The Core
Tags: psychedelic

Plot synopsis:
After a series of strange events around the world connected by variances in the Earth's electromagnetic field, scientists, led by Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart), a geology professor, and Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci) and egotistical researcher, discover that the Earth's rotating molten core is slowly coming to a stop; without its movement, the electromagnetic field around the earth will disappear, exposing the surface to unfiltered solar radiation and will incinerate anything or anyone exposed to it. Keyes and Zimsky are charged to find a way to restart the core, which requires traveling deep into the Earth and setting off nuclear charges to induce rotational force.While in it's re-entry procedure, the crew of the space shuttle Endeavor find themselves several miles off course. Instead of being aligned with Edwards Air Force Base, they are heading directly for downtown Los Angeles. The shuttle makes an emergency landing in the L.A. River, avoiding a catastrophic accident. Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs (Hilary Swank) was the navigator for the mission and is nearly court-martialed before it's determined that she performed her duties perfectly and that the strange magnetic anomalies around the world were responsibleKeyes and Zimsky seek the help of Dr. Serge Leveque (Tchéky Karyo), a weapons expert, and Ed "Braz" Brazzelton (Delroy Lindo). Brazzelton reveals a means of not only drilling through the Earth at high speeds using a series of high-powered lasers, but also has devised a material, "unobtainium", which is capable of withstanding the pressures deep inside the planet as well as generating energy from them. Keyes himself works to create a means to visualize their path through rock structures via x-rays. To avoid creating a worldwide panic, an expert hacker, Theodore Donald Finch (DJ Qualls), known by his hacking handle "Rat", is found by an FBI agent (John Shaw) and is brought to monitor the Internet and erase any rumors to the potential fate of the planet. However, there is a hint that the Army is hiding the real reason of the impending catastrophe.The team constructs a snake-like ship named Virgil made up of several compartments that will be launched over the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest such area on Earth. Keyes, Zimsky, Leveque, and Brazzelton are joined by Commander Robert Iverson (Bruce Greenwood) and Beck, who will pilot the ship.The launch goes successfully and the team finds their equipment is working to expectations as they begin their descent. After successful descent on the 700 miles depth, they run into a snag when they breach a gigantic geode-like structure, damaging the laser drilling device. Keyes and Zimsky find out that they are in fact inside a cobalt cocoon full of amethyst. During the repairs, Iverson is killed by falling crystal shards leaving Beck to pilot the ship to the Earth's core. They repair the ship and escape just before the geode collapses and lava pours in.As they dive further, a large diamond breaches the hull of the last compartment where Leveque is preparing the nuclear devices for activation; he sacrifices himself to make sure that Keyes has the launch codes as the compartment, no longer able to withstand the pressure, is crushed. When they finally breach the molten core, the team performs a series of calculations and find that their original plan would fail to restart the core due to unexpected physical property differences concerning density of the fluid. The team calculates that they can still restart the core by decoupling each compartment of Virgil at precise positions, timing the nuclear devices in each to go off to obtain the best force they can impart to the core. However, in order to separate the individual compartments, one member will have to enter the open area at the front of Virgil, which is exposed directly to the heat of the molten core and likely will not survive. Brazzelton offers to do so and sacrifices himself to the cause, successfully throwing the switch.Meanwhile, on the surface, the public become aware of problems after a lightning superstorm appears over Rome and destroys the Colosseum and a patch of unfiltered sunlight over San Francisco melts the Golden Gate Bridge. Rat is unable to stop the release of the news, but learns of a device called "D.E.S.T.I.N.I." (Deep Earth Seismic Trigger Initiative), the news of which he relays to Keyes. Keyes learns that the DESTINI project was an attempt to propagate earthquakes through Earth's core as a weapon, but instead was the cause for stopping its rotation, and that Zimsky was a critical figure behind its design. Zimsky reveals that the government will attempt to use the device again to try to restart the core, which could have disastrous results.Keyes gets Rat to disable the power to the device while they attempt to plot the proper locations for the detonations, long enough for the Virgil team to detach each compartment, planting the nuclear devices at key points in the molten core. While Keyes and Zimsky activate the bombs, they realise that the blast won't be effective enough so they decide to restart the timers. While they do so, Zimsky is trapped in one of the compartments and must be left behind by Keyes and Childs. Before the compartment with Zimsky is disconnected, he reveals to Keyes that the explosion can be effective only if he uses the Virgil's fuel core to increase the blast power of the last bomb. While the timer for the nuclear explosions ticks down, the two find they are within the blast radius of the devices, and are forced to rig the ship, using the power generated by the unobtainium, to move themselves out of the way in time.As they speed out of the core, the series of nuclear explosions goes off successfully restarting the core's rotation. Keyes and Childs are able to safely make it to the ocean floor in Virgil but without heat, they are unable to get to the surface. However, their position is found by the military by tracking whalesong singing over their ship. Shortly after they are recovered, Rat, through Keyes' directive, releases full information of Project DESTINI and of their mission to the Internet, which reveals the truth to all, and ensures that Iverson, Serge, Braz, and Zimsky are not forgotten, but rather lauded as heroes.

