Core screenwriter says the science is "dead on"

[Jar Jar]

Here's a post from the Yahoo! Movies board where the screenwriter of The Core (or someone purporting to be the screenwriter of the Core--the name is right at least..and why would you falsely associate yourself with The Core??) defends the science in the movie, but disses Armageddon. His post is in response to someone saying that the movie teaches children bad science.

Hey there. John Rogers, screenwriter for The Core. Stumbled across your post.

I'm with you that movies like Armageddon taught crap science to kids, AND was just lazy writing. That's why I want to assure you, as someone who holds a degree in physics (granted, one I don't use much anymore...), most of the science in the movie is DEAD ON. The fluid core of the earth not only rotates, but spins faster than the earth itself. The change in this rotation is generally what's given credit for the pole shift every half-million years. It's also the engine which drives the EM field of the earth, having most of the effects described in the movie (although unfortunately not in the trailer). Most of the fluid dynamics work I did as background didn't make into the film, but the idea is that the core is at an unstable "tipping point" of stasis, and the big bang is wat we need to knock it off that point. You know, like the old "ball on a hill" example of potential energy we all learned in high school.

The ship itself, of course, couldn't exist. That's the science "fiction" part of the movie. All the elements of the ship DO however exist. The cockpit's a modified shuttle cockpit, the molecule forming the ship's skin is based on a real molecule, the video/MRI panels are based on the work of a guy I actually went to school with. The device Zimsky builds is based on research from the '40's, and even the hacker character's stunts are drawn from tales of the web underground.

Yes, some dramatic liberties are taken, and some of the disasters are a little bigger than what might happen. But that's the entertainment part of the equation. I hope you'll go and enjoy yourself when the movie opens. Even if you don't like the story, I assure you your intelligence won't be insulted.

http://messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=FN...2172484&mid=35

[nebularain]

Rebuttal:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021125.html

Why does the Earth have a magnetic field? The electrical conductivity of the molten plasma of the Earth's core should be able to damp the current magnetic field in only thousands of years. Yet our five billion year old Earth clearly causes magnets to point to (defined) north. The mystery is still being studied but recently thought related to motions in the Earth's liquid outer core. Specifically, as portions of the outer core cool and fall inward, oceans of the liquid iron-rich magma rise outward, forced into a helical motion by the spin of the Earth. This motion, many geologists now believe, regenerates Earth's magnetism.

[g99]

My intelegence is insulted by reading that guys post.

[kilopi]

Maybe he uses his physics degree to cool his coffee.

[g99]

Maybe he uses his physics degree to cool his coffee.

Nah. The diploma was copied from the internet or was from the study at home and get your degree in four hour courses you often see on late night t.v.

He evidentaly uses it as a argument from authority. All he says was that he has a physics degree. From his explanation he does have a simplified view of the earth's interior. But has gotten all of the facts wrong. He uses generalizations. The magnetic field does not have a periodic shift. It does shift, but more at rtandom. If you look at a diagram of the magnetic field shifts, they are not perfect rectangles and all of the same size. Some are really small, some really large.

While this could be explained away by differential expansion rates of the crust, that is not enougth.

Even then none of the effects attributed to the earth's magnetic field in the movie (ex. the electrical storms) will happen. If he was the science advisor, i suggest he retake his GED's (high school equivalency test) .

[jokergirl]

The hacker scenes "real"?

Damn, now I have to see this movie too (I would have done so anyway)

What does a hacker do in this movie anyway? I mean, except from melting...

[David Hall]

What does a hacker do in this movie anyway? I mean, except from melting...

Well, according to the reviews, he keeps the whole thing a secret from the public by eliminating any references on the internet to the problem. You know, things like the Golden Gate bridge melting and the Colloseum getting blown up.

Seriously. :roll:

[jokergirl]

Oh, I just saw that trailer on yahoo.



This is gonna be so much fun...
Hey, let's hire a hacker to get the apollo conspiracy off the web! Or maybe the PX pages...

[g99]

Someone on another topic mentioned this but. How does the hacker eliminate references on T.V.? How can you search all upteen million pages instantaneously for the references and delete them throught firewalls and with multiple backups on other servers? Imposiible for one person. Why not hire a whole team of them to do this? I bet any hacker would love the fame of doing it.

But of course this is the sci-fi version of hackers. Most hackers are just very talented kids who love to show off. Most will hack into a server, leave something that says they have been there and then leave. They don't delete or screw with the servers. This is the common view of hackars that all they do is destroy computers and webpages. Only a few of them do.

Tell me doesn't the setup from the movie look alot like the setup the "Hacker" got in Swordfish?

