Armageddon: A Reaction Paper Essay

In the movie Armageddon, who are the evil ones? They are thousands of rocks led by an asteroid the size of Texas that threatens to extinguish life on Earth? And who are the good ones? They are a motley makeshift group of old-drillers who will risk their lives in a daring rocket journey to save the world. A few NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut are also thrown in to help steer the two shuttle spacecrafts. So these are the heroes of the movie. But, except for rig owner and drilling expert Harry Stamper (played excellently by Bruce Willis), the oil workers are moonlighting criminals. Mobsters as saviors? Is this any way to improve the moral fabric of our country? You would think that a movie about the extinction of life on Earth would be serious. Not so. The best description of Armageddon is an action-adventure film sprinkled with comedy. Every effort is made to excite and entertain. No effort is made to educate or inform. Scientific accuracy is tossed out the window. The laws o f physics are continually violated in order to maximize the drama. What happened to the good old movie classics that tried to teach us something about life? It is amazing that the asteroid is able days in advance to send warning signals consisting of deadly meteor showers. The first one strikes a space station orbiting the Earth. The craft is drilled with holes before exploding. The next attack is on New York City. It is pelted with huge meteorites. The Chrysler Building is decapitated, while the City is decimated. Several days later, Shanghai falls victim. And near the end of the movie, Paris is destroyed by an asteroid fragment. This is one of the few places where a realistic image of an impact is portrayed. The explosion produces a cloud of dust that surges outward. Paris is totaled. Only a huge crater and the bottom halves of the Arc de Triumph and other buildings are left. It is curious how well directed that these strikes are Despite the unrealistic nature of the movie, it is entertaining and full of action. The frame time is usually no longer than 3 seconds as one image after another flashes on the screen in an effort to maximize the tension. Such rapid-fire images also limit a viewer’s ability to notice the many scientific flaws. A love story between Grace Stamper, Harry’s daughter played by Liv Tyler, and A. J. Frost, a young oil rig worker played by Ben Affleck, adds a romantic element to the movie. Of course, everyone knows that these space-age, spaced out oil drillers will in the end save us from destruction. In the film, NASA officials meet to discuss proposals to avert the asteroid catastrophe. The suggestions are laughable: Destroy it with lasers? Americans have clearly been watching too many Star Trek episodes. Attach sails to it? This is ludicrous. What’s going to provide the drag? Outer space is virtually empty. There is no wind out there except for the â€Å"solar wind,† which can only blow dust and particles and certainly cannot change the direction of a heavy asteriod in a matter of days. Destroy it with nuclear weapons? As correctly stated in the movie, 150 nukes would hardly be sufficient. Although such bombs would produce 150 craters, the asteroid would remain intact. So what plan do they come up with? They propose to drill a hole about 800 feet deep, insert a hydrogen bomb, explode it and split the asteroid in two pieces that will fly past Earth on either side. If 150 nukes won’t do the job, certainly one will not either, even if it is inserted in the ast eroid. Can one hydrogen bomb create a crack that stretches across the state of Texas? When it comes to man versus Nature in life-threatening battles, can man always win? When a tornado touches down, can we stop it? When a tsunami or giant wave, speeds across the ocean, can we diminish it? When a volcano is about to erupt, can we extinguish its hot temper? When a hurricane heads towards a populated coastal region, can we divert it? When lightning strikes, can we reflect its flash? The answers to these questions are no. But we can take measures. In most instances, our only recourse is evacuation. In these battles of man versus Nature, Nature is supreme. Solar system scientists classify asteroids with letters such as S, C, M and E. The makers of Armageddon have discovered a truly remarkable object that will revolutionize planetary science. From a distance, it appears to be almost comet-like and engulfed in a blue-green cloud. While most asteroids have a topography not so different from the Moo n’s, the Armageddon asteroid has a treacherous terrain of jagged knife-like rocks, steep crevices and pointed mountain peaks. Its surface is as intricate as a crystal chandelier. It is almost as though its stalagmites threaten to stab Earth’s heart. But, of course, in reality the danger to Earth is created by the asteroid’s tremendous kinetic energy, which gets translated into heat, pressure and pounding power upon impact. The Armageddon asteroid is also the first to have a significant atmosphere and rock storms. Yes, the efforts of our heroes are impeded when dozens of rocks start raining down upon them. Obviously, NASA should have equipped our heroes with steel umbrellas. The air must contain oxygen to feed the sparks of fires that are blown by a sometimes howling wind. There must also be a â€Å"fifth force† that holds Stamper’s crew to the asteroid’s surface. It can’t be gravity. The force of gravity on the Armageddon asteroid is about 20 times weaker than that on Earth. A 180-pound human would weigh only 9 pounds. Armageddon is an action-packed adventure in which National Aeronautics andSpace Administration (NASA) astronauts save the world from a huge asteroid or should we call a â€Å"Global Killer† that can kill even bacteria. It is entitled Armageddon which means â€Å"the end of all things† and it came from the bible. It’s a nice movie but lots of arguments, quarrels, andtragic parts. I can say that Armageddon is interesting because it is somewhat related to Science which is my favorite subject. I don’t understand some parts of it because they speak fast but I’d still understand this movie on the way they move. All the scenes in Armageddon seemed real, the explosions, the satellites, the space shuttles travelling and the asteroids falling and crashing to the Earth, all I can say is, amazing! I salute all the makers of this movie because they have made Armageddon a realistic one. Armageddon is full package, romance, comedy and action combined into one. It is entertaining and full of action. When the parts of the asteroids are crashing all I can do is to scream. In summary, Armageddon is a wonderful movie but a tragic one.Armageddon is somewhat related to Chemistry. Asteroids are included to Astrochemistry. A giant, global-killing asteroid, like the one that killed off the dinosaurs 65million years ago is 18 days away from hitting the Earth. The oil drilling is somewhat related to Industrial Chemistry, that is showed on the first part of the movie. Nuclear bombs are related to Nuclear Chemistry. Bombs that are detonated in the drilled part of the huge asteroid that blew it into pieces. This movie told us some information about Chemistry.