Short Wave - What Geologists Love — And Lament — About Cult Classic 'The Core'

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

20 years ago, the cult classic movie 'The Core' was released in theaters. From the start, it's clear that science is more a plot device than anything — but some scientists love it anyway. Today, Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber has a friendly laugh with geologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach about the creative liberties writers took to make the movie's plot work.P.S. We're biased here, but we don't think you need to have seen the movie to enjoy this episode. This edition of our periodic 'movie club' series, where we separate fact from fiction, was highly requested by you, our audience. If you want us to do the same for another movie you love, write us! We're at [e-mail] pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

This episode will spoil a movie that was in theaters in 2003. You've been warned. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. 20 years ago, a disaster movie came out that was both riveting and wholly ridiculous. You might be thinking, which one, Gina? There were so many. But the one we're going to spoil and poke fun at today, it takes the cake. So the basic premise of the core is, shockingly,

about the core. Oh yeah. We're talking about the core. Earth's core has stopped rotating. And in the hypothetical world of this movie, it is the rotation of the core that causes our magnetic field. And so we have to somehow start the core spinning again. So we're heading into the Earth. So instead of astronauts, a group of terra-noughts, not astro, but terra-nots, are sent to the core to kick it back into action. And as with all bad science movies, this is accomplished via nukes. That's Dr. Jackie Kaplan Auerbach, Professor of Geology and Associate Dean of the College of Science and Engineering at Western Washington University. She was my buddy while I worked there. Her and

many other geologists feel this movie is a cult classic. My original perspective on this movie was just that it was so colossally bad that it was wonderful. wonderful that for years she has shown this film in her class. I teach a class that is really all about Earth's interior. So it's about Earth's mantle and mantle convection and the role that mantle convection plays in plate tectonics, which is sort of the fundamental theory that underlies everything we know about Earth science. It also talks about the core. And, you know, everybody at the end of a quarter of working hard and doing math and doing physics and reading papers deserves a break. And so in the period that is reserved for the final exam, we just sit

and we watch the movie and we eat popcorn and we giggle. For years, you listeners have begged us to cover the bad science in this movie. And since I started at NPR, I've carried the fight for y'all, badgering the team to let me do this. You don't need to have seen this movie to join our voyage today. Because finally on this, the 20th anniversary of Hillary Swink, saving the world, You, me, and Jackie will journey to the depths of the earth together to celebrate our victory. A journey that begins with the shortwave team watch party. I will start the movie if you all want. Did this go before or after the day after tomorrow?

Oh my God. Hillary. The super cool titanium tungsten mix material unobtainiumness, that's no basis in reality. Wait, you can tell he's evil because he just said, let's go make $3 million. Today on the show, we joyfully fall to Earth's core and learn what science is not. Congratulations, The Core. You are loved. I'm Regina Barber, and you're listening to Shortwave from NPR. So the film The Core opened in theaters on March 28, 2003, and it has so much good stuff in it.

And in the words of my co-host, Emily Kwong, and her dad, Okay, I know this is supposed to be a bad movie. Pretty interesting, compelling. But pretty compelling, say the quongs. Okay, okay, so Jackie, I am nothing, if not linear. So let's go through some of the most iconic, science-y scenes in chronological order. Let's do it. First major disaster movie scene, the magnetic field is wreaking havoc after the core stops rotating.

It's okay, some of these things happen all the time. What's happening, Jackie? The birds, the birds are all freaking out. We're like in, I don't really remember where we are. It's London, right? Yeah, and pigeons suddenly start going haywire, like they've got their internal homing devices or whatnot, so tuned to Earth's magnetic field that somehow it just fries their brains,

and they start, like, smashing randomly into windows and falling dead out of the sky and, like, hitting young children. Yeah. Let's go, let's go. It's total chaos. And it's our first indication that something is wrong. Let's actually go into what makes Earth's magnetic field. Okay. Earth's magnetic field is this phenomenal thing that, you know, we've been aware of for millennia, really. Sailors have used the Earth's magnetic field.

That's how compasses work. Exactly. Some of our most early navigation was dependent on it. So sometimes we tend to imagine that Earth just has. a magnet inside of it that generates this. And it's a little more complicated than that, and it's actually one of the really fundamental problems with the movie. The movie talks about the fact correctly that Earth's magnetic field is generated in its core, the deepest layer within the planet. But the suggestion is that what causes the field is the fact that our inner core is rotating. And that's not really correct. The thing that really causes the magnetic field

is basically the fluid dynamics of Earth's liquid outer core. So this dynamic process, even if they had gotten it right, that it's not this overall spin, but kind of these more complex spins, even if that stopped, what would happen to the magnetic field? Certainly, we know that Earth's magnetic field does protect us from what we call the solar wind, which are charged particles that come from the sun. It is not, as the movie suggests, that we're all going to be fried by the sun's microwave radiation. And this also, I think, speaks to the public's lack of knowledge of microwaves.

