Line #52 Film/Armageddon1998


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4	[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/armageddon_8.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:349:''[[{{Tagline}} The Earth's darkest day will be Man's finest hour.]]'']]
6
7	->''"None of you has to go. We can all just sit here on Earth, and wait for this big rock to crash into it, killing everything and everyone we know. The United States government just asked us to save the world. Anyone gonna say no?"''
8	-->-- '''Harry Stamper'''
9
10	In 1998, Hollywood almost destroyed the Earth from space. [[DuelingMovies Twice.]] This is about the one that [[Film/DeepImpact didn't involve]] Creator/MorganFreeman.
11
12	''Armageddon'' is a 1998 HighConcept disaster movie from Creator/TouchstonePictures, directed by Creator/MichaelBay, produced by Creator/JerryBruckheimer, co-written by Creator/JJAbrams, and featuring an AllStarCast.
13
14	The plot: a peaceful summer afternoon in [[BigApplesauce New York City]] is disturbed by meteorites falling, destroying all the recognizable buildings and [[AMillionIsAStatistic killing a bunch of characters we're not supposed to care about]]. UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} reveals (to themselves) that they're the pebbles before the boulder -- a meteor ''the size of Texas'' is going to hit Earth in 18 days, and nothing, not even bacteria, will survive. The big brains at NASA have come up with a plan to save the world: land a shuttle on the asteroid and drill far enough into it to place a nuke inside and split it like an apple.
15
16	Although they have some of the best scientific minds in the country at NASA, [[ThisAintRocketSurgery they simply aren't as attuned to the job as the best oil drillers]]. So NASA makes some calls and sends for the best -- [[FullNameBasis Harry Stamper]] (Creator/BruceWillis), a lifelong oil rig operator considered to be the best deep sea driller in the world. Harry brings his daughter Grace (Creator/LivTyler) with him because he disapproves of her romance with rebellious hotshot A.J. Frost (Creator/BenAffleck), whom Harry fired for having "hunches" that repeatedly damage Harry's equipment (and potentially his reputation) and could get people killed. On hearing what's at stake, Harry agrees to head into space to lead the drilling project, but only on one condition -- he brings in his own team. NASA now has to gather a group of lawbreaking blue-collar roughnecks and get them trained ''in two weeks'' to go up to drill the meteor and break it into two pieces that will miss the Earth, or everyone dies.
17
18	Also, ''Armageddon'' is is part of Creator/TheCriterionCollection. [[https://www.criterion.com/films/578-armageddon No joke.]]
19
20	The film also stars Creator/BillyBobThornton as Dan Truman, Will Patton as Chick Chapel, Creator/KeithDavid as General Kimsey, Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan as J. Otis Curlene Bear, Creator/PeterStormare as Lev Andropov and Creator/SteveBuscemi as Rockhound.
21
22	If you want "Armageddon" of the Biblical sort, see TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. If you wanted the WebOriginal story "Armageddon???", see ''Literature/TheSalvationWar''.
23	----
24	!!This film provides examples of:
25	* ActionBomb: [[spoiler:Harry Stamper manually detonates the nuclear bomb, sacrificing himself to save the world]].
26	* ActorAllusion:
27	** Creator/StanleyAnderson played the President in Bay's earlier film ''Film/TheRock'', and the demeanor of both Presidents is highly similar.
28	** During his space dementia moment, Rockhound says "Yippie Kai Yo Kai yay" which is ''very'' close to the curse-free part of Creator/BruceWillis' ''Film/DieHard'' movies' CatchPhrase.
29	* AmericaSavesTheDay: As one of the few space faring nations, only America has the necessary technology and infrastructure to build the equipment necessary to destroy the asteroid. The Russians do provide support in the form of a refueling station. The team NASA sends is purely American, except for the Russian cosmonaut from the station.
30	* AndMissionControlRejoiced: Happens after Harry Stamper's team defeats the asteroid -- with one notable exception.
31	* AnyoneCanDie: Fourteen people launch from Earth, which becomes fifteen when they pick up a cosmonaut. [[spoiler:Seven]] make it back.
32	* ApocalypseHow: Interestingly, the movie has both Class 0 and Class 6 examples. Class 0 occurs when the smaller chunks of the asteroid that reached Earth beforehand wiped out a couple of cities. The worst case scenario involved Class 6, if the asteroid "the size of Texas" would have hit, killing everything, including bacteria.
33	* ApocalypseWow: The movie features the destruction of Paris by asteroid impact in one of the more impressive scenes of its run.
34	* ApocalypticGagOrder: The amateur astronomer who found the meteor after NASA did got to name it. He chose to call it after his wife, Dottie. Despite the roughnecks' blabbing at a strip club about their top-secret, world-saving mission for NASA, the lid is kept on the secret until a meteor hits a major city (it's kinda hard to not notice Shanghai turned into a freaking crater); then the NASA guy gets a text that lets him know that Dottie has gone public. Even ''then'', news reports for the first few days complain that the government is still not telling the public much.
35	* ArtificialGravity: The movie has a bizarre relationship with this trope, even by scifi standards. The film specifically addresses that the asteroid would have little to nil gravity and gives the characters special suits and equipment with "thrusters" so they don't float away while out on the surface of the asteroid. Yet, when the characters are inside their space shuttle, which is ''parked right on the asteroid'', they walk around unsuited as though under normal Earth gravity.
36	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Truman claims that "not even bacteria" would remain after the impact. This would be pretty impressive, since bacteria are by far the most adaptable and unkillable lifeforms on Earth. Bacteria can survive in space, miles beneath the sea floor, and in radioactive zones. Covering the earth in nuclear radiation wouldn't be enough to kill off every single bacterium, so an apocalyptic winter doesn't stand much of a chance.
37	* ArtisticLicenseGeology:
38	** If an asteroid the size of Texas (i.e., at least 773 miles wide) impacted Earth in the Pacific Ocean, it wouldn't simply "slam into the ocean bedrock" and "create a tidal wave three miles high…covering California and washing up in Denver," as the NASA scientist in the movie projects. At most, oceanic crust is a few miles thick, and below it lies molten mantle, so the actual geological effects of such a massive impact would be [[FreakierThanFiction far worse than the screenwriters' imaginings]].
39	** The film's opening sequence shows the Chicxulub meteor impact 65.5 ± 0.3 million years ago, but erroneously depicts the continents in their modern positions. Earth at that time looked more like the map [[http://www.scotese.com/K/t.htm shown here]].
40	** Crossing over with WritersCannotDoMath and SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, it's stated that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs released the energy equivalent to ten thousand nuclear weapons. It's actually believed to have released far more more energy than that, with an estimated equivalent to ''two million'' Tsar Bomba explosions (the most powerful man-made weapon ever detonated) or more than a billion times stronger than the bombs used on [[HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure Hiroshima]] and Nagasaki.
41	* ArtisticLicenseMilitary:
42	** Just like the opening to ''Film/IndependenceDay'', the film suggests that US Space Command was based at the Pentagon. It was actually based at Peterson AFB near NORAD.
43	** The general who goes to meet Harry on the oil rig says he is the commander of the Pacific Air Forces. He is shown to be a two-star general, even though PACAF is commanded by a four-star general.
44	* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: Col. Sharp has to stop Harry from going to town on the now-active nuke with a large wrench because he fears Harry might set it off. It would be a pretty terrible bomb if a dude whacking it with a wrench were enough to do so.
