It turns out mega producer Jerry Bruckheimer and uber director Michael Bay did bring the doomsday story of an asteroid the size of Texas on a collision course with Earth to the big screen in the over the top ARMAGEDDON (1998). I have to admit ARMAGEDDON slipped under my radar when it was released. I was anti-Bruckheimer at the time. In the 1980s, Bruckheimer along with his partner Don Simpson became well known producing hits at Paramount like Adrian Lyne's FLASHDANCE (1983), Martin Brest's BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984) with Eddie Murphy, and Tony Scott's TOP GUN (1986) starring Tom Cruise. Bruckheimer/Simpson had come across the formula of making films that looked like full length MTV videos with their rapid fire editing and Top 40 music soundtracks. Their films were commercially successful but cinematically vapid.
When Simpson died in 1996, Bruckheimer paired with up and coming music video director Michael Bay for their first hit together THE ROCK (1996) starring Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage. As much as I loved MTV in the 1980s, I was a snob to the MTV style for feature films (except for my guilty pleasure Walter Hill's STREETS OF FIRE). I avoided anything made by Bruckheimer and Bay for a few years until Bruckheimer hit upon the successful PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchise and produced Bay's World War II epic PEARL HARBOR (2001). ARMAGEDDON was another film that friends had raved about to me. Before a real asteroid does come and strike Earth, it's time for CRAZYFILMGUY to see what all the fuss is about.
With a story by Robert Roy Pool and Jonathan Hensleigh, adaptation by Tony Gilroy and Shane Salerno, screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh and J.J. Abrams, and directed by Michael Bay (BAD BOYS), ARMAGEDDON opens with a brief narration by Moses himself Charlton Heston and a scene recapping the Yucatan asteroid 65 million years ago that struck Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. We jump to 1998 and the Space Shuttle Atlantis orbiting around Earth when it's struck by a rogue meteor shower and explodes. More meteors enter the Earth's atmosphere causing havoc in New York city, damaging Grand Central Station, Wall Street, and the Chrysler Building. Monitoring the situation at NASA in Houston, Texas is director Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton). General Kimsey (Keith David) with the Pentagon calls Truman on behalf of the President (Stanley Anderson) demanding answers. NASA tracks the random meteors to a giant asteroid the size of Texas that broke through the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, a "global killer" racing toward Earth and probable "Armageddon" or the end of the world unless it can be stopped.
Truman's staff pitches possible ideas to destroy the rogue asteroid. None seem feasible until NASA physicist Ronald Quincy (Jason Isaacs) suggests drilling a hole inside the asteroid and blowing it up with a nuclear bomb. Truman recommends recruiting Harry S. Stamper (Bruce Willis), an expert oil driller currently working on a project in the South China Sea. The Army show up in helicopters at the oil platform and whisk Harry and his daughter Grace Stamper (Liv Tyler) who works for him back to Houston where Truman explains their dilemma to Harry. They have 18 days to reach the asteroid and blow it up before it gets to the point of "Zero Barrier" where splitting the asteroid in two won't stop it from striking Earth. Harry agrees to the mission but only if he can bring his ragtag team of roughnecks with him including Chick Chapple (Will Patton), Harry's best friend and partner; geologists Rockhound (Steve Buscemi) and Oscar Choice (Owen Wilson); and drillers including Bear Curlene (Michael Clarke Duncan), Max (Ken Hudson Campbell) and A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck), who happens to be dating Harry's daughter Grace, much to Harry's dislike. The FBI rounds up Harry's men and bring them back to Houston where they undergo a battery of psychological tests (which they fail) and begin 12 days of intensive astronaut training under the tutelage of Col. Willie Sharp (William Fichtner).
NASA's plan is to send two space shuttles - the Freedom and the Independence -- into space, each shuttle piloted by two astronauts transporting Harry and his crew. The two shuttles will dock briefly at the Russian Space Station orbiting Earth where Cosmonaut Lev Andropov (Peter Stormare) will refuel both shuttles before they continue on. Before they leave on their mission, A.J. proposes to Grace and Chick visits his estranged wife and young son whose never met Chick before. Another round of meteor showers enter the Earth's atmosphere and destroy Shanghai. The truth about the killer asteroid becomes public. The two shuttles blast off and link up at the Russian space station. As A.J. manages the refueling, a fuel leak threatens to blow up the space shuttles. Lev rescues A.J. from the fuel pod and both men leap into the Independence before the space station explodes. The space shuttles use the moon's gravity to sling shot their way toward the asteroid. The Independence is struck by space debris and crash lands on the asteroid, killing Oscar and a few others. Only A.J., Lev, and Bear survive. The Freedom overshoots its landing zone by 26 miles. The two parties are now separated with time running out to blow up the asteroid.
