r/movies 9h ago

Discussion Armageddon

Which oil driller, who became an astronaut in one week in the movie Armageddon, was the one who tested positive for ketamine before heading to the asteroid?

I am thinking it was Steve Buscemi as "RockHound." There is a scene before he ascends to space to defeat the asteroid, where he goes with some of the other one-week astonauts to the strip club and spende $100k that RockHound took out from a loan shark at a 50% interst rate (I believe). Seems like he gets down. If it isn't him then it's got to be Owen Wilson.

37 Upvotes

47 comments sorted by

59

u/ThisRiverIsWild_ 8h ago

Maybe I exaggerate...but Rockhound is the best character in the history of cinema.

20

u/Marcysdad 7h ago

To me the guy from the Russian space station was 5hr one deserving the title

31

u/stray1ight 7h ago

Peter Stormare is a GEM in fuckin everything he's in - his Lucifer in Constantine is maybe my favorite depiction of Satan -- but the first quote of his that's always top of mind for me is, "THIS IS HOW YOU FIX THINGS ON RUSSIAN SPACE STATION!!!"

16

u/wheeze_the_juice 6h ago

American components… Russian components… ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!!!!

9

u/Dfrickster87 6h ago

"American components, Russian components....ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!!!!"

3

u/Minirth22 5h ago

Seconding this, I never thought anyone would top Viggo Mortensen’s Lucifer in The Prophecy, but Peter Stormare KILLED IT. I loved his mad Russian too!

22

u/garrisontweed 8h ago

 Just tryin' to have some fun before I died!

9

u/Dariaskehl 7h ago

Hey, I had a great spot picked out!

4

u/TheStabbyCyclist 8h ago

When I was younger (probably 5th or 6th grade) my class was doing a mini-space camp type field trip. We all got to choose nicknames or callsigns. I picked Rockhound. My teacher made me pick a different one because that one meant something bad. Still have no idea what she thought it meant. Maybe something to do with crack? Who knows. No idea why I still remember this.

5

u/flipperQM 6h ago

Yes, rockhound is a slightly nicer sounding term for crackhead. In the movie he was likely called this because of a drug habit and he was absolutely the one on ketamine.

6

u/h0rheyd 6h ago

He’s called rockhound because he’s a geologist and he’s horny.

25

u/TheBigJebowski 8h ago

I thought it was the fat one whose mom found him in the tattoo parlor.

18

u/J0ZXYQK 8h ago

I thought it was him or Michael Clark Duncan since Im pretty sure Harrys next line is “Some of these boys are pretty big” or something like that.

5

u/WalkingCarpet 7h ago

What's going on Harry? They find oil on Uranus?

3

u/nomnom_de_plume 7h ago

I think the line "Some of these boys are pretty big" was in response to Harry being told one of his crew tested positive for horse tranquilizers. 

8

u/J0ZXYQK 7h ago

wasnt the lead up to it “one of your guys tested positive for ketemine, which is a very powerful sedative, well this ones used for horses”

3

u/Data_Chandler 3h ago

This is the correct answer, so even as a kid I assumed it was Michael Clarke Duncan or the fat white guy.

7

u/tomc_23 6h ago edited 6h ago

It’s Bear (Michael Clark Duncan). The idea is that he's supposedly so huge that he takes what would normally knock out a horse.

2

u/Data_Chandler 3h ago

Correct, or at least 50% correct, in the sense that it's either him or Max (the fat white guy).

Copy paste from IMDB:

One toxicology analysis revealed ketamin, that is a very powerful sedative!

Harry: Sedatives are used all the time, doctor.

Dr. Banks: Well this one's used on horses.

Harry: Some of these guys are pretty big.

Now of course in 2025 ketamine is no longer as crazy or exotic was it was in the 90s (good job Elon!), and tons of "skinny people" take it, but based on that interaction, I believe the movie strongly implied it was a big guy, so that leaves Michael Clarke Duncan and Max.

1

u/tomc_23 3h ago

I mean, sure.

u/Marsmooncow 40m ago

I reckon this is the answer

11

u/iamuseless 9h ago

Stop, or you’ll make me obsessed with this movie again.

“I’m not leaving without AJ!” Ta-ta-ta-ta-hm-ta-ta-ta.

