DISASTER FILM WIKI

DISASTER FILM WIKI

Armageddon

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 AFeck
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 -lm
directed and co-produced by Michael Bay. The -lm
stars Bruce Willis, Ben A<eck, Billy Bob Thornton,
Liv Tyler, Owen Wilson, Will Patton, Peter Stormare,
William Fichtner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Keith
David and Steve Buscemi.

in this -lm 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.

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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 mis-t 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 Sy 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 re-ll 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-
out-t the mobile drillers, "Armadillos", for the
di\cult 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 -re 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 -eld 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 eaect. 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-Sight crew volunteers, they draw
straws, and A.J. is selected. As he and Harry exit
the airlock, Harry rips oa 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.

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List of Disasters

Asteroids (East Coast + Europe)

Cast

Bruce Willis as Harry Stamper, the leader of

the Freedom shuttle drill team.
Ben A<eck 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 Heathcliae 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

Honest Game Trailers | High …

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Production

In May 1998, Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe

Roth expanded the -lm's budget by $3 million to
include additional special eaects scenes. This
additional footage, incorporated two months prior
to the -lm's release, was speci-cally added for the
television advertising campaign to diaerentiate
the -lm from Deep Impact which was released a
few months before.

Nine scribes worked on script, -ve 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 -lm 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 -lm
distributor of primarily arthouse -lms that markets
what it considers to be "important classic and
contemporary -lms" and "cinema at its -nest".

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Reception

Box O,ce

Armageddon was released on July 1, 1998 in 3,127

theaters in the United States and Canada. It
ranked -rst at the box o\ce 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

-lm critics, who mainly took issue with "the furious
pace of its editing". The -lm is on the list of Roger
Ebert's most hated -lms. 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 -lm 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 -ring position for 2½ hours." The
-lm has a cumulative 40% "Rotten" rating on
Rotten Tomatoes, while achieving a 42%
aggregate score on Metacritic.

Scienti6c accuracy

Michael Bay admitted that the central premise of

the -lm, "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
deSect a comet from a collision course with Earth,
was "much more in line with top-secret research."

Awards

The -lm 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 Eaects,
Best Sound Eaects Editing, and Best Original Song
("I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" performed by
Aerosmith). The -lm 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 A<eck) 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 -lm.

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Theme Park Ride

At Walt Disney Studios Park located in Disneyland

Paris the attraction "Armageddon – Les Eaets
Speciaux" is based on the -lm. 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 reSect an endorsement of
the contents of the -lm or the treatment of
the characters depicted therein."
This is the time for New York City to get
destroyed in every -lm 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 -rst 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 -lm.
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 -lm.

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Destroyed Cities

New York

Paris

Cities Destroyed

New York=New York County=United States

Paris=France

Gallery

New York City partially destroyed in Armageddon. Note that viewing

any version of Armageddon after 2002 will not include scenes that
show the World Trade Center Complex. This is because seeing the…
Twin Towers damaged badly brings back nasty memories to the
family or friends of victims in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The aftermath a Paris getting destroyed by an asteroid. Picture is

not from the -lm, but provided o\cially by Matte World Digital for
viewers to see what Paris looked like after its destruction.

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