| The Core | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jon Amiel |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | John Lindley |
| Edited by | Terry Rawlings |
| Music by | Christopher Young |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 135 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $85 million[1] |
| Box office | $74.1 million[1] |
The Core is a 2003 Americanscience fictiondisaster film directed byJon Amiel and starringAaron Eckhart,Hilary Swank,Delroy Lindo,Stanley Tucci,D. J. Qualls,Richard Jenkins,Tcheky Karyo,Bruce Greenwood, andAlfre Woodard.
The film focuses on a team whose mission is to drill to the center of the Earth and set off a series ofnuclear explosions in order to restart the rotation of theEarth's core.
The film was released on March 28, 2003, byParamount Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $74 million worldwide with a production budget of $85 million.
Several small, disparate incidents involving theEarth's magnetic field cause geophysicist Dr. Josh Keyes and scientists Dr. Serge Leveque and Dr. Conrad Zimsky to conclude that theEarth's molten core has somehow stopped rotating. Unless restarted, the field is set to collapse within months, exposing the surface to devastatingsolar radiation.
TheU.S. government backs a secret project to build a vessel to drill to the core and releasenuclear weapons to restart the rotation. They utilize the work of Dr. Ed "Braz" Brazzelton who has developed "Unobtainium", a material that can withstand the extreme pressure and convert intense heat into electricity, as well as a laser-based high-speed drilling array.
NASA pilotsCommander Robert Iverson andMajor Rebecca "Beck" Childs are enlisted to pilot the multi-compartment vesselVirgil, while computerhacker Theodore Donald "Rat" Finch is brought on to both keep news of the pending disaster and their attempt to restart the core off the Internet.
Virgil is launched through theMarianas Trench and makes its way through thecrust. While traversing themantle, the team accidentally drills through a gigantic emptygeode structure, damaging the lasers when it lands at its base. As they traverse outside the ship to free the vessel, the geode is flooded with magma, and Iverson is killed by a falling shard. The rest return in time asVirgil continues its descent.
Further down, asVirgil passes through a field of enormousdiamond formations, one of them breaches the last compartment housing the detonation timers for thenuclear charges. Leveque sacrifices himself to ensure the others have the charges and launch codes before the compartment is crushed.
The team reaches the molten core and realizes it is muchless dense than previously believed, throwing off their calculations on restarting its motions. Communicating with the surface, overseer of the operation Lieutenant General Thomas Purcell, 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 theVirgil team and learns that this secondary protocol is the top-secret project DESTINI (Deep Earth Seismic Trigger INItiative).
Keyes discovers Zimsky was a lead scientist on DESTINI, a U.S.tectonic weapon that, when first tested, accidentally stopped the core's rotation. Finch redirects power from DESTINI to prevent Purcell from reactivating it, as Keyes fears that could destroy the Earth instead of restarting the core. Meanwhile, destructive events, including alightning storm inRome and a burst ofultraviolet rays that destroys theGolden Gate Bridge, alert the world to the situation despite Finch's best efforts to keep the bad news from becoming public knowledge.
OnVirgil, the remaining team plans to place a bomb in each of the remaining compartments, jettison them, and time their detonations in an exact sequence to trigger the core's rotation through constructivewave interference, where the force of each blast will push against the next. However, the override mechanism to permit detachment of each compartment is located externally and Brazzelton dies in sacrificing himself to engage it.
As they set the charges, Keyes and Zimsky realize that they needmore explosive power than previously thought and in their race to adjust timings, Zimsky becomes trapped in a detached compartment. Keyes usesVirgil'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 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 towards the surface throughtectonic plates, eventually breaching into the ocean floor nearHawaii. Due to the cold waterVirgil no longer has power to establish communications. The government searches for them, and Finch, tracking nearbywhale sound, realizes that theVirgil crew are using low-powerultrasound to draw whales nearby. Keyes and Childs are soon rescued.
In the aftermath, Finch uploads information aboutVirgil and its team and the classified information about DESTINI across the Internet, causing the world to revere the crew as heroes.
The Core began development in the late 1990s under producerDavid Foster forParamount Pictures and was one of severalJourney to the Center of the Earth inspired projects in development at the time along withInner Earth at20th Century Fox and a straight adaptation of the novel atWalt Disney Pictures.[2] InitiallyPeter Hyams had been announced to be in final negotiations to direct.[2] In September 2001, it was announcedJon Amiel had signed on to direct.[3] That same month, it was announcedAaron Eckhart had signed on to star in the film with co-starHilary Swank joining the following month in October.[4][5]
The Core had out-to-sea scenes, starringUSS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), with full support of theUS Navy.
The original plan for the shuttle landing scene had been forEndeavour to attempt a landing atLos Angeles International Airport with the shuttle coming to a halt on the nearby beaches. However, due to the events ofSeptember 11, 2001, the crew was not allowed to film at LAX. The scene was therefore rewritten withEndeavour landing in the L.A. River.
The Core garnered mixed reviews from critics. On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 39% of 160 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "A B-movie with its tongue planted firmly in cheek,The Core is so unintentionally (intentionally?) bad that it's a hoot."[6] OnMetacritic, another aggregation website, the film has aweighted average score of 48 out of 100 based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7] 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."[8]
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[1] against a production budget of $85 million.[1]
Several reviews cited the numerous scientific inaccuracies in the film.[9][10][11]Elvis Mitchell ofThe New York Times said: "The brazen silliness ofThe 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."[12]Kenneth Turan of theLos Angeles Times was a little more forgiving, saying: "IfThe 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 calledunobtainium can't be dismissed out of hand."[13]
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 shipVirgil."[14]
On March 30, 2009, it was reported thatDustin Hoffman was leading a campaign to get more real science into science-fiction movies. Hoffman is on the advisory board of theScience & Entertainment Exchange, an initiative of theUnited 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 inThe Core.[15]
In a poll of hundreds of scientists about bad science fiction films,The Core was voted the worst.[15]
On February 21, 2010,The Guardian ran an article about American professorSidney Perkowitz's proposals to curb bad science in science fiction movies. In the article, Perkowitz is said to have hatedThe 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".[16]
