with Dark City). However, it was also nominated in seven categories for the 1998 Golden Raspberry Awards for bad films; only one was awarded: Bruce Willis received the Worst Actor award for Armageddon, in addition to his appearances in Mercury Rising and The Siege.

Despite the general critical disdain, a DVD edition of Armageddon was released by The Criterion Collection, a specialist film distributor of primarily arthouse films that distributes what it considers to be "important classic and contemporary films" and "cinema at its finest".[3] In an essay supporting the selection of Armageddon, film scholar Jeanne Basinger, who taught Michael Bay at Wesleyan University, states that the film is "a work of art by a cutting-edge artist who is a master of movement, light, color, and shape—and also of chaos, razzle-dazzle, and explosion". She sees it as a celebration of working men: "This film makes these ordinary men noble, lifting their efforts up into an epic event."[4]

Scientific inaccuracies

While Hollywood science fiction films often bend the rules of science in order to create a more compelling plot, science critics blasted Armageddon more than most for its poor adherence to the laws of physics. The film was lambasted for being too noisy (contradicting the fact that there is no sound in the vacuum of outer space), even though this factor is often disregarded in Hollywood. A first error can be found in the films' introduction, showing the K/T extinction event 65 million years ago, in which the continents are shown in their present day configuration. It is also often mentioned that no nuclear weapon would be able to sufficiently break up an asteroid that, according to Truman, was "the size of Texas".

When the two shuttles are launched (far too close to be safe), all basic physics seem to be irrelevant in the movie. The Mir space station, aside from being much bigger and completely different from reality, is an absurdity in itself: to initiate a rotation to accommodate artificial gravity for the two shuttles seemed to have been incorporated for pure cinematographic convenience. The structural integrity would be a problem for a sudden spin on such a pronged modular structure, and spinning the station before docking makes no sense as it renders a normally tricky docking impossible since the docking ports are on the external rotating pods: A rotating station would need it's docking area along the axis of rotation and the docking vessel would need to match that rotation, it's center of gravity along the docking point and approaching along the station's axis of rotation. The shuttles also had engines (ion?)running blue flames continuously (thus they should continually increase their forward momentum), where we use short burst of gas jets to provide attitude controls. The two shuttle's movements in the movie are simply impossible in space with current earth technology. Furthermore, since the two shuttles docked sideways, the astronauts should be not be walking in the corridors but climbing up ladders to meet up in the middle of the station, where they would be weightless again, thus rendering the whole "artificial gravity" plan irrelevant.

Also, the surface of the asteroid is extremely craggy and sharp, and real life asteroids as big as this one would be worn smooth to look more like a potato. In fact, most asteroids are spherical if they are bigger than 300 km of diameter, as is the case of dwarf planets. The state of Texas being 1244x1270 km, it stands to reason that an asteroid that big would be spherical and not big enough for it's imperfections to be vast craggy canyons as depicted in the film. Getting the astronauts special suits that use small thrusters to keep them on the ground would also be a perfect waste of fuel, their backpacks could not offer sufficient thrust for more than a few minutes. EVA suits have a large backpack to accommodate the thruster jets and use them sparingly to maneauver. The large ground vehicles used by the digging teams would also be utterly unnecessary, as having a low gravity would mean that a large digging rig could simply float to it's destination using small thrusters sparingly, and then trying to clamp down on the surface even though digging anything in zero-g requires an opposed and equal force.

The explosion that shears the asteroid in two slices would not prevent both parts to strike the earth if they were as close to the earth as depicted in the movie, both fragments would not have enough momentum to clear the attraction of the earth. An explosion in space loses much of it's effectiveness as there is no atmosphere to begin with that propagates the shockwave. Assuming a nuclear explosion could still vaporize enough gas within the asteroid to break it, the two halves would simply attract each other back into one ball, re-rounded from it's own gravity.

Another major goof is that the detonation of the nuclear bomb that terminates the threat from the asteroid is visible from many different places on Earth simultaneously, from the United States to India. In reality, only a small portion of the planet would have been in position for people to observe the explosion from the surface. Director Michael Bay says that he intentionally disregarded these facts for dramatic effect.

One ironic scientific accuracy is that the total production costs of the film are slightly lower than the estimated cost of deflection strategies suggested for asteroids such as 99942 Apophis.

Box office

• Budget - $140,000,000
• Marketing cost - $100,000,000
• Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $36,089,972
• Total Domestic Grosses - $201,578,182
• Total Overseas Grosses - $352,131,606
• Total Worldwide Grosses - $553,709,788

Soundtracks

Untitled

The soundtrack features the song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith (fronted by Liv Tyler's father, Steven Tyler)—which was the first number 1 hit of the band's career—among a few other Aerosmith songs.

