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An impact equivalent to ten thousand nuclear weapons detonating simultaneously.
One hundred trillion tons of dirt and rock hurled into the atmosphere. A blanket of dust the sun is powerless to penetrate. For five thousand years our world is robbed of light as a nuclear winter falls. In that darkness, a civilisation is removed from existence.
JIMBO: When are we going to let N.A.S.A in on what we've found? THEO: We don't even know what we have yet. Comet, asteroid - it could be anything up there. And don't be so eager to red flag N.A.S.A. They don't call us when they discover anything.
GOLDEN: Okay guys, one of the worst days in N.A..S.A history just got worse. Ten million to one. A rogue comet came from deep space and collided with an asteroid. Some kids actually got a picture of the collision event and told no one. The stuff that hit this morning was the collision's forward-thrown matter, mere pebbles from what's about to come. Walter? CLARK: A big asteroid. E.T.A., eighteen days. A lot bigger than the five mile one that obliterated the dinosaurs. GOLDEN: The size of Texas.
Temple: Dan, we're all here. Tell us what we're up against. GOLDEN: In it's simplest terms? The end of Mankind. One asteroid, one mile wide or bigger, impacts the Earth with the equivalent force of all the nuclear weapons in the world, times a thousand. Half our population will die within 24 hours from tidal waves and heat pulses. The other half won't be so lucky. In the end, it will be men eating the flesh of other men. (beat) It's not the end of the world, General, the world - Earth - will still be here. But there will be no life - maybe cockroaches and some resilient strands of bacteria.
GOLDEN: One giant leap for Mankind. Everyone remember that? This is what we are going to do. We're going to fly to that asteroid with a nuclear device, implant it and get off before it blows. Quincy? Quincy: Look: set a fire cracker off in your open palm, you get a third degree burn. Close your fist, It'll do some serious damage. If we can get a nuke deep in one of the asteroid's fault lines, she'll split in two, like a diamond.
HARRY: Almost caught that little bastard. Grace: Having fun? Sure sliced the shit outta that one. HARRY: Watch your language, Gracie. Grace: Seagulls swallow those and they die. HARRY: Stupid birds.
HARRY: Hey there, what can I do for you? GREENPEACE LEADER: This is an official protest. HARRY: 'Course it is. I love you guys. You like dolphins and whales, I like 'em too. Hey, I know you. You too. Didn't you have shorter hair? GREENPEACE LEADER: Stamper, do you know what this thing does to the eco-system? HARRY: How'd you get out here? Canoe? Rowboat? Oh, that boat down there with a thousand horsepower diesel! GREENPEACE LEADER: How can you wake up every day and look at yourself in the mirror? HARRY: The same way you did when you blow-dried your hair this morning. And you used a curling iron, I betcha. Did you know most electricity's from burning oil? I'll stop drillin' when the world - stops using it. Bennie, start 'er up! GREENPEACE LEADER: Wait... HARRY: Can't wait! I'm a businessman! Those goons over there gave me 57 mil. to find oil and they ain't leavin' till I do! 'cause they have no lives!
FLIP: Look it that sucker. They got a nuke up there in sixteen hours? SKIP: It'll never fly. Never. CLARK: Three things the Russians make well, guys - vodka, gymnasts and rockets. Don't count 'em out. GOLDEN: It's the late 20th century, I run the U.S. Space Program, and I'm praying to God the Russians are better at this than we are...
QUNICY: Dan Golden, meet Mister Harry Stamper, the finest oil driller in the world. GOLDEN: Mister Stamper... Dan Golden, I'm Director of -- HARRY: I know who you are. I watched T.V. once. Apollo 8, right? First manned lunar orbit. GOLDEN: That was a long time ago. I run this place now. And we've got a serious problem on our hands that Quincy here thinks you might be able to help us out with -- QUINCY: I'm a big fan, Mr. Stamper. HARRY: I kinda caught that. What's the problem, gentlemen? GOLDEN: I wonder if we might speak alone? HARRY: These two are my right and left arms. Grace Stamper and Albert Jack Frost. Stupid name, so we call him A.J... They run my company. You talk to me, you talk to them.