45	* ArtisticLicenseSpace: The staggering amount of scientific inaccuracies in this film has [[http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/01/nasa-uses-the-movie-armageddon-in-their-management-training-program/ actually prompted NASA]] to use it as part of their management training to see how many inaccuracies candidates would be able to identify. So far, over 160 have been found and with the film being only 2 1/2 hours in length, that averages to roughly one inaccuracy per minute:
46	** The plan they come up with for destroying the asteroid would ''never'' work in reality ''for the precise reason they insist it will work'';
47	--->'''Ronald Quincy''': Imagine a firecracker in the palm of your hand. You set it off, what happens? You burn your hand, right? You close your fist around the same firecracker, and set it off... [[LudicrousGibs Your wife's gonna be opening your ketchup bottles the rest of your life]].
48	** The asteroid wouldn't split cleanly so the remaining pieces would miss, it would ''shatter'', turning the single mantle-piercing doomsday rock into a shotgun blast of rocks "the size of basketballs... and, uh, Volkswagens, things like that" that trashed New York in the opening scenes - over '''an entire hemisphere.''' However, detonating it on the ''side'' of the asteroid and knock it off course might work, seeing as that is ''NASA's actual plan'' if something like this actually happened. They do handwave it with the implication that the bomb is targeting a fissure that may even be full of astronomical amount of combustible material which they had calculated would split the asteroid in two. How they managed to calculate the halves flying away from each other in the exact right direction when the bomb can be set off at any moment while the asteroid spins unpredictably on three axes is not discussed, of course.
49	** If you want to destroy (that is, overwhelm the cohesive energy) of an asteroid "the size of Texas", it's safe to say that a nuclear bomb isn't going to cut it. Assimilating the asteroid to the aforementioned Ceres, it would take an energy of 8.4e25 joules to destroy it. That means you do not need one nuclear bomb, but rather a few thousand billions of them (to compare: the hiroshima bomb "merely" produced a trillion (1e12) joules...).
50	** During the docking scene with the space station they decide to spin the station in order to create CentrifugalGravity! Aside from this not being how centrifugal force works, docking is a very difficult maneuver to begin with. Docking with a rotating station would probably be straight-up impossible, as the ship would have to orbit the station at exactly the right speed, and, even if they pulled that off, the torsion would likely break the docking "tube" almost immediately.
51	** The size of Texas? Know what else is about the size of Texas? [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet) Ceres]], a dwarf planet discovered ''back in 1801'' that can be seen easily with binoculars. The astronomers in this movie claim the asteroid was not detected because only nine telescopes on Earth could do so, but in truth, you'd be able to see an asteroid ''that'' big with the naked eye ''two months'' prior to any threat of impact. NASA can - and has - seen and identified ''far'' smaller ones.
52	** For the record, Ceres is the largest known "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_planet minor planet]]" within the orbit of Neptune, a classification that includes dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, and other small natural objects that orbit the Sun. As of 2017, the orbits of '''''745,411''''' minor planets have been recorded and cataloged.
53	** In the opening, we see the K-T impact event asteroid flying past the moon and into Earth. The side of the moon that we see is the Near Side rather than the Far Side.
54	** Why on Earth would they want to make the Russian space station ''rotate'' before they started docking with it? It'd just make the docking maneuver that much more complicated, and the CentrifugalGravity you generated would be directed radially -- toward the outer edge of the rotation -- not top-to-bottom as was shown.
55	* AssuranceBackfire: When Harry finds Grace and AJ in bed and is chasing AJ around with a shotgun, AJ tries to make clear that he's not gonna up and ditch her by saying:
56	-->'''AJ''': Harry, please, ''listen!'' I love her...\
57	'''Harry''': '''[[PapaWolf WAY]]''' [[HairTriggerTemper wrong answer!]] [''keeps shooting'']
58	* AsteroidThicket: The cloudburst of meteorites is explained as the result of a comet passing through the asteroid belt and bouncing shrapnel into Earth's vicinity and knocking one "the size of Texas" towards Earth. This is wrong because a single comet could not collide with so many asteroids and conveniently shove them in the same general direction. Enough shrapnel was knocked out of the asteroid belt to keep Earth in a 'shooting gallery' for 18 days.
59	* AvengersAssemble: Once Stamper gets the {{exposition}}, he says he's only the world's best driller because he has assembled the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits world's best drilling team]]; ergo, he needs [[TheMagnificentSevenSamurai his six best men]] (along with five other {{sacrificial lamb}}s) -- but "once they get off the rig, [[LetsSplitUpGang they scatter]]." Cue Music/TheBeatles. "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnvZP8LTO8c Come together, right now!]]" As sung by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDtoZ8M3Q50 Aerosmith.]]
60	** [[TheBigGuy J. Otis Curlene Bear]]: "Probably the only black man on a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dog_Motorcycles Big Dog]] in Kadoka, South Dakota."
61	--->''(while being chased by army choppers)'' "[[IncomingHam COME AND GET PAPA BEAR!]]"
62	** [[PluckyComicRelief Max]]: "Got a weight limit on the shuttle?"
63	--->"[[BigEater Got any more of those yellow jelly bear claws?]]"
64	** [[TheSmartGuy Rockhound]]: "We call him 'Hound' because, um, he's horny."
65	---> "[[LovableSexManiac How old are you, again?]]"
66	** [[NaiveNewcomer Oscar Choi]]: "Spacey but absolutely brilliant geologist."
67	---> ({{Big Damn Gunship}}s) "What the--"
68	** [[MentorArchetype Charles "Chick" Chapel]]: "At the craps table, Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada."
69	---> (Rolls lucky seven) "Charles Chapel, game's over."
70	** As for TheLancer: "The only one knows how to run it as well as I do is A.J."
71	---> "You know, A.J., [[ExactWords there's not a job on the planet]] that [[TeethClenchedTeamwork I want you to work with me on.]]"
72	* AwardBaitSong: Music/{{Aerosmith}}'s "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". While it won neither, it has the odd distinction of being nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie.
73	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: AJ, Bear, and Lev arrive in the second Armadillo just minutes after the first one gets thrown into space by a gas pocket.]]
74	* BittersweetEnding:
75	** The world is saved. Grace and AJ get married, and large photos of all the roughnecks who died on the mission, in their mission suits, are placed where they would've stood in the wedding party.
76	** The world is saved, but New York, Paris and Shanghai need some serious cleaning up. Sure, some of those things probably also landed in the sea, or the Australian Outback or Rub Al-Khali or the Saharan Desert, given the dispersal we're shown ''via'' the scientists' brainstorming sessions/computer screens, but watching empty deserts get hit by giant space rocks is [[RuleOfCool much less exciting]].
77	* BleakBorderBase: Before the two shuttle crews go to the moon, they stop at the Mir space station to refuel; there, they meet only one guy named Lev. Shortly after, a leak happened and the base is blown to bits, although the crew managed to escape.
78	* BrickJoke: After Rockhound is selected for the mission, we see him receiving a huge amount of cash from a loan shark. Later, he mentions offhandedly that he's not looking forward to returning safely to Earth because he blew it all on a stripper named Molly Mounds. The real payoff comes at the end, though, when Miss Mounds (who is well-named) [[TheGlomp greets]] Rockhound as he comes off the shuttle. Then there's the fact the loan shark would probably not want to be discovered putting the screws to one of the heroes who literally saved the Earth. And when we get to see the wedding of Grace and [=AJ=], Rockhound is alive and well and Molly is beside him in the pew. So at least one scenario preventing the loan shark from taking revenge actually played out.
