Armageddon (film)

Armageddon is a 1998 film about a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers who are sent by NASA to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. It features an all-star cast, including Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Peter Stormare, Keith David, Jason Issacs, Jessica Steen and Ken Hudson Campbell.

Directed by Michael Bay. Written by Jonathan Hensleigh, Tony Gilroy, Shane Salerno, and J. J. Abrams, based on a story by Robert Roy Pool and Jonathan Hensleigh.

• [After Freedom's Armadillo is destroyed] Get a hold of Truman, prepare the world for bad news.
• [as he activates the manual detonator] We win, Gracie!

• [addressing staff on the NASA flight center network after the space shuttle Atlantis is destroyed] Okay, I want three groups. One: internal malfunction; get the log tape and start working back; maybe it's a glitch. Two: I want NORAD, Space Command and the 50th Tactical comparing all the space junk you tracked in every orbit. I want you to check, re-check and then do it all over again. Number three: wild cards, anything and everything alright? Now, Big Russ, I want you to get on the phone and wake up 11,000 people. Walt, get 'em going.
• [briefing Harry and Grace Stamper on the situation] When the rogue comet went through the asteroid belt, it sent shrapnel right for us. For the next 11 days, the Earth's in a shooting gallery. Even if the asteroid itself hits the water, it's still hitting land, it'll flashboil millions of gallons of seawater and slam into the ocean bedrock. Now if it's a Pacific Ocean impact, which we think it will be, it will create a tidal wave about three miles high, travelling a thousand miles an hour, covering California and washing up in Denver. Japan is gone, Australia is wiped out. Half of the Earth's population will be incinerated by the heat blast, the rest will freeze to death in a nuclear winter.

• I address you tonight not as the President of the United States, not as the leader of a country, but as a citizen of humanity. We are faced with the very gravest of challenges. The Bible calls this day "Armageddon"; the end of all things. And yet, for the first time in the history of the planet, a species has the technology to prevent its own extinction. All of you praying with us need to know that everything that can be done to prevent this disaster is being called into service.
  The human thirst for excellence, knowledge, every step up the ladder of science, every adventurous reach into space, all of our combined modern technologies and imaginations, even the wars that we've fought have provided us the tools to wage this terrible battle. Through all the chaos that is our history, through all of the wrongs and the discord, through all of the pain and suffering, through all of our times, there is one thing that has nourished our souls, and elevated our species above its origins, and that is our courage.
  The dreams of an entire planet are focused tonight on those fourteen brave souls traveling into the heavens. May we all, citizens the world over, see these events through. Godspeed, and good luck to you.

[NASA staff are briefing the US President on videoconference aboard Air Force One, but the president is losing patience with a briefer]

President: Enough of this anomaly horseshit! What is this thing?

Truman: It's an asteroid, sir.

President: How big are we talking?

Scientist: Sir, our best estimate is 97.6 billion–

Truman: It's the size of Texas, Mr. President.

Scientist: Uh, yes sir. [sits down]

President: Dan, we didn't see this thing coming?

Truman: Well, our object collision budget's a million dollars. That allows us to track about three percent of the sky, and begging your pardon, sir, but it's a big-ass sky.

Gen. Kimsey: And the ones this morning?

Truman: Uh, those were nothing. Those were the size of basketballs and Volkswagens, things like that.

President: Is this, going to hit us?

Truman: We're efforting that as we speak, sir.

President: What kind of damage are we...

Truman: Damage? Total, sir. It's what we call a global killer. The end of mankind. Doesn't matter where it hits, nothing would survive, not even bacteria.

President: My God. What do we do?

[an employee runs into the room]

NASA Employee: [shows paper] We have 18 days before it hits Earth!

[Harry Stamper has called out Dan Truman's team over consulting him on a drill system he designed and NASA later appropriated, and is not too pleased about being asked to train a team of USAF pilots on the system]

Harry Stamper: What's your contingency plan?

Truman: Contingency plan?

Harry: Your backup plan. You gotta have some kind of backup plan, right?

Truman: No, we don't have a back up plan, this is, uh...

Harry: And this is the best that you-that the government, the US government could come up with? I mean, you're NASA for crying out loud, you put a man on the moon, you're geniuses! You're the guys that're thinking shit up! I'm sure you got a team of men sitting around somewhere right now just thinking shit up and somebody backing them up! You're telling me you don't have a backup plan, that these eight Boy Scouts right here [gestures to USAF pilots], that is the world's hope, that's what you're telling me?

Truman: Yeah.

[The team are listing their conditions for going on the mission]

Truman: So what's the verdict?

Harry Stamper: They'll do it. They've made a few requests though.

Truman: Such as?

Stamper: [riffles through sheets of paper] Well, there's uh, few things here, uh... nothin' really big, uh, just- Well, as an example, uh, uh, Oscar here, he's got some outstanding parking tickets. Wants them wiped off his record.

Oscar: [shouting from balcony] Fifty-six tickets in seven states...

Stamper: [to Oscar] I'll-I'll tell 'em Oscar, you got it.

Oscar: Okay.

Stamper: Uh, Noonan's got two women friends that he'd like to see made American citizens, no questions asked. Max would like you to...bring back eight-track tapes. Not sure if that's gonna work, but, uh, let's see what else. Um, Chick wants a full week's Emperor's Package at Caesar's Palace. Um - hey, you guys wouldn't be able to tell us who actually killed Kennedy, would ya? [Truman and the General look at him] Didn't think so. Um, Bear would like to stay at the... [tries to read writing] "White horse"? [looks up at Bear]

Bear: White. House. White House.

Stamper: White House. Yeah, he'd like to stay in the Lincoln bedroom of the White House for the summer. Stuff like that.

Truman: Sure, I think we can, uh, take care of... some of that.

