This movie might rival "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Independence Day"

Rating: 9/10 (6 May 2007)

This is slightly better than "Deep Impact." The basic concept of "Armageddon" comes a little bit too late in the beginning, but it is clear that the earth will be meeting up with the biggest asteroid NASA had seen in decades. Knowing that the asteroid will mean the near total destruction of earth if it hits, NASA makes up a big plan that will involve even people who were not from NASA, including Harry Stamper, a long-time oil drill worker, who was picked for this wild mission. At that point, he was engaged to Gracie and planned to get married after the mission.
The mission to keep the asteroid from knocking out earth was simple-- two teams will land on the asteroid, drill a hole in it, and put a nuclear bomb on it.
But the bomb has to be on remote detonation mode, and this detonation must occur within about 300 miles (the imaginary zero barrier) from earth. If unsuccessful, Earth would not be as extant as it is now.
The first step was for the crew to meet up at the Space Station around 120 miles from earth. They do and meet at least one cosmonaut, but a broken fuel line causes a backdraft explosion of most of the space station--but fortunately, the crew gets back to the shuttle before they all die.
The second step was for the two space shuttles, Independence and Freedom, to go around the asteroid in space, and try to make one of the toughest landings ever in space history. In addition, the moon truck called The Armadillo would be used to assist in the drilling of the bomb.
After dealing with the landings, the hard work begins. Soon there is a problem about the remote detonator; one team member wants to blow it up soon; another says he must dismantle the bomb so it won't go off. NASA officials do override the detonation of the bomb but only for a short time. Then the bomb rearms itself and then it was up to the team to disarm the bomb, but it was done.
A rock storm almost completely destroys the team's drilling of the rock to put in the bomb, but Stamper loses one of his men. But even worse, he finds out that the remote detonator for the nuclear bomb is out of action.
All of the focus as the big asteroid approaches Earth was on the AVHRR, or the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiograph. The AVHRR tracks the asteroid approaching zero barrier--that is, once the asteroid passes it, no nuclear explosion or anything else will keep that asteroid from hitting earth with devastating results.
Then, a conflict between AJ (played by Ben Affleck) and Stamper, because Stamper's fiancée, Gracie (Liv Tyler), can only watch this daring mission. The crew decides to draw straws to find out who will hold the bomb and blow up the bomb manually and give up one's life on the asteroid rock. Stamper almost refuses to do the task---and AJ decides to sacrifice his life to blow up the nuke--but at the very last moment, Stamper forces AJ out of the task, deciding that he will do the sacrificial task.
Stamper then gives the extremely bad news to Gracie in space; their marriage plans are now irreversibly gone, and Gracie cries at his last words.
NASA observers then feast their eyes in awe at the approaching asteroid. As Stamper was about to detonate the nuke, the other team members re-fire the shuttle engines but they find out that the shuttle can't blast off from the big rock. The team works quickly because if they can't get out fast, the shuttle will burn up in the earth's atmosphere on the rock, meaning death for all of them. Then a cosmonaut fumes over the engine breakdown and slams on the engine's controls several times and then, they hear a sound the team loves to hear...the engine finally starts, and the team blast the shuttle away from the rock just in time--about 2 minutes before the rock hits the zero barrier.
Stamper himself then faces a new problem--still another rock storm, almost knocks him unconscious. But he gets up, gets the bomb control ready, and saying his last words in honor of Gracie, he manually presses the button---and then---he does it! Stamper dies as the bomb blows...the surviving shuttle team sees a bright flash that signals to them that Stamper had gave his life... and the bomb does its job...breaking up the asteroid into two halves just about 1 mile before the breach of the zero barrier.
But all of this success came too late for the people of the South Pacific and Paris, who got hit hard by smaller asteroids that were the precursor of the biggest asteroid, causing massive destruction and thousands of deaths. That asteroid reminds me of something like a punishment by God for all the sins people make on earth.