Plot

It is just another day at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a few astronauts were repairing a satellite until, out of nowhere, a series of asteroids came crashing into the shuttle, destroying it. These asteroids also decimated New York soon thereafter. Then, NASA discovered that there is an asteroid roughly the size of Texas heading towards the Earth, and when it does hit the Earth, the planet itself and all of its inhabitants will be obliterated, worse, the asteroid will hit the Earth in 18 days. Unfortunately, NASA's plans to destroy the asteroid are irrelevant. With the military, NASA scientists, led by Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) plan to embed a nuclear device 800 feet within the asteroid that, when detonated, will split the asteroid in two parts that will both safely fly past the Earth. That is when the U.S. military decides to use a nuclear warhead to blow the asteroid to pieces. Then, scientists decide to blow the asteroid with the warhead inside the asteroid itself. The only man to do it, is an oil driller named Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis). Harry returns to NASA along with his daughter Grace (Liv Tyler) to keep her away from one of his young and more rambunctious drillers, A. J. Frost (Ben Affleck), who has fallen in love with her much to Harry's dismay. As he and his drill team prepare for space excavation, the asteroid is still heading towards the Earth. When the crew are launched into outer space, they are determined to destroy this asteroid.