Armageddon, a simpler movie for simpler times

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armageddon_

My favourite science-fiction movie of the 90's is definitely more on the fiction than science end of the spectrum, but having been a ten year old when this movie was released, that's probably for the best.

Armageddon. Directed by Michael Bay, and apparently the screenplay was in part by J.J. Abrams (of later Star Trek and Star Wars fame)

The plot is simple: some guy in his backyard discovers a huge asteroid "The size of texas" which is going to smash into earth, killing virtually all people on earth, (Don't look up, anyone?). Only, rather than having the movie be about how politicians are useless at dealing with a crisis, NASA get's in contact with a redneck crew of oil drillers, trains them for spaceflight, puts them on ready-to go supersecret super space shuttles. loaded with nukes and drilling equipment. One of the shuttles crashes because they hit debris around the main asteroid

The survivors of that crash crawl out of the shuttle, and drive their drilling equipment around the asteroid to link up with the other crew, who had just wrecked their driller midway through the drilling job. They get the job done just in time to put the nuke in and explode the asteroid at the very last possible moment to save earth, and in a dramatic ending where the main character (Bruce Willis) sacrifices himself, the heroes save earth and return.

See problem, deal with problem in a brute force way, be heroes.

These days I'm more into hard science fiction (the expanse for example) but I really liked this movie. It's an action movie, with fighter jets, rockets, nukes, heroic space stuff (the refuelling scene aboard the derelict MIR-space station has more tension that some entire movies) (and would probably not be politically correct today) but the movie also provides the occasional laugh (often courtesy of Steve Buscemi or Owen Wilson) and tear.

The action part of this movie, is also balanced out by having a love story as an underlying motif: Ben Affleck works on Bruce Willis' oil crew, but is also dating Bruce's daughter, (Liv Tyler, the later Arwen and biological daughter of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler which immediately explains why Aerosmith did the title track: I don't want to miss a thing). Bruce dissaproves of this, since he feels his daughter could do better than data a redneck oil driller. Due to an accident, the remote for the nuke is destroyed, so someone has to stay behind to explode the bomb, Ben Affleck draws the short straw, but Bruce Willis at the last moment tears Ben's suit, forcing him to go back in the space ship, while Bruce stays behind, giving Ben his blessing for the relationship with his daughter, who is back at NASA HQ listening in on the conversation.

Writing this makes me feel that back than life really was easier. There is no moralising in this film, yet it is clear that the entire world is watching this mission unfold with bated breath.

But it also captures the spirit of that time. American exceptionalism and it's can do attitude, combined with post cold war optimism. a humanity which could work together (the Russians are needed to refuel the shuttles in space), and which could simply deal with issues that came at it, no matter how large. "Asteroid coming to smash into earth? Hold my beer!"

I must have watched that film at least 5 times on VHS as a kid, and will rewatch it when I find it on a streaming platform. I am sure that it will be extremely dated, and that the "science" will be absolutely terrible, but I am sure that it will be a great rewatch, which will take me back to my childhood. I am also sure that this movie, while it can be seen as a fairly brainless action movie, in a sense captures the prevailing societal spirit of the 90's.

But also, it will be good to see an optimistic film, where no matter how desperate things look, there is only one outcome we can expect, and that is success. I wonder whether that sense of optimism is something which we lost after the 90's, or whether that is just a natural part of childhood which got left behind as the world around me and it's complexities grew while I became older.