''The Core'' is a 2003 American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

disaster film A disaster film or disaster movie is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters may include natural disasters, accidents, military/ terrorist attacks or global catastrophes s ...

directed by

Jon Amiel Jon Amiel (born 20 May 1948) is an English director who has worked in film and television in both the UK and the US. After receiving a BAFTA Award nomination for the BBC series ''The Singing Detective'' (1986), he went on to direct films, inclu ...

and starring Aaron Eckhart,

Hilary Swank Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American actress and film producer. She first became known in 1992 for her role on the television series '' Camp Wilder'' and made her film debut with a minor role in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1992 ...

Delroy Lindo Delroy George Lindo (born 18 November 1952) is an English-American actor. He is the recipient of such accolades as a NAACP Image Award, a Satellite Award, and nominations for a Drama Desk Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a Tony Award, two Critics' C ...

Stanley Tucci Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's '' Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in fil ...

, D. J. Qualls,

Richard Jenkins Richard Dale Jenkins (born May 4, 1947) is an American actor who is well known for his portrayal of deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series '' Six Feet Under'' (2001–2005). He began his career in theater at the Tri ...

, Tcheky Karyo,

Bruce Greenwood Stuart Bruce Greenwood (born August 12, 1956) is a Canadian actor and producer. He is known for his role as the American president John F. Kennedy in '' Thirteen Days,'' for which he won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion ...

, and

Alfre Woodard Alfre Woodard (; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards (tying the record for the most acting Emmys won by an African-American performer, along with Regina King), ...

. The film focuses on a team whose mission is to drill to the center of the Earth and set off a series of nuclear explosions in order to restart the rotation of the Earth's core. The film was released on March 28, 2003, by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $74 million worldwide with a production budget of $85 million.

Plot

Several small, disparate incidents involving the

Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magneti ...

cause scientists led by

geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

Dr. Josh Keyes and scientists Dr. Serge Leveque and Dr. Conrad Zimsky to conclude that the Earth's molten core has stopped rotating. Unless it can be restarted, the field will collapse within months, exposing the surface to devastating

solar radiation Solar irradiance is the power per unit area ( surface power density) received from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range of the measuring instrument. Solar irradiance is measured in watts per square metre ...

. The U.S. government back a secret project to build a vessel that can drill to the core and release

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

s to restart the rotation. They utilize the work of Dr. Ed "Braz" Brazzelton who has developed a material "

Unobtainium Unobtainium is a term used in fiction, engineering, and common situations for a material ideal for a particular application but impractically hard to get. Unobtainium originally referred to materials that do not exist at all, but can also be used ...

" that can withstand and convert extreme heat into electricity, as well as a laser-based high-speed drilling array.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

pilots

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

Robert Iverson and

Major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

Rebecca "Beck" Childs are enlisted to pilot the multi-compartment vessel ''USS Virgil'', while computer

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

Theodore Donald "Rat" Finch is brought on to keep news of the pending disaster or the attempt to restart the core from the Internet. ''Virgil'' is launched through the

Marianas Trench The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maximum known ...

and successfully makes its way through the crust. The team accidentally drills through a gigantic empty geode structure, damaging the lasers when it lands at its base. As they traverse outside the ship to free the vessel from the crystalline structures, the geode starts to flood with magma, and Iverson is impaled by a falling shard and falls into the magma. The rest manage to return in time as ''Virgil'' continues its descent. Further down, they pass through a field of gigantic

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

formations, one of which breaches the last compartment housing the detonation timers for the nuclear charges. Leveque sacrifices himself to make sure that the others have the charges and launch codes before the compartment is crushed by the extreme pressure. The team reaches the molten core and realizes it is much less dense than previously thought, throwing off their calculations on restarting its motions. They communicate with the surface, where Lieutenant General Thomas Purcell, overseeing the operation, orders them to abandon the effort and return immediately as they plan to use a secondary protocol to restart the core. Finch is secretly communicating with the ''Virgil'' team and learns that this secondary protocol is the top-secret project "DESTINI" (Deep Earth Seismic Trigger INItiative). Keyes finds that Zimsky was a lead scientist on "DESTINI," a tectonic weapon intended to be used by the U.S. but, when first tested, had caused the core's rotation to stop. Finch redirects power from DESTINI to prevent Purcell from activating it again, as Keyes fears that it could destroy the Earth instead of restarting the core. Meanwhile, destructive events, including a

lightning storm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and a burst of

ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...

rays that destroys the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

, alert the world to the situation. On ''Virgil'', the remaining team comes up with a plan to place an explosive in each of the remaining compartments, release them, and time their detonations in an exact sequence to trigger the core's rotation through constructive wave interference. Due to the faulty design of ''Virgil'' because of time constraints, Brazzelton has to sacrifice himself to engage the compartment detachment mechanism in the vessel's underbelly. As they set the charges, Keyes and Zimsky realize that they need more explosive power than previously thought and in their race to adjust timings, Zimsky becomes trapped in a detached compartment. Keyes uses ''Virgil''s nuclear power source to provide the additional energy for the final detonation. While it leaves the main compartment powerless and Keyes and Childs trapped, the other explosions successfully restart the core's rotation. Keyes recalls that the unobtainium shell can convert the heat and pressure to energy, and the two of them wire the shell directly to their systems in time to power the craft and ride the pressure wave out of the core and up towards the surface through

tectonic plates Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large ...