79	* BrokenLeverOfDoom: While aboard the Russian space station AJ is told to keep an eye on the fuel pressure and pull a lever if it gets too strong. When the pressure spikes, AJ tries to pull the lever and has it snap off in his hand. Cue StuffBlowingUp.
80	-->'''Lev''': Pull the lever!\
81	'''AJ''' ''(waving it in his face)'': THIS IS THE LEVER!!!
82	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Goes for some of the roughnecks, but especially Rockhound and Lev. The former is a genius geologist who has a double doctorate from MIT at 22, and the latter despite his Cloudcuckoolander behaviour is a professional cosmonaut who repeatedly saves the entire crew and mission.
83	-->''"I am the only certified astronaut and I'm saving your American ass!"''
84	* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: Subverted. Several of the "pebbles" hit a space shuttle and makes it explode, killing the people on board.
85	* CallingParentsByTheirName: Harry Stamper's daughter Grace refers to her dad as "Harry" as a mark of her disrespect towards him. This gets [[InvertedTrope inverted]] when Harry makes his last call home and reveals that due to technical issues he's staying to detonate the bomb.
86	-->'''Grace:''' ''[tearfully]'' No, Dad, no!
87	* CelebrityParadox: ''Film/PulpFiction'' is mentioned by name and the woodchipper scene in ''Film/{{Fargo}}'' is referenced. Steve Buscemi starred in ''Fargo'', in which his character is shoved into a woodchipper - by Peter Stormare, no less - while he and Bruce Willis appear in ''Pulp Fiction''.
88	* CentrifugalGravity: The Russian space station rotates to generate gravity. It does this specifically to make it easier for the astronauts to work on their shuttles and is implied to normally just have the cosmonauts floating in Zero G.
89	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Lev ''and then some.'' Rockhound to a lesser extent. {{Lampshaded}} in Lev's case by Truman who warns the shuttle crews that Lev has been "on board the Mir space station for eighteen months ''alone.'' So don't be surprised if he's a little off."
90	* ColonelBadass: this trope welcomes Colonel Sharp (Creator/WilliamFichtner) and Colonel Lev Andropov (Creator/PeterStormare) to its ranks.
91	* ColonyDrop: Really big effing meteor.
92	* CoolStarship: The X-71 prototypes ''Independence'' and ''Freedom'' definitely count as militarized Space Shuttles with a lot more speed, agility and endurance than their real-life counterparts.
93	* CreatorCameo: Creator/MichaelBay as a NASA scientist.
94	* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
95	** [[spoiler: Max. He is blown into outer space while inside the Armadillo, and where as every other character death in the movie was killed instantly, he will die slowly and be aware and alone.]]
96	** Davis and Tucker, who are sucked into the void of space when the ''Independence'' is ripped to shreds by debris.
97	* DareToBeBadass: TheTeam has arrived at NASA, and are cracking jokes with Harry, as they swagger into the premises and look around. JumpCut to the conference room where they have just been given the bad news and most of them didn't take it too well.
98	-->'''Harry Stamper:''' None of you has to go. We can all just sit here on Earth, and wait for this big rock to crash into it, killing everything and everyone we know. The United States government just asked us to save the world. Anyone gonna say no?
99	* DarkestHour: With the loss of Max and the ''Freedom'''s Armadillo, Harry passes the word back to Earth, and the world prepares for TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Civil Defense sirens blare, families head for their shelters, large groups of people pray, the media ends their broadcasting for the last time, and as one British reporter states:
100	--> '''British Reporter:''' "Once the asteroid hits Zero Barrier, it will take about 3 hours and 57 minutes to impact Earth."
101	--> '''Rockhound:''' "Guess what, guys? It is time to embrace the horror. Look, we got front row tickets to the end of the Earth!"
102	* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Harry is initially disapproving of Grace's relationship with AJ.
103	* DayOfTheJackboot: Very minor example. Soldiers walk into NASA’s mission control to the sound of the jackboot, take over, and order the detonation of the nuclear bomb before the hole is fully drilled and the bomb safely placed within. This signifies the takeover of militaristic bureaucratic thinking in opposition to the innovative experts at NASA and on the asteroid drilling team.
104	* DeadStarWalking: This is more in retrospect since [[spoiler:Owen Wilson]] is a much bigger star now than he was in 1998, but [[spoiler:Oscar]] dies during the Independence crash-landing on the asteroid. This actually benefits the film, lending it an air of AnyoneCanDie that wasn't there before.
105	* DeathFromAbove: The whole context of the movie in a sense, as it's about meteor raining down from space.
106	* DeathWorld: The asteroid is not only airless, it's covered in big, jagged, evil-looking spikes and regularly spews forth masses of gas and rock designed specifically to kill intrepid astronauts.
107	* DeceptiveLegacy: Chick's ex or estranged wife, incensed by Chick showing up unannounced to see their small son, dismisses him to the boy as "a salesman." Later on, she [[DramaticDrop drops the phone]] and tells the boy the truth when he points out "that salesman is on TV" ... as a member of the Freedom and Independence missions to save earth from the asteroid.
108	* DespiteThePlan: A lot goes wrong, but they somehow manage to destroy the asteroid anyway. Put briefly, the Russian Space Station explodes because of old, shoddy piping and wiring just after they refuel, one shuttle is destroyed by debris and crashes (but Frost survives), the other crashes on an almost undrillable section of the asteroid, Rockhound has a mental breakdown and starts shooting at everybody, the President decides to detonate the nuke prematurely and then doesn't, the asteroid kills more people with geysers when they ''do'' reach the right depth, but the transmitter on the nuke is damaged, forcing Harry Stamper to make a HeroicSacrifice.
109	* DestructionEqualsOffSwitch: Attempted by Harry when he threatens to whack the control panel of the nuke with a wrench after it's been remotely armed. Col. Sharp stops him since that might set it off and he has orders to deploy it. One short fight and RousingSpeech later, Sharp disarms it properly.
110	* DeusExNukina:
111	** Literally. Suffice to say actively propelling two chunks of several hundred mile-across asteroid rapidly away from each other is going to require a hell of a lot more firepower than you can fit in one nuclear warhead. In RealLife, this scenario of a very large, undiscovered asteroid appearing a few weeks before impact means we die, with no possible way of avoiding the catastrophe.
112	** Even more insane is the "backup plan" where the nuke will be detonated on the surface. Lampshaded by earlier discussion that this would be entirely ineffective but still done anyway because of some "Presidential Scientific Advisors" who apparently failed Physics 101.
113	** The six-part Discovery Channel documentary ''Miracle Planet'' features a nightmare-inducing and brutally realistic CGI depiction of a 300-mile-wide asteroid hitting the modern-day Earth (that's about 40% the width and around ''7%'' the volume of the Texas-sized monster in ''Armageddon''). The asteroid is shown plowing through the planet's crust as though it's tissue paper and plunging into the underlying mantle. This creates a "tsunami" in the molten/semi-liquid mantle that literally peels off a sizable chunk of the Earth's surface. Said ripped-off crust gets flung up into space and rains back down in city-block-sized chunks. Vaporized rock from the asteroid and crust superheats the Earth, until the oceans completely boil away, and what's left of the Earth's crust begins to melt. The only life that could possibly survive such an event would be those bacteria that live deep in the Earth's crust. Emphasis on ''possibly''.
114	* DisappearedDad: Chick's gambling problem resulted in his wife taking him to court and removing his paternal rights, so he wasn't willingly disappeared.
