Heroically Tragic Testosterone meets Realistically Dramatic Calamity:
The Evaluation of Two Apocalyptic Disaster Films As we sit here today on our comfortable couches in our pleasant homes safe from the outside world, our sheltering planet spins around our life sustaining star in a giant galaxy filled with planets, stars, comets, and meteors, in an infinitely vast universe, all in motion. Giant rocks zoom though space at unimaginable speeds, to an inevitable impact with another object. Not until recently has our world contemplated the possibility of comet or asteroid impacting our earth, causing an apocalyptic catastrophe. In the summer of 1998 the American culture’s fascination with this possibility culminated with the release of two major motion picture films. These two very different films, Deep Impact and Armageddon, take moviegoers through two similar scenarios that could take place if a comet or asteroid was on a collision course with Earth. One film came away the champion at the box office. One came away with greater critical acclaim. A successful disaster film should be realistic, scientifically sound, include believable characters, and a suspenseful plot that most audiences can relate to. Only one of these films was successful in all of these areas. Although Armageddon is a very entertaining film that combines incredible special effects, humorous dialogue, and very strong characters, Deep Impact is a far more meaningful motion picture that achieves a realistic plot, strong emotional goodbyes, and equally impressive special effects. Most of all Deep Impact gives us a greater insight into the actual decisions one might be faced with if a giant asteroid or comet was headed for a collision with our planet. After years of scientific research produced evidence and predictions that an asteroid or comet collision with Earth was very possible in the near future, the interest of the American culture peaked, and resulted in the release of these two motion pictures. Much of the interest was built up by a spectacular celestial event in 1994 when the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet collided with Jupiter resulting in scars on the planets surface larger than our Earth. As recent as January 2008, an asteroid discovered only two months earlier passed by Mars with a 1 in 28 chance of a possible impact. There are many craters on the world’s surface that provide proof of previous impacts. The Barringer Crater in Arizona was the first such crater to be proven a result of an impact by an asteroid or comet. There are also many predicted possible future impacts. An asteroid called 99942 Apophis is predicted to pass within 25,600 km of the earth in 2029 and possibly strike the earth in April of 2036 (“Near Earth Object Program: 99942 Apophis”). The possibility is there. The fear is real, and in the summer of 1998 Hollywood took advantage. The film Armageddon crashed into the box office with success with a screaming soundtrack, brave Hollywood hunks, lots of funny lines, and the timeless Aerosmith tune, “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” Director Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer studios, and Touchstone Films brought together an all star cast of Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, and Liv Tyler, in a film which many critics felt fell very short of its hype. Armageddon plays out with an interesting group of everyday oil drillers being enlisted by the U.S. government to save the world, with the help of some NASA astronauts. A giant asteroid “the size of Texas” is headed for the Earth, and everyone is going to die, unless some oil drillers can land on it, drill a hole, and explode a nuclear bomb inside it, saving all of mankind (Armageddon, Scene 4). The film intertwines a love story between Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler, who is Bruce Willis’ daughter. The numerous one liners that make up the film are surrounded by trite dialogue, and cliché scenes, such as the numerous, “Its gonna blow [‘s],” and the “retread of the