We just know that we put things in it and they cook. And so we're like, oh, my goodness, we'll cook. Well, microwaves are not affected by magnetic fields. This is not a thing. Let's get to the next kind of big thing. The scientist's answer for restarting the rotation of Earth's core is to nuke it. With luck, irony will break for the good guys for once. The world's biggest weapons of mass destruction will help save the world.

Would this work? Heck no. No, no, you can't nuke the core into... There's so many reasons you can't nuke the core into rotation. And yet the scientists in this movie are trying to do it anyway. And on their journey to do that, these scientists are really... researching a new element, right? What do you call this material?

Well, it's real name has 37 cellopholes. I call it an optaneum. Unobtainium. The unobtainium will take the heat and the pressure and transform it to energy, which in turn, reinforce the shallowness, you see. So the hotter and the deeper she gets, the stronger she gets, theoretical. Help our listeners. Is there such a thing? Not yet.

But one can only help. I do think that actually this is not the only movie that Unobtainium has been in. There was Unobtainium in Avatar as well. So I think we're obviously getting close to it, you know, that we're now in two movies. It's all we need. And at last, right, after surviving bird attacks and discovering a fake element, we are finally heading deep into the Earth, specifically the mantle, which in real life humans have never done, right?

We've never so much is drilled to the mantle. We've never seen it in its native environment. So when we talk about could we get to the core, we can't even get through the crust. We can't even get through this tiny little skin. So we're really long ways off from doing that. But let's put reality aside. They make it through the mantle like really quick.

Oh, super fast. The mantle is a chemical hodgepodge of variety of elements. I think I don't know. Well, Commander, wise men say, when in doubt, you should go around? No, it's too big. We turn too slow. Anything that we can't go through displays is black. So what's static? It's nothing.

We haven't even gotten to the liquid part. And suddenly they find themselves in this enormous open space. This cavern. This cavern, what they call like the Grand Canyon of crystals or something like that. It's nothing. It's empty space. I never taught the computer how to read empty space I never saw a bird's how to fly

So spoiler alert There's not empty space in the mantle And unlike the movie It's not surrounded by crystals Instead it's actually this extremely Pressurized mostly solid place right Right so it's squeezed Like being in the bottom of the pool

Where your ears start to hurt That's because the weight of all that water Is squeezing on your eardrums If you go deeper there's more water. So that's why at the bottom of the ocean, it's highly, highly pressurized. If you do all that under rock, that pressure increases much, much quicker. Here we are, 700 miles deep in the earth, which is another way we know we're in the mantle. The pressure at that point would be astronomical, being enormous, enormous pressures. There is no way you would have a big, open, empty space at those

kinds of pressures. If you had a big open space, something would have to be pushing against the weight of 700 miles of rock over your head. That's the only way to keep that thing open. So they're out there walking around like it's atmospheric pressure. But you have crystals. But you have crystals. And they say, I think it's a geode, but I don't understand how it could have survived down here. Right, which is like so wonderful and so wrong. The type of crystals that grow in a geode, are simply not the type of crystals that we have in Earth's core. The chemistry is totally wrong. So the pressures are wrong.

The fact that people just like step out of this thing and are not instantly crushed once they are no longer protected by an optaneum is totally wrong. There's not diamonds down there, right, Jackie? That's at least not a thing we know of. But through all this bonkers science, our heroes prevail. Yes. They restart the core. It's spinning again.

And I guess that's what I love about this movie. It seems to be all these disaster movies smashed into one, like the day after tomorrow, Armageddon, even the birds. Yes. Why do you think the core is such a cult classic? I do think this movie has something for everybody. And I think that's in many respects why it's a cult classic. Everybody who has taken, you know, a middle school science class can identify something completely silly. But the drama is wonderful.

We're trying to save the Earth. We're trying to save the planet. We've got this, you know, motley crew of Terranauts who are in this, you know, phenomenal, the future is now kind of vessel. Again, we have nukes. We have moments that tug at your heartstrings. Oh, my goodness. It really, it tears you up, I say. All right. Well, Jackie, thank you for taking me to the center of the Earth and back. It was amazing experience to watch it with the shortwave crew. And I just, hope you continue showing it to your students. So thank you so much. Well, thank you. It is always such a pleasure to talk about this movie. And I really do hope people haven't seen it. We'll go out and enjoy pops and popcorn, sit down with your favorite beverage, kick your feet up, and enjoy the center of the earth. Your requests were heard, listeners. And if you want to demand, we cover other bad sciencey movies, send us an email at shortwave at npr.org. This episode was produced by Liz Metzker with help from Margaret Serino, edited by our managing producer Rebecca Ramirez and fact-checked by Will Chase.

Our audio engineer was Josh Newell. Beth Donovan is our senior director of programming, and Anya Grunman is our senior vice president of programming. I'm Regina Barber. Thanks for listening to Shortwave from NPR.