Renegade soldier Colonel Ryan Beckett (Mark Dacascos) is called in by the President of the United States (Rutger Hauer) to save the planet from imminent destruction after a Chinese nuclear-testing accidentally loosens the subterranean plates and exposes the Earth's core, which threatens to bring "Hell on Earth" in just three days.

Beckett assembles a crack team to deliver and detonate not one, but two nuclear bombs that must go off simultaneously in the only place on the planet in which they will do any good at stopping the movement of the plates—Los Angeles.

In the end, Faith (Beckett's daughter) manages to get her hands on a cell phone and text messages him an SOS.

Beckett, Julie, and Faith head outside and are shocked to find that the pilot of the team has landed a presidential jet in the middle of the road.

He was ordered to wait there for Kellaway, and flies them to safety as the two devices go off, destroying Los Angeles and stopping the movement of the plates just before it is too late.