[Quick Summary: A team of drillers are recruited to help stop an asteroid that threatens the earth.]
This story is preposterous, i.e., that a driller would end up as an astronaut.
So why THIS guy? Why does Harry, an oil driller, need to be the protagonist?
I liked that this script is clear why: Harry is the only guy who knows how to operate the equipment, which will be required to blow up the asteroid.
The writers did a nice job of explaining this through introducing some conflict (we are now learning NASA had stolen Harry's prototype):
INT. NASA/HALLWAY -- ONE MINUTE LATER
Harry and Grace -- both in shock -- walk downstairs behind Truman, Quincy and A SMALL MILITARY ESCORT.
TRUMAN: We want to land on the asteroid, drill a hole, drop in some nukes, take off and detonate, having the pieces slide past us. Except we have an equipment problem.
QUINCY: The drilling unit is part of a lunar project we've been working on for the past three years. The recent discovery of water on the moon wa--
A DOOR. TWO ARMED GUARDS open up and step aside --
INT. NASA R&D HANGAR -- SAME TIME OMITTED
TECHNICIANS standing beside a huge gurney. Stretched across, A LARGE ROBOTIC DRILLING ARM -- complex machinery and gears and Teflon cables. Harry's jaw tightening as he circles the thing. Harry is in shock -- .
QUINCY (nervously): You may recognize the rig...
HARRY (utterly confused): It's tough not to recognize something you spent five years designing --
QUINCY: Yes, we were planning on sending this to the moon and--
HARRY: What, you got a key to the Patent Office?
TRUMAN: Basically. You see, that's why you're here.
HARRY: What I see, is that you ripped me off and now I'm pissed.
QUINCY: We prefer the term borrowed...But actually, ostensibly, the boundaries of patent laws only apply to Earth, not outer space.
TRUMAN: Shut up, Ron.
HARRY: Are you kidding me?! I got dragged into this because you "borrowed from me" and by the say did a shit job of putting it together?
TRUMAN: So what's wrong with it? You said we'd done a bad job putting it together.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Introducing conflict is one way to sneak in exposition without it feeling like an information dump.
Armaggedon (1998)(8/14/97 draft)
by Jonathan Hensleigh, rev. by Tony Gilroy and JJ Abrams
