The Core

After 32 people mysteriously drop dead in Boston, the U.S. government calls in scientists Dr. Joshua "Josh" Keyes and Dr. Serge Leveque. They determine that each person had a pacemaker and that electrical interference has caused them to malfunction. Other incidents involving the Earth's magnetic field lead Josh and Dr. Conrad Zimsky to the conclusion that the Earth's inner core has stopped rotating. Unless it is restarted, the magnetic field will continue to degrade and eventually collapse, exposing the Earth to devastating solar radiation. The U.S. government devises a plan to detonate nuclear weapons within the Earth's outer core to restart the rotation. They bring on Zimsky's former partner, Dr. Ed "Braz" Brazzelton, to build a vessel to deliver the bombs. The vessel, named Virgil, is made of unobtainium, a material that Braz developed to withstand extreme pressure. NASA pilots Commander Robert Iverson and Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs are enlisted to pilot Virgil and computer hacker Theodore Donald "Rat" Finch is brought on to avoid general panic by keeping news of further disasters and Virgil's mission off the internet. Virgil is launched through the Marianas Trench and enters the crust using a laser-based drilling array. After entering the mantle, Virgil drills and falls into a gigantic empty geode, damaging the drilling array. While working to free the vessel from the outside, Iverson is killed by a falling shard. They escape before the geode is flooded with magma. As Virgil passes through a field of diamond formations, one of them breaches the compartment housing the weapons-control module. Serge sacrifices himself to get the team the information and tools they need to detonate the nukes before the compartment is sealed and jettisoned. The team reaches the outer core and realizes that it is much less dense than previously believed, meaning that their nuclear payload is too small for their current plan. Zimsky shares this with mission leader Lieutenant General Thomas Purcell and reveals to the team his work on DESTINI, a U.S. tectonic weapon that likely stopped the core's rotation. Purcell orders them to return, as he plans to try to use DESTINI to restart the core. However, Josh argues that doing so could permanently destabilize it and trigger massive natural disasters. The team elects to continue over Zimsky and Purcell's objections. A burst of ultraviolet rays destroys the Golden Gate Bridge and causes power outages along the West Coast. Concerned about further power outages preventing DESTINI from being fired, Purcell gives the order to do so. Josh communicates with Rat about DESTINI and the latter prevents Purcell from firing the weapon by redirecting power away from it. The team devises a plan to place a bomb in each of Virgil's remaining compartments, jettison them, and stagger the detonations, using constructive wave interference to increase the force of the bombs. Braz sacrifices himself, going into the uncooled crawlspace of the ship and activating the control so they can manually detach compartments. As they set the charges, Josh and Zimsky realize that the last bomb needs more explosive power than the others. The bomb in the second-to-last compartment falls on Zimsky's leg and he is unable to escape before the compartment is ejected. Josh uses the nuclear fuel rods from Virgil's reactor to provide the additional energy for the final detonation. The main compartment is left powerless as the bombs begin to detonate, killing Zimsky, and successfully restarting the core's rotation. Josh recalls that unobtainium can convert heat and pressure to energy and the two restore Virgil's power in time to ride the pressure wave from the explosions out of the core. Eventually they breach the ocean floor near Hawaii, but lose power due to the cold water. Purcell and the U.S. Navy search for them until Rat realizes that the Virgil crew is using low-power ultrasound to draw whales to them, leading to Josh and Beck being rescued. Shortly afterward, Rat uploads information about Virgil, its team, and DESTINI to the internet, leading to worldwide news reports and tributes to the lost team members. ==Cast==

• Aaron Eckhart as Dr. Joshua "Josh" Keyes, a professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago who designs the navigation system for Virgil and is assigned as head of the project. • Hilary Swank as Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs, USAF, 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. • Delroy Lindo as Dr. Edward "Braz" Brazzelton, the designer of Virgil and the ultrasonic lasers. • Stanley Tucci as Dr. Conrad Zimsky, Earth specialist and designer of Project DESTINI, based in Alaska. • Tcheky Karyo as Dr. Serge Leveque, nuclear weapons specialist, and colleague and friend of Dr. Keyes. • Bruce Greenwood as Commander 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. • Alfre Woodard as Dr. Talma "Stick" Stickley, the mission controller for NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour and Virgil. • Richard Jenkins as Lieutenant General Thomas Purcell, U.S. Army, leader of the operation. • Fred Ewanuick as Endeavour Flight Engineer Jenkins ==Production==

The Core began development in the late 1990s under producer David Foster for Paramount Pictures and was one of several Journey to the Center of the Earth inspired projects in development at the time along with Inner Earth at 20th Century Fox and a straight adaptation of the novel at Walt Disney Pictures. Initially Peter Hyams had been announced to be in final negotiations to direct. That same month, it was also announced that Aaron Eckhart had signed on to star in the film with co-star Hilary Swank joining the following month in October. The Core had out-to-sea scenes, featuring the , with full support of the US Navy. The original plan for the shuttle landing scene had been for Endeavour to attempt a landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) with the shuttle coming to a halt on the nearby beaches. However, due to the events of September 11, 2001, the crew was not allowed to film at LAX. The scene was therefore rewritten with Endeavour landing in the L.A. River. ==Reception==

The Core garnered mixed reviews from critics. On Metacritic, another aggregation website, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100 based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. In his review, Roger Ebert 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 Several reviews cited the numerous scientific inaccuracies in the film. Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times 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 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 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 was leading a campaign to get more real science into science-fiction movies. Hoffman is on the advisory board of the Science & Entertainment Exchange, an initiative of the United States National Academy of Sciences, 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. On February 21, 2010, The Guardian 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 [the coherent rules of science] you 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". ==See also==