QUINCY: 1985. The first well drilled over 50 thousand feet. They said it couldn't be done. You did it. Incredible. QUINCY: 1991. Directional drilling through two miles of anthracite. They also said that couldn't be done. You did it. Incredible. QUINCY: 1993. The first hole over seventy thousand. Once again they said -- GOLDEN: Move it along, Quincy. QUINCY: Right, sorry. Mister Stamper, you're the world's foremost expert in deep drilling. You hold specialized patents in high speed bits, drilling fluids, downhole motors Can I call you Harry? HARRY: Stick with Stamper. GOLDEN: Well, Mister Stamper, we need you to drill a hole. It's in a difficult place. HARRY: I've drilled in them all. GOLDEN: Not... this place. This is really out there. Space, Mister Stamper. HARRY: As in... outer?
GOLDEN: We're manning a mission to that asteroid to plant a nuclear device in it's core. To do that we need to drill an eight hundred foot hole. HARRY: A.J., is this guy shitting me? A.J.: I don't think they shit people at N.A.S.A.
HARRY: I left school after tenth grade. I earned my PH.D every day offshore drilling holes. You can't get it in a book. Drilling holes is about instinct - about smellin' it. Drillin' holes is an art. You want the crux of the matter? You stole my patent, and you don't have a goddamn idea how to use it. As for this piece of crap, don't insult me. I'll rebuild it - the right way - and drill the hole for you. HARRY: First of all, you're going to buy my patent. TEMPLE: Of course, completely in order. What is the price? HARRY: Fifty million dollars. TEMPLE: Mr. Stamper, this mission is to preserve the future of... HARRY: You're right, too low. I'm still pissed. Seventy million. TEMPLE: Done. HARRY: Give that money to my Greenpeace buddies. Told you... complicated. HARRY: And I never want to pay taxes again. TEMPLE: I'll call the I.R.S., try to uhm, explain the situation. HARRY: I have this great log cabin in Montana. It's kind of a nature... getaway... thing. TEMPLE: You want us to buy that, too? HARRY: No. I fly fish there. But the fly fishing's sucked ever since they put in that goddamn hydro-electric dam. I want it gone by the time I get back.
HARRY: Now about my crew. GOLDEN: The deal was for you, not others. HARRY: I'm only as good as the men I work with. The ones in those home movies of yours. GOLDEN: It's out of the question. Okay, who? HARRY:My chief tool pusher. You game A.J.? A.J.: Wouldn't miss it, Harry. HARRY: And my roughnecks, Roustabouts, and Rockhound? TEMPLE: Rock what? Is that a dog? HARRY: No. Just a meek, geek geophysicist. GOLDEN: What kind of men are these?
MAX: You're not taking any more blood. You vampires already have enough to feed your coven for a year. NURSE: We need to know what substances you've recently ingested. TITO: What, uhh, "substances" you talkin' about? NURSE: Drugs. CHICK: An Ena-WHAT? HELGA: Enema. CHICK: And you want to stick it where? No way, lady. I came here to drill. HELGA: So did I.
DR BANKS: Mr. Stamper, your men...are...take Mr. Chappel. I believe they call him Chic. HARRY: Charles, but if you call him that, he'll kill you. DR BANKS: I assume you're joking. Your men show aggression, extreme maladjustment to their surroundings, anti-social behaviour -- HARRY: With all due respect, Doctor, I don't know too many army guys who are social when someone is trying to jam a tube up their butt. DR BANKS: Does your company have a drug testing program? These toxicology reports are a throwback to the sixties. All show huge levels of nicotine and alcohol. Three of the, four show illegal drugs. A couple I had to look up. One of them had "Kematine" -- a very potent sedative. HARRY: A lot of people take sedatives. DR BANKS: This one is used on horses. HARRY: I don't tell my men how to live their lives. They're with me to do a job and they do it well. GOLDEN: This is getting us nowhere. Can they fly, or not? DR BANKS: Failed. Failed. Really failed. Under the circumstances... They're the finest physical specimens I've ever seen.
QUINCY: Pressurised titanium alloy cab. Airlocked life support. The chassis's by General Motors. Heavy duty suspension and six wheel drive. HARRY: How were you going to power your drill arm? QUINCY: Turbo-jet engine fuelled by Kerosene and liquid oxygen. HARRY: I need to be able to start and stop. I need different speeds, and I need reverse. QUINCY: A jet engine can't do that. HARRY: It can if it's hooked up to a clutch. A.J., get me a Mack truck transmission. QUINCY: That's so simple it's brilliant. HARRY: I'm a simple man. But don't underestimate me.
