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The Core (2003)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 06, 2017 3:45 pm    Post subject: The Core (2003) Reply with quote




This is definitely NOT your grandfather's Journey to the Center of the Earth!

Say whatever you want about this movie, but you can't fault its concept for not having an impressive set of balls. Imagine screenwriters Cooper Layne and John Rogers, along with director Jon Amiel, pitching the concept to the producers.

"The core of the Earth is molten, see, and it has to rotate to create a magnetic field! If it stops, we all die because of the radiation from the sun! So, a team of scientists will invent a drilling machine to carry them into the molten core, and they'll use nukes to jump-start the rotation!"

I'm sure the money men in the corner offices were nodding their heads in solemn agree and thinking what a great idea this was. They liked it enough to pony up $85 million dollars. Unfortunately they only got back $74 million of it, so I'll bet they wished they'd called building security and had those three nut-cakes tossed out the building.

Still, the movie does a good job of presenting its ambitious tale, and the design of the drilling vehicle addresses major concerns, like how the machine creates a tunnel ahead of it while moving at high speeds, and how it survives the increasing pressure.

One of the solutions to these problems was to make the vehicle out of a new super-strong material called . . . unobtainium, a humorous name borrowed by James Cameron for the valuable mineral being mined on Pandora.

The FX are attractive, making good use of CGI, so no one can fault the film for not offering eye candy. And the crash landing of the space shuttle in middle of Los Angeles was pretty awesome!






But the movie critics had little respect for The Core, saying things like, "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."

One thing I learned from the Wikipedia article was the amazingly fact that some folks in Hollywood are bothered by bad science in sci-fi. The Wikipedia article includes this surprising info.

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.

In a poll of hundreds of scientists about bad science fiction films, The Core was voted the worst.


Way to go, Dustin! Maybe there's hope for Hollywood yet.
Very Happy


______________________ The Core - trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have a feeling that any science consultant on a movie gets a strong urge before it wraps to throw his hands up in the air and walk off the set.
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MetroPolly
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2017 6:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And/or bash their heads against a wall.

Or maybe swipe the camera and throw it into the ocean. Rolling Eyes

On behalf of science nerds everywhere, thank you Mr. Hoffman. And good luck.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 2:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has 25 trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text. Very Happy
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~ In the film, it is stated that the deepest hole ever dug was 7 miles deep. This is an actual fact: the shaft in question is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, a Russian project.

Note from me: I've heard about this. I don't remember what the reason for the project was.

~ One of the scientific experts consulted for the making of the movie was Dr. David Stevenson of Cal-Tech. After talking to the producers, he thought of a scientifically possible way to send an unmanned probe to the core. His idea was published in the prestigious science journal Nature on 15 May 2003.

Note from me: Hmmm. Apparently some of the science in the film is legitimate. Very Happy

~ At the University of British Columbia, Canada, an Earth and Ocean Science course (EOSC 310) uses this film as a learning tool by showing the film to students and then analyzing the bad science behind it. Ironically, at least one of UBC's professors was consulted during the shoots that were done in Vancouver.

Note from me: Hmmm. Apparently most of the science in the film is NOT legimate. Rolling Eyes

~ The exploding Colosseum in Rome was created using a 40-foot model.

Note from me: Kudos for using a few practical effects instead just CGI.

~ This movie is a remake of a low budget movie called "Deep Core", starring Terry Farrell (Star Trek DS9) and Wil Wheaton (Star Trek TNG).

Note from me: I read the Wikipedia synopsis of Deep Core (2000), and there are quite a few similarities. Just for fun, here's the trailer.


__________________ Deep core trailer (2000)


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The next two items are related.

~ "Unobtainium" (sometimes spelled "Unobtanium") is a term used by science fiction fans (and some authors) for an extremely rare, not yet discovered, or physically impossible substance necessary for a given task.

~ In the 1950s\60s, during the design\construction of the SR-71 Blackbird, titanium was referred to as unobtainium by the engineers working on the project. The Soviet Union controlled the supply of titanium, making it extremely difficult to obtain. The CIA set up dummy companies in other countries to purchase the titanium needed.

Note from me: Very interesting indeed! I looked up titanium on Wikipedia and learned that in industrial uses it is alloyed with iron, aluminum, vanadium, and molybdenum, along with other elements to increases its strength.

However, even in its unalloyed condition, titanium is as strong as some steels, but less dense.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 4:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
~ In the film, it is stated that the deepest hole ever dug was 7 miles deep. This is an actual fact: the shaft in question is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, a Russian project.

Note from me: I've heard about this. I don't remember what the reason for the project was.


Wikipedia™ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thanks, Eadie! That was a very interesting article! (In other words, it wasn't a bit "boring". Laughing)

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I should have included this IMDB trivia item in the post above. I watched The Core today and remembered how much fun it is, despite it's reputation for ignoring science. Cool

~ The film was famously one of the 'guilty pleasures' of Roger Ebert. In his review he stated: "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. It is only a notch down from Congo (1995), Anaconda (1997), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and other films which those with too little taste think they have too much taste to enjoy."

I noticed one brief but fascinating scene today, a shot of the man who designed the craft which travels to the core, and he's holding an 18" model of it with a cut-away to expose the crew compartment.

The cockpit is inside a spherical frame which is design to rotate freely and keep the crew right-side-up, regardless of the ship's own orientation.

That . . . is brilliant. Shocked

The large displays in the cockpit serve as the "windows" for the crew, and they show whatever is directly ahead of the ship . . . even when the free floating spherical crew area is at wildly different angles, relative to the body of the ship.






