Armageddon (1998)

After discovering that an asteroid the size of Texas is going to impact Earth in less than a month, NASA recruits a misfit team of deep core drillers to save humanity.

Director:

Michael Bay

Writers:

Jonathan Hensleigh (screenplay), J.J. Abrams (screenplay),

Stars:

Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 12 wins & 27 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Willis	...	Harry Stamper
Billy Bob Thornton	...	Dan Truman
Ben Affleck	...	A.J. Frost
Liv Tyler	...	Grace Stamper
Will Patton	...	Chick
Steve Buscemi	...	Rockhound
William Fichtner	...	Colonel Willie Sharp
Owen Wilson	...	Oscar Choi
Michael Clarke Duncan	...	Bear
Peter Stormare	...	Lev Andropov
Ken Hudson Campbell	...	Max (as Ken Campbell)
Jessica Steen	...	Co-Pilot Jennifer Watts
Keith David	...	General Kimsey
Chris Ellis	...	Flight Director Clark
Jason Isaacs	...	Ronald Quincy

Storyline

It is just another day at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a few astronauts were repairing a satellite until, out of nowhere, a series of asteroids came crashing into the shuttle, destroying it. These asteroids also decimated New York soon thereafter. Then, NASA discovered that there is an asteroid roughly the size of Texas heading towards the Earth, and when it does hit the Earth, the planet itself and all of its inhabitants will be obliterated, worse, the asteroid will hit the Earth in 18 days. Unfortunately, NASA's plans to destroy the asteroid are irrelevant. That is when the U.S. military decides to use a nuclear warhead to blow the asteroid to pieces. Then, scientists decide to blow the asteroid with the warhead inside the asteroid itself. The only man to do it, is an oil driller named Harry Stamper and his group of misfit drillers and geologists. As he and his drill team prepare for space excavation, the asteroid is still heading towards the Earth. When...

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Plot Keywords:

asteroid | nasa | drill | nuclear | astronaut | 

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Taglines:

School's out..... forever.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi disaster action, sensuality and brief language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian Indonesian

Release Date:

1 July 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Armageddon - Das jüngste Gericht

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles Theatre - 615 S. Broadway, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$140,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$89,000,000 (Non-US) (7 August 1998)

Gross:

$201,573,391 (USA) (4 December 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Valhalla Motion Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

151 min 153 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Michael Bay had the actors write their list of demands on the papers that Bruce Willis read from.

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Goofs

AJ's hat disappears when he is in the fuel pod, then reappears when he is climbing the ladder.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[Camera shoots past the moon to slowly zoom in on the Earth]
Narrator: This is the Earth, at a time when the dinosaurs roamed a lush and fertile planet.
[From behind the camera, a giant asteroid appears, speeding towards the Earth ahead of it]
Narrator: A piece of rock just 6 miles wide changed all that.
[Blazing through the atmosphere, the asteroid impacts with a spectacular display of fire and destruction]
Narrator: It hit with the force of 10,000 nuclear weapons. A trillion tons of dirt and rock hurtled into ...

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Crazy Credits

All initial UK '12' Certificate videos came with the full promo video for Aerosmith's: "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" before the film started. The video only came with the limited widescreen or even more limited 'double feature' boxed video with 'The Making of Armaggedon' as a bonus video. Also some outtakes (1 per character) were featured at the very end of the credits with text underneath saying 'In loving memory of who gave his life saving our planet.' (The outtakes only came with the initial copies on video.)

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Connections

Referenced in It's Like, You Know...: The Getaway (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Starseed"
Written by Mike Turner, Raine Maida, Chris Eacrett and Arnold Lanni
Performed by Our Lady Peace
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment (Canada) Inc. and Columbia Records
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Has all the ingredients of a good action movie...

...that's exactly what this is: an ACTION movie. It's not supposed to sweep the Oscars, the acting isn't supposed to be perfect, and it's not supposed to make perfect sense.

The story follows a group of oil drillers sent by NASA to stop an asteroid that will strike the world in eighteen days. The drillers are taught and trained to become astronauts (in a very comedic scene) and then sent to the asteroid to drop the nukes and blow it up. After that, a whole lot goes wrong.

I loved this movie, and I hate how everyone's been calling it 'mindless action'. It's not mindless, it's actually very dramatic. The acting is great from pretty much all accounts, even Ben Affleck does a good job.

Bruce Willis captures the 'reluctant hero' role, and Liv Tyler does well as his daughter. Steve Buscemi delivers a great comedic performance as the genius who goes insane once they land on the asteroid.

Great, funny, intense, dramatic movie. 8/10.