Monday, November 23, 2009

The center of attention: The Core(2003)

What with Roland Emmerich's "end of the world" disaster film 2012 playing in theaters right now I got to thinking about some of my own personal favorite disaster movies. One that comes to mind is The Core, released to theaters back in 2003 by Paramount, the film directed by Jon Amiel and loosely based on a novel authored by Paul Preuss called "Core". This movie didn't blow me away but it had some interesting visual effects and storyline.

In The Core, a secret government project to weaponize an earthquake making device inadvertently causes the Earth's molten core to stop spinning. The molten core's rotation is what provides our planet with the protective electromagnetic field that blocks out harmful cosmic and solar radiation. Without the core's rotation, scientists declare that the Earth will be incinerated by cosmic rays.

Scientists and the military forum and devise a plan to re-start the planet's molten core using nuclear weapons, this nuclear payload delivered by way of one scientists' special ship which will be fitted with a drill and special alloy to withstand the tremendous temperatures at the Earth's core. The ship, called "Virgil", begins it's descent into the Earth's mantle after being launched into the Marianas Trench in the Pacific ocean. From here the fate of the Earth rests in the hands of the small group of scientists and Air Force officer who have been tasked with piloting the "Virgil" to the planet's core, deploy and detonate 1000 megatons of nuclear bombs and somehow make it back to the surface...(no other spoilers)




The film's trailer:



To see this movie for sale on Region 1 DVD click the DVD cover art image above or click the title of this blog entry.