Review: Well, if you want to find out (and have a few laughs in between) all you need to do is watch 'The Core'...Yes, it's stupid, yes, it makes no sense, yes, the science is flawed, and yes, it's impossible.
At any rate, the world's leading scientists, commissioned by the military (it wouldn't be a Save the Planet from Imminent Destruction without our pals in the movie military), figure out that the core's stopped rotating, and that Something Must Be Done to get it going again.Ah, but what?
This handy little thing is just the cure, so a crew is hastily assembled: Commander Iverson (Bruce Greenwood), Major Beck Childs (Hilary Swank), Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart), Dr. Serge Leveque (Tcheky Karyo), Dr. Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci), and Dr. Ed Brazzelton.Like such doomsday movies as Armageddon, what The Core has going for it are likeable characters and a lot of nifty FX.
How does The Core compare?Well, if I hadn't seen Armageddon, I might have liked this film more, which is not to say that it's a weaker movie, just that the disaster formula plays out in much the same way so there's a sense of deja vu hanging over the proceedings.
The Core is a solid action-adventure/disaster flick with a novel idea and a great cast.
Just Fun. A really nice way to spend an afternoon, The Core does not pretend to be a huge Sci-Fi mega movie, but rather a pretty good romp with some pretty nice special effects (the birds, the Golden Gate Bridge, etc.) and even like to poke at itself.I love Sci-Fi movies where the professor or the hot-shot pilot don't have all the answers and yes, there are holes in this film that you could drive cities through, but really, who cares?Sit back, munch on that popcorn, sip on that soda, and have just fun with this predictable, simple, yet enjoyable movie..
I mean, assuming the director is given $50 million or so, competent actors, and a halfway-decent script, what would the film look like if he/she REALLY didn't know what he/she was doing?
I think that film would look a lot like "The Core."From the preview stage, this movie was on my "might see it but not pay for it" list, so I just now caught it on cable.
The comic relief generally works ("I'm going to need Xena tapes and lots of Hot Pockets"), and the plot is no more ridiculous than, say, "The Day After Tomorrow" (though it is slightly LESS ridiculous-- at least this movie attempts to offer a cause for the problem, however unlikely).I remember watching "Entrapment," another John Amiel film, and thinking it was, in a word, awful.
poor special effects during the space shuttle landing that could easily have been fixed with model work or different camera angles; birds going crazy and smacking into buildings look exactly like someone tossed a dummy against a building, then the editor cut it as close as possible.
I wonder what an Ed Wood movie would have looked like, if someone had given THAT guy $50 million?Characters die with clockwork predictability, and my only problem with the resolution was the actors were TOO good.
They play geniuses, the absolute best in their fields, so when the movie ends I wanted to spend more time with them, see what incredible problems, discoveries, adventures they had next.
Well wait around because they'll hopefully be a disaster around the corner that will appeal to you It's never explained in any convincing detail how the Earth's core stopping spinning can cause these effects but we're talking about a Hollywood movie not some theory put forward by Stephen Hawking .
Unlikely events do happen in Hollywood movies as if you hadn't noticed so when people criticise this movie as being " Dumb " they're perhaps taking life a little too seriously For what it is - A dumb movie with special effects and an action adventure concept - THE CORE certainly succeeds .
We're shown a ballsy heroine played by Hilary Swank who can actually act and unlike say the very similar Armageddon we don't have to put up with macho American flag waving at every opportunity .If you're looking for an entertaining pop corn movie THE CORE should do the trick.
The only people that could stop it is a disparate group of individuals who must travel to the center of the earth and set off some nuclear warheads.It's a good excuse to blow up all the world's best places.
It's scientifically ridiculous, but this variant of Fantastic Voyage at least tries to be credible as it plunges deep into the earth's inner core, where a formulaic team of experts pilot an earth-boring ship to jump-start the planet's spinning molten interior, now stalled by a military secret that could seal the fate of all humankind.
It's a geophysicist's wet dream that only a fine ensemble cast could rescue from absurdity, and director Jon Amiel (Entrapment, Copycat) draws excellent work (and plenty of humorous interplay) from Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, and a host of memorable supporting players, especially The New Guy's D.J. Qualls as the world's greatest Cyb-nerd.
So if you follow me so far, here's my brief review of The Core.My reactions to the various big budget disaster movies of recent years have been varied.
My expectations were low going into "The Core" because the trailer, while interesting, still made the movie look like major cheese potential.
