Armageddon: The Movie with Bruce Willis
By: The Working Man
As a gigantic asteroid is hurtling through space
towards earth, Bruce Willis and his team of oil
drillers are called upon to save planet Earth by
drilling a hole in the asteroid and blowing it up.
When NASA learns of an asteroid the size of Texas
will in 18 days destroy Earth they call on the
expertise of Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and his
team of expert core drillers.
Harry Stamper is a hard core, pull no punches, get
the job done kind of guy. His wife left him and his
daughter Grace (Liv Tyler) when she was young. Harry took
Gracie with him on his oil drilling missions and she grew
up learning how to be a woman from the oil field
drillers around her.
When Grace falls in love with Harry's right hand man,
A. J. Frost (Ben Affleck), Harry becomes quite upset
and goes off making A. J. target practice on the
oil drill rig, then fires the best man he has.
NASA is beside themselves at what course of action to
take to prevent the asteroid and finally come up
with the idea to drill a hole 800 feet deep in the
asteroid and then blow it up with a nuclear weapon,
hoping that it will split the asteroid in two sections
by passing Earth.
NASA seeks out Harry who after realizing the seriousness
of the situation, Ha....everyone is going to die anyway....
agrees to help, but only if he and his team of expert
drillers are the ones to do it.
When NASA see what a bunch of lunatics these drillers
are, they have second thoughts, but head honcho,
Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) sees something in
Harry and his determination to get the job done.
After training the oil driller teams are sent up
in two space shuttles, Independence with A. J.'s
team and Freedom with Harry's team.
They dock with a Russian space station where the
sole person on board is a wacked out Russian Cosmonaut
Lev (Peter Stormare). Things don't go well and
the space station blows up when a fuel leak happens,
but the Independence and Freedom get away with
little damage.
Things only get worse when Independence goes down
after suffering serious blows to it's ship as
it tries to land on the asteroid. A.J. and Lev
manage to escape with the drilling rig, but they
have no idea where they are, no radio communications
and no idea where Freedom is.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Houston loses radio
contact with Freedom and they land 9 miles off their
target in a ferrous iron surface which is exceedingly
hard to drill through.
Harry and his boys get the rig set up and drilling but
at 57 feet they blow the transmission. Flight commander
Colonel William Sharpe (William Fichtner) sees
how Harry is trying to run the show in place of him
and a battle of the wills takes place.
The President orders that the nuclear bomb be detonated
when he hears of all the troubles. He orders Lt. General
Kimsey to take charge of Houston and detonate the bomb.
Dan realizes the futility of this and bides for time,
but finally the detonation is started as Grace comes to
grips that she will never see her dad or A. J. again.
As the bomb is ticking, Harry and Colonel Sharpe get
hot and heavy into who's going to run the show. Of
course our man Harry wins and with only 3 seconds to
go, Sharpe cuts the detonation wire.
Drilling proceeds but the rig gets blown away from
a gas vent on the asteroid.
At the last minute riding in on the horizon is A. J.
with the second rig. They set it up and start drilling,
but the going is tough. With only a few feet to go,
A. J. orders more power, Harry says no slow it down,
A. J. says he can do this and to give him a chance,
Harry backs down and A. J. breaks through 800 feet.
Dropping the bomb into the hole, Sharpe finds out
that the bomb can't be detonated without someone
staying behind and doing it manually. They draw
straws and A. J. is the loser.
Harry takes A. J. down to the bomb hole then destroys
a piece of his equipment forcing A. J. back into
the shuttle. Harry tells A. J. to take good care of
Gracie and stays behind to detonate the bomb.
At the very last second Harry hits the detonation
trigger and planet Earth is saved as Freedom gets
away and the asteroid splits and travels 400 miles
away from Earth.
1998
Cast:
Bruce Willis - Harry Stamper
Billy Bob Thornton - Dan Truman
Ben Affleck - A.J. Frost
Liv Tyler - Grace Stamper
Will Patton - Charles 'Chick' Chapple
Steve Buscemi - Rockhound
William Fichtner - Col. William Sharp
Owen Wilson - Oscar Choi
Michael Clarke Duncan - J. Otis 'Bear' Kurleen
Peter Stormare - Col. Lev Andropov
Ken Hudson Campbell - Max Lennert
Jessica Steen - Jennifer Watts
Keith David - Lt. Gen. Kimsey
Chris Ellis - Walter Clark
Jason Isaacs - Dr. Ronald Quincy
Grayson McCouch - Gruber
Clark Heathcliffe Brolly - Freddie Noonan
Marshall R. Teague - Col. Davis
Anthony Guidera - Tucker
Greg Collins - Lt. Halsey
Roger Ebert considered it the worst film of 1998
There was also an instrumental score titled
Armageddon: Original Motion Picture Score
by Trevor Rabin. Rabin was formerly a member of
the rock band Yes.
Songs on the album:
Armageddon Suite
Harry & Grace Make Peace
A.J.'s Return
Oil Rig"
Leaving
Evacuation
Harry Arrives At NASA
Back In Business
Launch
5 Words
Underwater Simulation
Finding Grace
Armadillo
Short Straw
Demands
Death of Mir
Armageddon Piano
Long Distance Goodbye/Landing
Fun Stuff for Hard Working
Men Like You
