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Michael Bay Says Armageddon Movie Predicted Real-Life NASA Mission
An actual NASA mission, akin to that seen in 1998's Armageddon, got the film trending, with director Michael Bay now saying the movie predicted the new mission. Bay helmed Armageddon, fresh off the success of Bad Boys and The Rock. Armageddon also featured a stellar team of writers, including JJ Abrams, Jonathan Hensleigh, Tony Gilroy, and Shane Salerno. In addition, the cast was stacked with veterans and newcomers alike, featuring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Steve Buscemi, and Owen Wilson. The plot of Armageddon sees a massive asteroid on a collision course with Earth. To stop the Asteroid, NASA recruits a team of deep-core oil drillers sent into space where they land on the hurling rock to place nuclear bombs, hoping to destroy it.
Last week, NASA launched a 1200 lbs SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to start a test mission called DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). The rocket is intended to fly around the sun before making contact with Dimorphos, a small asteroid posing no threat, sometime next year. With the rocket's impact, NASA hopes to see if they can knock it from its trajectory, giving humanity hope if an asteroid ever poses a threat to Earth. Armageddon began to trend after the launch as many pointed out the similarities between the film and NASA's DART mission. Now, Bay is adding his own two cents on the comparison.
While speaking with The Wrap about NASA's mission and Armageddon, Bay acknowledged that NASA wasn't sending oil drillers before saying, "but our plan was not far off where they send a craft to nudge it, either with a nuke or whatever, they just have to nudge it." Bay added, "They had a bunch of stuff we mentioned in the movie that were real plans that are on the table." Bay even discussed his time prepping for Armageddon, talking about when he met an official from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory whose job was to find and track potential "global killers." While Bay's comments point toward Armageddon predicting NASA's mission, Bay is just happy NASA is taking preemptive action, saying, "Thank God they're doing something because these things (asteroids), they're lethal. They come in 24,000 miles an hour if I remember correctly — it's an airburst to the ground."
While Armageddon's core concept, knocking an asteroid from its trajectory, is part of NASA's DART mission, Armageddon likely didn't inspire the plan. As Bay mentioned, things used in the film "were real plans," meaning NASA was more likely the inspiration behind the film's story. While Bay may seem like he's patting himself on the back, he's elated that NASA is taking action, saying, "It just makes the world aware that there is a big effin' problem that we might have one day, so it's better to get our asses in gear now and practice for what can be a very serious situation."
There is a bit of irony running through the situation, as NASA has previously used Armageddon in its management training program where they asked recruits to point out as many inaccuracies in the film as they can. It's been stated that there are at least 168 impossibilities in the movie, which further elucidates how Armageddon was unlikely to inspire NASA's DART mission. Whether the DART mission is successful or not will be unknown until some time next year, though Bay seems happy that Armageddon may have inspired real-world NASA plans.
