The Edge 1: Chapter 1 -Vision and Focus -

Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" is surely a famous song.

I don't know when I first listened to this song, and when I started to sing it in Karaoke, but I sure was confused when people kept saying "Oh, Armageddon!"

Just a few days ago, I finally got to see the film.

It felt great, finally being able to solve all the mystery around this "Armageddon" thing.
Now I have a clear vision of what people are talking about when they say "Armageddon" upon hearing "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."

The song was used in a pretty unexpected, but the only matching place in the movie...

(Picture from: http://www.benitomovieposter.com/catalog/armageddon-p-138632.html?language=en)

The movie was apparently made in a rush, and there are some parts that I'd seriously like to complain about, and the event sequences were typical of apocalypse movies + I could guess who was going to survive, it was a pretty good film. Enough with the movie critique. 

It spoke a lot about being a leader, too. A person who can be considerate of others at the most crucial times, a person who can willingly sacrifice himself for others...

It wasn't just about Harry Stamper,

 [SPOILER ALERT]

the leader of the gang who, excluding astronauts, are a bunch of oil plant workers which Hamper owns. So, most of the crew who went to space in order to destroy the huge asteroid that is about to hit Earth are a bunch of laymen about space. They were trained for a mere few days, and then went to space. To destroy a huge asteroid which is due to shatter Earth in its journey through space.

Even when their friends get killed by space in a millisecond, they continue with their duty - to drill a hole into the asteroid where they can implant a nuclear bomb which will shatter the asteroid before it hits the Earth, making it mostly non-apocalyptic.

The will to go on - would I have been able to hold it?

Shakelton surely did. He learned about it from his earlier expeditions (21). Not only that, he was able to successfully steer his crew that way.

[SPOILER ALERT]

I mean, I'd even hesitate now if I was asked if I'd like to go on a TRIP to space.

I get goosebumps watching pictures of supernovas...

(Picture from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/universidadcatolica/4521853388/)

 

They're so beautiful...

The men of Armageddon goof off, and joke no different on their way to space than their regular days, they focus. 

Reading of Shakelton's success after their ship got stuck, and ultimately broke down, I've increasingly come to realize how important that is. Some stress is good, but panic will make one's brain stop thinking. On the other hand, it's not good to force one's self to think that everything is completely normal and harmless, in a manner that forces one to escape from reality (one person had space dementia, and I don't think this is unrelated).

I don't know if Shakelton did this, but I think it is important to acknowledge, in times of trouble, that one is actually in trouble. Not so that one can curl up into a fetal position and wallow and die or wait until someone comes to the rescue, but so that one can unify the mind and reality, and hold a cool head.

∟If you are the type that was able to laugh at the one above, try this.

It's amazing that he was able to, like I mentioned above in the [SPOILER] section, navigate his crew's agitation for the sake of their total survival, carving out a plan from nothing in the middle of nowhere, with no help available, where each day could be their last, forsaking his long-held dream of doing something in the Antarctic.

I'd really like to read books about the expedition and Shakelton himself now.