Core, The (2003) Movie Script
Original Source:
[distorted sounds]
- [calliope music]
- [chattering]
[ticking]
[ticking stops]
[scoffs]
- It stopped.
- What's that, Dave?
Nothing. How we doing?
Oh, we're ready.
- You, uh, feeling the magic?
- Oh, I'm feeling the magic, all right.
- Let's hit 'em.
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
- Here we go.
- Let's hit 'em.
- Let's go make $30 million.
[Dave] Good morning.
Before I begin, let me...
[all murmuring]
- David?
- I'll go get help.
- [horns honking, brakes screeching]
- Jesus. Jesus, David.
- [cars crashing]
- Phone 911. Phone 911!
[woman] David?
[crashing continues]
[people screaming]
[man] Nick? Nicky?!
N icky!
[screams continue]
[sirens approaching]
[man 1] OK.
[man 2] It's OK, it's OK.
You'll be OK.
Get everybody else off the bus.
[ticking continues]
[man 3] Sound waves.
So...
...if we know that sound waves
gain wavelength...
[writing on chalkboard]
...and lose frequency
as they travel
through more dense materials...
...then the anomalies in these waves...
...are the means
by which we can surmise
the fundamental architecture
of our planet.
- How are the nails coming, Christine?
- [laughter]
Good. All right,
let's have a demonstration.
Mr. Acker, Veronica.
Thank you very much.
[blows loud note]
All right. Mrs. Limestone,
being a big softie, you know,
loves walks in the park, bedtime
stories, big romantic. Loves Chet.
I can't play Chet,
but I'll see what I can do.
Watch the oscilloscope, all right?
Here we go.
[playing off-key]
[clears throat]
- Dr. Joshua Keyes?
- Maybe.
- Yes or no, sir?
- The first one.
Please come with us, sir.
- [stammers] Guys, what's going on?
- We don't know, sir.
What do you mean, you don't know?
Your security clearance
is higher than ours.
I have security clearance?
We're just here to
bring you to yourjet.
I have a jet?
[man speaking French]
Hey, Serge.
Serge. Serge.
Damn! It's about time.
You're always late.
Let's keep moving, gentlemen.
What am I doing here? They wouldn't
brief me until you got here.
You know, there are biochemists
everywhere, military. I hate them.
When are you going to meet a nice girl
and bring her for dinner?
- I'm married to my work.
- So am I.
Which makes my wife my mistress.
That's why I'm still in love with her.
- You were always a romantic.
- I love my wife.
- Yeah, I know. I love your wife, too.
- I know.
But I don't love your wife.
You know what I mean.
You don't love her
the same way, you know.
It's the French.
I think it's the cheese.
- Ah, the cheese.
- [both laugh]
- You're... you're teasing me, right?
- Oh, my...!
Whoa. Wait, these are bodies.
I think we're
in the wrong place here.
- Yeah, we're in the wrong place.
- [man] No.
If you were in the wrong place,
you would've already been shot.
- That's a hell of a greeting.
- Serge.
- Serge.
- Serge. Yes. Always a pleasure.
Same here, Thomas.
Dr. Keyes.
I know. Tom Purcell.
Gentlemen, you do realise
that everything here
is totally classified, OK?
At 10.30 a.m. local time,
all within a ten-block radius...
...died.
They didn't get sick first.
- They simply hit the ground dead.
- Nerve agent?
- [Tom] Our first guess. No.
- They all died at the same time?
[Tom] As far as we can tell,
to the second.
This hits CNN in one hour.
I need a reason.
[Serge] ls there a variation
in sex, age, body type?
They all had pacemakers.
Under a minute.
Your reputation is well-deserved.
- Hey, hey, hey.
- [Tom] How did you guess,
- without any clues from the victims?
- No, that's...
Serge and I are the clues.
I mean, he specialises in high energy
weapons. I do geomagnetics.
So calling us means you suspect
an electromagnetic pulse weapon.
If these are the only fatalities,
they must be people susceptible to...
- ...electronic interference.
- QED pacemakers.
- You're spooky sometimes?
- [Tom] Now, I need to know,
did some sort of weapon
kill these people?
The power that you would need
to create an EM pulse strong enough...
I mean, that's... that's not a weapon
that I've ever heard of.
- No.
- OK, we're done.
We're not done, sir. There's nothing
on the other side of the equal sign.
- I agree with Joshua...
- Thank you.
Our greatest concern was this
may have been an act of war,
but since it's not, I think we can all
breathe a little easier, can't we?
[door opens]
[cooing]
- Look at my hat.
- [child squeals]
What is it, sweetheart?
[pained cooing]
It's OK, son. These things
happen all the time...
[birds squawking]
Let's go, let's go! Come on!
[screams]
- [thudding]
- [people shouting]
- [squawking continues]
- [people screaming]
Jusfin!