115	* DisasterDodgingDog: During the inital meteor shower that destroys most of New York, a barking little bulldog survives falling down a meteor hole (his owner, who also survives, manages to keep hold of his leash and the little guy is wearing a harness so he doesn't strangle). Especially curious as apparently the meteor smashed into the guy standing ''right in front of them''.
116	* DisasterMovie: Something huge, horrible, and natural heading towards Earth? Check. [[invoked]]AllStarCast? Check. Makes ''Film/{{Volcano}}'' look like a scientific documentary.
117	* DistantPrologue:
118	-->'''Narrator:''' This is the Earth at a time when the dinosaurs ruled a lush and fertile planet. A piece of rock just six miles wide changed all that.\
119	65 MILLION YEARS LATER
120	* DivorceIsTemporary: Charles "Chick" Chapple is legally barred from being around his ex-wife and son whom he hasn't seen in a really long time. After learning of his part-taking in saving the world, she seems to forgive his former grievances and give their relationship another try upon his returning home.
121	* DramaticDrop:
122	** Chick's wife drops the phone she's on when she discovers [[spoiler:Chick is on the team to go try to destroy the asteroid]].
123	** Truman drops his coffee mug when [[spoiler:the shuttle Independence gets badly damaged by a piece of asteroid debris]].
124	* DrawingStraws: [[spoiler:After the bomb is damaged, the crew is forced to do this. The only ones who don't partake are the flight crew, as they're needed to fly and land the shuttle. AJ draws the short straw, but Harry takes his place.]]
125	%% * {{Eagleland}}: Type I of course. %% Zero Context Example, and Type I is no longer in use.
126	* EarthShatteringPoster: The movie's poster has the Earth in front of a humongous meteor silhouetted against a ring of fire.
127	* EmergencyPresidentialAddress: The President delivers an address before the team is launched, wishing them luck in their mission to destroy the asteroid.
128	* EmergencyRefuelling: Not long after the two shuttle ships leave Earth's orbit, they are refuel at the semi-abandoned ''Mir'' space station. Currently manned by one man named Lev, [[GoMadFromTheIsolation who has gone a little space-crazy.]] Refueling goes okay until they suspected a leak in the space station; they're too late to prevent it, although they managed to escape in time before the space station explodes.
129	%%* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: ZeroContentExample
130	* EpicFail: The NASA crew can build the drilling rig from the patents, but when it doesn't work they can't figure out that it's because they put in a defective transmission (one of very few non-custom parts in the thing). This despite it grinding so hard anyone in the room can tell what's wrong. Harry lampshades how stupid this is.
131	* EtherealChoir: This is the asteroid's {{leitmotif}} and can be heard any time it's seen from space.
132	* ExplosionsInSpace: The explosion of the Russian Space Station, for starters.
133	* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: After drawing the shortest straw and having to stay on the asteroid to manually deploy the detonator, AJ]] puts on a brave face as he goes to his doom, before [[spoiler: Harry]] changes those plans for him.
134	* FailedASpotCheck: An example combined with SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: at one point someone asks why NASA didn't see the asteroid until now. They say they only have so much funding to search the sky and "It's a big ass sky". The problem: an asteroid that was as big as they say and that close to hitting Earth would be easily visible to the naked eye, meaning it should have been obvious to anyone who's not blind.
135	* FamilyFriendlyStripper: Rockhound decides to spend the night before the mission getting lap dances at a strip club. Seeing that this film is also a PG-13 summer blockbuster the dancers leave their underwear on.
136	* FatalFamilyPhoto: Averted. Lev saves one picture of his wife and child from the space station, but never looks at it for the rest of the film and survives.
137	* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Rockhound]] wants to be the one to make the HeroicSacrifice. In his own words, [[spoiler:"I owe a hundred grand to a fat-ass LoanShark, which I spent on a stripper named Molly Mounds"]]. He's ''really'' not looking forward to being kneecapped until he pays back all that money.
138	* FauxActionGirl: Watts, the Freedom co-pilot, is first introduced training the drillers and [[TheWorfEffect threatening to kick Bear in the balls]]. However, once they get into space, she never leaves the ship. The one chance she has to be helpful in fixing the engine, Lev pushes her aside and [[PercussiveMaintenance gets it to work by banging on it]].
139	* FistPump: During the NASA meeting, Dr. Quincy does this gesture while explaining the person closes his/her fist around the firecracker and set it off.
140	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
141	** AJ's underwater training simulation includes complications such as a gas pocket and compressed iron ferrite, both of which Harry's team faces while drilling.
142	** When Sharpe mentions they overshot their target during Freedom's landing, Rockhound can be heard loudly shout 'Oh No!' in the background. This is later revealed as him realizing they will be landing on an extreme iron-dense area of the asteroid that would make drilling a lot more difficult.
143	* FromBadToWorse: Given the gravity of the situation, the entire film runs on this.
144	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: [[spoiler:At Grace and AJ's wedding, Molly catches the bouquet, seen in the home movie over the credits.]]
145	* GallowsHumor: [[spoiler:After AJ picks the short straw, Colonel Sharp shows him how to use the detonator. AJ replies "Lift, press, hold. Shouldn't be too tough. Even I can't screw this up."]]
146	* GamblingRuinsLives: Chick is shown to be TheGamblingAddict, as he's found in a craps table when he's taken to NASA, and When Harry presents to the heads of NASA and the military the material rewards his crew for destroying the asteroid, Chick asks for an all expenses paid, summer-long vacation at the Caesar's Palace casino. However, on the evening before the mission, Chick goes to visit his ex-wife and son for what may be the last time, and she tells their young son Chick is "a salesman," with the heavy implication that she used his gambling addiction as the reason to sue him for sole custody and deny him visitation rights.
147	* GatlingGood: Both of the Armadillo vehicles are armed with these, one of which Rockhound starts shooting wildly when he goes loopy from so-called 'space dementia'. The other Armadillo's gatling is used by AJ to blast away the wreckage of the crashed Independence's cargo bay and clear his way to the Freedom's drilling point.
148	--> "This is how we would do it in my country!"
149	* GentleGiant: Bear, despite his appearance. He even starts crying during his psych evaluation.
150	* GeniusLoci: The asteroid is occasionally portrayed as being both sentient and malevolent. It appears to ''growl'' several times, there is an out of nowhere gas explosion and rock storm [[spoiler:that damages the nuke and kills Gruber]] once the hole is dug, and [[spoiler:it finally appears to be doing all it can to prevent Harry from detonating the nuke]].
151	-->'''Harry:''' I don't think this thing likes us.
152	-->'''Chick:''' That's cause it knows we're here to kill it.
153	* TheGlomp: Molly Mounds is ''very'' happy that Rockhound made it home safely.
154	* GloveSnap: Done by a fearsomely large nurse.
155	* GoMadFromTheIsolation: The Russian cosmonaut has been alone on "''Mir''" for a 18 months, so he's become a little eccentric.
156	* TheGovernment: Interestingly for a Michael Bay movie, which usually portrays them positively, Harry freaks the hell out against them after he's told that the government doesn't have a contingency plan in hand:
157	-->'''Harry Stamper:''' And this is the best that you c - that the-the government, the '''''[[{{Eagleland}} U.S. government]]''''' can come up with? I mean, you-you're UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} for cryin' out loud, you put a man on the moon, you're geniuses! You-you're the guys that think this 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 [[TimeForPlanB backup plan]], that [[MillionToOneChance these eight boy scouts right here]], that is the world's hope, that's what you're telling me?\
158	'''Truman:''' [[BluntYes Yeah.]]