Rockhound: [shouting from balcony] Harry!

Stamper: [motions back at Rockhound] Yeah, one more thing, um...none of them wanna pay taxes again. Ever. [Kimsey and Truman stare at Harry, who smirks and shrugs]

[Chick visits someone before getting back to prepare for the launch]

Denise: What are you doing here?

Chick: I was just passing by on the, uh, I came... [a boy comes onto the porch with a toy and sees Chick]

Tommy: Who's he?

Denise: That man's a salesman. Would you go inside? [Tommy obeys] Thank you.

Chick: He got big.

Denise: Can't come around like this. Court says you can't. Confuses him.

Chick: No, I know. I just ... I wanted to say that I'm sorry ... about everything, and ... I got something coming up, some kinda big. You just might be proud of me. Would you do something for me? Would you just give him this? You don't have - you don't have to tell him who it's from, just... [puts a toy shuttle on the porch]

[after the asteroid landing goes wrong]

Rockhound: We're in segment 202, lateral grid nine, site 15H32; give or take a few yards. Captain America here blew the landing by 26 miles!

Col. Sharp: How the hell do you know that?

Rockhound: Because I'm a genius.

Watts: The gauges will not read. They're all peaked like we're plugged into some magnetic field.

Rockhound: [sarcastically] Well, who on this spaceship wants to know why?

Gruber: By all means.

Rockhound: The reason we were shooting for grid eight, was because thermographics indicated that grid nine was compressed iron ferrite...which means you've landed us on a goddamn iron plate!

[during the standoff with the bomb]

Harry: For God's sakes, think about what you're doin'. Why are you listening to someone a hundred thousand miles away? We're here. No one down there can help us and if we don't get this job done, then everybody's gone.

Chick: One minute.

Harry: I have been drilling holes in the earth for 30 years. And I have never, never missed a depth that I have aimed for. And by God, I am not gonna miss this one, I will make 800 feet.

Chick: Forty-two seconds.

Harry: But I can't do it alone, Colonel. I need your help.

Col. Sharp: You swear on your daughter's life, on my family's, that you can hit that mark?

Harry: I will make 800 feet. I swear to God I will.

Col. Sharp: Then let's turn this bomb off.

[AJ has drawn the short straw and Harry accompanies him to set up the bomb]

AJ: Tell Grace that I'll, I'll always be with her. Can you do that?

Harry: Yeah. Okay, kid. [pulls AJ's air hose out, rips off his own mission badge and hands it to AJ] Give this to Truman! Make sure Truman gets that! Get in there. [pushes AJ back into the hatch and closes the door] It's my turn now.

AJ: Harry, Harry! You can't do this to me! It's my job!

Harry: You go take care of my little girl now. That's your job. Always thought of you as a son. Always. But I'd be damn proud to have you marry Grace.

AJ: Harry...

Harry: You take care of yourself. [pushes a button sending the hatch up] I love you, pal.

AJ: No wait, Harry I love you! Harry don't do this! I love you! No wait a minute!

Harry: My son.

Grace Stamper: [talking to Harry on the monitor] Daddy?

Harry Stamper: Hi Gracey. Hi honey. Grace, I know I promised you I was coming home.

Grace: I don't under- understand.

Harry: Looks like I'm gonna have to break that promise.

Grace: I, um, I lied to you too, when I told you that I didn't wanna be like you...because I am like you. Everything good that I have inside of me, I have from you. I love you so much, Daddy. And I'm so proud of you, I'm so scared. So scared.

Harry: I know it, baby. But there won't be anything to be scared of soon. Gracey, I want you to know that A.J. saved us. He did. I want you to tell Chick, that I couldn't have done it without him. None of it. I want you to take care of A.J. I want to see your granddad come so far from up here, Grace. He told me that God gives us children so we could have roses in December. He gave me a gardenful, a whole gardenful, Gracie. He really did. I wish I could be there to walk you down the aisle. [Grace gets teary-eyed] But I'll... I'll look in on you from time to time, okay honey? I love you, Grace.

Grace: I love you too.

Harry: Gotta go now honey.

Grace: Daddy, no! [touches screen as Harry cuts the video feed] No. No dad, no!

• When the World Trade towers fell on September 11, 2001, there was one refrain I heard over and over again, a common response that was both automatic and indicting: “It looked like something out of a Michael Bay movie.” More specifically, the explosions and citywide carnage resembled Armageddon, the Bay-directed action vehicle that had come out four summers prior and contained scenes of epic metropolitan mayhem that were still something of a cinematic novelty at the time. We pray that nothing on the scale of 9/11 will ever happen again, but if something actually did, we’d now have a sickening number of summer movies to compare it to. This weekend’s Man of Steel is only the latest film this year to exploit familiar 9/11 imagery in ways that are far more extreme and blatant than anything we’ve seen on the big screen before, as though Hollywood feels the need to out-9/11 itself. It’s lazy, it’s cheap, it’s deadening, and it needs to stop.
  • Kyle Buchanan, “Is It Possible to Make a Hollywood Blockbuster Without Evoking 9/11?”, Vulture, (2013/06).

• Bruce Willis - Harry Stamper
• Billy Bob Thornton - Dan Truman
• Ben Affleck - AJ Frost
• Liv Tyler - Grace Stamper
• Will Patton - Charles 'Chick' Chapple
• Steve Buscemi - Rockhound
• William Fichtner - Colonel William Sharp
• Owen Wilson - Oscar Choi, Geologist
• Michael Clarke Duncan - Jayotis 'Bear' Kurleenbear
• Peter Stormare - Lev Andropov

Wikipedia has an article about:

Armageddon (1998 film)

• Media related to Armageddon (1998 film) on Wikimedia Commons
• Armageddon quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Armageddon at Rotten Tomatoes