You bloody idiot!
- [boy] Hurry! Run!
- [screaming continues]
- [grunts]
- [tyres screech]
[both grunt]
- [child shouts]
- [squawking continues]
[all screaming]
[Child] Daddy!
[sobs]
[man on TV] The skies are empty
over Nelson's Column now,
but a few hours ago,
it was a different story.
Eyewitnesses claimed that
the frenzied swarms of birds
were not in fact attacking
people deliberately...
And it's not just this time.
No,no,no,no,no,no.
The Fortean Times reported
violent bird swarms
twice last month in Australia and Japan.
...this bizarre and terrifying incident
in London's historic Trafalgar Square.
- Weird.
- Mm-hm.
- Quite strange, also.
- Mm. Strange, indeed.
- How do birds navigate?
- [woman] By sight?
- No, no, no, the long range stuff.
- [woman] Magnetic fields.
Little ions in their brains align
with the magnetic field of the Earth.
- Yeah, what she said.
- Right?
Acker. Hit the Net, do a search for,
oh, two years ought to do it.
Any and all, like, "weird news,"
you know, bizarre animal migrations,
specifically birds.
Whale and dolphin beachings.
Uh, unusual atmospheric phenomenon,
unexplained plane crashes,
- you know, just use your imagination.
- That is a huge search.
You can use our T-1 line to look up
Sailor Moon crap. You're up to this.
Danni, Danni, get me the brightest kids
from the Field Theory class
and design a computer model
of an electromagnetic field.
- What are we doing?
- I need a 3-D computer model
- of the Earth to lay the field over.
- Whoa, the planet Earth?
Yeah, the planet Earth.
You know, the pretty blue one.
Map out the anomalies that Acker finds
and grunt out the equations.
And... grab those smelly kids
from the Non-Linear Diff class, too.
Listen, Josh, do we even
have time for this?
Do this and I'll sign
your doctorates blindfolded.
- [Danni] Blindfolded?
- Blindfolded. Do not pass Go.
Go directly to PhD.
Be wrong. Be wrong.
[typing on keyboard]
Tim, I'm coming in a little hot.
Give me some drag, will you?
Roger that.
[clears throat]
We are in attitude and ready
for entry interface.
Nice work, Major.
I have the controls now for E.l.
I could take us in.
You could... but you won't.
- I'm ready for this, Bob.
- Oh, no, you're not, Beck.
You're trained, and you're certified.
Doesn't make you the commander.
And the commander lands the bird.
You got to be the youngest person
ever in space. You should say,
thank you, be happy. Now.
[man] Endeavour, Houston, at this time
we show you go for re-entry.
[Beck] Houston, Endeavour descending
through 400,000 feet
- coming upon entry interface.
- Endeavour, this is Flight.
Weren't able to annoy the commander
into letting you bring her in this time?
That's a negative, Stick. I'll
have to be more annoying next time.
- Is that even possible?
- [laughs]
[man] Endeavour, we see you
in good entry config.
[Beck] Roger, Houston.
[Tim] Advise.
[Bob] I'm seeing
those plasma trails now.
- [Tim] All right, mark 24 and a 1/2.
- [Bob] So, a minute to air.
[Beck] I don't believe in be/ts.
Just get me through the Earth's
atmosphere in this spaceship.
- [beeping]
- Com dropout.
- [Tim] Start the I Com.
- [Bob] Let's wait till the, uh...
Com restored.
[alarm beeping]
- [chattering]
- Quiet!
We are out of position here.
Guidance shows us on energy
and on course.
Well, I've made this approach
- We're not where we should be.
- Where the hell are we?
[Stick] Endeavour, guidance is bad.
You are now 1-2-niner miles off course.
Roger, Houston.
We sort of noticed. Is that...?
Los Angeles. That is confirmed.
We are 1-5 thousand feet.
We got maybe two minutes
of glide time left.
Doesn't make sense. The guidance,
the beacons are all wrong?
We're heading straight for downtown.
We're not gonna crash
into Los Angeles.
They're going to hit
downtown LA at 300 knots.
Bob, you know LA?
Because I have an idea.
Houston, those buildings
are getting mighty big.
- Can you clear a freeway?
- OK, thank you.
Come on. Come on.
It's rush hour, Commander,
and it's bumper-to-bumper.
Sir, I have an alternate.
If you turn to heading 1-7-5...
It's Houston's call. Houston?
- Computers are still plotting.
- Come on.
[rumbling]
[crowd murmuring]
Houston, we are running
out of time here.
- Sir, I have an alternate.
- All right, Beck, what do you got?
Houston, I have coordinates for an
alternate landing site. Can you confirm?
- Endeavour, give them to me.
- I show possible touchdown
at 33-55 north, 1-18-10 west.
- [Stick] Bill?
- It's theoretically possible.
Endeavour, that is confirmed.
