Armageddon (1998/I)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Michael Bay

Writers (WGA):

Robert Roy Pool (story) and
Jonathan Hensleigh (story) ...

Release Date:

1 July 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

It's Closer Than You Think.

Plot:

When an asteroid the size of Texas is headed for Earth the world's best deep core drilling team is sent to nuke the rock from the inside.

Plot Keywords:

Asteroid | Drill | NASA | Nuclear | Astronaut

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 12 wins & 27 nominations

Cast

Bruce Willis	...	Harry S. Stamper
Billy Bob Thornton	...	Dan Truman, NASA Administrator
Ben Affleck	...	A.J. Frost
Liv Tyler	...	Grace Stamper
Will Patton	...	Charles 'Chick' Chapple
Steve Buscemi	...	Rockhound
William Fichtner	...	Colonel William Sharp, Shuttle Freedom Pilot
Owen Wilson	...	Oscar Choi, Geologist
Michael Clarke Duncan	...	Jayotis 'Bear' Kurleenbear
Peter Stormare	...	Lev Andropov, Russian Cosmonaut
Ken Hudson Campbell	...	Max Lennert (as Ken Campbell)
Jessica Steen	...	Jennifer Watts, Shuttle Freedom Co-Pilot
Keith David	...	Lt. General Kimsey
Chris Ellis	...	Walter Clark
Jason Isaacs	...	Dr. Ronald Quincy, Research

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

150 min | USA:153 min (director's cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Taiwan:PG-12 | Philippines:PG-13 | Finland:K-12 (1998) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Belgium:KT | Brazil:12 | Chile:14 | Denmark:15 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Hong Kong:IIA | Iceland:LH (video rating) | Iceland:L (original rating) | Italy:T | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #36122) | USA:Unrated (director's cut)

Filming Locations:

4th Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Touchstone Pictures

Trivia:

The film crew was also allowed to shoot sequences at the top of a real launch pad with an actual space shuttle docked to it. The only condition was that they not step into the shuttle itself. Ben Affleck admitted to stepping inside the orbiter for a brief moment before NASA technicians ordered him out of the spacecraft.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When they strike oil on the oil rig, Harry scolds AJ and we hear, "Number 2 relief valve is wide open," but Harry finishes speaking before the end of the sentence.

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 the atmosphere, creating a suffocating blanket of dust the sun was powerless to penetrate for a thousand years. It happened before. It will happen again. It's just a question of when.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Tripping the Rift: Chode's Near Death-Experience (#2.12)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing

At least it's honest

You know, looking at what people here have to say about this movie, I think there are two problems. One, some people have no tolerance for pure entertainment. Not every movie has to explore the depths of humanity, and teach us new things about ourselves. Some of the greatest movies aver hardly do that. On the other hand, there are variances in entertainment. Those who proclaim Armageddon to be the greatest action movie ever are generally those who, last summer, said the same about Con Air, and the year before, said the same about Independence Day.

Now, Armageddon is slightly better than the absolute mediocrity and "one-time-in-the-theater-but-only-with-a-big-screen-and- digital-sound" kind of summer hit that we usually see, but by two virtues only.

The first is its blunt honesty. It promises no plot, no characters, little reason to care, etc. It does promise all the visceral pleasures you can get your fill of, if you're up to it. And on that level, it aims, and hits the target with style. I wouldn't see it more than a couple times, I wouldn't buy it except to test my DVD surround setup, but I do find much of it to be decent escapist fun. And then some of it is also extremely boring.

On full-screen VHS with TV sound and the lights on, and the expectation of anymore than a purely technical film experience, it's not worth the time.

And one more thing: I, for one, appreciate the extreme care that went into Armageddon. The technical skill required to make it happen were far more impressive than most movies of this type. If the pace made it hard to follow, try paying more attention, because had it not been made as it was, it would have been even more boring. I wish, though, that it lived up to the superiority of The Rock.

Oh, and by honest, I'm largely comparing to the shallowness of Deep Impact. This one delivered everything it said it was going to, and didn't try to trick us into thinking it was any more.