# How accurate was "The Core" in showing what's at the centre of the Earth?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 13, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468 "2003-09-13T23:59:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/1 "2003-09-13T23:59:03Z")
For those who don’t know, “The Core” was a movie released this year about a mission into the centre of the Earth to save the world somehow.
I really enjoyed seeing what they showed to be in the core of the Earth, but how close to reality was it?
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### Author:  [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/2 "2003-09-14T00:09:53Z")
Who knows?
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/3 "2003-09-14T00:11:22Z")
Look at it this way: it’s not _totally_ wrong. Excuse me if I make hollow laughing sounds - **The Core** is a byword for scientific innacuracy. I did enjoy it though, and it had some clever ideas.
That said, the core (the outer core at any rate) is molten magma afaik which is hard to get wrong. I don’t know about the big caverns or mysterious hard bits impervious to that implausible digging thing.
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### Author:  [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/4 "2003-09-14T00:22:49Z")
It would be hard just to get past the crust, come on I remember it being from as thick as 100 miles to the thinnest part 40 miles DEEP.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/5 "2003-09-14T00:27:55Z")
Not having seen the movie, perhaps I shouldn’t comment, but any represented ‘view’ of the core is going to be inaccurate because the medium in which it is embedded is not transparent, so you wouldn’t be able to see it wherever you happened to be.
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### Author:  [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/6 "2003-09-14T01:18:17Z")
Ah yes **Mangetout** , but they got around that by using MRI SCANNERS! [sub]My head hurts…[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/7 "2003-09-14T01:46:04Z")
Our good friend and excellent astronomer Phil Plait has the SD on bad science in movies at his website Bad Astronomy. He has the straight dope on the bad science in _The Core_ and gives you a choice of spolier or non-spoiler versions.
[http://badastronomy.com/bad/movies/index.html](http://badastronomy.com/bad/movies/index.html)
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### Author:  [@Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muldoon_s_Squishiness)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/8 "2003-09-14T01:47:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Shade \*
> \*\*Look at it this way: it’s not _totally_ wrong. Excuse me if I make hollow laughing sounds - **The Core** is a byword for scientific innacuracy. \*\*
I don’t recall the makers of the movie saying that it was 100% scientifically accurate, so what is your point? It’s certainly more accurate about it’s science then Star Wars or Star Trek.
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### Author:  [@gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gentle)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/9 "2003-09-14T02:00:52Z")
Here’s another, scathing [dissection](http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/core.html), from the [Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics](http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/) page.
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-was-the-core-in-showing-whats-at-the-centre-of-the-earth/201468/10 "2003-09-14T02:40:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Muldoon’s Squishiness \*
> \*\*I don’t recall the makers of the movie saying that it was 100% scientifically accurate, so what is your point? It’s certainly more accurate about it’s science then Star Wars or Star Trek. \*\*
Well, icephoenix did ask how accurate it was.
You’re right though, I was overly sarcastic about it. I withdraw my tone of voice 🙂 I don’t know why it rubbed me up the wrong way as many other movies are just the same. Maybe it’s the oh-so-profound way they say “The Core of the Earth has STOPPED spinning”, in the trailer, or the fact that the science hovers on the edge of not being laughable, but doesn’t quite make it.