Movie · 1998 · Action, Science Fiction, Adventure · 2h 31m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 1.9/10 (750.1K ratings)
For love. For honor. For mankind.
Overview
When an asteroid threatens to collide with Earth, NASA honcho Dan Truman determines the only way to stop it is to drill into its surface and detonate a nuclear bomb. This leads him to renowned driller Harry Stamper, who agrees to helm the dangerous space mission provided he can bring along his own hotshot crew. Among them is the cocksure A.J. who Harry thinks isn't good enough for his daughter, until the mission proves otherwise.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.9/10
IMDb: 6.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.16/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 42%
Metacritic: 42
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Michael Bay
Production
Touchstone Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Valhalla Motion Pictures
Cast
Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Peter Stormare, Ken Hudson Campbell, Jessica Steen, Keith David, Chris Ellis, Jason Isaacs, Grayson McCouch, Clark Heathcliffe Brolly, Marshall R. Teague, Anthony Guidera, Greg Collins
Curator Review
Verdict
A loud, emotionally earnest disaster blockbuster that turns scientific absurdity into crowd-pleasing spectacle. It’s messy, overlong, and often ridiculous, but the scale, momentum, and sincere sentiment make it a defining late-’90s studio action movie.
Best for
Viewers who like big, maximalist disaster movies
Fans of earnest, blue-collar heroics and rescue-mission plots
People who enjoy blockbuster excess, quotable dialogue, and practical-effects-era spectacle
Anyone in the mood for a dumb-but-fun crowd-pleaser with real emotional payoff
Skip if
You need airtight science or realistic procedure
You dislike melodrama, sentimentality, or macho banter
You prefer restrained action direction over sensory overload
You want a serious disaster film that plays it straight
Overview
Armageddon is pure late-’90s blockbuster excess: huge, noisy, sentimental, and completely committed to its own ridiculous premise. Michael Bay treats the apocalypse like a working-class myth, turning oil drillers into space-age saviors and pushing every emotional beat as hard as every explosion.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the confidence of the filmmaking. The movie is shameless about manipulation, but it’s also expertly engineered to keep moving, with massive set pieces, glossy visual spectacle, and a surprisingly effective sense of momentum. Even when the logic collapses, the energy rarely does.
Bottom line
It’s not subtle, and it’s not trying to be. If you can meet it on its own bombastic terms, it becomes a genuinely entertaining disaster epic with a big heart hidden inside all the noise.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Lauren Wilford · 3194 likes
I shit you not, there’s a scene, underscored by strings, where Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler are lying supine with her shirt undone, and Affleck takes a couple of animal crackers and starts doing a David Attenborough narration as he walks the animal crackers “up north” to her bra and then “down south” to her panties
then Affleck says, “I wonder if there’s anyone else on this planet doing this exact thing at this exact time”she says, “I hope so.”
then “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” starts playing
amaya (1★) · 2322 likes
this movie is a masterpiece because it simultaneously manages to be for people with minuscule attention spans and also 151 minutes long
Necro (4★) · 1358 likes
This movie grabs my heart and doesn't let go. I cried at the end. I'm a grown man and I cried at the end of Armageddon. No one can take that from me.
Grooveman (5★) · 1237 likes
"The override......it's been overridden."
Patrick Willems (3★) · 1048 likes
Honestly until they go into space this movie kinda rules.