Armageddon (1998) Movie || Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler || updates Review & Facts

e e e e e e Armageddon is a 1998 American Science Fiction disaster film produced and directed by Michael Bay produced by Jerry brookheimer and released by Touchstone pictures 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 it stars an ensemble cast consisting of Bruce Willis with Billy Bob Thornton Liv Tyler Ben aul Will Patton Peter stor Keith David and Steve busam the film was a commercial success grossing $ 5537 million worldwide against a $140 million budget and becoming the highest grossing film of 1998 and the highest grossing film to be released by Touchstone pictures the film received mixed reviews from critics a massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting space shuttle Atlantis before entering the atmosphere and bombarding New York City Boston Philadelphia monton Halifax and Newland the meteors were pushed out of the asteroid belt by a collision from a rogue Comet which also dislodged a massive asteroid the size of Texas and NASA learns that the asteroid will impact Earth in 18 days potentially wiping out all life on Earth NASA devises a plan to have a deep hole drilled into the asteroid into which they will insert and detonate a nuclear bomb to destroy the asteroid they recruit Harry Stamper a third generation oil driller and owner of his own oil drilling company Harry agrees to help but on the condition that he bring in his own team to do the drilling he picks his best employees for the job chick Chapel his best friend and right-hand man geologists rockhound and Oscar choice and Drillers Bear kurlene Freddy Nunan Max Leonard and agj frost who has been dating Harry's daughter Grace despite Harry's objections over 12 days they are trained to become astronauts with astronaut Willie sharp who will pilot Freedom one of the two super shuttles to fly to the asteroid the other being the independent before leaving chick apologizes to his ex-wife for wronging her and sees his son who is unaware of his parentage grace accepts AJ's marriage proposal much to Harry's reluctant dismay she later has her father promised to return home safe with her fiance following the destruction of Shanghai by another meteor strike word of the massive asteroid becomes public to the world both shuttles take off without incident and dock with a Russian space station mirror to take on fuel however a leaky pipeline ignites the fuel pod on fire AJ and rosmo Cosmonaut Lev andropov narrowly managed to board Independence before the space station is destroyed approaching the asteroid Independence is damaged by debris and crashes killing all on board except Lev bear and AG they Embark in the shuttle armadillo to find the freedom crew which lands 26 miles from its intended Landing site when the drilling goes slower than predicted sharp reports to Mission Control that it is unlikely the team will reach the depth necessary to destroy the asteroid before zo barrier the point after which detonating The Rock will not save Earth the president of the United States decides to remotely detonate the bomb from Earth immediately which will cause total Mission failure sharp and Harry have a vicious argument but agree to diffuse the bomb and work together after Harry promises sharp that he will accomplish the mission they make progress on drilling but a missed gas pocket causes the armadillo and Max to be blown into space just as Harry NASA and the world believe the mission to be a failure while another meteor destroys Paris agj and the others arrive in the second armadillo agj succeeds in drilling the hole to the required depth but a rock storm kills grber and damages the remote Detonator forcing someone to stay behind and manually detonate the bomb they draw straws agj is given the responsibility Harry takes him down to the asteroid's surface only to disconnect AJ's air hose and force him into the shuttle's air lock Harry then tells agj that he is the son Harry never had and he would be proud to have him marry Grace using the armadillo Harry tearfully gives Grace his Blessing to Mary AJ and Grace says that she is proud to be his daughter after some difficulty Freedom takes off and just before Zer barrier Harry manages to detonate the bomb and saves the planet the astronauts land on Earth safely a and Grace are reunited and chick reconciles with his ex-wife and estranged son during the credits Ag and grace are married with the portraits of Harry and the others lost on the mission present in memorium according to Bruce Joel Rubin writer of Deep Impact a production president at Disney took notes on everything the writer said during lunch about his script and initiated Armageddon as a counter film at Disney four nine writers worked on the script five of whom are credited in addition to Robert Roy P Jonathan Hensley Tony Gilroy Shane Salo and JJ Abrams the writers involved included Paul atanasio Anne byerman Scott Rosenberg and Robert Town originally it was hens slay's script based on Po's original that had been given the green light by Touchstone pictures then producer Jerry brookheimer hired the succession of scribes for rewrites and polishes 5 six Bruce Willis was cast in the film as part of a three picture deal he cut with the studio to compensate them for the dissolution of 1997's Broadway brawler 78 he received a significant pay cut for the picture as part of the deal nine Shan Canary was originally considered for the role of Stamper but Michael Bay decided to cast a younger actor in the role after meeting oil drillers 10 filming principal photography for Armageddon began in August 27th 1997 and ended on January 29th 1998 11 filming occurred at Culver studios in Culver City California 12 in May 1998 Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth expanded the film's budget by $3 million to include additional special effects scenes by dream Quest images showing an asteroid impacting Paris this additional footage Incorporated two months prior to the film's release was specifically added for the television advertising campaign to visually differentiate the film from Deep Impact which was released a few months before 13 at a budget of $140 million it was buav vista's most expensive film at the time three after filming was complete according to Home Improvement actor Richard K he stumbled upon the main asteroid set and suggested to Tim Allen that they needed to film on it according to K Allan asked then ABC executive Bob Iger who then asked Michael Bay for permission Bay required waiting 6 months after the film was released the asteroid set was used as a credit roll gag scene to imitate a cave in Wilson's basement prior to armageddon's release the film was advertised in Super Bowl Roman 32 at a cost of $2.6 million 15 home media despite a mixed critical reception the Criterion Collection a specialist film distributor of primarily art housee films that markets what it considers to be important classic and contemporary films and cinema at its finest released the director's cut of the film to DVD and Lazard disk in an essay supporting the selection of Armageddon film scholar G9 Basinger who taught Michael Bay at West lion University states that the film is a work of art by a cutting Edge artist who is a master of movement light color and shape and also of chaos razzled Dazzle and explosion she sees it as a celebration of working men this film makes these ordinary men Noble lifting their efforts up into an epic event further she states that in the first few moments of the film all the main characters are well established saying if that isn't screenwriting I don't know what is 16 the film was also released released on VHS and DVD by Touchstone home video on November 13th 1998 and would surpass pretty woman to become buo Vista Home entertainment's best-selling liveaction title 17 Armageddon then premiered on both VHS and DVD formats on February 1st 1999 in the UK it was the country's bestselling DVD release selling over 100,000 copies however this record would be surpassed by The Matrix l that year 18 the film was released on a standard edition Blu-ray in 2010 with only a few special features 19 television airing by April 2002 ABC airings of Armageddon had already received modifications due to the September 11th attacks that occurred 7 months prior the scene where the World Trade Center was hit by meteors and caught on fire was edited out because of its similarity to the attacks 20 following the 23 Columbia disaster some screen captures from the opening scene where Atlantis is destroyed were passed off as satellite images of the disaster in a hoax 21 additionally the American cable network FX which had intended to broadcast Armageddon that evening removed the film from its schedule and aired aliens in its place Armageddon was released on July 1st 1998 in 3127 theaters in the United States States and Canada it ranked first at the box office ahead of Dr dittle with an opening weekend gross of $ 36 million combined with $ 54.2 million from its first 5 days 23 upon opening the film had the third highest Fourth of July opening weekend at the time behind Men In Black and Independence Day 24 the film was dethroned by Lethal Weapon 4 in its second weekend although it collected a total of 23.4 $5 million 25 in Late July 1998 it surpassed its Rival deep impact to become the highest grossing domestic release of the Year 26 the film grossed $21.6 million in the United States and Canada and $352.00 million in other territories for a worldwide total of 5537 million to it was the highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide and the second highest grossing film of that year in the United States finishing just behind Saving Private Ryan critical response Armageddon received mostly mixed reviews from film critics many of whom took issue with the Furious pace of its editing 27 on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 43% approval rating based on 176 reviews with an average rating of five threaten the critical consensus States lovely to look at but about as intelligent as the asteroid that serves as the movie's antagonist Armageddon slickly sums up the Cinematic legacies of producer Jerry brookheimer and director Michael Bay 28 Metacritic gave the film awaited average score of 42 out of 100 based on 23 critics indicating mixed or average reviews audiences ped by cinemascore gave the film an average grade of a on an A plus to f scale 29 the film is on the list of Roger Ebert's most hated films 30 in his original review eert stated the movie is an assault on the eyes the ears the brain common sense and the human desire to be entertained on csll and Ebert Ebert gave it a thumbs down however his co-host Jean csll gave it a thumbs up commenting on the noise and intensity of the film but also stating that he found the film to be amusing Ebert went on to name Armageddon as the worst film of 1998 though he was originally considering Spice World 31 Todd McCarthy of variety also gave the film a negative review noting Michael Ba's rapid cutting style much of the confusion as well as the lack of dramatic Rhythm or character development results directly from Bay's