Film Talk: Looking Back – Rocks and roughnecks with Armageddon

It’s a line that will always stay with me from this flick – a film in itself that will always have a place in my heart and take me back to lovely memories of being a younger man.

Every Wednesday night during my 19th year, me and my dad would order a Chinese while my mum was out at the bingo. We’d go and sink a couple of pints in our local – opposite said takeaway – then walk up home with our food and whack a film on. There were only ever three choices, and if we weren’t watching Analyse That or Coyote Ugly (I wear a coat of many colours), we would settle down in front of this Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer classic while filling our faces and indulging in the perfect easy-going viewing to go with an easy-going tea and a generally easy-going night. Perfect…

1998’s Armageddon is a triumph of the popcorn sci-fi disaster genre, and a superb go-to choice for anyone looking for a bit of uncomplicated entertainment with unexpected emotive weight.

Directed by Bay and produced by both he and Bruckheimer, the film follows a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to stop a gigantic asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

Starring the mighty Bruce Willis and an ensemble cast including Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan and Steve Buscemi, Armageddon represents the crowning glory of the disaster flick, and should be celebrated until the end of time for its director’s successful weaving of brash theatricality with genuine emotional punch. We’ve got a hole to dig up here…

After New York is struck by hundreds of small meteorites, NASA discovers an asteroid the size of Texas is on a collision course with Earth.

Desperate and against the clock, they recruit the best deep-core oil driller in the world, Harry Stamper (Willis), to train a team of astronauts who will journey to the asteroid, drill into its centre and plant a nuclear warhead that will split it apart, diverting it from Terra Firma.

Simple? Not quite… As Harry can’t possibly train the astronauts in time, NASA is forced to allow him to travel to the asteroid with his own team of oil rig roughnecks – men who he has worked with for years and the only ones he trusts to get the job done. There may not be a job on the planet that Harry and his team can’t do – but this one will test every skill they have and everything they are…

Though Armageddon was released to mostly mixed reviews, it was an international box-office success, and became the highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide. Astronomers noted that the similar disaster film Deep Impact was more scientifically accurate in its content, but Armageddon was an action movie, not a documentary, so on this score we can surely give it a break.

This flick, quite simply, was Michael Bay doing what he does best – big explosions, big theatrics and big characters. And in the spirit of doing exactly what it says on the tin, Armageddon may well be one of the best films ever made. In a surprising twist – created through the superb dynamic between Willis, Tyler and Affleck – this is perhaps the only disaster film that, hand-on-heart, has ever brought me close to genuine tears – testament to the fantastic portrayal of a complicated father/ daughter/ prospective son-in-law relationship perpetuated by the aforementioned stars.

If this classic has evaded you, it's high time to give it a viewing. But don’t close your eyes, and don’t fall asleep… ‘cause you’ll miss it baby, and you don’t wanna miss a thing.