A clip of Ben Affleck lambasting the premise of one of his films, Armageddon, has resurfaced online, leading to a whole new wave of audience reactions on social media. Armageddon, which came out in 1998, followed a group of deep-core drillers hired by NASA to stop a massive asteroid on a collision course with Earth. The film featured a star-studded cast and was a major financial success, but it was not received particularly well by critics.
In a clip from Affleck’s Armageddon commentary track shared by All The Right Movies on Twitter, the actor hilariously derides the premise of the film, which argued that it would be easier to teach deep-core drillers how to be astronauts rather than teaching astronauts how to drill. The clip sparked a new stream of jokes from Twitter users calling for Affleck to do brutally honest commentaries of his other films. Watch the original clip below:
Check out some of the best responses to the clip on Twitter:
Breaking Down Armageddon’s Legacy
Affleck admitted that even his own kids mock the unlikely premise of Armageddon, though the actor also said that it was one of their favorite movies he’s been in. The idea that astronauts would have more trouble learning the skills of an oil driller than the other way around is silly, but the filmmakers didn’t allow that to get in the way of a fun romp of a disaster movie. In the above clip, Affleck said that when he brought up that concern to director Michael Bay, he was told to “shut the f*** up.“
While Bay did admit that he was working with a very limited timeframe and would have liked a few more weeks to edit the third act of the film, he has said he won’t apologize for Armageddon. The movie has often been compared with Deep Impact, which also came out in the summer of 1998 and dealt with the same premise of an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. While Deep Impact was received more positively for its realistic and scientifically-grounded portrayal of the premise, Armageddon was by far the more financially successful of the two.
As is common with many Bay-helmed films, Armageddon is at its most compelling during its well-crafted action sequences. There isn’t much in the way of character development, but an all-star cast including Affleck, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Steve Buscemi, and Owen Wilson made up for that somewhat. While it won’t be remembered as one of the best end-of-the-world movies, Armageddon remains a cult classic because of its slapstick premise and its entertaining pace and action.
Source: All The Right Movies/Twitter