cutting style which resembles a machine gun stuck in the firing position for 212 hours Hours 27 in April 2013 in a Miami Herald interview to promote Pain and Gain B was quoted as having said we had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks it was a massive undertaking that was not fair to the movie I would redo the entire third act if I could but the studio literally took the movie away from us it was terrible my visual effects supervisor had a nervous breakdown so I had to be in charge of that I called James Cameron and asked what do you do when you're doing all the effects yourself but the movie did fine 32 sometime after the article was published ba changed his stance claiming that his apology only related to the editing of the film not the whole film 33 and accused the writer of the article for taking his words out of context the author of the article Miami Herold writer Rodriguez claimed NBC asked me for a response and I played them the tape I didn't misquote anyone all the sites that picked up the story did 34 scientific accuracy see also asteroid deflection in an interview with Entertainment Weekly ba admitted that the film's central premise that NASA could actually do something in a situation like this was unrealistic Additionally the largest known potentially hazardous asteroid fa is 53319 1999 jm8 which is only 7 km 4.3 m in diameter 35 while the asteroid in the movie is described as being the size of Texas near the end of the credits there is a disclaimer stating the National Aeronautics and Space administration's cooperation and assistance does not reflect an endorsement of the contents of the film or the treatment of the characters depicted their in 36 astronomers would subsequently note that Deep Impact was more scientifically accurate 3738 the infeasibility of the hbomb approach was published by four postgraduate physics students in 21139 and then reported by The Daily Telegraph in 2012 a mathematical analysis of the situation found that for Willis's approach to be effective he would need to be in possession of an hbomb a billion times stronger than the Soviet unions big Ivan the biggest ever detonated on Earth using estimates of the asteroids size density speed and distance from Earth based on information in the film the post-graduate students from leester University found that to split the asteroid in two with both pieces clearing Earth would require 800 trillion ter of energy in contrast the total energy output of big Ivan which was tested by the Soviet IET Union in 1961 was only 418,000 terel 4041 in the commentary track then ifel says he asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers and he told me to shut the up so that was the end of that talk 42 Neil degrass Tyson said on the October 2nd 2023 episode of The Late Show with Steven Colbert that until the release of the 2022 film moonfall Armageddon was the movie which violated more laws of physics per minute than any other movie ever Walter Bruce Willis born March 19th 1955 is a retired American actor he achieved Fame with a leading role on the comedy drama series Moonlighting 19851 1989 and has appeared in over a 100 films gaining recognition as an action hero for his portrayal of John mlan in the Die Hard franchise 1988 2013 12 Willis's other credits include the last Boy Scout 1991 Pulp Fiction 1994 12 Monkeys 1995 The Fifth Element 1997 Armageddon 1998 the six sense 1999 unbreakable the whole nine yards both 2000 Tears of the Sun 23 Sin City 2005 The Expendables read both 2010 Looper 2012 and glass 2019 in the last few years of his career he starred in many lowbudget direct to video films which were poorly received Willis retired from acting in 2022 due to Aphasia he was diagnosed with front tpro Dementia in 2023 as a singer Willis released his debut album The Return of Bruno in 1987 followed by two more albums in 1989 9 and 2001 he made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of misery in 2015 Willis has received various accolades throughout his career including a Golden Globe award two prime time Emmy Awards and two People's Choice Awards he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 films featuring Willis have grossed between 2.64 billion s doll and 3.05 billion doll at nor North American box offices making him in 2010 the eighth highest grossing leading actor Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19th 1955 in idar oberstein in what was then West Germany three his mother Marlene four was German from Castle five and his father David Willis was an American Soldier he has a younger sister Florence and two younger brothers Robert deceased and David six after being discharged from the military in 1957 his father relocated the family to his hometown of Carney Point New Jersey Willis has described his background as a long line of blue collar people seven his mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder Master Mechanic and factory worker eight Willis spoke with a stutter seven he attended pens Grove High School in Carney Point Township where his schoolmates nicknamed him buck buck 910 Willis joined the drama club and found that acting on stage reduced his stutter he was eventually elected student council president he graduated from pens Grove High School in 1973 8 after graduating from high school Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem nuclear power plant 11 and transported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works Factory in Deepwater 12 he turned to acting after working as a private investigator a role he would later play in The Comedy drama series Moonlighting and the action comedy film The Last Boy Scout Willis enrolled in the drama program at Montclair State University 13 where he was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof he left the school in 1977 and moved to New York City where he supported himself in the early 1980s as a bartender at kamakazi an art Bar in Manhattan W4 15 while living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood Willis was cast as David Addison Jr in the television series Moonlighting 1985 1989 competing against 3,000 other actors for the position 17 his starring role in Moonlighting opposite cyel Shepard helped to establish him as a comedic actor during the show's Five Seasons he won an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series and a Golden Globe award for best actor television series musical or comedy seven during the height of the show's success beverag maker crram hired Willis as the pitchman for their golden wine cooler products 18 the advertising campaign paid Willis $5s do 7 million over two years Willis chose not to renew his contract when he decided to stop drinking alcohol in 1988 19 in 1987 Willis obtained his first lead role in the Lake Edwards film blind date co-starring with Kim Basinger and John larette seven Edwards cast him again to play the real life cowboy actor Tom Mix in Sunset 1988 the same year he starred in an action role in Die Hard 1988 as John mlan seven he performed most of his own stunts in the film 20 and the film grossed 138 m788 52 worldwide 21 following his success with Die Hard Willis had a leading role in the drama in country as Vietnam veteran EMT Smith and also provided the voice for a talking baby in Look Who's Talking 1989 and the sequel look who's talking to 1990 2223 in the late 1980s Willis enjoyed moderate success as a recording artist recording an album of Pop Blues the return of Bruno which included the hit single respect yourself featuring The Pointer Sisters 24 the lp was promoted by a spinal tap like rockumentary parody featuring scenes of Willis performing at famous events including Woodstock he released a version of The Drifter song Under the Boardwalk as a second single it reached no two on the UK singles chart but was less successful in the US Willis returned to the recording studio several times 25 1990s Die Hard sequels Pulp Fiction and dramatic roles having acquired major personal success and pop culture influence playing John mlan in Die Hard Willis reprised his role in the sequels die hard to 1990 and Die Hard with a Vengeance 1995 seven these first three installments in the DI Hard series grossed over 700 million s dollars internationally and propelled Willis to the first rank of Hollywood action Stars citation needed at one point die hard to and ghost starring Willis then wife Demi Moore would occupy the number one and number two spots at the box office a feat that would not be accomplished again for a married Hollywood couple until 2024 26 through 27 in the early 1990s Willis's career suffered a moderate slump as he starred in flops such as the bonfire of the vanity 1990 and Hudson Hawk 1991 although he did find box office success with the last Boy Scout he gained more success with Striking Distance 1993 but flopped again with color of night 1994 it was Savaged by critics but did well in the Home Video Market and became one of the top 20 most rented films in the United States in 1995 28 Maxim also ranked his sex scene in the film as the best in film history 29 in 1994 Willis also had a leading role in one part of Quenton Tarantino's acclaimed Pulp Fiction seven the film's success gave a boost to his career and he starred alongside his look who talking co-star John Travolta 30 in 1996 he was the executive producer and star of the cartoon Bruno the kid which featured a CGI representation of himself that same year he starred in Mike judge's animated film beavus and butt head to America with his then wife Demi Moore in the movie he plays a drunken criminal named muddy Grimes who mistakenly sends judges titular characters to kill his wife Dallas voiced by Moore he then played the lead roles in 12 Monkeys 1995 and The Fifth Element 1997 however by the end of the 1990s his career had fallen into another slump with critically panned films like the Jackal which despite negative reviews was a box office hit Mercury Rising and Breakfast of Champions as well as the implosion of the production of Broadway brawler a debacle salvaged only by the success of the Michael Bay directed Armageddon which Willis had agreed to star in as compensation for the failed production and which turned out to be the highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide 3's 132 the same year his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game apocalypse 33 in 1999 Willis played the starring role in M Night shy Allen's film The six cents which was both a commercial and critical success seven 2000s Willis in 2002 after being named Hasty Pudding theatricals Man of the Year Willis in June 2007 in the premiere of Live Free or Die Hard in 2000 Willis won an em34 for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for his work on friends in which he played the father of Ross Geller's much younger girlfriend 35 he he was also nominated for a 2001 American Comedy Award in the funniest male guest appearance in a TV series category for his work on Friends also in 2000 Willis played Jimmy the tulip toesy in the whole nine yards alongside Matthew Perry Willis was originally cast as Terry Benedict in oceans 112 2001 but dropped out to work on recording an album 36 in the sequel