| Armageddon | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Bay |
| Screenplay by | |
| Adaptation by | |
| Story by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | John Schwartzman |
| Edited by | |
| Music by | Trevor Rabin |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release dates |
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Running time | 150 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $140 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $553.7 million[2] |
Armageddon is a 1998 Americanscience fiction disaster film directed byMichael Bay and co-produced byJerry Bruckheimer. The film follows a group ofblue-collardeep-core drillers sent byNASA to destroy agigantic asteroid, which is the size ofTexas, on a collision course withEarth. It stars anensemble cast includingBruce Willis withBilly Bob Thornton,Liv Tyler,Ben Affleck,Will Patton,Peter Stormare,Keith David,Owen Wilson,William Fichtner andSteve Buscemi.
The film released on July 1, 1998 byBuena Vista Pictures through itsTouchstone Pictures label. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics,Armageddon was a commercial success, grossing $553.7 million worldwide against a $140 million budget, becoming thehighest-grossing film of 1998, and the highest-grossing film to be released by Touchstone Pictures.
A massivemeteor shower destroys the orbitingSpace ShuttleAtlantis before entering theatmosphere and bombardingBoston,Philadelphia,Moncton,Halifax,Newfoundland andNew York City, the latter being extensively damaged. The meteors were pushed out of theasteroid belt by a collision from a roguecomet the size ofTexas andNASA learns it will impactEarth in 18 days, wiping out all life on Earth.
NASA devises a plan to drill a deep hole into the asteroid, into which they will insert and detonate anuclear bomb to destroy it. They recruit Harry Stamper, a third-generationoil driller and owner of an oil drilling company, who agrees to help but on the condition that he bring in his own team to do the drilling. He picks his best employees for the job: Chick Chapple, his best friend and right-hand man;geologists Rockhound and Oscar Choice; and drillers Bear Curlene, Freddie Noonan, Max Lennert, and A. J. Frost (who has been dating Harry's daughter Grace despite Harry's objections). Over twelve days, they are trained to becomeastronauts with astronaut Willie Sharp, who will pilotFreedom—one of the two super shuttles to fly to the asteroid, the other being theIndependence. Before leaving, Chick apologizes to his ex-wife for wronging her and sees his son—who is unaware of his parentage—and Grace accepts A.J.'smarriage proposal, much to Harry's reluctant dismay; she later has her father promise to return home safe and with her fiancé.
Following the destruction ofShanghai by anothermeteor strike, word of the asteroid becomes public to the world. Both shuttles take off without incident and dock with the Russian space stationMir to take on fuel, but faulty materials start a fire in the fuel pod. A.J. andRoscosmoscosmonaut Lev Andropov narrowly manage to boardIndependence before the space station is destroyed.
Approaching the asteroid,Independence is damaged by debris and crashes, killing all on board except Lev, Bear, and A.J. They embark in the shuttle's mobile driller “Armadillo” to find theFreedom crew, which landed 26 miles from its intended landing/drilling site. When the drilling goes slower than predicted, Sharp reports toMission Control that it is unlikely they will reach the depth necessary to destroy the asteroid before "Zero Barrier", the point after which detonating the rock will not save Earth. Thepresident of the United States decides to remotely detonate the bomb from Earth immediately, not understanding this will cause total mission failure. Sharp and Harry have a vicious argument, but agree to defuse the bomb and work together after Harry promises Sharp that he will accomplish the mission. They make up on lost drilling time, but a missed gas pocket causes their Armadillo and Max to be blown into space. Just as Harry, NASA, and the world believe the mission to be a failure, while another meteor destroysParis, A.J. and the others arrive in the second Armadillo.
A.J. successfully finishes the drilling, but a rock storm kills Gruber and damages the bomb’s remote detonator, forcing someone to stay behind and manually detonate it. They draw straws; A.J. is given the responsibility. Harry takes him down to the asteroid's surface, only to disconnect A.J.'s air hose and force him into the shuttle's air lock, before telling A.J. that he is the son Harry never had, and he would be proud to have him marry Grace. Using the Armadillo, Harry tearfully gives Grace his blessing to marry A.J., and Grace says she is proud to be his daughter.
After various difficulties,Freedom takes off, and just before Zero Barrier, Harry manages to detonate the bomb and saves the planet, sacrificing his life in the process. The astronauts land on Earth safely. A.J. and Grace are reunited, and Chick reconciles with his ex-wife and estranged son. During the credits, A.J. and Grace are married, with the portraits of Harry and the others lost on the mission presentin memoriam.
