10 Dumbest Decisions In Sci-Fi Movie History
8. Training Drillers To Become Astronauts (Rather Than The Other Way Around) - Armageddon
Seeking out crystalline logic in a Michael Bay film is always going to be a fool's errand, but Bay's barmy guilty pleasure Armageddon draws major attention to a glaring lapse in the logic of its own premise.
With a Texas-sized asteroid due to collide with Earth in 18 days, NASA decides to hire a team of expert deep sea oil drillers, giving them a 12-day crash cause as astronauts before sending them into space, where they'll drill a hole into the asteroid and blow it up in order to prevent it impacting with Earth.
Except, doesn't it make so much more sense to go the other way entirely, and just train astronauts to become drillers?
Given that astronauts are already at peak physical fitness, have been training their entire adult lives for space and have families well aware of the risks, it makes all the sense in the world, not to mention the much shorter time investment required to become a proficient oil driller than an astronaut.
Hilariously, on the film's DVD commentary, Ben Affleck mentions that he explained this issue to Michael Bay, who told him to, and we quote, "Shut the f*** up."
Like so many logic-breaking movie character decisions, it's a "because movie" concession, albeit an extremely distracting one once it's been brought to your attention.
Bruce Willis and his ragtag, working class team got the job done, but was this really the smartest and most efficient way to do it? Not a chance.