159	* GutPunch: [[spoiler:The destruction of the shuttle Independence, ''before'' they even land on the asteroid.]]
160	* HaggisIsHorrible: Max says this is his favorite dish. The NASA doctor gets visibly queasy as he describes it.
161	-->'''Max:''' Heart, lungs, liver. You shove that all in a sheep's stomach, than you boil it. That'll put some hair on your ass!
162	* HappyFlashback: Right before the nuke detonates, Harry sees visions of happy times with his daughter.
163	* HellYesMoment: Harry Stamper has this reaction when he cheers at the (unexpected) arrival of the other Armadillo carrying A.J., Bear, and Lev to the drill site.
164	* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler: Stamper at the end.]]
165	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Harry kicks AJ back inside the shuttle to go back to Earth and marry Grace while he sticks around for the necessary manual detonation]].
166	* HesitantSacrifice: Downplayed, but after committing to a heroic self-sacrifice, [[spoiler:Harry]] comments "Well, this was a real good idea."
167	* HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure: Truman does not beats around the bush when the President asks for the size of the asteroid and interrupts a scientist that was going to give a precise figure to [[BrutalHonesty bluntly state]] "it's the size of Texas, sir." The picture ''[[RuleOfDrama that]]'' supplies floors the President before Truman goes on to explain that the thing [[StoryboardingTheApocalypse will annihilate all life on Earth of if hits]].
168	* HollywoodScience: The movie is loaded with it, to the extent that it has become something of a RunningGag on the [[http://badastronomy.com Bad Astronomy website]]. Some can live with it, some can't. NASA has even made a test for recruits, where they have to watch the movie and mark at least 180 instances of incorrect science.
169	%%* {{Homage}}: [More specific information needed.] Internal, on a crazed Rockhound's part, to ''Film/DrStrangelove''.
170	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: It's a small dog who survives the opening destruction scenes, rather than a child, though seeing as its New York City, it's likely kids were killed during the meteor shower. It is averted for the Shanghai scene, as we actually ''see'' children literally crying and screaming in fear as they're obliterated by the resulting meteor and megatsunami that follows, unlike the New York and Paris scenes, we actually see them die on-screen.
171	* InkblotTest: To see if the roughnecks are capable of dealing with space travel. Instead, it proves that Rockhound sees breasts everywhere, and AJ is insecure about [[WellDoneSonGuy Harry's attitude towards him]].
172	* InSpaceEveryoneCanSeeYourFace: The only facial protection the astronauts' suits have from things like the sun are a pair of deployable sunglasses Rockhound activates at one point as he glances at Earth from the asteroid (leaving the rest of his face exposed to a potential sunburn).
173	* InventionalWisdom: It's not clear (to put it mildly) why the Armadillo would need a [[{{BFG}} gatling gun]] badly enough to justify hauling all that extra mass along. (A deleted scene offers a rationale -- it's there for [[BulletholeDoor obstacle removal]].)
174	* IwoJimaPose: The Iwo Jima Memorial is visible at the start of the film
175	%%* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Col. Sharp.
176	* JerkassHasAPoint: Harry {{troll}}s a boat filled with anti-drilling protesters by swatting golf balls towards them, but does point out that the boat the protesters are on runs on ''diesel.''
177	* JewelersEyeLoupe: Rockhound uses an eye loupe to seduce a young wife by telling her the diamond her husband gave her is fake.
178	* JumpedAtTheCall: Of all the drillers, Oscar is by the far the most enthusiastic about going into space. [[spoiler: So of course he's the first to die.]]
179	* LastDayToLive: The astronauts/oil drillers have to go on a dangerous mission, and even if they survive, the Earth might still be destroyed. They spend their last day before training doing all the expected buffoonery.
180	* LaughingMad: After Rockhound goes quite nutty in space, and ends up utilizing a Gatling gun and starts shooting indiscriminately while laughing.
181	* LawyerFriendlyCameo: The Russian Space Station is clearly supposed to be the ''Mir''. But considering what happens, it's obviously not called that.
182	* LetMeGetThisStraight: Done twice. The first is the President being unable to believe that NASA did not saw the asteroid the size of Texas threatening Earth until New York was almost wiped off the map. The second is Harry incredulously saying that he cannot believe NASA as a better plan for taking out the asteroid than the hopefully CrazyEnoughToWork one he is being asked to help with.
183	* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: Rockhound's incident with the gatling gun on the asteroid; upon returning home, he asks that his surviving friends be sure not to let that one out to the adoring masses coming to greet them.
184	* LongList: Once Stamper's team realizes they're being sent on a mission to ''literally'' SaveTheWorld, Rockhound wonders if they could get hazard pay. ''Everyone's'' eyes light up as they begin thinking of stuff to demand:
185	** Oscar wants some outstanding parking tickets erased from his record. ''Fifty-six tickets.'' In ''seven states.''
186	** Noonan wants citizenship for ''two'' foreign girlfriends–NoQuestionsAsked.
187	** Max wants the government to bring back eight-track tapes...
188	** Chick wants a full week's Emperor's Package at Caesar's Palace.
189	** ''Somebody'' asked WhoShotJFK
190	** Bear wants to stay in the [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]] Bedroom of the White House for the summer.
191	** There's more stuff like that, but there's one thing ''everyone'' demanded; "None of them wanna pay taxes again. Ever."
192	* LoweredRecruitingStandards: Every single one of the roughnecks fails their NASA physical evaluation. Truman ends up asking if they are merely capable of surviving the trip, and a doctor replies that he's surprised they survived the tests.
193	* LunaticLoophole: Crazy Russian guy is one of the few guys that survives. Also Rockhound, who gets "space dementia." It helps that the rest of the crew [[BoundAndGagged duct-taped him to a chair]] because of it.
194	* MadeInCountryX: "Components. American components. Russian components. '''All made in Taiwan!!'''"
195	* ManlyTears: shed by AJ and by most of the surviving roughnecks during Harry's big speech.
196	* MassOhCrap: Even with the full knowledge of how truly massive the asteroid was, it still doesn't prepare the crew or Mission Control for what they see when they finally zero in on their target above the moon. Their stunned silence says it all.
197	* {{Melodrama}}: This isn't meant to win awards, so it doesn't try.
198	* MemorialPhoto: Glossy poster size photos of [[spoiler:Oscar, Freddie, Max, Noonan, and Harry]], the roughnecks who didn't survive the mission, are placed on the altar at the wedding of Grace and [=AJ=].
199	* MenAreTheExpendableGender: None of the named female characters in the film are killed (though of course, there's only one female character who goes into space anyways).
200	* MildlyMilitary: While Col. Sharpe is Mission Commander, and sits in the proper place onboard ''Freedom,'' (and Col. Davis does the same on ''Independence'' as Shuttle Commander), Watts and Tucker should be the "Pilots", not the "Co-Pilots."
201	* MissingManFormation: A squadron of jets performs this maneuver at the very end of the film for [[spoiler:Harry]].
202	* MissingMom: Grace was raised by roughnecks because her mother walked out on Harry when Grace was very small, and Harry wouldn't leave the rig. Grace initially blamed Harry for her leaving, but has grown to accept her life and realized she left them ''both''.
