The Oil Spill Armageddon

In the 1998 meg-adventure movie Armageddon, The federal government needs to rely on a shady and untrustworthy group of deep-sea oil well drillers to save the world.

Harry Stamper is the owner of an independent oil exploration company that is experienced but just a step away from one failure or another. Harry has been snatched off his oil rig in the South China Sea and flown to Houston by the military. Dan Truman is top administrator at NASA and wants Harry to quickly teach his team of astronauts how to use a drill that Harry designed but never commercialized. Harry is told that an 800 foot deep hole needs to be drilled in a Meteor headed for Earth. He realizes in just a few minutes that NASA knows nothing about drilling.

Harry Stamper (played by Bruce Willis) has a discussion with Dan Truman (played by Billie Bob Thorton).

Harry Stamper: What's your contingency plan?
Dan Truman: Contingency plan?
Harry Stamper: Your backup plan. You gotta have some kind of backup plan, right?
Dan Truman: No, we don't have a back up plan. This is it.
Harry Stamper: And this is the best that you can - that the-the government, the U.S. government! can come up with? I mean, you're NASA for cryin' out loud, you put a man on the moon, you're geniuses! You're the guys that think this shit up! I'm sure you got a team of men sitting around somewhere right now just thinking shit up and somebody backing them up! You're telling me you don't have a backup plan, that these eight boy scouts right here, that is the world's hope, that's what you're telling me?
Dan Truman: Yeah.

Harry Stamper's assessment of the government plan starts at 4:45 of this clip. courtesy of YouTube

After realizing that NASA must take a crew with "real world" drilling experience to the asteroid to have any chance of success at drilling to the 800 foot depth required, the following dialogue takes place between Dan Truman and General Kimsey (played by Keith David).

General Kimsey: If you're trying to make me feel better about this scenario, give it up.
Truman: To tell you the truth, I'm kind of encouraged. This guy Chick here was an Air Force commando for six years.
General Kimsey: We got robbery, assault, arrest, resisting arrest. We got a collection agent for the mob. Two of these guys have done serious time.
Truman: Look, they're the best at what they do.
General Kimsey: So am I. And I'm not so optimistic. We spend 250 billion dollars a year on defense. And here we are. The fate of the planet is in the hands of a bunch of retards I wouldn't trust with a potato gun.

The assessment of the "real world" drilling team occurs at 1:29 of this clip. courtesy of YouTube

Although, we all know the outcome of the Armageddon movie, we do not yet know the outcome of the Gulf of Mexico Oil disaster. British Petroleum and the U.S. Government have shown us that despite their difference, they must both work together to solve this problem. In the meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico has become an environmental and economic disaster.
 
I leave you with the following two Armageddon quotes.
 
Chick: This is turning into a surrealistic nightmare!
 
Rockhound: Wow, this is a goddamn Greek tragedy.


For a full set of memorable quotes go to IMBd.com.