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According toBruce Joel Rubin, writer ofDeep Impact, a production president at Disney took notes on everything the writer said during lunch about his script and initiatedArmageddon as a counter film at Disney.[4] Nine writers worked on the script, five of whom are credited. In addition toRobert Roy Pool,Jonathan Hensleigh,Tony Gilroy,Shane Salerno andJ. J. Abrams, the writers involved includedPaul Attanasio,Ann Biderman,Scott Rosenberg andRobert Towne. Originally, it was Hensleigh's script, based on Pool's original, that had been given thegreen-light byTouchstone Pictures. Jerry Bruckheimer hired the succession of writers for rewrites and polishes.[5][6]
Bruce Willis was cast in the film as part of a three-picture deal he cut with the studio to compensate them for the dissolution of 1997'sBroadway Brawler.[7][8] He received a significant pay cut for the picture as part of the deal.[9]Sean Connery was originally considered for the role of Stamper, but Michael Bay decided to cast a younger actor in the role after meeting oil drillers.[10]Bradley Cooper auditioned for the role of A.J. Frost, which eventually went to Ben Affleck.[11]
Principal photography forArmageddon began on August 27, 1997 and ended on January 29, 1998.[12] Filming occurred atCulver Studios in Culver City, California.[13] In May 1998,Walt Disney Studios chairmanJoe Roth expanded the film's budget by $3 million to include additional special effects scenes byDream Quest Images showing an asteroid impactingParis. This additional footage, incorporated two months prior to the film's release, was specifically added for the television advertising campaign to visually differentiate the film fromDeep Impact which was released a few months before.[14] At a budget of $140 million, it was Buena Vista's most expensive film at the time.[3]
After filming was complete, according toHome Improvement actorRichard Karn, he stumbled upon the main asteroid set and suggested toTim Allen that they needed to film on it. According to Karn, Allen asked then ABC executiveBob Iger who then asked Michael Bay for permission. Bay required waiting 6 months after the film was released. The asteroid set was used as a credit roll gag scene to imitate a cave in Wilson's basement.[15]
Prior toArmageddon's release, the film was advertised inSuper Bowl XXXII at a cost of $2.6 million.[16] Several billboards sparked a city-wide panic with its all-too-real ad campaign.[17] The studio also partnered withMcDonald's for the tie-in promotion.[18]
Despite a mixed critical reception,The Criterion Collection—a specialist film distributor of primarilyarthouse films that markets what it considers to be "important classic and contemporary films" and "cinema at its finest"—released the 'directors cut' of the film toDVD andLaserDisc. In an essay supporting the selection ofArmageddon, film scholarJeanine Basinger, who taught Michael Bay atWesleyan 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." Further, she states that in the first few moments of the film all the main characters are well established, saying, "If that isn't screenwriting, I don't know what is".[19]
The film was also released onVHS and DVD byBuena Vista Home Entertainment on November 13, 1998, and would surpassPretty Woman to become Buena Vista Home Entertainment's best-selling live-action title.[20]Armageddon then premiered on both VHS and DVD formats on February 1, 1999, in the UK. It was the country's best-selling DVD release, selling over 100,000 copies. However, this record would be surpassed byThe Matrix later that year.[21] The film was released on a standard editionBlu-ray in 2010 with only a few special features.[22] In late November 2024, it was announced that the film would be released on4K Blu-ray.[23]
By April 2002,ABC airings ofArmageddon had already received modifications due to theSeptember 11 attacks that occurred seven months prior. The scene where theWorld Trade Center was hit by meteors and caught on fire was censored because of its similarity to the attacks.[24]
Following the 2003Columbia disaster, some screen captures from the opening scene whereAtlantis is destroyed were passed off as satellite images of the disaster in a hoax.[25] Additionally, the American cable networkFX, which had intended to broadcastArmageddon that evening, removed the film from its schedule and airedAliens in its place.[26]
Armageddon was released onJuly 1, 1998 in3,127 theaters in the United States and Canada. It ranked first at the box office ahead ofDr. Dolittle with an opening weekend gross of$36 million, combined with$54.2 million from its first five days.[27] Upon opening, the film had the third-highest Fourth of July opening weekend at the time, behindMen in Black andIndependence Day.[28] It went on to beatRansom to achieve the highest opening weekend for a live-action Disney film.[29] That record would only last for four months before being surpassed byThe Waterboy that November.[30] The film was surpassed byLethal Weapon 4 in its second weekend, although it collected a total of $23.5 million.[31] In late July 1998, it surpassed its rivalDeep Impact to become the highest-grossing domestic release of the year.[32] The film 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.[2] It was thehighest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide and the second-highest-grossing film of that year in the United States, finishing just behindSaving Private Ryan.