203	* MonumentalDamage: A must have for a disaster film, to start:
204	** New York City's Chrysler Building and the World Trade Centers get struck by meteors at the film's beginning with the former having its upper half toppling over [[note]]making this eeriely prophetic is that the meteor that strikes the South Tower of the WTC is the exact same spot Flight 175 strikes on 9/11[[/note]], the Metlife Building also gets hit and Grand Central Station likewise gets obliterated. While it's not shown, a meteor was about to strike the Empire State Building, implying it too was destroyed as well. It's also implied the Statue of Liberty was destroyed off-screen.
205	** Averted for Shanghai, which lacked a recognizable landmark to smash. [[note]]The Oriental Pearl Tower wouldn't be opened for another 3 years[[/note]]
206	** Paris's beloved Eiffel Tower gets snapped in half like a matchstick by the initial meteor impact, with the blast radius destroying the Notre Dame Cathedral. The Arc De Triomphe is shown badly damaged in the city's aftermath, but still standing. The Louver likewise is destroyed off-screen.
207	* MoodWhiplash: From the roughnecks's reunion outside of the government building to their reactions to why they're there.
208	* MoreDakka: No, we've got no idea why they fitted a BFG to the Armadillo, either.
209	* MoreExpendableThanYou: At the end of the movie, the crew draws straws to see who will stay behind to detonate the nuke on the asteroid. AJ draws the short straw, but Harry sabotages his suit at the last second to take his place, thinking it more important that his daughter have her husband than her father.
210	* MoreHeroThanThou: After the drawing of straws, the short-straw drawer [[spoiler:AJ]] has to set off the nuke to split the incoming mountain of death. Stamper agrees to escort him out, [[spoiler:but sabotages AJ's air system, leaves him in the airlock, and does the job himself.]]
211	* MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong: Lev Andropov of the space station. So tough, he was on the ''outside'' of an "asteroid rover" when it jumped a chasm, and fixes the space shuttle's navigation system by [[PercussiveMaintenance assaulting it]], because "[[PunctuatedPounding This! Is how we fix things! On Russian! Space! Station!]]"
212	* MutualKill: Hello, Harry vs. Asteroid. (Man destroys asteroid he's riding.) It's really a HeroicSacrifice when he stays on the asteroid to detonate the bomb but the asteroid is cursed at so frequently as to become somewhat personified.
213	* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Done when Harry detonates the bomb. Images of his daughter and wife briefly flash on the screen.
214	* NationsOfTheWorldMontage: Shown celebrating after the asteroid is split and its halves miss Earth.
215	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Lev complains that the driller-astronauts destroy the Russian space station, because [[AmericansAreCowboys “Americans always want to be cowboy,”]] but actually it was because [[NeverMyFault he wasn’t paying attention to AJ’s cries for help]].
216	* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Harry and Lev refuse to leave without AJ, even as the space station around them is burning up; Although Harry is forced to flee with his team, Lev stays behind to retrieve AJ. Against all odds, they make it aboard the ''Independence'' just in time.
217	* NoPeriodsPeriod: Only mentioned; while Grace is arguing with Harry about her and A.J.'s relationship, she brings up a laundry list of all the things she had to deal with on her own because he was a distant parent.
218	-->'''Grace:''' The first time I got my period, Rockhound had to take me into Taipei for Tampax, and then he had to show me how to use 'em, Harry!\
219	'''Harry:''' ''(almost-clotheslines Rockhound, DeathGlare)''\
220	'''Rockhound''': I ju-- No, I-I ''[[DiggingYourselfDeeper told]]'' her how to use 'em. I didn't ''show'' her, Harry!\
221	'''Grace''':I was playing with titanium depth gauges when I should've been playing with dolls. I mean, I learned about the birds and the bees from Freddie Noonan's ''[[EmbarrassingTattoo tattoos]].'' Look, I was [[RaisedByDudes raised on roughnecks]] ''by you'', and now you get all shocked and shaken when I fall in love with one.
222	* NuclearOption: Avoids DeusExNukina only by using the nuke to supply the one thing that nukes actually supply -- very large explosions. Unfortunately, even a nuclear explosion wouldn't have been enough to cause the results seen in the movie. (Though using it to cause a chain reaction with the massive, volatile gas pockets inside the asteroid may well.)
223	* NumberTwo: A.J. may be TheLancer, but Chick is clearly Harry's right-hand-man.
224	* ObliviousAstronomers: {{Lampshaded}} to the point of [[invoked]]{{Anvilicious}}ness.
225	* OfficeGolf: Harry is introduced hitting gold balls at a ship of Greenpeace protesters. In fact, this appears to be the only reason he's playing.
226	* OhCrap: ''Lots'' of them, particularly when they're on the rock itself.
227	--> '''Chick''': (eerily calm voice) Harry... The clock on that nine foot nuclear weapon is ticking.
228	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: A.J. apologizing too fast lets Harry know he's hiding something. Like Harry's daughter in his bunk.
229	* PapaWolf: Harry, of course. He goes ballistic when he thinks his daughter needs to be protected, and you do ''not'' want to be the one in his path. Leads to a funny moment when he chases AJ around the oil rig after finding out that he and Grace are together. Harry's PapaWolf qualities ultimately lead him to [[spoiler: sacrifice himself and go down destroying the asteroid in order to allow AJ to live and marry Grace so that she can be happy, leading to the most emotional scenes of the movie]]. Harry's crew members point out that they all had a hand in raising Grace, so they all feel protective of her.
230	* ParentalSubstitute: Dan Truman takes over as father figure for Grace once Harry has left the planet. When the military starts manhandling her, he gets them to let her go, and stands protectively over her.
231	* PercussiveMaintenance: Done when the crew was stranded on an asteroid: The [[Creator/PeterStormare Russian cosmonaut]] fixed the ship by banging the engines with a wrench, possibly in a ShoutOut to ''Franchise/StarWars''.
232	-->'''Lev Andropov:''' This is how we fix problem in the Russian space station!\
233	'''Lev Andropov:''' Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL [[MadeInCountryX MADE IN TAIWAN]]!
234	* PercussivePrevention: A.J. has to be the one to remain on the asteroid and detonate the bomb, after drawing the short straw. Instead, Harry disconnects an oxygen tube from his space suit, forcing him to go back to the shuttle and let Harry do the job.
235	* PrecisionCrash: At the start of the film, the first incoming chunks of the asteroid hit downtown New York City. Later on, one large chunk precision-strikes the Eiffel Tower. The actual asteroid is predicted to hit the Pacific Ocean somewhere, but it never happens.
236	* PrecisionFStrike: "[[JustFollowingOrders This is one order you shouldn't follow]] and you ''fucking'' know it!"
237	* PreSacrificeFinalGoodbye: Harry Stamper, in lieu of allowing his daughter's fiancée to die on the asteroid, takes his place, with a final goodbye to Grace before.
238	* PunctuatedPounding: The Russian Cosmonaut, while banging the engines with a wrench: "[[PercussiveMaintenance This! Is how! We fix! Things! On Russian! Space! Station!]]"
239	* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: Harry won't work with anybody but his own team, so NASA has to round them up. HilarityEnsues. (Note that they spread quickly across the country in less than two days!)
240	* RaceAgainstTheClock: It's one thing to destroy the asteroid, but the team has a particular window of time to do so by splitting it in two to avoid a collision with Earth. Blowing it up past that point is GameOver as the two halves could still hit the planet.
241	* RaceLift: Owen Wilson's character was supposed to be Asian American. The surname "Choi" is of Korean origin, but they didn't bother changing it when Wilson was cast.
