Armageddon

star Ben Affleck reflects on the comments he made on the movie’s now-infamous DVD commentary. Directed by Michael Bay, the 1998 disaster movie stars Affleck as A. J. Frost, an oil driller who embarks on a mission with his fellow drillers to save Earth from being destroyed by a giant asteroid. Though the film, which also stars Bruce Willis, was a hit with audiences, Affleck memorably pointed out a major flaw with the story in the DVD commentary, arguing that it’s illogical to train oil drillers to be astronauts rather than the other way around.

In a recent interview with GQ, Affleck looks back on the Armageddon DVD commentary, standing by his comments. The actor explains that, though he enjoyed the experience, he was surprised to find that the people in charge weren’t particularly concerned about whether the movie made sense or not. He recalls that his costar, Billy Bob Thornton, actually shared some angry words about this while on set, echoing his own feelings. Check out Affleck’s comments about the Armageddon DVD commentary below:

That is one of the achievements of my career on which I’m willing to pat myself on the back. I believe that may be at least top five all-time DVD commentaries. By the way, nobody said anything to me. I don’t think any of the other people listened to it or gave a f*ck until years later when it was played.

And I was kind of shocked and appalled that I went on there and started being like…. I mean, that’s all true. Everything I said was a hundred percent true, but that’s the point. You’re not supposed to go on there and tell all of the truth.

I never expected, “Oh, this is going to be genius.” I thought, I’m going to go do a big Hollywood action movie and I love it. And yes, during the movie, I was kind of surprised to find that sometimes they weren’t all that interested in making sense.

I remember Billy Bob [Thornton] was having a long conversation about a scene in the space mission control or whatever it was, and he was like, “No, that’s okay, man. I can stop talking about it. I just kind of like to be in the kind of movies that make sense, you know what I mean? But f*ck it, we don’t have to do that. We’re not doing that on this one. F*ck it.”

And I was the only person who was kind of like, “Okay, I guess we don’t operate by those other rules here.” But there’s a sense of being small and of this thing being big. And so I felt like a little ant on the elephant when I would shoot my mouth off about the conversation I had with Michael [Bay, the director of Armageddon] about why is it easier to train oil drillers to be astronauts than to train astronauts to drill a hole in the ground?

What Affleck’s Criticisms Mean For Armageddon’s Legacy

The Film Succeeded Despite Its Flawed Logic

Though Affleck pointed out a major logic problem with Armageddon‘s story, the film was still a success. Reviews were generally negative from critics, but the movie was a hit with general movie-goers. On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics’ score is a lackluster 43%, but the Popcornmeter score is much higher at 73%. This more positive reception from audiences is reflected in Armageddon‘s box office performance, and the Bay film grossed an impressive $553 million worldwide.

In a sense, then, it seems the figures overseeing the film were right about Armageddon‘s logic not being important. Audiences, after all, didn’t seem to mind. Plus, a number of Bay movies have been hit with similar criticisms, and style over substance has become something of a brand for him. His five Transformers movies, for example, especially the later installments, were widely criticized for prioritizing action and effects over strong storytelling, but many of them were commercially successful anyway.

Our Take On Affleck’s Armageddon DVD Commentary

Affleck’s Commentary Is A Hollywood Rarity

There aren’t many DVD commentaries in which actors involved point out flaws in their own movies, making Affleck’s Armageddon comments fairly unique in Hollywood. It’s clear, too, that he isn’t trying to take down the film, he’s mostly playing the whole thing for laughs. Though his criticisms of Armageddon‘s story logic are very valid, and training astronauts to be drillers seems far easier than the other way around, it is just a movie, and the situation paves the way for some unique story beats and character dynamics as blue-collar workers are forced to work with top-level bureaucrats and scientists.

That being said, the criticism of Armageddon not making sense (and the response to this criticism) raises questions about whether the movie would have been better if more attention was paid to these types of issues. Perhaps, for example, more positive reviews would have led to even better performance at the box office. While an interesting “what if” scenario, Armageddon remains an iconic disaster film, and it’s sure to remain a go-to in the genre for years to come.

Source: GQ