A group of scientists – led by Josh Keys (Aaron Eckhart) – are dispatched to travel to the core of Earth in an attempt to kick start the planet’s rotation. Scientists discover that the world’s central core has stopped rotating and is rapidly deteriorating. This has caused the electromagnetic field that surrounds and protects Earth to decay. This in turn means that the resulting ultraviolet rays from the sun can no longer be blocked by Earth’s magnetic fields, causing a cascade of devastating natural disasters.

To Stop the Apocalypse

To stop the apocalypse, scientists must travel to the center of Earth and detonate a device that will reactivate the core. The crew’s journey takes them to the deepest part of the planet, where they launch a series of nuclear bombs to restart the core’s rotation. The team’s vessel, the Virgil, is trapped in the Mariana Trench. The ship can only make it so far before stumbling into the seafloor and sinking to the ocean floor. It is in this icy depth where Virgil’s five nuclear bombs are detonated, each yielding 200 megatons of explosive power.

Despite the film’s overly simplistic premise, The Core manages to be a decent end-of-the-world adventure flick that features decent acting and visual effects. It also has some healthy helpings of witty dialog and moderately well-executed science.

Apocalyptic Disaster Movie

It’s an apocalyptic disaster gomovies that isn’t all that bad to watch, but it’s over-the-top style does have some serious problems. It has too many cliches and it’s a little too episodic at times to keep things interesting. What’s worse, The Core borrows a lot from other apocalyptic movies. It even references the same plot structure of Armageddon, with one character soloing into a deathly situation to save the day.

The Story

The story starts when professor Josh Keys (Aaron Eckhart) learns that the core of the earth has stopped spinning, and that the resulting electromagnetic field is degrading. This has caused pigeons to fly into the windscreens of traditional London cabs, pacemakers to pack up, and wealthy men to drop like 190lb flies.

After Keyes tries to stop the world’s panic, he is informed of a top-secret project called “DESTINI” by a government intelligence officer named Finch (Bruce Greenwood). In an effort to prevent the disaster from spreading throughout the world, Keyes and the rest of his team must deploy DESTINI again, this time in order to restart the core of the earth.

They have less than three months to build a giant drill, train the team, and send them to the center of the Earth. Upon arrival they find that the core is denser than they thought and have to rethink the mission. But, they’re not able to stop the disaster from spreading and once they get back home it becomes clear that the world is going to be destroyed and it won’t be by a single big earthquake. Instead, a series of massive meteors will hit the surface and kill all life as we know it.