The special effects and sets are excellent, the actors are all good, and the story was not nearly as hokey as I thought it would be.Aaron Eckhart, Hillary Swank and Stanley Tucci are all pretty respectable actors, and they give the movie the substance that it may have otherwise lacked.
I figured that anyone audacious enough to cook up an eco-fable like this would have checked his science so as to make the movie more believable, but apparently I was wrong according to the legion of IMDb reviewers who have savaged this film.This film reminded me a bit of the 1966 film "Fantastic Voyage," in which a group of scientists and their craft are shrunk to the size of a microbe and injected into the body of a scientist (or was it a diplomat?) who has been wounded in an assassination attempt, in a race against time to save his life.
(Unfortunately, every time I saw Jenkins, I was distracted by memories of his hilarious performance as Walter Wingfield in "Say It Isn't So.") I will say one thing in this film's defense: As absurd as it may be, and as uninspired in terms of plot, characterization, visual effects and believability, it did keep me watching to find out what would happen next all the way to the end..
The scenes that added depth to the characters were cut, leaving only the vestiges of a run of the mill catastrophe science fiction movie.And it's wonderful the special effects people are proud of the work they've done but as viewers we're not interested so much in that as we want to have something pleasurable to watch.And that's where this turkey fails..
Certainly nobody had, at that time, seriously expected people thousands of miles under the ocean, walking through caverns to the middle of the earth or to be shot to the moon with big cannons...As in Star Trek they make something up which sounds cool and (at most times) fit into the story but not in our scientific point of view.
But even including the predictability, all this doesn't diminish the entertaining potential of this film - it is certainly not a comedy but with more self-mockery than Armageddon, which is a good sign.If you know what to expect you won't be disappointed.
Stupid actions of the protagonists take turns with the movie presenting hilarious effects of mother earth going bonkers (mostly by ignoring all laws of physics).
But again, when Mr. Scientist explains what is going on in the first part of the movie, he makes it really, really easy (not to say primitive) to understand the basic physics behind the idea of the film.
The plot sounds exciting and this could have been a good disaster type flick Unfortunately it wasn't as this film was pretty boring.
In the end, The Core is a pretty bad film and it fails to entertain.
The actors are all having a blast,playing it straight for the most part,their fun translates to the audience,but never over the top.The effects are capable,the story ridiculous,but who cares,a more fun disaster movie is not too easy to find,it certainly is a 'guilty pleasure' type of flick,and some days,that's all you want to see..
The cast was as good as it can be in this kind of disaster movie, especially Stanley Tucci as Zimsky, who clearly had lots of fun with his role.
The last thing we need is another sci-fi movie based on bad science.As a geologist, I have viewed THE CORE and I believe that the film is not as awful as I had feared.
Very seldomly do I root for natural disasters to triumph, especially when they involve the demise of an entire planet, ours----our planet Earth, but to watch this movie and feel anything less than complete and total desire to have it all end, to just be over with, to just STOP!
So bad that it's thoroughly entertaining.The special effects are OK, sometimes they are quite good and they are always sufficient for the film's needs.
The film is a big budget maximum special effects science fiction disaster thriller which was so common in the Seventies.
She gets to work with hunky Aaron Eckhardt in saving the planet whose magma core has stopped its own rotation, causing all kinds of strange disasters all over the globe.Swank is the pilot, Eckhardt a scientist and Delroy Lindo the designer of a prototype machine for exploring the inner reaches of the earth and the high temperatures it has.
That's the plan, but there's a lot going both within her crew and up top at the command center where people have some conflicting agendas.I liked the special effect very much and the film keeps the tension going throughout.
In an attempt to kick-start the core a team of scientists are put together to launch a daring mission to the earth's core.By the time this film was made and released in the UK, the apocalyptic disaster movie bandwagon had pretty much passed and been forgotten; as a result I don't think it did that well at the box office and I didn't bother to give it a look.
Whereas Armageddon and Deep Impact had a clear, easy to understand problem, The Core requires the total suspension of belief - a problem that takes away from every line of dialogue.The effects are good but the problems experienced in the inside of the earth are not as interesting as those experienced, say, in space.
The film has several scenes of destruction at various points around the earth but these are weak compared to other sci-fi disaster movies.
That said, it is a strength of the film that there are no obvious stars so, at the start, you're not sure who will die and who will live - however in reality if you guessed you'd probably be right.The effects are good but, because the core of the earth is not as much a part of reality in the same way as space is, the effects don't have that much of an impact even if they do look good.
Extravagant special effects are the true stars of this overcooked doomsday sci-fi actioner a la Irwin Allen when it is discovered that the earth's core is in the stages of stopping its revolution whereby all mankind will be destroyed and a motley crew of scientists and 'terranauts' converge to burrow into the bowels of the planet in a make-shift vessel to save the day.