I admire the way this movie spends so much time showing us —

~ the design and construction of the subterranean ship

~ the imaging system that allows the crew to see through magma

~ the properties of unobtainium, which actually gets stronger by absorbing energy from the heat and pressure

~ and the propulsion system that sends the ship plowing through molten rock like a torpedo!

I submit that this movie's science flaws should be forgiven so that we can enjoy it the same was we enjoy the Star Wars — which George Lucas stated in 1977 was not "science fiction" as all,it's a "space fantasies" . . . . basically colorful fairy tales which took place in space. Wink

In other words, ladies and gentlemen, even though the science in this movie is flawed, the science fiction is remarkably good. Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've always enjoyed the sci~fi trope of exploration of the inner earth even with my touch of claustrophobia.

The 1959 film of Jules Verne "Journey To The Center Of The Earth''remains one of my favorites.

Later film versions seemed to only be about non-stop action & visual FX and lacking any charm.

DC Comics has a character named "Cave Carson." He and his team of 4 hop in the Mole and burrow into the earth for adventures.

1993 saw the TV pilot movie "Journey To The Center Of The Earth,"although it had little to do with the classic Verne novel.

The enormous digging machine occupied by the 7 explorers was most impressive.

I also admired the concept for the machine regarding how it cut through the rock in order to penetrate the earth.

It did not have the usual gigantic drill attached to the front of the vehicle as seen in so many films, TV shows, comic books.

The craft utilized sonic waves to essentially melt dirt and rocks.

It was an entertaining enough TV-movie with an enjoyable cast. However,the science was atrocious as so many sci~fi films & television shows are.

And I wish we'd see far better efforts on getting the science as correct as could be on such productions.

Could this have made it as weekly series? Rather doubt it given the limitations of its premise.

Week after week they'd have to produce a fresh script. Just how many times could the intrepid crew encounter subterranean civilizations and creatures before such plot devices became old and tired? Not long.

"The Core" also had a wonderful cast supported by stellar FX. As already noted, the science was M.I.A.

Still, I enjoyed the film for what it was. And it was a refreshing change of pace from another outer space based sci~fi film of which we are generally inundated with each year.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 3:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Great post, Pow! Very Happy

I must apologize for submitting my post above and then expanding it considerably more while you were composing your comment. I thought I'd be finished before any of All Sci-Fi's most prolific members noticed it and posted a reply. :opps:

Having said that, I hope you'll re-read my post and consider making comments about the new material I added, which you weren't able to read previously.

Concerning your interesting suggestion about a weekly series based on this movie, here's a few ideas!

I think subterranean vehicles like the one developed for this movie would revolutionize the science of geology and volcanology. In fact, it would even have a profound effect on the military!

Imagine a world in which such machines could travel beneath enemy nations and plant nuclear weapons beneath key military targets!

Or picture battles within the ocean of Earth's magma between vessels from two countries!

On a more positive note, consider stories in which violent volcanic eruptions are about to threaten the people in certain areas, and one of these "magma cruisers" is able to redirect the volcanic stresses and prevent the catastrophe! Shocked

Pow, I think a series about an organization which used the technology we see in this movie to help mankind in many different ways (and sometimes threaten it) could be wonderful!

Think of it as SeaQuest with submarines that travel beneath the sea floor!

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Should another Fantastic Four film ever be made it would be nifty if it was the villain Mole Man.

MM lived in a subterranean world, commanded all forms of creatures. In one issue of the FF comic book he threatened the world by being able to open up sink holes beneath cities.

Lot's of potential with such plots and visuals.

The other reason it'd be fun to see MM battles the FF is that he was their first foe in the very first issue of the FF.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 12:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Wow, the cover of this issue is a fine example of the great Jack Kirby's talent! The artwork certain pitches the concept beautifully.

Note the fact that the Fantastic Four aren't wearing their uniforms yet.

Click on the image below to see a 1,647 pixel version to study the wonderful detail.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 1:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



Even though this movie doesn't exactly stick close to scientific a1ccuracy (putting it mildly), its basic premise is actually not to far from reality.

Consider, for example, this article from a website called NOW.

______________________________________________

Earth’s Inner Core Has Slowed Its Spin — Should We Be Worried?

by Nancy Huang May. 3, 2023

The earth beneath our feet consists of a rocky crust, a semi-solid mantle and an iron core that's believed to be as hot as the surface of the sun. The outer core is liquid, but the immense pressure at the center of Earth causes the inner core to be compressed into a solid ball of metal.

Earth's inner core spins, rotating in the same direction as the surface. However, the inner core can rotate independently of the surface because it is suspended in the liquid outer core.

Until recently, the inner core was believed to be spinning slightly faster than the surface of the earth. However, a study published in Nature Geoscience found evidence that the inner core has recently slowed its rotation — matching the spin of Earth's surface — and may soon be rotating even more slowly. Is this a sign of the end of days? Not quite.

The study found evidence that Earth's inner core has slowed down before, back in the 1960s, and then sped up again. Researchers believe the inner core's rotational speed oscillates a bit like a pendulum, slowing down and speeding up over a 70-year cycle.

Thus, the speed of the inner core matches the spin of Earth's surface every 35 years or so, with the next occurrence expected to take place in the mid 2040s.

______________________________________________

Wow . . . you'd think the Earth would be like a spinning top, with the inertia slowly dwindling as the eons past. But this whole slowing-down-and-then-speeding-back-up idea baffles me!
Shocked
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~ The Space Children (1958)
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