Armageddon (1998/I)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Michael Bay

Writers (WGA):

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

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 | Astronaut | Nuclear

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 12 wins & 27 nominations

Cast

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
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

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:

Ken Hudson Campbell's character asks the doctor with the needle if they've seen the film Pulp Fiction (1994). Cast members Steve Buscemi and Bruce Willis were both in "Pulp Fiction".

Goofs:

Factual errors: After the space shuttle Independence crashes onto the asteroid and AJ is looking for survivors, you see fire burning all around the rubble. There is no oxygen in space, therefore fire cannot burn.

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 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

Soundtrack:

La Grange

Not Quite The End of The World...

I'll be the first to tell you, special FX are not what I look for when I am hitting the movies, I love intelligence and acting, story, story, story, good directing at least. But from the opening scenes, 'ARMAGEDDON' explodes into emergency action. This sci-fi comedy-drama was a solid hit!! I have to fully disagree with critics who will praise a horrible movie and then say that a story like this is not bigger than life. This is a blockbuster entertainment giant, with a striking sense of humor, which 'Rockhound' (Bucsemi) provided many laughs, along with the rest of the multi-talented and troubled 'troup' of civilized maniacs. I truly think that the plot of the story is fun to think about, the world needs to be saved by a bunch of motley-ruff necks that can hardly obey the regular laws in their own city and now, they are going to work with the laws of gravity, science and all else to keep the planet from becoming a memory. Every movie mogul wants a block buster that is going to in essence save the world from total oblation and hit the box office with a vengeance. This one does it with he-man style and a wise-crack or two. They all ride together though, Harry Stamper, Grace the young in love daughter of Harry, Charles Chapple er, I mean 'Chick', A.J. also in love with Grace much to Harry's uneasiness, 'Rockhound' who just wants to have girls' who 'just want to have fun' the man who is a sky-scraper if anything else, Jayotis 'Bear' who is strong and a bit on the sensitive side, just to give us equilibrium, there is 'Oscar' who is a fun having not so fearless worker, and the comically sarcastic, but easy going Max, all under N.A.S.A Administrator Dan Truman who can't fly anymore. With everyone up and going plus Lev Andropov the Russian Cosmonaut who works hard and gets a little too rowdy! They are able even with the adversity of Col. William Sharp they come together and pull it off and even with the last few moments when Harry Gives his life for A.J. in a very touching moment the story comes together and sets it right, the screw balls have a mature moment and a sobering lesson.

Recommended for action/adventure sci-fi junkies as well as regular Joe's' like me. (****)