Lately earth killing movies have gotten creative and lets face it stupid, global warming (The Day after Tomorrow), President George W Bush (Fahrenheit 911) and now The Core with it's well I'm still not sure what broke.
The critics who jumped all over this movie and dumped on it for having an 'unbelievable premise' and bad science seem to have forgotten the real important aspect of an escapist science fiction/adventure film like "The Core".
I'd say that the effort and polish that went into this movie lift make it a better movie than any brief description of the plot can cover."The Core" has been compared to "Armageddeon" with good reason, although one other reviewer was very astute in that it actually is much closer in feel to "Fantastic Voyage".
It's not going to insult your intelligence like Armageddon did and the science holds up in the movie more so then The Day After Tomorrow did.
Overall a very good cast to go with the movie too with Eckhart, Swank, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, Richard Jenkins, DJ Qualls and Bruce Greenwood.It's not a movie that's going to win a Best Picture by any means but at the same time it isn't a movie that's going to be nominated for a Razzie either, like most of Michael Bay's filmography has been..
Resurrected the Fun in Me. In simple and boring words "The Core" is another movie like "Armageddon" and "Independence Day" where our planet is going to be destroyed and a bunch of people is called to save the Earth.
In more complex and interesting words "The Core" is a very highly entertaining movie where you're going to be taken to a different place where Hollywood almost haven't appeared before: to the center of Earth.Strange and bizarre happenings are starting to damage our planet (birds shocking against statues, people fainting in the middle of business meeting or in the middle of the street, burning bridges).
Another group joins the first group and they start to develop a subterranean machine (something like a space shuttle) that can cross the depth of Earth.The crew is formed by scientists (played by Aaron Eckhart, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, Tcheky Karyo) and two astronauts (Hilary Swank and Bruce Greenwood).
All in all an enjoyable action film with a great cast and a lot of character development..
Two of my favorites are Monolith Monsters and This Island Earth -- movies that are so bad that they're great fun to watch.
And I must say that, despite the absolutely unbelievable plot and effects (just like Armageddon), this movie still manages a fun ride (just like Armageddon) if you can leave your mind out of the viewing process.
Excellent plot and solid scifi story, great special effects, a number of suspenseful moments throughout, this movie seems to have it all.
I was surprised at the amount of character development in this film(not like an art house filmch!], but unstandard in the world of disaster movies).
Hilary Swank, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, DJ Qualls, and Tcheky Karyo all bring their characters life into our eyes before us on the screen, and all so believable.But the main thing about this movie is:  THE VISUAL EFFECTS.
Eckhart, Swank, Lindo, Tucci, Karyo, and Greenwood are a good team as they attempt to save the world from a catastrophe that may or may not be an accident at all.And for those of you who gripe about the scientific accuracy of the film....well if Hollywood can make us believe that Bruce Willis and a bunch of oil drillers can be turned into astronauts in less than two weeks, fly to an asteroid and blow it up a mere 5 seconds before its too late then I'll believe anything that happens in The Core..
For the past ten years i had passed on this film based on what reviews i have heard until recently,when i watched it for the first time.it was an excellent movie,its a sort of remake of the ultra low budget;unknown world from the 1950's.but more high tech with great acting led by Hillary Swank.and then there's Stanley Tucci playing an unlikable character.the rest of the cast is very good.the plot is top notch,and the special effects first rate,hard to believe the critics dismissed this at the 2003 run.the plot rundown is as follows,the earth is threatened by disaster, a college professor,an astronaut,a computer hacker,a scientist,a shuttle commander,and the builder of a inner space craft that is made to borrow into the earths core all band together to save the earth.there's some drama and edge of your seat thrills.all i can say is what a great film,call me crazy but i enjoyed the core.10 out of 10..
Upon reviewing the movie, I enjoyed the following elements:(1) Good cast of characters.
The Core: 6/10I couldn't believe this movie bombed at the box office when I was told the other day, because the concept seemed like a sure seller.
went to see it ,it has the best graphics i have ever seen ,needs to be on an imax screen to get the real feel of the movie,well done production,good action scenes ,exellent screenplay,needs the core 2 to help people out what the science of the earth is, go see it soon and enjoy it.
The special effects are passable and there are plenty of unintentionally funny moments (like a room full of people cheering after the announcement of "We've got central flow!").A dumb film that is pretty forgettable, but the ride itself delivers everything you'd expect.
Stanley Tucci was fun as the arrogant scientist, Hilary Swank is always good, but this time my favorite was Aaron Eckhart; to be convincible with this script, is pretty impressive; plus, he managed to win my sympathy for his character.
In general, The Core is a good movie.
When someone says "a good movie", think The Core.
If you see movies to be entertained (why else would you bother?), I think you'll enjoy "The Core".
:-) Nevertheless I have to say that the characters are played well, there's some good humor in it and the special effects are really great.