242	* RadarIsUseless: The asteroid somehow goes undetected until it is just over two weeks away from striking Earth, due to debris destroying a Space Shuttle and bombarding New York, and even ''then'' an amateur astronomer has to show NASA where to look. Astronomers started hunting for space objects large enough to pose a threat several years before the film came out, and while they ''have'' missed incoming meteorites since (the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor]] went completely unnoticed until it hit the atmosphere because it came from an angle close to the Sun), the stated size of the rock would make it bigger than [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet) Ceres]] (which was detected with an optical telescope all the way back in '''1801''') and therefore almost unmissable.
243	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: the Roughnecks are good at their job, but one of NASA's doctors is surprised they survive their physical testing, let alone the ides of launching them to space.
244	* RaisedByDudes: Grace was raised by the drilling team, but [[SubvertedTrope still grew up to be a well-adjusted and surprisingly feminine young woman]].
245	* RealityIsUnrealistic: The "slingshot effect" of the shuttle, [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Rockhound, who pointed out it didn't ever work out well for [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Wile E. Coyote]].
246	* ReallyDeadMontage: When Harry Stamper is about to push the button to detonate the nuke, we are shown a short montage of his memories of his daughter.
247	* RealMenLoveJesus: Mild version of this with Harry Stamper. Of all the characters, he does not indulge any vices on-camera, and several times mentions God or prays outright.
248	* RedshirtArmy: The USAF crew members save for Sharp and Watts [[spoiler: The entire Independance USAF crew is killed when their shuttle is hit by meteors. They never even make it to the asteroid]].
249	* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: In the time Harry goes to NASA and accepts the mission (roughly one or two days), his crew spreads around the world, and AJ even starts his own oil company. Apparently, in earlier versions of the script, NASA was supposed to discover the asteroid several months before it was due to hit, but this was changed to differentiate the plot from ''Film/DeepImpact''. It's also a ShoutOut to the role of Creator/JamesDean in the film ''Giant'', which similarly involved a rebellious young man going and making his own fortune in oil. Has similar scenes, too.
250	* RidingTheBomb: When they're trying to lower the bomb into the core of the asteroid, Steve "Rockhound" Buscemi duplicates this scene, and everyone yells at him. Although he claims that he was actually getting the idea from ''Radio/TheLoneRanger''.
251	-->'''Colonel Sharp:''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis GET OFF. THE NUCLEAR. WARHEAD.]]
252	* RuleOfCool: Possibly the biggest offender for the largest number of times per scene.
253	* RussianGuySuffersMost: Lev joins the crew after the American driller-astronauts destroy the Russian space station. [[spoiler: Ultimately subverted, though, as Lev is one of the few survivors of the mission]].
254	* SanitySlippage: Rockhound ends up losing some of his sanity while undergoing the mission, eventually culminating in him using a gatling gun to shoot everything in sight.
255	* ScaryBlackMan: Michael Clarke Duncan's "Bear" is a surprising subversion. He's [[BruiserWithASoftCenter rather a softy]], despite looking huge and menacing.
256	* SceneryGorn: The post-meteor shower shots of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity; Paris also counts. Bigtime.
257	* ScientistVsSoldier: General Kimsey is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and wishes to launch all of the nuclear missiles in the world at "Dottie" the first times he hears of her, followed by taking over Houston command and trying to set off the nuke remotely when he believes the drilling is falling too far behind, and Sharp is JustFollowingOrders to allow the nuke to detonate. Everybody else - even the roughnecks - are on the "scientist" side and insist that if the damned bomb is not placed inside the asteroid, the only results are going to be a spectacular fireworks display followed by the end of the world.
258	* SecondLawOfMetafictionalThermodynamics: Anything not critical (anymore) to the plot blows up. The spacecraft visit MIR for refueling; it blows up right after they're done. There are 2 spacecrafts; one crashes. The drill of the crashed spacecraft survives; the one from the other spacecraft blows up.
259	* SeinfeldianConversation: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD25aAsDqZ8 Animal crackers]]. And the thing is, it's not played for laughs. It was actually meant to be deep and romantic.
260	* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: While Lev does speak English, to a point, he gets a couple of colloquialisms wrong. Also, when describing his uncle, "the genius of [his] family," he reverts to BuffySpeak describing the missiles that his uncle made.
261	* SigilSpam: The giant decals all over the interior of both shuttles bearing the shuttles' name and insignia. Apparently, NASA's art department isn't afraid of the end of the world.
262	* SmurfettePrinciple: The two shuttle crews have only one woman between them. Incidentally, [[MenAreTheExpendableGender her shuttle isn't smashed up during the approach]].
263	* SnobsVersusSlobs: A played with example as it's not fancy rich folk turning their noses up at the roughnecks, but the super-geniuses at [=NASA=] sneering at the bunch of dirty, criminal, addicted, uneducated roughnecks they have to work with.
264	* SoloMissionBecomesGroupMission: When Harry tells the other members of Stamper Oil that they don't have to go and help him destroy the asteroid. The other men agree to go up with Harry to save the world.
265	* SomeoneHasToDie: [[spoiler:Due to the DeusExNukina getting damaged such that someone has to stay behind.]]
266	* SpaceIsNoisy: It's an action movie. Enough said.
267	* SpaceMadness: Rockhound's "space dementia" and the Russian cosmonaut's behavior.
268	* SpaceSuitsAreScubaGear: So that [[spoiler:Harry can subvert his future son-in-law's HeroicSacrifice by yanking his air line and taking his place.]]
269	* SpokenWordInMusic: The movie's official Album uses {{Music/Aerosmith}}'s "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" as musical {{Bookends}}... but the second time it appears, under the title "Animal Crackers", Steven Tyler only sings in the beginning and ending - the rest of the vocals consist of clips of dialogue between the characters A.J. and Grace, with the track title coming from a SeinfeldianConversation in which A.J. argues that animal crackers don't qualify as "crackers".
270	* StampOfRejection: Played for laughs. The roughnecks are all deemed unfit to execute a space mission (and not without cause). Their paperwork is stamped accordingly. But we wouldn't have much of a film if that stuck, [[IgnoredExpert so the experts are overridden.]]
271	* StoryboardingTheApocalypse: The movie contains ''two'' examples of this. One is at the beginning of the film, as Charlton Heston's voiceover about what happened to the dinosaurs threatens the same consequence for Earth later on. Truman later makes it explicit:
272	-->'''Truman:''' Damage? Ah, total, sir. If this asteroid hits, nothing would survive. Not even bacteria.\
273	'''Truman:''' So when the rogue comet hit the asteroid belt it sent all these pieces spinning off. Next fourteen days, the Earth's in a shooting gallery. Now, if it's a Pacific Basin impact, which we think it will be, it'll flash-boil millions of liters and set off earthquakes when it hits the ocean bedrock. Half the Earth's population will be incinerated by the heat blast and the other half will freeze to death in nuclear winter ... this is as real as it gets. It's coming. Right now, at about eighteen thousand miles an hour. Not a soul on Earth can hide from it.
274	* StuffBlowingUp: It's a Michael Bay movie, so this is a given. The MIR Space Station exploding right after the shuttles refuel is the most obvious example, but there are many others, like a little later when, after the lunar boost phase, the shuttles eject their auxiliar boost rockets, and one of the discarded rockets promptly impacts an asteroid fragment causing yet another explosion.
275	* TakeThat:
276	** In the first scene, a bunch of toy [[Film/{{Godzilla1998}} Godzillas]] are attacked by a small dog.
