Armageddon

Another space movie, this one, however, much more fictional. A who's who of guy movie actors and chick flick actors at the same time. The movie depicts a situation where there is a massive asteroid headed for Earth. It's the size of Texas and would destroy all life on earth. There's only one solution, proposed by Jason Isaacs: Drill a hole into the asteroid and drop a warhead down in it, thus exploding it from the inside out.

2 Problems: 1. There's 18 days until the asteroid hits earth, and 2. There's only one crew able to do the job, and they're a bunch of loose cannon hill billies.

Harry (Bruce Willis), leader of the drillers, owns his own oil rig company. His daughter, Grace, (Liv Tyler) is in love with AJ (Ben Affleck) one of Harry's workers who has a problem with authority, thinking he knows best in basically every situation. Harry and AJ do not have a very strong relationship. Mainly because at the beginning of the movie Harry finds AJ and Grace in AJ's bed, which leads to a hide and go die game between Harry, AJ, and a shot gun... on an oil rig... man, I love guy movies!

The men are prepped, their requests taken into account, and they're ready to launch.

2 Rockets are sent up to the asteroid, each with an Armadillo, a drilling little dune buggy, and each with a crew of drillers and astronauts. The Independence, one of the rockets, gets blown off course upon landing, and all but 3 of the astronauts are killed. The Russian Cosmonaut, Bear, and AJ. They get together and get their Armadillo free and start the long drive over to where the other rocket landed.

Meanwhile, The Freedom, the other rocket, begins drilling. But, NASA set their landing point, unknowingly, on a mound of iron ore, so the drilling is going much slower than is allowable. They start drilling, break 2 drill heads, one transmission, but still keep going. At Mission Control, the President's right hand man, much to Billy Bob Thorton's dismay, calls the order to manually detonate the warhead, to be sure of detonation.

Commander Sharpe has to think quick as he and one of the other astronauts work inside the warhead in an attempt to stop the timer from ticking. They end up cutting the right cord and the timer stops at 2 seconds. They keep on drilling until their armadillo eventually breaks down completely. All hope seems lost until AJ and his crew drive over the ridge and drive their Armadillo down and finish the drilling. They get to the necessary depth and are getting ready to drop the warhead when Sharpe notices something: The remote detonator isn't working.

Somehow the remote detonator got disconnected when they were unhooking the timer. This leaves only one possibility: manual detonation. One of the astronauts has to stay behind and press a button to make sure the bomb goes off in time before zero impact (the time when it would be too late to blow it up).

They decide to draw straws. AJ draws the short straw, and it looks like it's up to him to detonate the bomb. Harry volunteers to take him down to the asteroid. They get to the surface, share a few moments, AJ asks Harry to tell Grace he loves her. Harry grabs AJ by the oxygen hose, rips it from his suit, and pushes AJ back in the airlock and seals it. From the surface of the asteroid, Harry looks at AJ through the glass, "Take care of my little girl now. That's your job. You've always been like a son to me." he says, and all the women watching cry a little bit, and all the men hide their sniffles. Harry uplinks a conversation with Grace as The Freedom takes off for Earth, Harry detonates the Warhead just before it crosses zero barrier, and he saves the world. And the credits roll.

This movie obviously shows a huge deal of sacrifice. Not only did Harry sacrifice his life to save mankind, but he also sacrifices his own feelings of AJ. Harry doesn't really like AJ, because they have differing views, but Harry knows Grace loves him. Harry wants what's best for Grace, and knows that she wouldn't be in love with AJ, if he wasn't good for her. He chooses to put away his emotions and trust in the wisdom of his daughter. We should all be like Harry in putting others' views in front of our own, and take off our blinders to the rest of the world.

Next Week: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery