Armageddon

It's Closer Than You Think.

Directed By

Michael Bay

Narrated By

Charlton Heston

Screenplay By

Jonathan Hensleigh
J. J. Abrams

Cast

Bruce Willis
Billy Bob Thornton
Liv Tyler
Ben Affleck
Will Patton
Keith David
Michael Clarke Duncan
Steve Buscemi

Story

Robert Roy Pool
Jonathan Hensleigh

Produced By

Michael Bay
Jerry Bruckheimer
Gale Anne Hurd

Film Editing By

Mark Goldblatt
Chris Lebenzon
Glen Scantlebury

Cinematography By

John Schwartzman

Music Composed By

Trevor Rabin

Studio

Touchstone Pictures

Country

United States

Language

English

Release Date

July 1, 1998

Runtime

150 Minutes

Distributed By

Buena Vista Pictures

Budget

$140 million

Gross

$553,709,788

Armageddon is an American disaster film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay. The film stars Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Owen Wilson, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, William Fichtner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Keith David and Steve Buscemi.

in this film New York City was destroyed by a meteor shower and a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers were sent by N.A.S.A. to stop the asteroid from colliding.

Synopsis[]

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

Plot[]

A massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis and destroys a swath of land from America's East Coast including New York City through Finland. NASA discovers that a rogue comet the size of Texas passed through the asteroid belt and pushed forward a large amount of space debris. The core of the comet, now considered an asteroid, will collide with Earth in 18 days, creating another extinction event. NASA scientists, led by Dan Truman, plan to trigger a nuclear detonation 800 ft inside the asteroid that will split the asteroid in two, driving the pieces apart so both will fly safely past the Earth. NASA contacts Harry Stamper, considered the best deep-sea oil driller in the world, for assistance and advice. Harry returns to NASA, along with his teenage daughter Grace, to keep her away from her new boyfriend, one of Harry's young and rambunctious drillers, A. J. Frost. Harry and Grace learn about the asteroid, and Harry explains he will need his team, including A. J., to carry out the mission. Once they have been rounded up and the situation is explained, they agree to help, but only after their list of unusual rewards and demands are met.

NASA sets plans to launch two military space shuttles Freedom and Independence with redundant equipment to increase the chances of success; the shuttles will refill with liquid oxygen from the Russian space station Mir before making a slingshot maneuver around the Moon as to approach the asteroid from its backside where the target bomb site is located. NASA puts Harry and his crew through a short and rigorous astronaut training program, while Harry and his team re-outfit the mobile drillers, "Armadillos", for the difficult job.

The destruction of Shanghai by an asteroid fragment forces NASA to reveal their plans to the world. The shuttles are launched and arrive at Mir where its sole cosmonaut Lev helps with refueling. A major fire breaks out near the last stage of transfer, and the crews including Lev evacuate to the shuttles just before Mir explodes. The shuttles perform the slingshot around the moon, but approaching the asteroid, the Independence's engines are destroyed by trailing debris, and appears lost when it crashes on the asteroid. Grace, aware A.J. was aboard the Independence, is traumatized by this news. Unknown to the others, A.J., Lev, and "Bear" (another of Harry's crew) survive the impact and head towards the target site in their Armadillo.

Meanwhile, Freedom safely lands on the asteroid, but has overshot the target landing zone, ending over a much-harder metallic field than planned. Their drilling quickly falls behind schedule. The military initiates "Secondary Protocol" to remotely detonate the nuclear weapon on the asteroid's surface, despite Truman's assurance it would have no effect. Truman alerts Harry, and he is able to get the shuttle commander's help to disarm the remote trigger. Harry pushes his crew harder, but in their haste, they hit a gas pocket, blowing their Armadillo into space. They consider the mission lost until the arrival of the Independence's Armadillo. With A.J. at the controls, they quickly reach the required depth for the bomb.

The heat from the asteroid's approach to earth damages the triggering device, forcing someone to stay behind manually to detonate the bomb. After all the non-flight crew volunteers, they draw straws, and A.J. is selected. As he and Harry exit the airlock, Harry rips off A.J.'s air hose and shoves him back inside, telling him he is the son Harry never had, and he would be proud to have A.J. marry Grace. Harry prepares to detonate the bomb and contacts Grace to say his last goodbyes. After the Freedom moves to a safe distance, Harry pushes the button at the last minute, and the bomb successfully splits the asteroid to avoid collision with Earth as planned. Freedom lands, and the surviving crew are treated as heroes. A.J. and Grace get married, with photos of Harry and the other lost crew members present in memoriam.