277	** Harry's EstablishingCharacterMoment is him hitting golf balls at a protesting Greenpeace ship.
278	* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Harry Stamper knows that he has only a few minutes to press the detonator that will destroy the giant asteroid and [[HeroicSuicide kill him in the process]]. So naturally, he finds a camera and spends several of those minutes giving a tearful goodbye to his daughter, still managing to press the button at the last second.
279	* ThisAintRocketSurgery: The engineers at NASA couldn't properly assemble Stamper's drill.
280	* ThisIsGonnaSuck: The movie has Harry Stamper [[spoiler:lament [[HeroicSacrifice his decision to stay behind on the asteroid to manually throw the switch on the bomb]] that will split the asteroid in two,]] saying [[SarcasmMode "This was a smart idea"]].
281	* ThrowAwayCountry: France and China. Paris is destroyed by a chunk of asteroid, just to serve as a reminder that these things hurt. Shanghai suffers a similar fate later in the movie, so the heroes have further reason to angst about the danger.
282	* TimeBomb: The timer on a nuclear bomb is remotely canceled from Earth, only to be restarted after a direct order from the President. Back on board the asteroid, the bomb is stopped again manually, the timer freezing at 2.46 seconds.
283	* TimeForPlanB: Subverted. Harry insists NASA has to have a Plan B, and freaks the hell out when he learns they don't.
284	-->'''Harry Stamper:''' What's your contingency plan?\
285	'''Truman:''' Contingency plan?\
286	'''Harry Stamper:''' Your backup plan. You gotta have some kind of backup plan, right?\
287	'''Truman:''' No, we don't have a back up plan. This is it.\
288	'''Harry Stamper:''' And this is the best that you c - that the-the government, the ''[[{{Eagleland}} U.S. government]]'' can come up with? I mean, you-you're NASA for cryin' out loud, you put a man on the moon, you're geniuses! You-you're the guys that think this 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, that is the world's hope, that's what you're telling me?\
289	'''Truman:''' Yeah.\
290	'''Harry Stamper:''' Oh Jesus, dammit.
291	* TimeZonesDoNotExist: When the President is giving a RousingSpeech on TV, audiences in different parts of the United States, France, Turkey, and India all seem to be watching the speech at the same time of day (an audience in China is watching it at night, however).
292	* TitleDrop: "Literature/TheBible calls this day ''Armageddon'', the end of all things."
293	** Though the word actually refers to the place where the battle for the final days will happen - which somehow fits the title as they go to the asteroid to destroy it.
294	* TooDumbToLive: Under advice from his idiot advisers, the President decides to detonate the bomb when Harry's team runs behind schedule, even though this would ''do absolutely nothing''. He even ignores the head of NASA when told, point-blank, this exact fact. '''The entire planet is at stake,''' and the President nearly sacrifices it to a knee-jerk reaction.
295	* TwoWordsICantCount:
296	** When Harry Stamper uses reunites with A.J., he adds an extra word to the five he declares:
297	--->'''Harry Stamper:''' A.J., I got just five words for you: Damn glad to see you, boy!\
298	'''A.J.:''' That's six words.
299	** A.J. also miscounts when talking to Harry, getting his number wrong twice:
300	--->'''A.J.:''' You know, Harry, there are only, uh, five words, I want to hear from you right now and those words are: you know A.J., I really look up to you, you been a hero of mine for sometime, and I'm really impressed with your work and I'm emotionally closed off... ''[{{beat}}]'' That's like, I dunno, that's like eleven words or something. You know what how 'bout just: A.J., I'm sorry and I love you?
301	* UnimpressiveProgressReveal: PlayedForDrama. After landing on the [[ColonyDrop killer asteroid]], Harry Stamper and his team have exactly eight hours to drill a shaft eight hundred feet deep to plant a bomb before it crosses "zero barrier" and cannot be deflected away from Earth. After a HardWorkMontage that lasts two and a half hours in-universe, Colonel Sharp demands an update and is [[OhCrap less than pleased]] when Stamper admits they're only at 57 feet.
302	* UnplannedManualDetonation: After flying debris from the asteroid damaged the nuke's triggering device, someone has to stay behind to manually detonate the bomb. The crew draw straws and A.J. is selected, but Harry takes his place, giving him his blessing to marry Grace.
303	* VisitByDivorcedDad: One of the guys who has to go to space visits his son. The mom doesn't tell the boy that this is his father, but that he's a salesman; from what she says to her ex after their son goes into the house, it's implied that he's actually not ''allowed'' to visit, or at least not without advance notice (which is why his son doesn't recognize him). Later, after the father takes part in a plan that saves the planet, his family sees him on TV. When the boy says, "That salesman is on TV," the mom finally admits, "That's not a salesman. That's your dad."
304	* TheWarRoom: Shown in the film. Apparently the real deal wasn't impressive enough, since a new one was designed for this purpose.
305	* WeHardlyKnewYe:
306	** Freddy Noonan. One of the oil-drillers on AJ's team who, along with Oscar, died when the Independence crashed on the asteroid. Compared to the rest of the oil-drill cast, you hardly ever see this guy except to say a forgettable one-liner here and there. ''He doesn't even get a spot in the montage of hilarious introductions to the drillers-turned-astronauts''.
307	** Some of the astronauts as well. The two who died flying the Independence in particular; Lt. Halsey doesn't even get a single line of dialogue.
308	* WhamLine: "It's the size of Texas, sir."
309	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Harry has a vaguely southern accent which Bruce Willis keeps up about half the time.
310	* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: A Russian cosmonaut, confronted with a malfunctioning piece of equipment, [[PercussiveMaintenance repeatedly hits it with another, similarly malfunctioning, piece of equipment]], shouting "THIS IS HOW YOU FIX THINGS ON RUSSIAN SPACE STATION!"
311	* WhoShotJFK: One of the requests made by Stamper's team was to be told this in exchange for going on the mission. All they get are blank stares. Might be a ShoutOut to Creator/MichaelBay's previous film, ''Film/TheRock''.
312	%%* WildlifeCommentarySpoof
313	* WireDilemma: Played straight when the Pentagon activates the nuclear bomb on the shuttle because they believe the mission is doomed to failure, and the Air Force nuclear specialists on the mission have to disarm it. In this case, the airmen can't shut the bomb down directly because it has been remotely activated, and they have to cut the wiring. The usual dilemma is subverted; the airman disarming the wires briefly hesitates when determining which wire to cut, but he remembers exactly which one to cut after a second of thought.
314	* WithThisRing:
315	** Rockhound puts the mack on a hot blonde in a bar by informing her her shiny new engagement/wedding ring is not a real diamond.
316	** AJ puts a dinky little ring on Grace after she accepts his proposal. You'd think that a skilled oil rig worker could afford a better ring, but considering his relationship with Harry, he may have GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity. There's also the fact that he'd started his own company and probably put most of his savings into that since he didn't expect to see Grace again after being fired.
317	* WorkingClassHero: All life on Earth is in danger of being wiped out by a gigantic asteroid, and it's up to a group of roughnecks to save the day.
318	* TheWormGuy: The plan NASA comes up with requires that; "We drill. We bring in the world's best deep-core driller." Stamper is a rare case where the Worm Guy points out that the best Worm Guys don't work alone, and demands -- and ''gets'' -- a whole bunch of ''other'' Worm Guys involved. Instant RagtagBunchOfMisfits.

Context Film / Armageddon1998