oceans 1224 he makes a cameo appearance as self in 2005 he appeared in the film adaptation of Sin City in 26 he lent his voice as RJ the raccoon in Over the Hedge in 27 he appeared in the Planet Terror half of the double feature Grindhouse as the villain a mutant Soldier this marked Willis's second collaboration with the director Robert Rodriguez following Sin City Willis appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman several times throughout his career he filled in for an ill David Letterman on his show on February 26th 2003 when he was supposed to be a guest 37 on many of his appearances on the show Willis staged elaborate jokes such as wearing a day glow orange suit in honor of the Central Park Gates having one side of his face made up with simulated birdshot wounds after the Harry Whittington shooting or trying to break a record a parody of David Blaine of staying underwater for only 20 seconds on April 12th 27 he appeared again this time wearing a sanj a malakar wig 38 on his June 25th 2007 appearance he wore a mini wind turbine on his head to accompany a joke about his own fictional documentary titled an unappealing hunch a wordplay On An Inconvenient Truth 39 Willis also appeared in Japanese Subaru Legacy television commercials 40 tying in with this Subaru did a limited run of legacy badged Subaru Legacy Turing Bruce in honor of Willis Willis has appeared in five films with Samuel L Jackson National Lampoon loaded weapon one Pulp Fiction Die Hard with a Vengeance unbreakable and glass and both actors were slated to work together in Blackwater Transit before dropping out Willis also worked with his eldest daughter rumor in the 2005 film hostage in 27 he appeared in the Thriller Perfect Stranger opposite halberry the crime drama film Alpha Dog opposite Sharon Stone and reprised his role as John mlan in Live Free or Die Hard subsequently he appeared in the films what just happened and surrogates based on the comic book of the same name 41 Willis was slated to play US Army General William R peers and director Oliver Stones pinkville a drama about the investigation of the 1968 my life Massacre 42 however due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike the film was cancelled Willis appeared on the 2008 Blues Traveler album North Hollywood shootout giving a spoken word performance over an instrumental blues rock jam on the track free Willis ruminations from behind Uncle Bob's machine shop in early 2009 he appeared in an advertising campaign to publicize the insurance company Norwich unions change of name to Aviva 43 2 tennis Willis in 2010 with the Expendables co-star Sylvester stum as of 2010 Willis was the eighth highest grossing actor in a leading role and 12 th highest including supporting roles 44 and 45 Willis starred with Tracy Morgan in the 2010 comedy copout directed by Kevin Smith about two police detectives investigating the theft of a baseball card 46 Willis appeared in the music video for the song Stylo by goras 47 also in 2010 he appeared in a cameo with the former Planet Hollywood co-owners and 80s action Stars Sylvester stallon and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Expendables Willis played the role of CIA agent Mr church it was the first time the three action Stars had appeared on screen together although the scene featuring the three was short it was one of the most highly anticipated scenes in the film the trio filmed their scene in an empty church on October 24th 29 48 Willis next starred in red an adaptation of the comic book minseries of the same name in which he portrayed Frank Moses the film was released on October 15 2010 49 Willis starred alongside Bill Murray Edward Norton and Francis McDormand in Moonrise Kingdom 2012 filming took place in Rhode Island under the direction of Wes Anderson in 2011 50 Willis returned in an expanded role in The Expendables 222 51 he appeared alongside Joseph Gordon levit in the Sci-Fi Action film Looper 2012 as the older version of Gordon lit's character Joe Willis teamed up with 50 Cent in a film directed by David Barrett called fire with fire starring opposite Josh daml and Rosario Dawson about a fireman who must save the love of his life 52 Willis also joined Vince vaugh and Katherine Zeta Jones in lay the favorite directed by Steven friers about a Las Vegas cocktail waitress who becomes an elite professional Gambler 53 the two films were distributed by Lionsgate entertainment Willis reprised his most famous role John mlan for a fifth Time starring in A Good Day to Die Hard which was released on February 14th 2013 54 in an interview Willis said I have a warm spot in my heart for die hard it's just the sheer novelty of being able to play the same character over 25 years and still be asked back is fun it's much more challenging to have to do a film again and try to compete with myself which is what I do in die hard I try to improve my work every time 55 on October 12th 2013 Willis hosted Saturday Night Live with Katie Perry as a musical guest 56 in 2015 Willis made his Broadway debut in William Goldman's adaptation of Stephen King's novel misery opposite Lori medcafe at the broadhurst theater his performance was generally panned by critics who called it vacant and inert 57 Willis was the subject of a roast by Comedy Central in a program broadcast on July 29th 2018 58 Willis played himself in a cameo in the 2019 film The Lego Movie 2 the second part 59 2020s critical decline health problems and retirement in the final years of his career Willis starred in many low-budget independent Thrillers and science fiction films 60 he worked primarily with the production company's EMT fura Oasis headed by Randall EMT and 308 entertainment Inc headed by Corey large EMT fra Oasis produced 20 films starring Willis 61 described by Chris Nash of Esquire as a profitable Safe Harbor for older actors similar to The Expendables most of the films were released direct to video and were widely panned 60 Willis would often earn2 million dollars for two days work with an average of 15 minutes screen time per film 62 he was nonetheless featured heavily in the film's promotional materials earning them the derogatory nickname gezer teasers 6364 the golden raspberry Awards an annual award for the year's worst films and performances created a dedicated category the worst Bruce Willis performance in a 2021 movie for his roles in eight films released that year 65 those working on the films later said Willis appeared confused did not understand why he was there and had to be fed lines through an earpiece 61 days before Willis was scheduled to arrive on set for out of death 2021 the screenwriter was instructed to reduce his role and abbreviate his dialogue and the director Mike Burns was told to complete all of Willis's scenes in a single day of filming 61 on March 30th 2022 Willis's family announced that he was retiring because he had been d diagnosed with Aphasia a disorder typically caused by damage to the area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension 66 shortly thereafter the golden raspberry Awards retracted its Willis category deeming it inappropriate to give a rousi to someone whose performance was affected by a medical condition 67 at the time of his retirement Willis had completed 11 films awaiting release 666 and 86 9 on February 16th 2023 Willis's family announced that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia 70 according to Greg day a neurologist at the Mayo clinics Florida campus the symptoms include difficulties with language and comprehension as well as misinterpretation of instructions 71 in a statement the family said that Willis's condition had progressed and that challenges with communication are just one symptom of the dis disease 72 they expressed hope that media attention on Willis would raise awareness about the disease Armageddon is a 1998 American Science Fiction disaster film produced and directed by Michael Bay produced by Jerry brookheimer and released by Touchstone pictures 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 it stars an ensemble cast consisting of Bruce Willis with Billy Bob Thornton Liv Tyler Ben aul Will Patton Peter stor Keith David and Steve busam the film was a commercial success grossing $ 5537 million worldwide against a $140 million budget and becoming the highest grossing film of 1998 and the highest grossing film to be released by Touchstone pictures the film received mixed reviews from critics a massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting space shuttle Atlantis before entering the atmosphere and bombarding New York City Boston Philadelphia Monon Halifax and Newland the meteors were pushed out of the asteroid belt by a collision from a rogue Comet which also dislodged a massive asteroid the size of Texas and NASA learns that the asteroid will impact Earth in 18 days potentially wiping out all life on Earth NASA devises a plan to have a deep hole drilled into the asteroid into which they will insert and detonate a nuclear bomb to destroy the asteroid they recruit Harry Stamper a third generation oil driller and owner of his own oil drilling company Harry agrees to help but on the condition that he bring in his own team to do the drilling he picks his best employees for the job chick Chapel his best friend and right-hand man geologists rockhound and Oscar choice and Drillers bear Cene Freddy Nunan Max Leonard and agj frost who has been dating Harry's daughter Grace despite Harry's objections over 12 days they are trained to become astronauts with astronaut Willie sharp who will pilot Freedom one of the two super shuttles to fly to the asteroid the other being the independent before leaving chick apologizes to his ex-wife for wronging her and sees his son who is unaware of his parentage great accepts AJ's marriage proposal much to Harry's reluctant dismay she later has her father promised to return home safe with her fiance following the destruction of Shanghai by another meteor strike word of the massive asteroid becomes public to the world both shuttles take off without incident and dock with a Russian space station mirror to take on fuel however a leaky pipeline ignites the fuel pod on fire agj and rosmo cosmonaut of andropov narrowly managed to board Independence before the space station is destroyed approaching the asteroid Independence is damaged by debris and crashes killing all on board except Lev bear and agj they Embark in the shuttle armadillo to find the freedom crew which lands 26 mil from its intended Landing site when the drilling goes slower than predicted sharp reports to Mission Control that it is unlikely the team will reach the depth necessary to destroy the asteroid before zo barrier the point after which detonating The Rock will not save Earth the president of the United States decides to remotely detonate the bomb from Earth immediately which will cause total Mission failure sharp and Harry have a vicious argument but agree to diffuse the bomb and work together after Harry promises sharp that he will accomplish the mission they make progress on drilling but a missed gas pocket causes the armadillo and Max to be blown into space just as Harry NASA and the world