Armageddon: The Album (Sony, June 23rd, 1998):

1. I Don't Want to Miss a Thing - Aerosmith
2. Remember Me - Journey
3. What Kind of Love Are You On - Aerosmith
4. La Grange - ZZ Top
5. Roll Me Away - Bob Seger
6. When the Rainbow Comes - Shawn Colvin
7. Sweet Emotion - Aerosmith
8. Mister Big Time - Jon Bon Jovi
9. Come Together - Aerosmith
10. Wish I Were You - Patty Smyth
11. Starseed - Our Lady Peace
12. Leaving on a Jet Plane - Chantal Kreviazuk
13. Theme from Armageddon - Trevor Rabin
14. Animal Crackers - Dialogue by Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler; vocals and piano by Steven Tyler

Untitled

There was also an instrumental score titled Armageddon: Original Motion Picture Score by Trevor Rabin a former member of the progressive rock band Yes.

1. Armageddon Suite
2. Harry & Grace Make Peace
3. A.J.'s Return
4. Oil Rig
5. Leaving
6. Evacuation
7. Harry Arrives At NASA
8. Back In Business
9. Launch
10. 5 Words
11. Underwater Simulation
12. Finding Grace
13. Armadillo
14. Short Straw
15. Demands
16. Death of Mir
17. Armageddon Piano
18. Long Distance Goodbye/Landing

Trivia

• The film was released on Liv Tyler's 21st birthday.
• Liv Tyler turned down the role of Grace Stamper twice before she finally accepted.
• This is the second film that depicted a fictional shuttle launch using actual launch footage. The first was SpaceCamp (1986).
• The DVD has an error in the subtitles. At the opening section with the Space Shuttle Atlantis, when there is dialogue between the Astronaut who is on EVA, and NASA ground control, the word 'Dennis' appears when onscreen it is in fact 'Atlantis'.
• This movie was parodied in the 1999 MTV Movie Awards as Armagedd'N Sync .
• In another subtitle error, when the ground crew instructs the shuttles to "Press to MECO [Main Engine Cutoff] (pronounced as "meeko"), the subtitle says "Press Demigo." (possibly a mondegreen)
• "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" soundtrack by Aerosmith, features in its music video both Liv Tyler and her father (Steven Tyler). She also appeared in the 1994 Aerosmith music video for Crazy along with mid-1990s Aerosmith music video star Alicia Silverstone.
• When Col. Sharp demonstrates the manual trigger to A.J., he says "lift [the cover], press [the trigger] and hold [the button]" which A.J. repeats. However, the proper sequence should have been described as "lift [the cover], hold [the trigger], press [the button]" which is what Harry does later.
• When the movie was aired on ABC in April 2002, a few scenes were cut, including when the World Trade Center was bombarded with meteors and catching fire. This was due to the fact the scene looked similar to what happened in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
• According to an interview with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, he originally didn't want to do the theme song for the movie, apparently not wanting to tread too heavily on his daughter Liv's territory. He was then shown the scene where Grace says a tearful goodbye to her father over the video comm. Tyler reportedly began to cry and tearfully agreed to perform the song.
• To promote the instant disaster film blockbuster, curtains were placed over the pyramid of the Luxor Hotel & Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada: when combined, the curtains made the effect that a meteor slammed through the hotel pyramid.
• Rockhound straddles a nuclear warhead much like the ending of Dr. Strangelove.
• The episode of Futurama titled A Big Piece of Garbage makes several references to the film:
  • The Professor's first plan to destroy the ball of garbage is similar to the plot of this movie.
  • A scene where the giant hamburger asteroid crashes through the skyscraper is the same as a famous scene in this movie.
  • A scene in which the space heroes walk out to their ship is very much like the same scene in this movie.
• Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare previously starred together in the 1996 film, Fargo.
• The church at the end of the movie is St. Brendan Church.

See also

• Asteroid deflection strategies
• List of disaster films
• Competing films with similar plots
• Deep Impact (film)

External links

• Armageddon at IMDb
• Armageddon Script at Simply Scripts
• Criterion Collection essay by Jeanine Basinger, from a Wesleyan University professor under whom the film's director studied
• Movie Physics review of Armageddon
• Bad Astronomy - The Astronomy of Armageddon
• Movie Tour Guide.com - Maps and directions to Armageddon Filming Locations
• The Agony Booth : Armageddon Review