TV Spot for "The Core"

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-03-12 10:06am

Durandal wrote:The film is right on some counts. The spinning of the Earth's core does protect us from magnetic storms and such.

They never said magnetic storms. It's cosmic ray superstorms. They're saying that the magnetic field the Earth's core generates protects us against cosmic radiation...

But magnetic storms? Zuh? The Earth's poles have flipped repeatedly over its lifetime, I don't recall any magnetic storms ever being talked about.

<snip>
Aside from that, the film screams "contrived" in every sense of the word.

Including that, I'd say. The whole thing is contrived. They might as well just call it "Armageddon 2: We couldn't afford Bruce Willis this time".

There just happens to be some crazy scientist who's built a ship that's supposed to be able to burrow through to the center of the Earth without melting at temperatures at which everything melts. There's some funny, geeky hacker kid who, by himself is going to completely control the flow of information of the entire planet. I'm not sure what's more absurd, the film's premise, or this. The sheer impossibility of one person restricting the flow of information across the internet without completely shutting it down is simply mind-boggling. This film is obviously just an excuse to work some special effects magic and blow shit up.

You doubt that the hacker quoting Hackers can't hack the planet?!? But he is the leet computar haxxorz!!!111!2

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-03-12 10:09am

Durandal wrote:There just happens to be some crazy scientist

ID4. Jeff Goldbloom is a crazy scientist, saves day.

Jurassic Park. Jeff Goldbloom crazy "chaos theory" guy who nobody believes, saves day.

... there's a bunch of others. I can't stand these movies. Jurassic Park was watchable once for the nice dino pics, but after that, when you actually pay attention to the plot, *gack*.

Moral of the story: Believe crazy sounding people and theories even though "regular" science is trying to discredit them: for example religion. Its about keeping your "faith" even though the world seems to be telling you that you're crazy, even under complete ridicule, and seemingly convincing evidence that you are wrong. Why? Because in the end you will be right.... *blah*.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-03-12 10:27am

Hotfoot wrote:They never said magnetic storms. It's cosmic ray superstorms. They're saying that the magnetic field the Earth's core generates protects us against cosmic radiation...

Which it does. The spinning of our iron core is responsible for our magnetic field. Our magnetic field deflects charged particles in cosmic rays.

But magnetic storms? Zuh? The Earth's poles have flipped repeatedly over its lifetime, I don't recall any magnetic storms ever being talked about.

The Earth's magnetic field reversing polarity is not the same as it simply shutting off.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-03-12 10:31am

Zoink wrote:
Durandal wrote:There just happens to be some crazy scientist
ID4. Jeff Goldbloom is a crazy scientist, saves day.

Jurassic Park. Jeff Goldbloom crazy "chaos theory" guy who nobody believes, saves day.

It's even worse in The Core, though, because this guy just happens to have built something (his "legendary ship" or whatever) capable of going to the center of the Earth without melting and hasn't used it to gather data for the geological community. Not only that, but they use it without even fucking testing it. By all appearances, he himself has never tested the fucking thing. Can we say "plot device"?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-03-12 10:31am

Durandal wrote:
Hotfoot wrote:They never said magnetic storms. It's cosmic ray superstorms. They're saying that the magnetic field the Earth's core generates protects us against cosmic radiation...
Which it does. The spinning of our iron core is responsible for our magnetic field. Our magnetic field deflects charged particles in cosmic rays.

I might not be up on my quantum physics, but charged particles and EM spectrum cosmic radiation?

I wasn't aware that microwaves could have a magnetic charge...

But magnetic storms? Zuh? The Earth's poles have flipped repeatedly over its lifetime, I don't recall any magnetic storms ever being talked about.
The Earth's magnetic field reversing polarity is not the same as it simply shutting off.

Yeah, but it's a change, which should have let some more cosmic radiation through or something. Something sounds awfully suspicious about this.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-03-12 11:14am

Hotfoot wrote:I might not be up on my quantum physics, but charged particles and EM spectrum cosmic radiation?

I wasn't aware that microwaves could have a magnetic charge...

Microwaves cannot contain charge; this is true. However, cosmic rays are not microwaves. They are high-speed nuclei or electrons traveling through the universe. See this page on cosmic rays if you'd like to learn more about them.

Yeah, but it's a change, which should have let some more cosmic radiation through or something. Something sounds awfully suspicious about this.

A shift in the direction will still deflect about the same amount of cosmic rays if they're coming in at approximately uniform density fro all directions. If positive and negative charges are about the same in the rays that shoot at Earth, then reversing polarity won't be much of a concern either. Shutting off, however, will be a problem.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-03-12 01:16pm

Durandal wrote:
Hotfoot wrote:I might not be up on my quantum physics, but charged particles and EM spectrum cosmic radiation?