believe the mission to be a failure while another meteor destroys Paris AJ and the others arrive in the second armadillo agj succeeds in drilling the hole to the required depth but a rock storm kills grber and damages the remote Detonator forcing someone to stay behind and manually detonate the bomb they draw straws agj is given the responsibility Harry takes him down to the asteroid surface only to disconnect AJ's air hose and force him into the shuttle's airlock Harry then tells agj that he is the son Harry never had and he would be proud to have him marry Grace using the armadillo Harry tearfully gives Grace his Blessing to Mary AJ and Grace says that she is proud to be his daughter after some difficulty Freedom takes off and just before Zer barrier Harry manages to detonate the bomb and saves the planet the astronauts land on Earth safely agj and grace are reunited and chick reconciles with his ex-wife and EST stranged son during the credits agj and grace are married with the portraits of Harry and the others lost on the mission present in memorium according to Bruce Joel Rubin writer of Deep Impact a production president at Disney took notes on everything the writer said during lunch about his script and initiated Armageddon as a counter film at Disney four nine writers worked on the script five of whom are credited in addition to Robert Roy P Jonathan Hensley Tony Gilroy Shane salero and JJ Abrams the writers involved included Paul atanasio Anne byerman Scott Rosenberg and Robert Town originally it was hens slay's script based on P's original that had been given the green light by Touchstone pictures then producer Jerry brookheimer hired the succession of scribes for rewrites and polishes 56 Bruce Willis was cast in the film as part of a three picture deal he cut with the studio to compensate them for the dissolution of 1997's Broadway brawler 78 he received a significant pay cut for the picture as part of the deal nine Shan Canary was originally considered for the role of Stamper but Michael Bay decided to cast a younger actor in the role after meeting oil drillers 10 filming principal photography for Armageddon began in August 27th 1997 and ended on January 29th 1998 11 filming occurred at Culver studios in Culver City California 12 in May 1998 Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth expanded the film's budget by $3 million to include additional special effects scenes by dream Quest images showing an asteroid impacting Paris this additional footage Incorporated two months prior to the film's release was specifically added for the television advertising campaign to visually differentiate the film from Deep Impact which was released a few months before 13 at a budget of $140 million it was buav vista's most expensive film at the time three after filming was complete according to Home Improvement actor Richard K he stumbled upon the main asteroid set and suggested to Tim Allen that they needed to film on it according to K Allen asked then ABC executive Bob ier who then asked Michael Bay for permission B required waiting 6 months after the film was released the asteroid set was used as a credit roll gag seen to imitate a cave in Wilson's basement prior to armageddon's release the film was advertised in Super Bowl Roman 32 at a cost of $2.6 million 15 home media despite a mixed critical reception the Criterion Collection a specialist film distributor of primarily art housee films that markets what it considers to be important classic and contemporary films and cinema at its finest released the director's cut of the film to DVD and Lazard disk in an essay supporting the selection of Armageddon film scholar G9 Basinger who taught Michael Bay at West lion University states that the film is a work of art by a cuttingedge artist who is a master of movement light color and shape and also of chaos razzled Dazzle and explosion she sees it as a celebration of working men this film makes these ordinary men Noble lifting their efforts up into an epic event further she states that in the first few moments of the film all the main characters are well established saying if that isn't screenwriting I don't know what is 16 the film was also released on VHS and DVD by Touchstone home video on November 13th 1998 and would surpass pretty woman to become buo Vista Home entertainment's bestselling liveaction title 17 Armageddon then premiered on both VHS and DVD formats on February 1st 1999 in the UK it was the country's bestselling DVD release selling over 100,000 copies however this record would be surpassed by The Matrix later that year 18 the film was released on a standard edition Blu-ray in 2010 with only a few special features 19 television airing by April 2002 ABC airings of Armageddon had already received modifications due to the September 11th attacks that occurred 7 months prior the scene where the World Trade Center was hit by meteors and caught on fire was edited out because of its similarity to the attacks 20 following the 23 Columbia disaster some screen captures from the opening scene where Atlantis is destroyed were passed off as satellite images of the disaster in a hoax 21 Additionally the American cable network FX which had intended to broadcast Armageddon that evening removed the film from its schedule and aired aliens in its place Armageddon was released on July 1st 199 8 in 3127 theaters in the United States and Canada it ranked first at the box office ahead of Dr dittle with an opening weekend gross of $36 million combined with $ 54.2 million from its first five days 23 upon opening the film had the third highest Fourth of July opening weekend at the time behind Men In Black and Independence Day 24 the film was dethroned by Lethal Weapon 4 in its second week weekend although it collected a total of $23.5 million 25 in Late July 1998 it surpassed its Rival deep impact to become the highest grossing domestic release of the Year 26 the film grossed $21.6 million in the United States and Canada and $ 352.30 million to it was the highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide and the second highest grossing film of that year in the United States finishing just behind Saving Private Ryan critical response Armageddon received mostly mixed reviews from film critics many of whom took issue with the Furious pace of its editing 27 on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 43% approval rating based on 176 reviews with an average rating of five threaten the critical consensus States lovely to look at but about as intelligent as the asteroid that serves as the movie's antagonist Armageddon slickly sums up the Cinematic legacies of producer Jerry brookheimer and director Michael Bay 28 Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 42 out of 100 based on 23 critics indicating mixed or average reviews audiences pulled by Cinemas score gave the film an average grade of a on an A plus to f scale 29 the film is on the list of Roger Ebert's most hated films 30 in his original review Ebert stated the movie is an assault on the eyes the ears the brain common sense and the human desire to be entertained on cisal and Ebert Ebert gave it a thumbs down however his co-host Jean csll gave it a thumbs up commenting on the noise and intensity of the film but also stating that he found the film to be amusing Ebert went on to name Armageddon as the worst film of 1998 though he was originally considering Spice World 31 Todd McCarthy of variety also gave the film a negative review noting Michael Ba's rapid cutting style much of the confusion as well as the lack of dramatic Rhythm or character development results directly from Ba's cutting style which resembles a machine gun stuck in the firing position for 212 hours 27 in April 2013 in a Miami Herald interview to promote Pain and Gain B was quoted as having said we had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks it was a massive undertaking that was not fair to the movie I would redo the entire third act if I could but the studio literally took the movie away from us it was terrible my visual effects supervisor had a nervous breakdown so I had to be in charge of that I called James Cameron and asked what do you do when you're doing all the effects yourself but the movie did fine 32 sometime after the article was published ba changed his stance claiming that his apology only related to the editing of the film not the whole film 33 and accused the writer of the article for taking his words out of context the author of the article Miami Herold writer Renee Rodriguez claimed NBC asked me for a response and I played them the tape I didn't misquote anyone all the sites that picked up the story did 34 scientific accuracy see also asteroid deflection in an interview with Entertainment Weekly B admitted that the film's central premise that NASA could actually do something in a situation like this was unrealistic Additionally the largest known potentially hazardous asteroid fa is 5331 9999 jm8 which is only 7 km 4.3 m in diameter 35 while the asteroid in the movie is described as being the size of Texas near the end of the credits there is a disclaimer stating the National Aeronautics and Space administration's cooperation and assistance does not reflect an endorsement of the Contex of the film or the treatment of the characters depicted therein 36 astronomers would subsequently note that Deep Impact was more scientifically accurate 3D 738 the infeasibility of the hbomb approach was published by four postgraduate physics students in 2011 and 139 and then reported by The Daily Telegraph in 2012 a mathematical analysis of the situation found that for Willis's approach to be effective he would need to be in possession of an hbomb a billion times stronger than the Soviet unions big Ivan the biggest ever detonated on Earth using estimates of the asteroid size density speed and distance from Earth based on information in the film The postgraduate students from leester University found that to split the asteroid in two with both pieces clearing Earth would require 800 trillion ter of energy in contrast the total energy output of big Ivan which was tested by the Soviet Union in 1961 was only 418,000 teres 4041 in the commentary track then if elk says he asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers and he told me to shut the up so that was the end of that talk 42 Neil degrass Tyson said on the October oober 2nd 2023 episode of The Late Show with Steven Colbert that until the release of the 2022 film moonfall Armageddon was the movie which violated more laws of physics per minute than any other movie ever Walter Bruce Willis born March 19th 1955 is a retired American actor he achieved Fame with a leading role on the comedy drama series Moonlighting 19851 1989 and has appeared in over a 100 films films gaining recognition as an action hero for his portrayal of John mlan in the Die Hard franchise 1988 2013 12 Willis's other credits include the last Boy Scout 1991 Pulp Fiction 1994 12 Monkeys 1995 The Fifth Element 1997 Armageddon 1998 The Sixth Sense 1999 unbreakable the whole nine yards both 2000 Tears of the Sun 3 Sin City 2005 The Expendables read both 2010 Looper 2012 