List of Disasters[]

Asteroids (East Coast + Europe)

Cast[]

Bruce Willis as Harry Stamper, the leader of the Freedom shuttle drill team.
Ben Affleck as A. J. Frost, Grace's boyfriend and the leader of the Independence shuttle drill team.
Billy Bob Thornton as Dan Truman
Liv Tyler as Grace Stamper, Harry Stamper's teenage daughter.
Will Patton as Charles "Chick" Chapple
Steve Buscemi as "Rockhound"
Michael Clarke Duncan as J. Otis "Bear" Kurleen Bear
Owen Wilson as Oscar Choice
Clark Heathcliffe Brolly as Fred Noonan
Peter Stormare as Lev Andropov, Russian Space Station crew leader.
William Fichtner as Colonel Willie Sharp
Ken Hudson Campbell as Max Lennert
Keith David as General Kimsey
Jessica Steen as Co-Pilot Jennifer Watts
Grayson McCouch as Gruber
Jason Isaacs as Dr. Ronald Quincy
Chris Ellis as Walter Clark
Marc Curry as the Cabbie
Eddie Griffin as a Biker
Stanley ANderson as the President

Production[]

In May 1998, Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth expanded the film's budget by $3 million to include additional special effects scenes. This additional footage, incorporated two months prior to the film's release, was specifically added for the television advertising campaign to differentiate the film from Deep Impact which was released a few months before.

Nine scribes worked on script, five get credit. In addition to Robert Roy Pool, Jonathan Hensleigh, Tony Gilroy, Shane Salerno and J.J. Abrams, the writers involved included Paul Attanasio, Ann Biderman, Scott Rosenberg and Robert Towne. Originally, it was Hensleigh’s script, based on Pool’s original, that had been greenlighted by Touchstone. Then producer Jerry Bruckheimer hired the succession of scribes for rewrites and polishes.

Soundtrack[]

Armageddon Soundtrack redirects here.

Release[]

Prior to Armageddon's release, the film was advertised in Super Bowl XXXII at a cost of $2.6 million. A novelization was written by C. Bolin, based on the screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, J. J. Abrams, Tony Gilroy and Shane Salerno and the story by Jonathan Hensleigh and Robert Pool.

Home media[]

Armageddon was made available on DVD thanks too The Criterion Collection, a specialist film distributor of primarily arthouse films that markets what it considers to be "important classic and contemporary films" and "cinema at its finest".

Reception[]

Box Office[]

Armageddon was released on July 1, 1998 in 3,127 theaters in the United States and Canada. It ranked first at the box office with an opening weekend gross of $36 million. It grossed $201.6 million in the United States and Canada and $352.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $553.7 million.

Critical response[]

Armageddon received mostly mixed reviews from film critics, who mainly took issue with "the furious pace of its editing". The film is on the list of Roger Ebert's most hated films. In his original review, Ebert stated, "The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained". Todd McCarthy of Variety also gave the film a negative review, noting Michael Bay's rapid cutting style: "Much of the confusion, as well as the lack of dramatic rhythm or character development, results directly from Bay's cutting style, which resembles a machine gun stuck in the firing position for 2½ hours." The film has a cumulative 40% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while achieving a 42% aggregate score on Metacritic.

Scientific accuracy[]

Michael Bay admitted that the central premise of the film, "that [NASA] could actually do something in a situation like this," was unrealistic. Robert Roy Pool, a contributing screenwriter, stated that his script, in which an anti-gravity device is used to deflect a comet from a collision course with Earth, was "much more in line with top-secret research."

Awards[]

The film received four Academy Award nominations at the 72nd Academy Awards, including; Best Sound(Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Keith A. Wester), Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Original Song ("I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" performed by Aerosmith). The film received the Saturn Awards for Best Direction and Best Science Fiction Film (where it tied with Dark City). It was also nominated for seven Razzie Awards including: Worst Actor (Bruce Willis), Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actress (Liv Tyler), Worst Screen Couple (Tyler and Ben Affleck) and Worst Original Song. Only one Razzie was awarded: Bruce Willis received the Worst Actor award for Armageddon, in addition to his appearances in Mercury Rising and The Siege, both released in the same year as this film.

Theme Park Ride[]

At Walt Disney Studios Park located in Disneyland Paris the attraction "Armageddon – Les Effets Speciaux" is based on the film. It recreates the scene in the movie in which the Russian Space Station is destroyed.

Trivia[]

Towards the end of the credits there is a disclaimer stating, "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's cooperation and assistance does not reflect an endorsement of the contents of the film or the treatment of the characters depicted therein."
This is the time for New York City to get destroyed in every film in reality the city stays intact but however the rest of the World Trade Center Complex were built including the One World Trade Center which was built but the Two World Trade Center is under construction the first time the twin towers will be built the Two World Trade Center will be built soon.
in the YouTube Video Meteor Shower Attacks New York City some of the meteorites which destroy New York City share the same as the scene from the film.
in the game Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters whenever New York City was chosen and when a meteor shower is chosen several meteorites which destroy the city share the exact same as the scene from this film.

Destroyed Cities[]

New York

Paris

Caigo

Gologne

El Lio

Cities Destroyed[]

New York=New York County=United States

Paris=France

Caigo=Indonesia

Gologne=Brazil

El Lio=Luxembourg