[jokergirl]

Tell me doesn't the setup from the movie look alot like the setup the "Hacker" got in Swordfish?

I was trying not to mention this horrible (in any reference) movie. *bites her tongue some more* :P

[captain swoop]

What does a hacker do in this movie anyway? I mean, except from melting...

Well, according to the reviews, he keeps the whole thing a secret from the public by eliminating any references on the internet to the problem. You know, things like the Golden Gate bridge melting and the Colloseum getting blown up.

Seriously. :roll:

Well, if it gets onto alt.conspiracy the whole jig would be up! 8)

[Waarthog]

Well, according to the reviews, he keeps the whole thing a secret from the public by eliminating any references on the internet to the problem. You know, things like the Golden Gate bridge melting and the Colloseum getting blown up.


I suppose the thousands of people who otherwise cross the Golden Gate on a more or less daily basis will just keep mum out of shock? :roll:

And he slams on OTHERS for lazy writing. Part of me wants to go see this train wreck of a film merely out of morbid fascination and the other side is in "why bother" mode. I take as much glee at most in ripping into the mistakes movies makes but there would be no fun this time.

When I saw Armageddon, during the film, it was a rollicking fun (note, not good) flick. When the credits rolled, I thought "What the hell was that awful thing?" I can only hope this will be the case as several of my friends are going to see it and have asked me to go.

[SpacedOut]

I suppose the thousands of people who otherwise cross the Golden Gate on a more or less daily basis will just keep mum out of shock? :roll:

If NASA can keep the moon landings a secret why can't some hacker keep this stuff secret? :roll:

P.S. I think the screen writers quote would have been much more accurate if he had just said that the science in the movie is "dead". :wink:

[ToSeek]

If NASA can keep the moon landings a secret why can't some hacker keep this stuff secret? :roll:

No, no, keep it straight:

The Mars landings are a secret. The Moon landings were faked.

And please ignore any contradictions in these statements, or else, for entertainment purposes, see if you can lock some of the believers in the former in an elevator with the believers in the latter.

[g99]

The funny thing was that rat (the characters name) didn't do his job. He was supposed to keep the information from the public. But every time a disaster happened they watched the aftereffects live on T.V.. Nobody even said anything to Rat for screwing up his job. Not even a slap on the wrist. Another plot hole.

P.S. i put up my review of the movie on my website. :-)

[gethen]

The funny thing was that rat (the characters name) didn't do his job. He was supposed to keep the information from the public. But every time a disaster happened they watched the aftereffects live on T.V.. Nobody even said anything to Rat for screwing up his job. Not even a slap on the wrist. Another plot hole.

P.S. i put up my review of the movie on my website. :-)

My daughter, an engineer with some expertise with computers said, about the Rat, " Boy did they just go out and fight the physically weirdest looking pathetic nerd on the face of the earth to play this role? It's kind of insulting, isn't it?" The poor guy, all he had going for him was the computer skill, and he didn't even get it right.

[nebularain]

Man, o man! I had a dream last night of being in this city where an Earth-boring ship fell from the sky like a bomb, and as it bored through Earth, skimming below the surface for a while, it created big ripples - yes ripples! - in the ground which caused all the underground wires to catch on fire and other Hollywood-esque damaging things. And just like the movies, (I was actually thinking this in the dream) of course the house I was staying in was very close to the point of initial impact, so I was experiencing the worst of the danger! Then I woke up.

My first thought was - I've been thinking too much about The Core and its bad science!

[Durandal]

Apparently his professed physics degree didn't even grant him the ability to perform simple, back-of-the-envelope calculations that would show that no amount of bombs we possess could possibly generate the requisite torque to get the core spinning again.

And his "ball on a hill" analogy is utterly flawed. The ball on the hill keeps falling after the tipping point because there is a constant force acting on it. Nuclear weapons don't keep generating force after they've exploded. Does this guy expect anyone with even a high school education in physics to take him seriously?

This guy can come up with whatever pseudoscientific justification he likes ("on the edge of stasis" ... sure :roll: ), but the numbers don't work. Where'd this guy get his degree? Bob Jones University? I seriously want to know, so I never end up sending my kids there.

[Glom]

Inside The Core is airing on one of the Sky Movies channels now. I was nearly on the point of suffocation from listening to their pseudo-science, but fortunately, the autoview changed the channel to SkyOne in preperation for Enterprisep.

[Glom]

Alright, morbid curiosity got the better of me. I changed back.

I just love the idea of the "genius" who says, "Microwave radiation will literally cook our planet."

They keep on talking about the end of the world like it's such an original concept.