I wasn't aware that microwaves could have a magnetic charge...
Microwaves cannot contain charge; this is true. However, cosmic rays are not microwaves. They are high-speed nuclei or electrons traveling through the universe. See this page on cosmic rays if you'd like to learn more about them.

They specifically said that cosmic radiation would bombard the planet, and that microwaves would literally cook everyone on Earth.

Yeah, but it's a change, which should have let some more cosmic radiation through or something. Something sounds awfully suspicious about this.
A shift in the direction will still deflect about the same amount of cosmic rays if they're coming in at approximately uniform density fro all directions. If positive and negative charges are about the same in the rays that shoot at Earth, then reversing polarity won't be much of a concern either. Shutting off, however, will be a problem.

I guess I just need to read up on it a bit more, something doesn't sound right. I agree that logically turning off the magnetic field would be worse though, however silly a concept that may be anyway. Ah well.

It's still an unexcusably stupid premise.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-03-12 06:21pm

Popular Science was interviewing someone about it. According to the interview, the movie had it backwards, since the inner core rotates because it has a magnetic field, and not the other way around. Even if the magnetic field vanished, it would take thousands of years for the core to stop rotating.

Anyway, the movie should be a nightmare for anyone with an ounce of scientific knowledge. Do the actors know the massive amounts of pseudoscience in it? The producers sure don't.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-03-12 06:24pm

The actors don't have a clue. One of them says "new-kew-lar", after all. And I was pretty sure that the rotation of the Earth's core contributed to the magnetic field of the Earth (the fact that the core is solid iron also helps).

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-03-12 06:26pm

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Popular Science was interviewing someone about it. According to the interview, the movie had it backwards, since the inner core rotates because it has a magnetic field, and not the other way around. Even if the magnetic field vanished, it would take thousands of years for the core to stop rotating.

Anyway, the movie should be a nightmare for anyone with an ounce of scientific knowledge. Do the actors know the massive amounts of pseudoscience in it? The producers sure don't.

I guess they took the Hollywood technobable 101.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-03-12 06:42pm

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Popular Science was interviewing someone about it. According to the interview, the movie had it backwards, since the inner core rotates because it has a magnetic field, and not the other way around. Even if the magnetic field vanished, it would take thousands of years for the core to stop rotating.

Anyway, the movie should be a nightmare for anyone with an ounce of scientific knowledge. Do the actors know the massive amounts of pseudoscience in it? The producers sure don't.

They don't appear to even know the diameter of the earth. Have no hope.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-03-12 07:33pm

Ridiculous. Blame it all on the gov't. And WTF were those lightning storm things in the trailers?

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2003-03-12 07:57pm

Those were the 'special-monument-seeking-cosmic-ray-spawned-superstorms'.
GAH!!!!!!!!!!

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-03-12 07:58pm

Yeah, I like how they struck the Roman Colliseum, sort of collected on the arena floor, and then exploded it. That made a lot of sense, and looked cool to boot.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-03-12 08:00pm

Luke Starkiller wrote:Those were the 'special-monument-seeking-cosmic-ray-spawned-superstorms'.
GAH!!!!!!!!!!

Well i hope one of them hit the Montreal olympic stadium,damn thing look like a huge toilet.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2003-03-12 08:10pm

Well, nobody likes the big oh-oh.

Hyperion · Post by **Hyperion** » 2003-03-13 01:20am

Durandal wrote:*snip* This film is obviously just an excuse to work some special effects magic and blow shit up.

Is that such a bad thing?

Btw, I thought the trailer looked sweet just from the SFX standpoint, of course I do know that any movie with that kind of "plot" is gonna be pretty awful if you pay attention to the "plot" (or lack thereof), but for the fun of watching interesting SFX, it's probably really good, a lot of crappy movies are like this.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-03-13 01:42am

I just watched the trailer, the guy says Star Trek. Also, this is far dumber than you guys ever said.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-03-13 04:56am

Gandalf wrote:I just watched the trailer, the guy says Star Trek. Also, this is far dumber than you guys ever said.

I know he said Star Trek. I'm saying that on the most recent TV Spot that I saw, he said "Spongebob." There was a change.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-03-13 05:22am

Robert Treder wrote:
Gandalf wrote:I just watched the trailer, the guy says Star Trek. Also, this is far dumber than you guys ever said.
I know he said Star Trek. I'm saying that on the most recent TV Spot that I saw, he said "Spongebob." There was a change.

Sorry.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-03-13 05:35am

Hehe, that's ok. Now that I look at it, it does look like I was annoyed by you, but really, I wasn't. It's just that words can carry the wrong inflection if you're not careful.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-03-13 05:59am

Robert Treder wrote:Yeah, I like how they struck the Roman Colliseum, sort of collected on the arena floor, and then exploded it. That made a lot of sense, and looked cool to boot.

Maybe the Romans had a secret stash of C4 beneath the arena...