A.J., Lev, and Bear fire up the "Armadillo", a mobile drilling vehicle, and begin the dangerous trek across the asteroid to rendezvous with Harry and the rest of the Freedom crew. Harry and his men use the 2nd "Armadillo" to begin drilling into the asteroid's core. The drilling goes too slow. NASA discovers the asteroid's axis has shifted. They may not be able to remote detonate the nuclear bomb. The President overrides the mission and engages "Secondary Protocol" where he will remotely activate the bomb. This plan won't split the asteroid and will fail to save Earth. Harry and Sharp argue with Harry telling Sharp his team can finish the drilling. He convinces Sharp to disarm the bomb. The 2nd "Armadillo" keeps drilling until they hit an unexpected gas pocket that causes the "Armadillo" and its operator Max to float away. Another meteor shower strikes Paris. All hope seems lost until A.J. and the others show up with the first "Armadillo." A.J. finishes drilling the hole. A rock storm damagers the remote detonator. The team realizes someone has to stay behind to set the bomb off. They draws straws and A.J. gets the short straw. As the group file into the Freedom to return back to Earth, Harry disables A.J.'s breathing apparatus and switches places with him. Sharp and the survivors blast off the asteroid. Harry says goodbye to Grace via the "Armadillo's" communication system and detonates the nuclear bomb, sacrificing his life for planet Earth as the Freedom returns A.J., Rockhound, Bear, and the rest of the crew safely back to Houston.
After watching ARMAGEDDON, I was reminded that a Michael Bay film is an assault on the senses. Even the most mundane scene like NASA engineers at their workstations becomes a tour de force of 360 degree camera angles rotating around the technicians with garish red, green, and blue lights from their monitors reflecting off their black rimmed glasses. If there's a scene involving the Army or FBI, Bay will make sure there are two dozen cop cars or a dozen helicopters crowded into the frame, buzzing around like mosquitoes. A couple of action scenes in ARGAGEDDON like the fuel pump leak on the Russian Space Stations or the crash landing of the Independence space shuttle, I had no idea what was happening, the quick editing and sound and flashing lights were so overwhelming. ARMAGEDDON owes a huge nod to an earlier doomsday action film, Roland Emmerich's INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996). Instead of alien spaceships blowing up the White House among other famous landmarks in INDEPENDENCE DAY, Bay has meteor showers destroy New York's Chrysler Building and the city of Shanghai, China in ARMAGEDDON.
If you scratch past the explosions and noise and cinematic razzmatazz of ARMAGEDDON, Bay's film is about family. Bruce Willis's Harry S. Stamper is father to his daughter Grace (Liv Tyler) who lives a vagabond life with him, hopping around the world drilling for oil. But Harry's also a father figure to his group of misfit oil drillers who all seem to come from dysfunctional or broken families. Harry has banded them together under his leadership and guidance. A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck) is not Harry's offspring but he acts like a son seeking Harry's validation whether it's discovering an oil pocket in the South China Sea or asking for the hand of Harry's daughter Grace (who's already sleeping with A.J. behind Harry's back). Chick (Will Patton) is the one member of the roughnecks that does not look to Harry as his father. Harry and Chick have more of a brotherly relationship as they are roughly the same age.
One of the things I enjoy when watching films from the 1990s are the young actors and actresses appearing in films early in their careers. ARMAGEDDON has a host of rising talent with ARMAGEDDON a stepping stone to their successful careers. Ben Affleck had just won an Academy Award for co-writing Gus Van Sant's GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997) with Matt Damon. ARMAGEDDON was Affleck's first blockbuster film after HUNTING. Affleck plays another cocky, anti-authority young man in the Paul Newman vein as A.J. Frost. It's also a romantic lead. It's not one of Affleck's better roles yet by the time Bay cast Affleck in PEARL HARBOR three years later (as a cocky WWII fighter pilot), Affleck was more seasoned and assured of himself. Billy Bob Thornton as NASA director Dan Truman had been bouncing around in minor roles until he starred and directed in the movie version of his play SLING BLADE (1996) in which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. ARMAGEDDON was an opportunity to step out from independent films into the big time. Truman is one of Thornton's more mainstream characters, a calm presence having to coddle different factions (the military, the President, oil drillers) into working together to save mankind. Nobody can speak dialogue fast and funny than Thornton.
