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The Rewatchables ·

Armageddon

year 1998decade 90sdirector Michael Baygenre Science fictiongenre Action
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Shea Serranohost Jason Concepcion
All 17 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 28:21

Split: the astronauts’ return

Chris Ryan: The New York meteor strike is praised as an effects opener whose long Eddie Griffin setup resembles the era’s habit of giving comedians disposable mini-movies.

Harry discovering Grace with A.J. and firing across the oil rig announces the movie’s insanity, while Grace calling her father Harry and his physical intrusion become objections.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:22:23

“He’s got space dementia”

The panel briefly misattributes the line between the two Wills before correcting that Fichtner, not Patton, says it.

The film

Armageddon (1998)

Directed by Michael Bay · Science fiction

150 minutes

IMDb Letterboxd JustWatch Find on Rotten Tomatoes
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Bruce Willis Harry S. Stamper
Billy Bob Thornton Dan Truman
Ben Affleck A.J. Frost
Liv Tyler Grace Stamper
Will Patton Chick
Steve Buscemi Rockhound
William Fichtner Colonel Willie Sharp
Owen Wilson Oscar
Peter Stormare Lev Andropov

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

27:26

Roger Ebert's review

Rating from RogerEbert.com

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:26Read transcript
  • Ebert’s “150-minute trailer” formulation earns reluctant admiration even from the movie’s defenders. — Bill Simmons
  • His longer dismissal is quoted as attacking the eyes, ears, brain, common sense, and desire to be entertained. — Bill Simmons
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1:01:33

Casting What-Ifs

Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for Harry Stamper, while Milla Jovovich and Robin Wright reportedly preceded Liv...

Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for Harry Stamper, while Milla Jovovich and Robin Wright reportedly preceded Liv Tyler as Grace possibilities.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:33Read transcript
  • The panel is relieved that Schwarzenegger did not take the Willis role.
  • Jovovich is considered interesting and Wright talented but perhaps too old for the Grace/A.J. dynamic. — Bill Simmons
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1:06:27

Recasting Couch

Anne Hathaway for Grace

Anne Hathaway for Grace

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:27Read transcript
  • The Jolie pitch uses her age and rising Gia-era profile but is rejected because her forceful energy would make Harry’s protectiveness and her ground-bound role less credible.
  • Anne Hathaway is the one suggestion the Liv Tyler defenders would entertain.
  • The pitch is also framed as an alternate-history Affleck/Paltrow/Jolie/Billy Bob celebrity triangle, not merely an acting improvement. — Bill Simmons
  • Owen Wilson as A.J. is rejected because he lacks Affleck’s all-American leading-man quality and had already struggled in Behind Enemy Lines.
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1:09:13

Half-Assed Internet Research

The infeasible asteroid plan; NASA’s error-counting exercise; real shuttle footage; Criterion’s final LaserDisc

The infeasible asteroid plan; NASA’s error-counting exercise; real shuttle footage; Criterion’s final LaserDisc

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:13Read transcript
  • A 2011 student paper calculated that the required bomb would need roughly a billion times the power of the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated. — Bill Simmons
  • NASA management training uses the film to spot errors and has identified at least 168. — Bill Simmons
  • The shuttle launches use real launch footage. — Bill Simmons
  • Armageddon was Criterion LaserDisc spine 384 and the last LaserDisc title the company released. — Bill Simmons
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1:16:33

Picking Nits

The ex-wife reversal, nameless president, sound in space, impossible communications, A.J.’s navigation, and elastic time

The ex-wife reversal, nameless president, sound in space, impossible communications, A.J.’s navigation, and elastic time

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:33Read transcript
  • Chick’s ex-wife bars contact and then immediately embraces him as the boy’s father after the mission, a reversal one host finds unearned even after saving Earth.
  • The president makes consequential speeches but is never given a name; a proposal suggests Bill Pullman should have played every fictional 1990s president. — Chris Ryan
  • The movie ignores the absence of sound in space and solves a prolonged communications blackout with one satellite bounce that produces crystal-clear final video. — Chris Ryan
  • A.J.’s crashed vehicle locates Harry’s group despite enormous potential separation, as though crossing metropolitan Los Angeles.
  • The asteroid is struck by more asteroids, and the countdown repeatedly stretches to allow global assembly, training, transit, reunion, and emotional pauses. — Chris Ryan
  • Eating, sanitation, and survival during the surface drive disappear from the story. — Chris Ryan
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1:23:39

Probably Unanswerable Questions

A.J. and Grace’s permanent bond, Rockhound’s near future, the crew’s promised rewards, Harry’s legacy and backlash, B...

A.J. and Grace’s permanent bond, Rockhound’s near future, the crew’s promised rewards, Harry’s legacy and backlash, Bay directing Fast and Furious, and cinema’s longest time jump

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:23:39Read transcript
  • A.J. can never break up with Grace after Harry’s sacrifice without destroying the moral premise of their relationship. — Bill Simmons
  • Rockhound’s hero fame, loan shark, criminal exposure, and destructive appetite suggest he may survive only six to twelve months.
  • Bear’s Lincoln-bedroom request may need to happen before the presidency changes. — Bill Simmons
  • Harry initially receives a rig, statue, and possible holiday before a later environmental and workplace-behavior reassessment dismantles the hagiography.
  • Bay directing Fast and Furious is rejected as too bombastic and likely to create immediate conflict with Vin Diesel; Justin Lin is defended as the franchise’s center.
  • The opening 65-million-year cut from dinosaur extinction to the present is proposed as perhaps cinema’s longest temporal jump.
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