and glass 2019 in the last few years of his career he starred in many lowbudget direct to video films which were poorly received Willis retired from acting in 2022 due to aasia he was diagnosed with front tpro Dementia in 2023 as a singer Willis released his debut album The Return of Bruno in 198 7 followed by two more albums in 1989 and 2001 he made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of misery in 2015 Willis has received various accolades throughout his career including a Golden Globe award two prime time Emmy Awards and two People's Choice Awards he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 films featuring Willis have grossed between $2 2.64 billion and 3.05 billion s dollar at North American box offices making him in 2010 the eighth highest grossing leading actor Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19th 1955 in idar oberstein in what was then West Germany three his mother Marlene four was German from Castle five and his father David Willis was an American Soldier he has a younger sister Florence and two younger brothers Robert deceased and David six after being discharged from the military in 1957 his father relocated the family to his hometown of Carney Point New Jersey Willis has described his background as a long line of blue collar people seven his mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder Master Mechanic and factory worker eight Willis spoke with a stutter seven he attended pens Grove High School in Carney Point Town ship where his schoolmates nicknamed him buck buck 910 Willis joined the drama club and found that acting on stage reduced his stutter he was eventually elected student council president he graduated from pens Grove High School in 1973 8 after graduating from high school Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem nuclear power plant 11 and transported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works Factory in deep water 12 he turned to acting after working as a private investigator a role he would later play in The Comedy drama series Moonlighting and the action comedy film The Last Boy Scout Willis enrolled in the drama program at Montclair State University 13 where he was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof he left the school in 1977 and moved to New York City where he supported himself in the early 1980s as a bartender at Comic Kazi an art Bar in Manhattan wy4 15 while living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood Willis was cast as David Addison Jr in the television series Moonlighting 1985 1989 competing against 3,000 other actors for the position 17 his starring role in Moonlighting opposite cyel Shepard helped to establish him as a comedic actor during the show's Five Seasons he won an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series and a Golden Globe award for best actor television series musical or comedy seven during the height of the show's success beverage maker seam hired Willis as the pitchman for their golden wine cooler products 18 the advertising campaign paid Willis $5s do7 million over two years Willis chose not to renew his contract when he decided to stop drinking alcohol in 1988 19 in 19 1987 Willis obtained his first lead role in the Blake Edwards film blind date co-starring with Kim Basinger and John larette seven Edwards cast him again to play the real life cowboy actor Tom Mix in Sunset 1988 the same year he starred in an action role in Die Hard 1988 as John mlan seven he performed most of his own stunts in the film 20 and the film grossed 138 m788 $52 worldwide 21 following his success with Die Hard Willis had a leading role in the drama in country as Vietnam veteran EMT Smith and also provided the voice for a talking baby in Look Who's Talking 1989 and the sequel look who's talking to 1990 2223 in the late 1980s Willis enjoyed moderate success as a recording artist recording an album of Pop Blues the return of Bruno which included the hit single respect yourself featuring The Pointer Sisters 24 the lp was promoted by a spinal tap like rockumentary parody featuring scenes of Willis performing at famous events including Woodstock he released a version of The Drifter song Under the Boardwalk as a second single it reached no two on the UK singles chart but was less successful in the US Willis returned to the recording studio several times 25 1990s di hard sequels Pulp Fiction and dramatic roles having acquired major personal success and pop culture influence playing John mlan in Die Hard Willis reprised his role in the sequels die hard to 1990 and Die Hard with a Vengeance 1995 seven these first three installments in the Die Hard series grossed over 700 million s dollars internationally and propelled Willis to the first rank of Hollywood action Stars citation needed at one point die hard to and ghost starring Willis then wife Demi Moore would occupy the number one and number two spots at the box office a feat that would not be accomplished again for a married Hollywood couple until 2024 26 through 27 in the early 1990s Willis's career suffered a moderate slump as he starred in flops such as the bonfire of the vanities 1990 and Hudson Hawk 199 91 although he did find box office success with a Last Boy Scout he gained more success with Striking Distance 1993 but flopped again with color of night 1994 it was Savaged by critics but did well in the Home Video Market and became one of the top 20 most rented films in the United States in 1995 28 Maxim also ranked his sex scene in the film as the best in film history 29 in 1994 Willis also had a leading role in one part of Quenton Tarantino's acclaimed Pulp Fiction seven the film's success gave a boost to his career and he starred alongside his look who talking co-star John Travolta 30 in 1996 he was the executive producer and star of the cartoon Bruno the kid which featured a CGI representation of himself that same year he starred in Mike judge's animated film beas and butt head to America with his wife Demi Moore in the movie he plays a drunken criminal named muddy Grimes who mistakenly sends judges titular characters to kill his wife Dallas voiced by Moore he then played the lead roles in 12 Monkeys 1995 and The Fifth Element 1997 however by the end of the 1990s his career had fallen into another slump with critically panned films like the Jackal which despite negative reviews was a box office hit Mercury RIS Ing and Breakfast of Champions as well as the implosion of the production of Broadway brawler a debacle salvaged only by the success of the Michael Bay directed Armageddon which Willis had agreed to star in as compensation for the failed production and which turned out to be the highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide 3 his 132 the same year his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game apocalypse 33 in 1999 Willis played play the starring role in M Night shy allins film the six sense which was both a commercial and critical success seven 2000s Willis in 2002 after being named Hasty Pudding theatricals Man of the Year Willis in June 2007 in the premiere of Live Free or Die Hard in 2000 Willis won an em34 for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for his work on friends in which he played the father of Ross Geller's much younger girlfriend 35 he was also nominated for a 2001 American Comedy Award in the funniest male guest appearance in a TV series category for his work on Friends also in 2000 Willis played Jimmy the tulip toesy in the whole nine yards alongside Matthew Perry Willis was originally cast as Terry Benedict in oceans 1121 but dropped out to work on recording an album 36 in the sequel ocean 1224 he makes a cameo appearance as himself in 2005 he appeared in the film adaptation of Sin City in 26 he lent his voice as RJ the raccoon in Over the Hedge in 27 he appeared in the Planet Terror half of the double feature Grindhouse as the villain a mutant Soldier this marked Willis's second collaboration with the director Robert Rodriguez following Sin City Willis appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman several times throughout his career he filled in for an ill David Letterman on his show on February 26th 2003 when he was supposed to be a guest 37 on many of his appearances on the show Willis staged elaborate jokes such as wearing a day glow orange suit in honor of the Central Park Gates having one side of his face made up with simulated birdshot wounds after the Harry Whittington shooting or trying to break a record a parody of David Blain of staying underwater for only 20 seconds on April 12th 27 he appeared again this time wearing a sanj am malakar wig 38 on his June 25th 2007 appearance he wore a mini wind turbine on his head to accompany a joke about his own fictional documentary titled an unappealing hunch a wordplay On An Inconvenient Truth 39 Willis also appeared in Japanese Subaru Legacy television commercials for 40 tying in with this Subaru did a limited run of legacies badged Subaru Legacy Turing Bruce in honor of Willis Willis has appeared in five films with Samuel L Jackson National Lampoons loaded weapon one Pulp Fiction Die Hard with a Vengeance unbreakable and glass and both actors were slated to work together in Blackwater Transit before dropping out Willis also worked with his eldest daughter rumor in the 2005 film Hospital in 27 he appeared in the Thriller Perfect Stranger opposite halberry the crime drama film Alpha Dog opposite Sharon Stone and reprised his role as John mlan in Live Free or Die Hard subsequently he appeared in the films what just happened and surrogates based on the comic book of the same name 41 Willis was slated to play US Army General William R peers and director Oliver Stones pinkville a drama about the investigation of the 1968 my li Massacre 42 however due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike the film was cancelled Willis appeared on the 2008 Blues Traveler album North Hollywood shootout giving a spoken word performance over an instrumental blues rock jam on the track free Willis ruminations from behind Uncle Bob's machine shop in early 2009 he appeared in an advertising Campa campaign to publicize the insurance company Norwich Union's change of name to Aviva 43 201 tennis Willis in 2010 with the Expendables co-star Sylvester stallon as of 2010 Willis was the eighth highest grossing actor in a leading role and 12 th highest including supporting roles 44 and 45 Willis starred with Tracy Morgan in the 2010 comedy copout directed by Kevin Smith about two police detectives investigating the theft of a baseball card 46 Willis appeared in the music video for the song Stylo by goras 47 also in 2010 he appeared in a cameo with the former Planet Hollywood co-owners and 80s action Stars Sylvester stallon and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Expendables Willis played the role of CIA agent Mr church it was the first time the three action Stars had appeared on screen together although the scene featuring the three was short it was one of the most highly anticipated scenes in the film the trio filmed their scene in an empty church on October 24th 29 48 Willis next starred in red an adaptation