In South Korea,Armageddon surpassedGodzilla to have the country's highest opening, making$2.7 million.[33] It recorded the second-highest opening in Taiwan with$1 million, behindThe Lost World: Jurassic Park.[34] The film would spend a total of thirteen weeks in Japan's number one spot until it was surpassed byA Bug's Life.[35]
Armageddon received mixed reviews from film critics, many of whom took issue with "the furious pace of its editing".[36] On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film has a 43% approval rating based on 176 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The critical consensus states, "Lovely to look at but about as intelligent as the asteroid that serves as the movie's antagonist,Armageddon slickly sums up the cinematic legacies of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay."[37]Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[38]
A rough assemblage of footage from the film was shown in the marketplace at the1998 Cannes Film Festival in May. The footage reportedly generated unintentional laughs from journalists who viewed it.[39]
The film is on the list ofRoger Ebert's most hated films.[40] In his original review, Ebert gave the film 1 star and stated, "The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained". OnAt the Movies, Ebert gave it a Thumbs Down. However, his co-hostGene Siskel gave it a Thumbs Up, commenting on the noise and intensity of the film, but also stating that he found the film to be amusing. Ebert went on to nameArmageddon as the worst film of 1998 (though he was originally consideringSpice World).[41]Janet Maslin ofThe New York Times said, "A real movie about courage in space isApollo 13, in which fear and sacrifice have meaning. This jingoistic, overblown spectacle is about whistling in the dark."[42] Todd McCarthy ofVariety 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 21⁄2 hours."[36]
In April 2013, in aMiami Herald interview to promotePain & Gain, Bay was quoted as having said:
…We had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks. It was a massive undertaking. That was not fair to the movie. I would redo the entire third act if I could. But the studio literally took the movie away from us. It was terrible. My visual effects supervisor had a nervous breakdown, so I had to be in charge of that. I calledJames Cameron and asked "What do you do when you're doing all the effects yourself?" But the movie did fine.[43]
Some time after the article was published, Bay changed his stance, claiming that his apology only related to the editing of the film, not the whole film,[44] and accused the writer of the article for taking his words out of context. The author of the article,Miami Herald writer Rene Rodriguez, claimed: "NBC asked me for a response, and I played them the tape. I didn't misquote anyone. All the sites that picked up the story did."[45]
In an interview withEntertainment Weekly, Bay admitted that the film's central premise "thatNASA could actually do something in a situation like this" was unrealistic. Additionally, the largest knownpotentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) is(53319) 1999 JM8, which is only 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) in diameter,[46] while the asteroid in the movie is described as being "the size ofTexas". Near 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."[47] Astronomers would subsequently note thatDeep Impact was more scientifically accurate.[48][49]
The infeasibility of theH-bomb approach was published by four physics postdocs in 2011[50] and then reported byThe Daily Telegraph in 2012:
A mathematical analysis of the situation found that for Willis's approach to be effective, he would need to be in possession of an H-bomb a billion times stronger than theSoviet Union's "Big Ivan", the biggest ever detonated on Earth. Using estimates of the asteroid's size, density, speed and distance from Earth based on information in the film, the postgraduate students fromLeicester University found that to split the asteroid in two, with both pieces clearing Earth, would require 800 trillionterajoules of energy. In contrast, the total energy output of "Big Ivan", which was tested by the Soviet Union in 1961, was only 418,000 terajoules.[51][52]
In the commentary track, Ben Affleck says he "asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers, and he told me to shut the fuck up, so that was the end of that talk."[10]
Neil deGrasse Tyson said on the October 2, 2023 episode ofThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert that, until the release of the 2022 filmMoonfall,Armageddon was the movie which violated more laws of physics per minute than any other movie ever.[53]
| Award | Category | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Original Song | "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" Music and Lyrics byDiane Warren | Nominated | [54] |
| Best Sound | Kevin O'Connell,Greg P. Russell, andKeith A. Wester | Nominated | ||
| Best Sound Effects Editing | George Watters II | Nominated | ||
| Best Visual Effects | Richard R. Hoover,Patrick McClung, andJohn Frazier | Nominated | ||
| American Music Awards | Top Soundtrack | Armageddon: The Album | Nominated | [55] |
| ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards | Most Performed Songs from a Motion Picture | "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" – Diane Warren | Won | [56] |