If you blink, you might miss Owen Wilson who plays one of Harry's young geologists Oscar. Wilson made his debut in in Wes Anderson's first feature film BOTTLE ROCKET (1996) and was on casting director's radar. He's wasted in ARMAGEDDON but more Wes Anderson movies (THE ROYAL TANNENBAUMS) and teaming with Jackie Chan in the comedy western SHANGHAI NOON (2000) lifted Wilson to success. Liv Tyler may have the most unenviable job in ARMAGEDDON as Harry's daughter (and accountant) Grace Stamper. Tyler was more famous as Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler's daughter, even appearing in one of Aerosmith's videos "Crazy." Famed Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci cast Tyler in STEALING BEAUTY (1996) opposite Jeremy Irons which led to ARMAGEDDON. For such a thankless role, Tyler brings a quiet sanity to all the visual mayhem. And those shots of Tyler's piercing, sad eyes as she watches her father and boyfriend try to save Earth must have caught the eye of director Peter Jackson who would change Tyler's life forever when he cast her as the elf princess Arwen in THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) and its sequels.
Another familiar face in ARMAGEDDON is Jason Isaacs who plays NASA physicist Ronald Quincy. Today, movie fans will recognize Isaacs from his role as Draco Malfoy's evil father Lucius Malfoy in the HARRY POTTER series or his excellent turn as Captain Hook in P.J. Hogan's PETER PAN (2003). In ARMAGEDDON, Isaacs is just another supporting character who manages to make enough of an impression that he stands out among the throng of other technicians at NASA. Ironically, Steve Buscemi who plays Rockhound in ARMAGEDDON was the up and coming actor de jour at the beginning of the 1990s with his breakout performance as Mr. Pink in Quentin Tarantino's crime drama RESERVOIR DOGS (1992). By the time of ARGAGEDDON, Buscemi was a familiar, dependable character actor appearing in the Coen Brothers FARGO (1996) and another Bruckheimer produced action film CON AIR (1997) with Nicholas Cage. Buscemi's Rockhound has most of the best quips in ARMAGEDDON including this observation as they head to destroy the asteroid, "You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon, and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?" Every big action film needs a Buscemi in it.
Holding ARMAGEDDON together is the most unlikely action hero that ever came to be. Bruce Willis. Willis began his career in television playing private detective David Addison, Jr opposite Cybil Sheppard in Glenn Gordon Caron's hit ABC TV series MOONLIGHTING (1985-1989). When director John McTiernan cast Willis in 1988's DIE HARD after numerous big stars turned it down, Willis's career changed forever. Willis was adept at bouncing around in numerous genres from comedies like Blake Edwards BLIND DATE (1987) to serious dramas like Robert Benton's NOBODY'S FOOL (1994) with Paul Newman to action films like Luc Besson's THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) and Robert Rodriguez's SIN CITY (2005) to one of the best cameos ever in Steven Soderbergh's OCEAN'S TWELVE (2004). Without Willis, ARMAGEDDON is an unmitigated mess. Willis bring stability and believability to oil driller Harry S. Stamper. Willis makes us believe the unbelievable that a group of roughnecks could save the world from a monster asteroid. It's a daring choice to have Willis sacrifice his life for the entire planet. He's a blue collar Jesus, giving up his life so his daughter (and billions of others) can live.
Some final ARMAGEDDON tidbits and trivia. I noticed ARMAGEDDON had some similarities with INDEPENDENCE DAY which came out a few years earlier. Apparently, in 1998, ARMAGEDDON was competing with another doomsday film, Mimi Leder's DEEP IMPACT about a comet heading directly for Earth. DEEP IMPACT was less flashy than Bay's disaster action film and loaded with more established actors like Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximillian Schell, Elijah Wood (pre-LORD OF THE RINGS), and Morgan Freeman as the President of the United States. DEEP IMPACT made $349 million worldwide; ARMAGEDDON $554 million globally. I'm not the only one who feels ARMAGEDDON is not very good. Director Michael Bay has been quoted that he felt ARMAGEDDON is his worst film. Ben Affleck makes fun of much of ARMAGEDDON on the DVD commentary for the film. According to IMDB, NASA shows the film during their management training program and asks the new managers to spot any errors in the film's authenticity. It's reported that new managers have found 168 errors in ARMAGEDDON. Hey, it's just a movie!
Michael Bay would learn from his mistake that is ARMAGEDDON, financially successful as it was. PEARL HARBOR is a much more restrained (for Bay) movie that still showcases Bay's virtuoso ability with camera and editing. The film that surprised me and may be Bay's best is TRANSFORMERS (2007) based on the Hasbro toy and starring Shia LeBouef, Megan Fox, and Josh Duhamel. It combines action, humor, and Sci-Fi much better than ARMAGEDDON did. ARMAGEDDON was one of those big concept ideas that sounded better than it delivered. Director Bay's over exuberance of lighting, sound, and editing just gave me a headache. However, ARMAGEDDON added a big budget film to the resume of some rising actors and actresses. It solidified Willis as one of our best action heroes of the decade. I will still keep looking up at stars each night, hoping that those rogue asteroids and comets out there in space keep missing our big, beautiful blue planet for as long as I live and beyond.
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