of the comic book miniseries of the same name in which he portrayed Frank Moses the film was released on October 15 2010 49 Willis starred alongside Bill Murray Edward wward Norton and Francis McDormand in Moonrise Kingdom 2012 filming took place in Rhode Island under the direction of Wes Anderson in 2011 50 Willis returned in an expanded role in The Expendables 2 2012 51 he appeared alongside Joseph Gordon levit in the Sci-Fi Action film Looper 2012 as the older version of Gordon Levits character Joe Willis teamed up with 50 Cent in a film directed by David Barrett called fire with fire starring opposite Josh daml and Rosario Dawson about a fireman who must save the love of his life 52 Willis also joined Vince vaugh and Katherine Zeta Jones in lay the favorite directed by Steven friers about a Las Vegas cocktail waitress who becomes an elite professional Gambler 53 the two films were distributed by lion gate entertainment Willis reprised his most famous role John mlan for a fifth Time starring in A Good Day to Die Hard which was released on February 14th 2013 54 in an interview Willis said I have a warm spot in my heart for die hard it's just the sheer novelty of being able to play the same character over 25 years and still be asked back is fun it's much more challenging to have to do a film again and try to compete with myself which is what I do in die hard I try to improve my work every time 55 on October 12th 2013 Willis hosted Saturday Night Live with Katie Perry as a musical guest 56 in 2015 Willis made his Broadway debut in William Goldman's adaptation of Stephen King's novel misery opposite Lori medcafe at the broadhurst theater his performance was generally panned by critics who called it vacant and inert 57 Willis was the subject of a roast by Comedy Central in a program broadcast on July 29th 2018 58 Willis played himself in a cameo in the 2019 film The Lego Movie 2 the second part 59 2020s critical decline health problems and retirement in the final years of his career Willis starred in many low-budget independent Thrillers and science fiction films 60 he worked primarily with the production company's EMT Furla Oasis headed by Randall EMT and 38 entertainment Inc headed by Cory large EMT F Oasis produced 20 films starring Willis 61 described by Chris Nas of Esquire as a profitable Safe Harbor for older actors similar to The Expendables most of the films were released direct to video and were widely panned 60 Willis would often earn2 million US dollars for two days work with an average of 15 minutes screen time per film 62 he was nonetheless featured heavily in the film's promotional materials earning them the derogatory nickname Geyer teasers 6364 the golden raspberry Awards an annual award for the year's worst films and performances created a dedicated category the worst Bruce Willis performance in a 2021 movie for his roles in eight films released that year 65 those work on the films later said Willis appeared confused did not understand why he was there and had to be fed lines through an earpiece 61 days before Willis was scheduled to arrive on set for out of death 2021 the screenwriter was instructed to reduce his role and abbreviate his dialogue and the director Mike Burns was told to complete all of Willis's scenes in a single day of filming 61 on March 30th 2022 Willis's family announced that he was retiring because he had been diagnosed with Aphasia a disorder typically caused by damage to the area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension 66 shortly thereafter the golden raspberry Awards retracted its Willis category deeming it inappropriate to give a Rousy to someone whose performance was affected by a medical condition 67 at the time of his retirement Willis had completed 11 films awaiting in release 666 869 on February 16th 2023 Willis's family announced that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia 70 according to Greg day a neurologist at the Mayo clinics Florida campus the symptoms include difficulties with language and comprehension as well as misinterpretation of instructions 71 in a statement the family said that Willis's condition had progressed and that challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease 72 they expressed hope that media attention on Willis would raise awareness about the disease Armageddon is a 1998 American Science Fiction disaster film produced and directed by Michael Bay produced by Jerry brookheimer and released by Touchstone pictures 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 it stars an ensemble cast consisting of Bruce Willis with Billy Bob Thornton Liv Tyler Bena ful Will Patton Peter stor Keith David and Steve busam the film was a commercial success grossing $5 153.7 million worldwide against a $140 million budget and becoming the highest grossing film of 1998 and the highest grossing film to be released by Touchstone pictures the film received mixed reviews from critics a massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting space shuttle Atlantis before entering the atmosphere and bombarding New York City Boston Philadelphia mon Halifax and newfinland the meteors were pushed out of the asteroid belt by a collision from a rogue Comet which also dislodged a massive asteroid the size of Texas and NASA learns that the asteroid will impact Earth in 18 days potentially wiping out all life on Earth NASA devises a plan to have a deep hole drilled into the asteroid into which they will insert and detonate a nuclear bomb to destroy the asteroid they recruit Harry Stamper a third generation oil driller and owner of his own oil drilling company Harry agrees to help but on the condition that he bring in his own team to do the drilling he picks his best employees for the job chick Chapel his best friend and right- hand man geologists rockhound and Oscar choice and Drillers bear Cen Freddy Nunan Max Leonard and agj frost who has been dating Harry's daughter Grace despite Harry's objections over 12 days they are trained to become astronauts with astronaut Willie sharp who will pilot Freedom one of the two super shuttles to fly to the asteroid the other being the independent before leaving chick apologizes to his ex-wife for wronging her and sees his son son who is unaware of his parentage grace accepts AJ's marriage proposal much to Harry's reluctant dismay she later has her father promised to return home safe with her fiance following the destruction of Shanghai by another meteor strike word of the massive asteroid becomes public to the world both shuttles take off without incident and dock with a Russian space station mirror to take on fuel however a leaky pipeline ignites the fuel pod on fire agj and rosmos Cosmonaut Lev andropov narrowly manag to board Independence before the space station is destroyed approaching the asteroid Independence is damaged by debris and crashes killing all on board except Lev bear and AG they Embark in the shuttle armadillo to find the freedom crew which lands 26 miles from its intended Landing site when the drilling goes slower than predicted sharp reports to Mission Control that it is unlikely the team will reach the depth necessary to destroy the asteroid before zo barrier the point after which detonating The Rock will not save Earth the president of the United States decides to remotely detonate the bomb from Earth immediately which will cause total Mission failure sharp and Harry have a vicious argument but agree to diffuse the bomb and work together after Harry promises sharp that he will accomplish the mission they make progress on drilling but aist Gap G pocket causes the armadillo and Max to be blown into space just as Harry NASA and the world believe the mission to be a failure while another meteor destroys Paris AJ and the others arrive in the second armadillo agj succeeds in drilling the hole to the required depth but a rock storm kills grber and damages the remote Detonator forcing someone to stay behind and manually detonate the bomb they draw straws AG is given the responsib ability Harry takes him down to the asteroid surface only to disconnect AJ's air hose and force him into the shuttle's airlock Harry then tells agj that he is the son Harry never had and he would be proud to have him marry Grace using the armadillo Harry tearfully gives Grace his Blessing to Mary AJ and Grace says that she is proud to be his daughter after some difficulty Freedom takes off and just before Zer barrier Harry managed to detonate the bomb and saves the planet the astronauts land on Earth safely Ed and grace are reunited and chick reconciles with his ex-wife and estranged son during the credits agj and grace are married with the portraits of Harry and the others lost on the mission present in memorium according to Bruce Joel Rubin writer of Deep Impact a production president at Disney took notes on everything the writer said during lunch about his script and ini initiated Armageddon as a counter film at Disney four nine writers worked on the script five of whom are credited in addition to Robert Roy P Jonathan Hensley Tony Gilroy Shane salero and JJ Abrams the writers involved included Paul atanasio Anne byerman Scott Rosenberg and Robert Town originally it was hens slay's script based on Po's original that had been given the green light by Touchstone pictures then producer Jerry brookheimer hired the succession of scribes for rewrites and polishes 56 Bruce Willis was cast in the film as part of a three- picture deal he cut with the studio to compensate them for the dissolution of 1997's Broadway brawler 78 he received a significant pay cut for the picture as part of the deal nine Shan Canary was originally considered for the role of Stamper but Michael Bay decided to cast a younger actor in the role after meeting oil drillers 10 filming principal photography for Armageddon began in August 27th 1997 and ended on January 29th 1998 11 filming occurred at Culver studios in Culver City California 12 in May 1998 Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth expanded the film's budget by $3 million to include additional special effects scenes by dream Quest images showing an asteroid impacting Paris this additional footage Incorporated two months prior to the film's release was specifically added for the television advertising campaign to visually differentiate the film from Deep Impact which was released a few months before 13 at a budget of $140 million it was buav vista's most expensive film at the time three after filming was complete according to Home Improvement actor Richard K he stumbled upon the main asteroid set and suggested to Tim Allen that they needed to film on it according to K Allan asked then ABC executive Bob Iger who then asked Michael Bay for permission Bay required waiting 6 months after the film was released the asteroid set was used as a credit roll gag scene to imitate a cave in Wilson's basement prior to armageddon's release the film was advertised in Super Bowl Roman 32 at a cost of $2.6 million 15 home media despite a mixed critical reception the Criterion Collection a specialist film distributor of primarily art housee films that markets what it considers to be important classic and