| Awards Circuit Community Awards | Best Achievement in Sound | Nominated | ||
| Best Visual Effects | Nominated | |||
| Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | Favorite Actor – Sci-Fi | Bruce Willis | Won | [57] |
| Favorite Actress – Sci-Fi | Liv Tyler | Nominated | ||
| Favorite Supporting Actor – Sci-Fi | Ben Affleck | Won | ||
| Billy Bob Thornton | Nominated | |||
| Favorite Soundtrack | Armageddon: The Album | Nominated | ||
| BMI Film & TV Awards | Best Music | Trevor Rabin | Won | |
| Bogey Awards | Won | |||
| Cinema Audio Society Awards | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures | Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, and Keith A. Wester | Nominated | |
| Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Picture | Jerry Bruckheimer,Gale Anne Hurd, andMichael Bay | Nominated | [58] |
| Worst Director | Michael Bay | Nominated | ||
| Worst Actor | Bruce Willis(Also forMercury Rising andThe Siege) | Won | ||
| Worst Supporting Actress | Liv Tyler | Nominated | ||
| Worst Screenplay | Screenplay byJonathan Hensleigh andJ. J. Abrams; Story byRobert Roy Pool and Jonathan Hensleigh; Adaptation byTony Gilroy andShane Salerno | Nominated | ||
| Worst Screen Couple | Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler | Nominated | ||
| Worst Original Song | "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren | Nominated | ||
| Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing – Dialogue & ADR | George Watters II, Teri E. Dorman, Juno J. Ellis, Gloria D'Alessandro, Alison Fisher, Carin Rogers, Karen Spangenberg, Mary Andrews, Andrea Horta, Denise Horta, Stephen Janisz, Nicholas Korda, and Denise Whiting | Nominated | |
| Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects & Foley | Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, and Keith A. Wester | Nominated | ||
| Best Sound Editing – Music (Foreign & Domestic) | Bob Badami, Will Kaplan, Shannon Erbe, and Mark Jan Wlodarkiewicz | Nominated | ||
| Golden Screen Awards | Won | |||
| Golden Trailer Awards | Golden Fleece | Nominated | [59] | |
| Grammy Awards | Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing" – Diane Warren | Nominated | [60] |
| Japan Academy Film Prize | Outstanding Foreign Language Film | Nominated | ||
| MTV Movie Awards | Best Movie | Nominated | [61] [62] | |
| Best Male Performance | Ben Affleck | Nominated | ||
| Best Female Performance | Liv Tyler | Nominated | ||
| Best On-Screen Duo | Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler | Nominated | ||
| Best Song from a Movie | Aerosmith – "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" | Won | ||
| Best Action Sequence | Asteroid Destroys New York City | Won | ||
| MTV Video Music Awards | Best Video from a Film | Aerosmith – "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" | Won | [63] |
| Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Original Song | "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren | Nominated | [64] |
| Best Adapted Song | "Leaving on a Jet Plane" Music and Lyrics byJohn Denver | Nominated | ||
| Best Sound Effects Editing | George Watters II | Nominated | ||
| Best Visual Effects | Richard R. Hoover, Patrick McClung, and John Frazier | Nominated | ||
| Satellite Awards | Best Original Song | "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren | Won | [65] |
| Best Visual Effects | Richard R. Hoover, Pat McClung, and John Frazier | Nominated | ||
| Saturn Awards | Best Science Fiction Film | Won[a] | [66] | |
| Best Director | Michael Bay | Won | ||
| Best Actor | Bruce Willis | Nominated | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Ben Affleck | Nominated | ||
| Best Costumes | Michael Kaplan and Magali Guidasci | Nominated | ||
| Best Music | Trevor Rabin | Nominated | ||
| Best Special Effects | Richard R. Hoover, Pat McClung, and John Frazier | Nominated | ||
| Stinkers Bad Movie Awards | Worst Actor | Bruce Willis | Won | [67] |
| Worst Supporting Actress | Liv Tyler | Nominated | ||
| Worst Screenplay for a Film Grossing Over $100M Worldwide Using Hollywood Math | Screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh and J. J. Abrams; Story by Robert Roy Pool and Jonathan Hensleigh | Nominated | ||
| Worst On-Screen Couple | Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler | Won | ||
| Most Annoying Fake Accent | Bruce Willis | Nominated | ||
| Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Actor | Ben Affleck | Nominated | |
Revell andMonogram released two model kits inspired by the film's spacecraft and the Armadillos, in 1998. The first one, "Space Shuttle with Armadillo drilling unit", included an X-71, a small, rough Armadillo and a pedestal. The second one, "Russian Space Center", included theMir, with the docking adapter seen in the film, and another pedestal.[citation needed]
In 2011, Fantastic Plastic released another X-71 kit, the "X-71 Super Shuttle", the goal of which was to be more accurate than the Revell/Monogram kit.[68]
Armageddon – Les Effets Speciaux was an attraction based onArmageddon atWalt Disney Studios Park located atDisneyland Paris.[69] It opened in time for the park's premiere on March 16, 2002, being a debut attraction.[70] The attraction simulated the scene in the movie in which the Russian Space Station is destroyed.[71]Michael Clarke Duncan ("Bear" in the film) was featured in the pre-show.[71]
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