The film follows a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to destroy a gigantic asteroid, which is the size of Texas, on a collision course with Earth.

It stars an ensemble cast including Bruce Willis with Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, Keith David, Owen Wilson, William Fichtner and Steve Buscemi.

A massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis before entering the atmosphere and bombarding Boston, Philadelphia, Moncton, Halifax, Newfoundland and New York City, the latter being extensively damaged.

NASA devises a plan to drill a deep hole into the asteroid, into which they will insert and detonate a nuclear bomb to destroy it.

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 Curlene, Freddie Noonan, Max Lennert, and A. J.

's marriage proposal, much to Harry's reluctant dismay; she later has her father promise to return home safe and with her fiancé.

and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Lev Andropov narrowly manage to board Independence before the space station is destroyed.

When the drilling goes slower than predicted, Sharp reports to Mission Control that it is unlikely they will reach the depth necessary to destroy the asteroid before "Zero 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, not understanding this will cause total mission failure.

[5][6] 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.

[13] 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.

In an essay supporting the selection of Armageddon, film scholar Jeanine Basinger, who taught Michael Bay at Wesleyan 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, razzle-dazzle, and explosion".

[21] By April 2002, ABC airings of Armageddon had already received modifications due to the September 11 attacks that occurred seven 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.

[23] 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.

In South Korea, Armageddon surpassed Godzilla to have the country's highest opening, making $2.7 million.

[31] The film would spend a total of thirteen weeks in Japan's number one spot until it was surpassed by A Bug's Life.

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 Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay.

[36] 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".

[37] Todd McCarthy of Variety also gave the film a negative review, noting Michael Bay'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 21⁄2 hours.

In April 2013, in a Miami Herald interview to promote Pain & Gain, Bay was quoted as having said:…We had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks.

The author of the article, Miami Herald writer Rene Rodriguez, claimed: "NBC asked me for a response, and I played them the tape.

"[40] In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bay admitted that the film's central premise "that NASA could actually do something in a situation like this" was unrealistic.

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.

[43][44] The infeasibility of the H-bomb approach was published by four postgraduate physics students in 2011[45] 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 H-bomb a billion times stronger than the Soviet Union's "Big Ivan", the biggest ever detonated on Earth.