An asteroid the size of Texas is on a collision course with Earth.

NASA puts together a team

of oil drillers, lead by Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis), considered to be the best deep core
driller in the world, and plans to send them up to the asteroid in order to plant a nuclear
warhead 800 feet deep inside of it. The hope is that the warhead will blow the asteroid into
two pieces, both of which will safely fly past the earth.

The song is titled "Leaving on a Jet Plane". It was written by John Denver in 1966 and
recorded by various artists, including the Chad Mitchell Trio, Spanky and Our Gang, and
Peter, Paul and Mary.

How could they split the asteroid by drilling a shaft only 800 feet deep?

There's a bit of fleeting dialog when Stamper's roughnecks are going through their NASA
training: Harry says that they have to "split the asteroid on the fault line", meaning that
there was a gigantic geographical crack already present in the asteroid—it was likely
discovered by NASA while they were monitoring the asteroid's approach. By drilling deep
enough to expose or come within a short distance of the fault, the explosion would be
sufficient enough to crack the asteroid the rest of the way. It's a quick moment in the film,
easy to miss.

When Independence crashes, Oscar's (Owen Wilson) faceplate on his helmet gets smashed
while he's strapped into his chair. Noonan (Clark Heathcliff Brolly), munition specialist
Halsey (Greg Collins) and the two pilots are killed, seemingly all getting sucked out the
window of the ship when it gets smashed (though only the pilots are shown). A.J.(Ben
Affleck), Bear (Michael Clarke Duncan), and Lev Andropov (Peter Stormare) survive. All of
the crew on Freedom survive with the exception of Max (Ken Hudson Campbell) who dies
when the Armadillo hits a gas pocket while drilling, destroying the vehicle and sending it
floating into space with Max still inside. Munitions specialist Gruber (Grayson McCouch) gets
killed during a violent meteor shower, and Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) voluntarily stays
behind to self-detonate the nuke and destroys the asteroid.

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 the crew are launched into outer space, they are determined to destroy this
asteroid.