contemporary films and cinema at its finest released the director's cut of the film to DVD and Lazard disk in an essay supporting the selection of Armageddon film scholar G9 basic singer who taught Michael Bay at West lion University states that the film is a work of art by a cuttingedge artist who is a master of movement light color and shape and also of chaos razzled Dazzle and explosion she sees it as a celebration of working men this film makes these ordinary men Noble lifting their efforts up into an epic event further she states that in the first few moments of the film all the main characters are well established saying if that isn't screenwriting I don't know what is 16 the film was also released on BHS and DVD by Touchstone home video on November 13th 1998 and would surpass pretty woman to become buun of Vista Home entertainment's best-selling liveaction title 17 Armageddon then premiered on both VHS and DVD formats on February 1st 1999 in the UK it was the country's bestselling DVD release selling over 100,000 copies however this record would be surpassed by The Matrix later that year 18 the film was released on a standard edition Blu-ray in 2010 with only a few special features 19 television airing by April 2002 ABC airings of Armageddon had already received modifications due to the September 11th attacks that occurred 7 months prior the scene where the World Trade Center was was hit by meteors and caught on fire was edited out because of its similarity to the attacks 20 following the 23 Columbia disaster some screen captures from the opening scene where Atlantis is destroyed were passed off as satellite images of the disaster in a hoax 21 Additionally the American cable network FX which had intended to broadcast Armageddon that evening removed the film from its schedule and aired aliens in its place Armageddon was released on July 1st 1998 in 3127 theaters in the United States and Canada it ranked first at the box office ahead of Dr dittle with an opening weekend gross of $36 million combined with $ 54.2 million from its first 5 days 23 upon opening the film had the third highest 4th of July opening weekend at the time behind Men In Black and Independence Day 2 before the film was dethroned by Lethal Weapon 4 in its second weekend although it collected a total of $23.5 million 25 in Late July 1998 it surpassed its Rival deep impact to become the highest grossing domestic release of the Year 26 the film grossed $21.6 million in the United States and Canada and $352.00 million in other territories for a worldwide total of 553 .7 million to it was the highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide and the second highest grossing film of that year in the United States finishing just behind Saving Private Ryan critical response Armageddon received mostly mixed reviews from film critics many of whom took issue with the Furious pace of its editing 27 on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 43% approval rate rating based on 176 reviews with an average rating of five threaten the critical consensus States lovely to look at but about as intelligent as the asteroid that serves as the movie's antagonist Armageddon slickly sums up the Cinematic legacies of producer Jerry brookheimer and director Michael Bay 28 Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 42 out of 100 based on 23 critics indicating mixed or average reviews audiences pulled by cinemascore gave the film an average grade of a on an A plus to f scale 29 the film is on the list of Roger Ebert's most hated films 30 in his original review Ebert stated the movie is an assault on the eyes the ears the brain common sense and the human desire to be entertained on cisc and Ebert Ebert gave it a thumbs down however his co-host Jean Cisco gave it a thumbs up commenting on the noise and intensity of the film but also stating that he found the film to be amusing Ebert went on to name Armageddon as the worst film of 1998 though he was originally considering Spice World 31 Todd McCarthy of variety also gave the film a negative review noting Michael Ba's rapid cutting style much of the confusion as well as the lack of dramatic Rhythm or character development results directly from Ba's cutting style which resembles a machine gun stuck in the firing position for 212 Hours 27 in April 2013 in a Miami Herald interview to promote Pain and Gain B was quoted as having said we had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks it was a massive undertaking that was not fair to the movie I would redo the entire third act if I could but the studio literally took the movie away from us it was terrible my visual effects supervisor had a nervous breakdown so I had to be in charge of that I called James Cameron and asked what do you do when you're doing all the effects yourself but the movie did fine 32 sometime after the article was published ba changed his stance claiming that his apology only related to the editing of the film not the whole film 33 and accused the writer of the article for taking his words out of context the author of the article Miami Herald writer Renee Rodriguez claimed NBC asked me for a response and I played them the tape I didn't misquote anyone all the sites that picked up the story did 34 scientific accuracy see also asteroid deflection in an interview with Entertainment Weekly ba admitted that the film's central premise that NASA could actually do something in a situation like this was unrealistic Additionally the largest known potentially hazardous asteroid fa is 53319 1999 jm8 which is only 7 km 4.3 m in diameter 35 while the asteroid in the movie is described as being the size of Texas near the end of the credits there is a disclaimer stating the National Aeronautics and Space administration's cooperation and assistance does not reflect an endorsement of the contents of the film or the treatment of the characters depicted therein 36 astronomers would subsequently note that Deep Impact was more scientifically accurate 3738 the infeasibility of the hbomb approach was published by four postgraduate physics students in 201 and 139 and then reported by The Daily Telegraph in 2012 a mathematical analysis of this situation found that for Willis's approach to be effective he would need to be in possession of an hbomb a billion times stronger than the Soviet unions big Ivan the biggest ever detonated on Earth using estimates of the asteroid size density speed and distance from Earth based on information in the film the post-graduate students from leester University found that to split the asteroid in two with both pieces clearing Earth would require 800 trillion ter of energy in contrast the total energy output of big Ivan which was tested by the Soviet Union in 1961 was only 418,000 teres 4041 in the commentary track then aelk says he asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers and he told me to shut the up so that was the end of that talk 42 Neil degrass Tyson said on the October 2nd 2023 episode of The Late Show with Steven Colbert that until the release of the 2022 film moonfall Armageddon was the movie which violated more laws of physics per minute than any other movie ever Walter Bruce Willis born March 19th 1955 is a retired American actor he achieved Fame with a leading role on the comedy drama series Moonlighting 1985 1989 and has appeared in over a 100 films gaining recognition as an action hero for his portrayal of John mlan in the Die Hard franchise 1988 2013 12 Willis's other credits include the last Boy Scout 1991 Pulp Fiction 1994 12 Monkeys 1995 The Fifth Element 1997 Armageddon 1998 the six sense 1999 unbreakable the whole nine yards both 2000 Tears of the Sun 23 Sin City 2005 The Expendables red both 20110 Looper 2012 and glass 2019 in the last few years of his career he starred in many lowbudget direct to video films which were poorly received Willis retired from acting in 2022 due to Aphasia he was diagnosed with front tono Dementia in 2023 as a singer Willis released his debut album The Return of Bruno in 1987 followed by two more albums in 1989 and 2001 he made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of misery in 2015 Willis has received various accolades throughout his career including a Golden Globe award two prime time Emmy Awards and two People's Choice Awards he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 films featuring Willis have grossed between $ 2.64 billion s dollar and 3.05 billion s doll at North American box offices making him in 2010 the eighth highest grossing leading actor Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19th 1955 in idar oberstein in what was then West Germany three his mother Marlene four was German from Castle 5 and his father David Willis was an American Soldier he has a younger sister Florence and two younger brothers Robert deceased and David six after being discharged from the military in 1957 his father relocated the family to his hometown of Carney Point New Jersey Willis has described his background as a long line of blue collar people seven his mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder Master Mechanic and factory worker eight Willis spoke with a stutter he attended pens Grove High School in Carney Point Township where his schoolmates nicknamed him buck buck 910 Willis joined the drama club and found that acting on stage reduced his stutter he was eventually elected student council president he graduated from pens Grove High School in 1973 8 after graduating from high school Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem nuclear power plant 11 and transport reported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works Factory in deep waterer 12 he turned to acting after working as a private investigator a role he would later play in The Comedy drama series Moonlighting and the action comedy film The Last Boy Scout Willis enrolled in the drama program at Montclair State University 13 where he was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof he left the school in 1977 and moved to New York City where he supported himself in the early 1980s as a bartender at kamakazi an art Bar in Manhattan wanty Ford 15 while living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood Willis was cast as David Addison Jr in the television series Moonlighting 1985 1989 competing against 3,000 other actors for the position 17 his starring role in Moonlighting opposite cyel Shepard helped to establish him as a comedic actor during the show's Five Seasons he won an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series and a Golden Globe award for best actor television series musical or comedy seven during the height of the show's success beverage maker crram hired Willis as the pitchmen for their golden wine cooler products 18 the advertising campaign paid Willis $5s do7 million over2 years Willis chose not to renew his contract when he decided to stop drinking alcohol in 1988 19 in 1987 Willis obtained his first lead role in the Blake Edwards film blind date co-starring with Kim Basinger and John larette seven Edwards cast him again to play the real life cowboy actor Tom Mix in Sunset 1988 the same year he starred in an