Every now and then on this blog, I like to take a so‑called “movie plot hole” that’s doing the rounds online and gently explain why it isn’t a plot hole at all. Recently, one particular chestnut from Armageddon has resurfaced on social media and, and amusingly, it originates from the film’s own commentary track. Ben Affleck, in peak late‑90s Ben Affleck mode, recalls asking director Michael Bay:

Ben Affleck: “Wouldn’t it be easier for NASA to train astronauts how to drill rather than training drillers to be astronauts?”

According to Affleck, Bay’s response was a succinct, poetic, “shut the fuck up!” For anyone who hasn’t seen Armageddon (or has successfully repressed it), the premise is simple: a Texas‑sized asteroid is barrelling toward Earth, and NASA decides the best plan is to recruit a team of roughneck deep‑sea oil drillers to land on the rock, drill a hole, plant a nuke, and blow the thing in half. The halves then politely swerve around Earth like they’ve been told off by a particularly strict traffic warden.

Affleck’s observation has since been elevated to “plot hole” status by people who enjoy pointing at films and shouting “aha!” But is it actually a plot hole? Or is it just a case of applying real‑world logic to a film where Bruce Willis punches space in the nards? Well, let me explore…

Real‑World Logic…

If we’re talking about the real world (the one where NASA exists and asteroids don’t have convenient drilling platforms) then no, this isn’t a plot hole. Deep‑sea drilling is a highly specialised profession. Depending on the role and needed skill set, it can take five to ten years to train a competent driller. Astronauts, meanwhile, undergo two to three years of initial training, and that’s before you get to mission‑specific prep. Could experienced astronauts shave a few months off the drilling learning curve? Maybe. Could they master decades of tacit knowledge, instinct, and “I’ve seen this drill bit shear off at 3am in a storm and lived to tell the tale” experience? Absolutely not.

And crucially: the asteroid in Armageddon is due to hit Earth in eighteen days. Not five years. Not three years. Not even six months. Eighteen days. So if we’re being realistic, and the film certainly isn’t, it would be far quicker to teach drillers how to sit in a chair while NASA pilots the shuttle.

In‑Universe Logic…

Even if we ignore real‑world logic and stick strictly to the film’s internal rules, it still isn’t a plot hole. In fact, the film goes out of its way to address this exact question. When Harry (Bruce Willis) is first brought to NASA, the idea of training astronauts to drill is raised. Harry immediately shuts it down. He explains that drilling at this level isn’t something you can teach from a manual; it’s decades of experience, instinct, and knowing how to react when everything goes wrong at once.

The film doesn’t hand‑wave this. It doesn’t ignore it. It builds it into the plot. You can’t call something a plot hole when the plot literally stops to explain it.

And Another Thing…

This is the part people always seem to forget. The drillers aren’t being trained to be astronauts anyway. They’re being trained to be passengers. NASA provides the actual highly trained and experienced astronauts, the people who fly the shuttle, handle the EVA procedures, and stop Steve Buscemi from pressing the wrong button.

Harry and his team are only being trained in:

• how to drill in zero gravity.
• how not to die in space.
• how being kicked in the balls will make you float away in space.

They’re not suddenly expected to pilot the shuttle, calculate orbital trajectories, or perform docking manoeuvres. They’re basically the original version of Katy Perry and those other lasses who went on a space ride a while back, only with more swearing and a higher chance of blowing up an asteroid.

Conclusion: Not a Plot Hole

So no, this isn’t a plot hole. It’s not even a nit-pick. It’s a behind‑the‑scenes anecdote that people have mistaken for a logical flaw. Real‑world logic (kind of) supports it. The film outright addresses and explains it. And the only person who comes out of this looking slightly silly is Ben Affleck, which, to be fair, being silly is part of the charm of Armageddon.