CHUCK JR.: On this mission, they tell me you will experience the worst G-Forces in the history of flight. It's like an elephant sitting on your chest. So, I intend to flip you, spin you, splat your bodies till your bones hurt. Now load up and enjoy the flight. SHARP: Trainees, at ease. We are not done here. We're taking you for a little ride. This bird will climb to 40 thousand feet and drop to 10 thousand feet to give you the feeling of weightlessness for 30 seconds. Welcome to N.A.S.A.'s Vomit Comet. DENISE: What was I supposed to tell him? We've got a life here now, Chick, with someone we can depend on. CHICK: What I did before was wrong. Every day of my life I regret it. I can see you've got a good thing going, Denise, I'm not trying to mess that up. But this thing's come my way and I got the chance to do something really right. DENISE: This another one of your scams, Chick? CHICK: It's no scam. You might just be proud of me. DENISE: What's going on, Chick? CHICK: I can't tell you now. But if it comes out good, I'll be back. Then maybe you'd consider telling Tommy I'm not a...salesman. It's good to see you. You look really beautiful. DENISE: Hey, Chick. You be careful.
STU: Kennedy lied about the Bay of Pigs, Nixon - Watergate, say no more. Clinton. One word - 'Women.' If I know one thing; ALL PRESIDENTS LIE. A.J.: I don't have to prove anything to anybody, Harry. HARRY: I listen to N.A.S.A., you listen to me. That's the chain. Either you follow it, or you're done. A.J.: I'll follow it. HARRY: I stood up for you, because I've made a life of proving people wrong. When I was about your age, I was in Galveston, Texas. I scraped together some money, bought some old equipment, a little land. I set up a rig and drilled my first hole. Then I sat there and watched her soak up the sun for six months - waiting for this baby to pop. Everybody told me to quit. I wouldn't listen. My wife ran off with a drill-rigger, left me with Grace. Everybody in town thought I was a fool. But I stayed with it. And in the last hour of the last day, she popped. She spit out that black gold and I danced in it like a wild Indian. I captured the magic. This is the last piece of pipe that struck gold that day.
GOLDEN: In the book of Revalations, the Bible speaks of a final day on Earth, when all mankind shall perish, shall cease to exist. This day is known as Armageddon. Right now, that day conflicts with six billion schedules. For the first time in the history of this planet, s species possesses the technology to prevent it's own extinction. I've been with N.A.S.A. my entire adult life. Eleven years as an astronaut, another fifteen on the ground at Mission Control. Twenty-six years I've had to answer one question -- why? Why more money? Why the race for space? Why do we need to know what is up there? (beat) When we come through this, I'll take comfort in the fact that I won't ever have to answer those questions again. You are our warriors up there. You are our last hope. God be with you. LEV: I am Cosmonaut Lev Andropov, what your name? A.J.: My name is A.J. LEV: You just blew up my home.
MAX: Oh, man, did I have a dream. BEAR: So did Martin Luther King. MAX: No, this was a bad dream. We were drilling and the ground ate the bit. Then it ate the pipe, then the derrick. Then it ate us. BEAR: That's a dumb-ass dream. MAX: I'm not coming home.
CHICK: Harry, what are you thinking? HARRY: How beautiful it is. Thinkin' about all that oil I sucked out and spit into the air.Funny how a man can live 46 years and realize he ain't been doing the right thing.
GOLDEN: Yeah, Harry. What's your situation? HARRY: Situation? You put me down on the worst possible place on this asteroid. I'm drillin' into something I shouldn't. The hole just ate one of my diamond-tipped bits in thirty minutes. That has never happened to me in twenty years. GOLDEN: You're forty minutes in. You should be down 150 feet. How far are you? HARRY: Not far. Twenty-three feet.
HARRY: You told me that the only way to deal with this hunk 'o crud is to get a nuke 1000 feet down. You sticking with that? GOLDEN: Firmly. HARRY: Great. Glad we have that understanding. GOLDEN: IF you're gonna pull this off, we have to have a little talk about time...and temperature. Zero Barrier's in two hours. HARRY: Wait... wait.. what about temperature? When did temperatures come into the picture? GOLDEN: Harry, your suits are good upto 150 degrees Celsius... HARRY: And...? How hot is it going to get? GOLDEN: We didn't anticipate you being on the asteroid so long. The clock is ticking... HARRY: How hot is it going to get?! GOLDEN: Three hundred and fifty degrees. HARRY: Thanks for telling us now, Golden... I don't think my bits can handle those kind of temperatures...
BEAR: A.J. Frost. Back from the dead. CHICK: Now you can die with us.
HARRY: It's so beautiful up here. So pure. I remember something I read once, "The world is a fine place... and worth fighting for." Gracie, I'm just an iron-ass-warrior doin' what's best. Take care of A.J. I'll look in on you from time to time... |