, eventually breaching into the floor of the ocean near

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. Due to the much lower heat and pressure in this environment, ''Virgil'' no longer has sufficient power to establish communications. The government searches for them, and Finch, tracking nearby whale sound, realizes that the ''Virgil'' crew are using low-power

ultrasound Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies ...

to draw whales nearby. Keyes and Childs are soon rescued. In the aftermath, Finch uploads information about ''Virgil'' and its team and the classified information about "DESTINI" across the Internet, causing the world to revere the crew as heroes.

Cast

* Aaron Eckhart as Dr. Joshua "Josh" Keyes, a scientist and professor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

who designs the navigation system for ''Virgil'' and is assigned as head of the project. *

Rebecca "Beck" Childs,

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

, an astronaut who distinguished herself during an emergency crash landing of the Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' in Los Angeles, California, a result of the magnetic instability. *

as Dr. Edward "Braz" Brazzelton, the designer of ''Virgil'' and the ultrasonic lasers. *

as Dr. Conrad Zimsky, Earth specialist and designer of Project D.E.S.T.INI., based in Alaska. He went on high alert after the magnetic instability caused an attack in Trafalgar Square by an enormous flock of pigeons. * Tcheky Karyo as Dr. Serge Leveque, nuclear weapons specialist. *

Robert "Bob" Iverson, USN, Major Childs' commander and mentor. * D. J. Qualls as Theodore Donald "Rat" Finch, a computer hacker who is widely regarded as the best in the world, crippled the FBI's database, recruited to control the flow of information on the Internet to prevent public panic. *

as Dr. Talma "Stick" Stickley, the mission controller for

Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' and ''Virgil''. *

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on th ...

Thomas Purcell,

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, leader of the operation. * Fred Ewanvick as ''Endeavor'' Flight Engineer Jenkins

Production

''The Core'' had out-to-sea scenes, starring , with full support of the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. The original plan for the shuttle landing scene had been for ''Endeavour'' to attempt a landing at

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the ...

with the shuttle coming to a halt on the nearby beaches. However, due to the events of

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

, the crew was not allowed to film at LAX. The scene was therefore rewritten with ''Endeavour'' landing in the LA river.

Reception

''The Core'' garnered mixed reviews from critics. It has a 40% approval rating based on 157 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10, on the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

; the site's consensus states, "A B-movie with its tongue planted firmly in cheek, ''The Core'' is so unintentionally (intentionally?) bad that it's a hoot." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, another aggregation website, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 48 out of 100 based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In his review,

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film two and a half stars out of four and said "I have such an unreasonable affection for this movie, indeed, that it is only by slapping myself alongside the head and drinking black coffee that I can restrain myself from recommending it." The film grossed $31.1 million in United States theaters, and another $43.0 million overseas for a total worldwide gross of $74.1 million against a production budget of $85 million.The Numbers.com
/ref> Several reviews cited the numerous scientific inaccuracies in the film.

Elvis Mitchell Elvis Mitchell (born December 6, 1958) is an American film critic, host of the public radio show ''The Treatment'', and visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He has served as a film critic for the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'', the ''LA Weekly ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said, "The brazen silliness of ''The Core'' is becalming and inauthentic, like taking a bath in nondairy coffee creamer. The Earth core's inability to turn is mirrored in the cast's inability to give the picture any spin." Kenneth Turan of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' was a little more forgiving, saying, "If ''The Core'' finally has to be classified as a mess, it is an enjoyable one if you're in a throwback mood. After all, a film that comes up with a rare metal called

unobtainium Unobtainium is a term used in fiction, engineering, and common situations for a material ideal for a particular application but impractically hard to get. Unobtainium originally referred to materials that do not exist at all, but can also be used ...

can't be dismissed out of hand." In response to criticism of his screenplay's lack of scientific realism, screenwriter John Rogers responded that he tried to make the science accurate, but expended three years fighting "to get rid of the ... dinosaurs, magma-walks in 'space-suits', bullshit-sci-crap sources for the Earth's crisis, and a windshield for the ship ''Virgil''." On March 30, 2009, it was reported that

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is th ...

was leading a campaign to get more real science into science-fiction movies. Hoffman is on the advisory board of the

Science & Entertainment Exchange The Science & Entertainment Exchange is a program run and developed by the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to increase public awareness, knowledge, and understanding of science and advanced science technology through its represe ...

, an initiative of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the N ...

, intended to foster collaborations between scientists and entertainment industry professionals in order to minimize inaccurate representations of science and technology such as those found in ''The Core''. In a poll of hundreds of scientists about bad science fiction films, ''The Core'' was voted the

worst The Worst or Worst may refer to: * ''The Worst'', a 1997 album by Sarcófago, or its title track * ''The Worst'', a 2000 album by Tech N9ne, or its title track * ''The Worst'', a 2004 EP by Lower Class Brats, or its title track * "The Worst" (On ...

. On February 21, 2010, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' ran an article about American professor Sidney Perkowitz's proposals to curb bad science in science fiction movies. In the article, Perkowitz is said to have hated ''The Core''. "If you violate he coherent rules of scienceyou are in trouble. The chances are that the public will pick it up and that is what matters to Hollywood. ''The Core'' did not make money because people understood the science was so out to lunch," he added.

References

External links

* * * * *
Review of The physics of ''The Core''
at

Bad Astronomy ''Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"'' is a non-fiction book by the American astronomer Phil Plait, also known as "the Bad Astronomer". The book was published in 2002 and deals with vario ...