The Core is a 2003 American science fiction disaster film directed by Jon Amiel and starring Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, D. J. Qualls, Richard Jenkins, Tcheky Karyo, Bruce Greenwood, and Alfre Woodard.

The U.S. government backs a secret project to build a vessel to drill to the core and release nuclear weapons to restart the rotation.

They utilize the work of Dr. Ed "Braz" Brazzelton who has developed "Unobtainium", a material that can withstand the extreme pressure and convert intense heat into electricity, as well as a laser-based high-speed drilling array.

Further down, as Virgil passes through a field of enormous diamond formations, one of them breaches the last compartment housing the detonation timers for the nuclear charges.

Communicating with the surface, overseer of the operation Lieutenant General Thomas Purcell, orders them to abandon the effort and return immediately as they plan to use a secondary protocol to restart the core.

Finch is secretly communicating with the Virgil team and learns that this secondary protocol is the top-secret project DESTINI (Deep Earth Seismic Trigger INItiative).

Keyes discovers Zimsky was a lead scientist on DESTINI, a U.S. tectonic weapon that, when first tested, accidentally stopped the core's rotation.

Meanwhile, destructive events, including a lightning storm in Rome and a burst of ultraviolet rays that destroys the Golden Gate Bridge, alert the world to the situation despite Finch's best efforts to keep the bad news from becoming public knowledge.

[7] In his review, Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four and said "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.

[9][10][11] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times said: "The brazen silliness of The Core is becalming and inauthentic, like taking a bath in nondairy coffee creamer.

"[12] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times was a little more forgiving, saying: "If The Core finally has to be classified as a mess, it is an enjoyable one if you're in a throwback mood.

"[13] In response to criticism of his screenplay's lack of scientific realism, screenwriter John Rogers responded that he tried to make the science accurate, but expended three years fighting "to get rid of the ... dinosaurs, magma-walks in 'space-suits', bullshit-sci-crap sources for the Earth's crisis, and a windshield for the ship Virgil.