action role in Die Hard 1988 as John mlan seven he performed most of his own stunts in the film 20 and the film grossed 138 m78 852 worldwide 21 following his success with di hard Willis had a leading role in the drama in country as Vietnam veteran EMT Smith and also provided the voice for a talking baby in Look Who's Talking 1989 and the sequel look who's talking to 1990 2223 in the late 1980s Willis enjoyed moderate success as a recording artist recording an album of Pop Blues the return of Bruno which included the hit single respect yourself featuring The Pointer Sisters 24 the lp was promoted by a spinal tap like rockumentary parody featuring scenes of Willis performing at famous events including Woodstock he released a version of The Drifter song Under the Boardwalk as a second single it reached no two on the UK singles chart but was less successful in the US Willis returned to the recording studio several times 25 1990s Die Hard sequels Pulp Fiction and dramatic roles having acquired major personal success and pop culture influence playing John mlan in Die Hard Willis reprised his role in the sequels die hard to 1990 and Die Hard with a Vengeance 1995 seven these first three installments in the DI Hard series grossed over 700 million s dollar internationally and propelled Willis to the first rank of Hollywood action Stars citation needed at one point die hard to and ghost starring Willis then wife Demi Moore would occupy the number one and number two spots at the box office a feat that would not be accomplished again for a married Hollywood couple until 2024 26 through 27 in the early 1990s Willis's career suffered a moderate slump as he starred in flops such as the bond fire of the vanities 1990 and Hudson Hawk 1991 although he did find box office success with a Last Boy Scout he gained more success with Striking Distance 1993 but flopped again with color of night 1994 it was Savaged by critics but did well in the Home Video Market and became one of the top 20 most rented films in the United States in 1995 28 Maxim also ranked his sex scene in the film as the best in film hist history 29 in 1994 Willis also had a leading role in one part of Quenton Tarantino's acclaimed Pulp Fiction seven the film's success gave a boost to his career and he starred alongside his look who talking co-star John Travolta 30 in 1996 he was the executive producer and star of the cartoon Bruno the kid which featured a CGI representation of himself that same year he starred in Mike judges and animated film beas and butt head Do America with his then wife Demi Moore in the movie he plays a drunken criminal named muddy Grimes who mistakenly sends judges titular characters to kill his wife Dallas voiced by Moore he then played the lead roles in 12 Monkeys 1995 and The Fifth Element 1997 however by the end of the 1990s his career had fallen into another slump with critically panned films like the Jackal which despite negative reviews was a box office hit Mercury Rising and Breakfast of Champions as well as the implosion of the production of Broadway brawler a debacle salvaged only by the success of the Michael Bay directed Armageddon which Willis had agreed to star in as compensation for the failed production and which turned out to be the highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide 3 132 the same year his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game apocalypse 33 in 1999 Willis played the starring role in M Night shy allins film The Sixth Sense which was both a commercial and critical success seven 2000s Willis in 2002 after being named Hasty putting theatricals Man of the Year Willis in June 2007 in the premiere of Live Free or Die Hard in 2000 Willis won an em34 for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for his work on friends in which he played the father of Ross Geller's much younger girlfriend 35 he was also nominated for a 2001 American Comedy Award in the funniest male guest appearance in a TV series category for his work on Friends also in 2000 Willis played Jimmy the tulip teski in the whole nine yards alongside Matthew Perry Willis was originally cast as Terry Benedict in oceans 11201 but dropped out to work on recording an album 36 in the sequel oceans 1224 he makes a cameo appearance as himself in 2005 he appeared in the film adaptation of Sin City in 26 he lent his voice as RJ the raccoon in Over the Hedge in 27 he appeared in the Planet Terror half of the double feature Grindhouse as the villain a mutant Soldier this marked Willis's second collaboration with the director Robert Rodriguez following Sin City Willis appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman several times throughout his career he filled in for an ill David Letterman on his show on February 26th 2003 when he was supposed to be a guest 37 on many of his appearances on the show Willis staged elaborate jokes such as wearing a day glow orange suit in honor of the Central Park Gates having one side of his face made up with simulated birdshot wounds after the Harry Whittington shooting or trying to break a record a parody of David Blaine of staying underwater for only 20 seconds on April 12th 27 he appeared again this time wearing a sanj aachar wig 38 on his June 25th 2007 appearance he wore a mini wind turbine on his head to accompany a joke about his own fictional documentary titled an unappealing hunch a word playay On An Inconvenient Truth 39 Willis also appeared in Japanese Subaru Legacy television commercials 40 tying in with this Subaru did a limited run of legacies badged Subaru Legacy Turing Bruce in honor of Willis Willis has appeared in five films with Samuel L Jackson National Lampoon loaded weapon one Pulp Fiction Die Hard with a Vengeance unbreakable and glass and both actors were slated to work together in Blackwater Transit before dropping out Willis also worked with his eldest daughter rumor in the 2005 film hostage in 27 he appeared in the Thriller Perfect Stranger opposite halberry the crime drama film Alpha Dog opposite Sharon Stone and reprised his role as John mlan in Live Free or Die Hard subsequently he appeared in the films what just happened and surrogates based on the comic book of the same name 41 Willis was slated to play as Army General William R peers and director Oliver Stones pinkville a drama about the investigation of the 1968 my li Massacre 42 however due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike the film was cancelled Willis appeared on the 2008 Blues Traveler album North Hollywood shootout giving a spoken word performance over an instrumental blues rock jam on the track free Willis ruminations from behind Uncle Bob's machine shop in early 2009 he appeared in an advertising campaign to publicize the insurance company Norwich Union's change of name to avava 43 2 tennis Willis in 2010 with the Expendables co-star Sylvester stallon as of 2010 Willis was the eighth highest grossing actor in a leading role and 12 th highest including supporting roles 44 and 45 Willis starred with Tracy Morgan in the 201 10 comedy copout directed by Kevin Smith about two police detectives investigating the theft of a baseball card 46 Willis appeared in the music video for the song Stylo by goras 47 also in 2010 he appeared in a cameo with the former Planet Hollywood co-owners and 80s action Stars Sylvester stallon and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Expendables Willis played the role of CIA agent Mr Church it was the first time the three action Stars had appeared on screen together although the scene featuring the three was short it was one of the most highly anticipated scenes in the film the trio filmed their scene in an empty church on October 24th 29 48 Willis next starred in red an adaptation of the comic book minseries of the same name in which he portrayed Frank Moses the film was released on October 15th 2010 49 Willis starred alongside Bill Murray Edward Norton and Francis McDormand in Moonrise Kingdom 2012 filming took place in Rhode Island under the direction of Wes Anderson in 2011 50 Willis returned in an expanded role in The Expendables 222 51 he appeared alongside Joseph Gordon levit in the Sci-Fi Action film Looper 2012 as the older version of Gordon lit's character Joe Willis teamed up with 50 Cent in a film directed by David Barrett called fire with fire starring opposite Josh daml and Rosario Dawson about a fireman who must save the love of his life 52 Willis also joined Vince vaugh and Katherine Zeta Jones in lay the favorite directed by Steven friers about a Las Vegas cocktail waitress who becomes an elite professional Gambler 53 the two films were distributed by lion gate entertainment Willis reprised his most famous role John mlan for a fifth Time starring in A Good Day to Die Hard which was released on February 14th 2013 54 in an interview Willis said I have a warm spot in my heart for die hard it's just the sheer novelty of being able to play the same character over 25 years and still be asked back is fun it's much more challenging to have to do a film again and try to compete with myself which is what I do in die hard I try to improve my work every time 55 on October 12th 2013 Willis hosted Saturday Night Live with Katie Perry as a musical guest 56 in 2015 Willis made his Broadway debut in William Goldman's adaptation of Stephen King's novel misery opposite Lori medcafe at the broadhurst theater his performance was generally panned by critics who called it vacant and inert 57 Willis was the subject of a roast by Comedy Central in a program broadcast on July 29th 2018 58 Willis played himself in a cameo in the 2019 film The Lego Movie 2 the second part 59 2020s critical decline health problems and retirement in the final years of his career Willis starred in many lowbudget independent Thrillers and science fiction films 60 he worked primarily with the production company's EMT fura Oasis headed by Randall EMT and 38 entertainment Inc headed by Corey large EMT fra Oasis produced 20 films starring Willis 61 described by Chris n Nas of Esquire as a profitable Safe Harbor for older actors similar to The Expendables most of the films were released direct to video and were widely panned 60 Willis would often earn2 million doll for 2 days work with an average of 15 minutes screen time per film 62 he was nonetheless featured heavily in the film's promotional materials earning them the derogatory nickname gezer teasers 6364 the golden raspberry Awards an annual award for the year's worst films and performances created a dedicated category the worst Bruce Willis performance in a 2021 movie for his roles in eight films released that that year 65 those working on the films later said Willis appeared confused did not understand why he was there and had to be fed lines through an earpiece 61 days before Willis was scheduled to arrive on set for outof death 2021 the screenwriter was instructed to reduce his role and abbreviate his dialogue and the director Mike Burns was told to complete all of Willis's scenes in a single day of filming 61 on March 30th 2022 Willis's family announced that he was retiring because he had been diagnosed with Aphasia a disorder typically caused by damage to