It’s always going to be a guilty pleasure of mine. I can quote this movie all day.

No idea on the ketamine though. Maybe Bear?

8

u/brakeb 8h ago

"you're telling me this is the best you can come up with... I mean, you're NASA for Christ's sake... And this is best you can come up with!? Jesus!

I use this line at work regularly.. " All this talent and this is the best you can come up with?! "

8

u/1maRealboy 7h ago

I tell you one thing that really drives me nuts, is people who think that Jethro Tull is just a person in a band

2

u/ColBBQ 6h ago

Whose Jethro Tull?

5

u/2nickels 8h ago

God I watched this movie last week for the first time since it came out.  It is so over the top and ridiculous in the best way.

Maybe the purest example of a pre 9/11 movie.

11

u/Tbs87 8h ago

I always thought it was Oscar. The man at NASA said ketamine is used on horses and Oscar had a horse ranch outside El Paso.

5

u/gooneryoda 5h ago

Well, our object collison budget's a million dollars, that allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and beg'n your pardon sir, but it's a big-ass sky.

9

u/Nisschev 6h ago

Ben affleck: You're telling me its easier to train drillers to be astronauts? How hard can it be? You point the drill at the ground and press on

3

u/Lolkimbo 4h ago

How hard can it be?

Extremely.

6

u/SkidzLIVE 5h ago

It made sense to me. All they had to do was put on a space suit and drill. They had actual, trained astronauts with them to fly the space shuttles.

u/LordHussyPants 37m ago

yeah, whereas you try teach some astronauts to do commercial drilling in a week? that's how you get another houston we have a problem

1

u/sharrrper 3h ago

Seriously. The only "astronauting" the drillers need to do is wear a suit. You can probably cover that pretty thoroughly in an afternoon. Other than that they're just passengers. They need the same amount of training as I fo to ride in a plane to California.

7

u/Reyson_Fox 7h ago

Its either Bear or Oscar. But my money is on Bear.

9

u/DallasBroncos 8h ago

How were they all on the oil rig one day and then Harry went to visit the government and then they had to scour America to round em back up?

Day one - Generals pick up Harry and daughter to recruit him from oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Day two - All the folks that were on the oil rig are spread out across the country.

15

u/Dead_Starks 7h ago

Literally the last thing Harry says to Chick before getting on the helicopter is get em paid and get them off the rig. So presumably they were all on a helicopter later that day as well back to mainland and then headed home from there...

5

u/fiestaspurs 7h ago

The Blu-ray subtitles say "get him paid and off the rig" presumably this means just Ben affleck's character.

7

u/MonstaGraphics 6h ago

Because once those guys get off the rig, they scatter.

3

u/Writer_feetlover 6h ago

I'd say it was Bear or Max. "Some of these guys are pretty big."

2

u/Data_Chandler 3h ago

This is indeed what the movie strongly implies.

3

u/ShaunisntDead 6h ago

Greatest film of all time. Does Breathless have an entire space shuttle crew horribly killed on a mission to save humanity from a super mean asteroid? Does Citizen Kane have a pop song as magnificent as "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing"? Does Bruce Willis almost single handedly save humanity from said asteroid last minute and also give a kick ass line reading like "We win Gracie?" Does Amadeus have Steve Buscemi doing anything?

Michael Bay perfected pure kino in 1998 and WE ARE NOT WORTHY.

2

u/kennedye2112 3h ago

In order to find out, we need to wake up eleven thousand people!

1

u/Andrescoo 6h ago

The guy from the green mile

3

u/MonstaGraphics 6h ago

You heard it here first folks, Tom Hanks uses horse tranquilizers.

1

u/Willowy 5h ago

Does my heart good to see my official couchlock movie getting all this love.♥️

1

u/Icefyre24 4h ago

It was insinuated that it was one of the bigger guys that tested positive.

u/All_This_Mayhem 1h ago

God some people are insufferable about this point.

Do you have to be a pilot to fly in a plane? No? Then they didn't have to become full-fledged astronauts to ride in a space shuttle.

And it makes way more sense to train oil workers on how to safely sit in a chair and become passengers than it would have been to train astronauts to become oil drillers dealing with exploding transmissions and broken drill heads.