Turn right, heading 1-7-5.
Expect visual contact
with Los Angeles River in five seconds.
No, that will not work, Houston.
We got bridges every few hundred yards.
Our wingspan alone
is going to fold us up.
I've figured the "L" over "D" max.
We can make it
if you can bring us straight in.
We're coming in high and hot.
Two-ninety feet, 320.
- Two-seventy, 3-0-5...
- Arm the gear.
- [Tim] Gear on.
- Gear down. Now.
[Tim] Gear in transition.
Two-forty feet, 290.
[Bob] Hang on.
This isn't going to be subtle.
Two-ten feet, 265.
Get out of the way! Move!
- Derotate.
- [Bob] Inward.
- 230... 210...
- Speed brakes!
- One hundred per cent.
- [Bob] We're way too fast.
- Deploy the chute.
- No. We'd snag the bridge.
We'll tear the tail off.
Banking right.
[Beck] Commander, that next bridge!
Watch it! We're way too high
for that one!
- Suck up the gear!
- Not yet. We'll lose all steering.
We hit, it's over!
And... gear up now!
Lock your harnesses.
It's out of my hands.
[all shouting]
- Let's get out of here!
- Run! Let's get out!
[grinder buzzing]
' [grinder off]
' [gasps]
- [Endeavour powering down]
- [exhales]
[breathing deeply]
[sirens approaching]
[man] Dr. Zimsky?!
Will you make sure my assistant
has your number, darling?
Sure.
- Dr. Zimsky!
- Hello. No, it's all right.
- Hello.
- Thank you, sir.
- Dr. Zimsky.
- Yes. What's your name?
- Josh Keyes.
- Josh.
No, sir, I don't need you to sign it.
I need you to read that.
[laughs] I'm sorry, I don't have time.
- I'm late for the White House, please.
- Sir...
I need you to confirm my results, sir.
Young man, do you have
any idea who I am?
Yes, I do, sir. Please read this.
[camera clicking]
What's it about?
It's the end of the world.
[papers rustling]
[sighs]
No, I... this is impossible. I'm sorry.
aughs]
I... I can't have missed this.
You... You have to be wrong.
I mean, look, I'm sure with careful
comparison to my own work,
we'll find that you are mistaken.
No of fence, but...
Well, I mean,
we'll know soon enough.
The bigger effects will start up
any day now.
[beeping]
- Rebecca?
- Only you and Dad ever call me that.
Right, Beck.
So, what brings you to sunny D.C.?
The Board of Review is next week.
Just trying to get a sense
of the mood upstairs.
- How bad is it?
- Your crew crashed the space shuttle.
Now, how good do you
think it could be?
- Sir, this is my life.
- Well...
I was studying for the academy
when I was 13.
It still is and has
always been my life.
It's over.
It's over, Rebecca.
I'm sorry.
- [elevator dings]
- [chattering]
- [man] Really?
- It's like the 4th of July.
- What the hell's the hurry here?
- [cell phone rings]
Rebecca, would you excuse me, please?
Excuse me.
- Purcell.
- Thomas, um, look...
...it seems that destiny
may have caught up with us.
Did Zimsky really try
to give you his autograph?
Ah, Monsieur Zimsky.
Conrad Zimsky. Herr Zimsky.
Superstar.
Ahh. [exhales]
I think I skipped drunk.
Went right to hangover.
[low-tempo music plays]
I spoke with the kids.
They don't sleep at night.
They look at the sky, and...
and they think it's pretty.
- Is there any chance you're wrong?
- No. The sky, man.
The sky... I mean,
that's just the beginning.
- That's high-altitude static discharge.
- I know.
[man] Dr. Keyes...
...your presence is
required at the Pentagon.
Ahh! It's my best buddies. Hey!
Why don't you join us for a drink?
We'd be grateful if you could
join us for a ride, sir.
And if I were to say no?
- Just asking.
- Yeah.
- Well, we have no sense of humour.
- That's true.
- Oh.
- And we're armed.
Thank you.
- [Tom] Dr. Keyes, welcome.
- Thank you.
Dr. Zimsky informs us
that you made a useful contribution
to his investigations, so he wanted you
to assist him with the briefing.
That's very generous of you,
Dr. Zimsky.
Science is a selfless business,
dear boy.
Now, why don't you begin,
and I'll fill in all the difficult bits.
[clears throat]
All right, I'll put this
as simply as I can.
[sighs] Everybody on Earth
is dead in a year.
And let me explain why.
Wrapped around the Earth
is an invisible field of energy.
It's made up of
electricity and magnetism,
so it's called, creatively enough,
the electromagnetic field.
It's where we get our magnetic
North Pole and South Pole,
and it protects us
from cosmic radiation.
- So this EM field is our friend.
- But now...?
But now, that field is falling apart.
- Why?
- [scoffs] Why?
This here.
Does somebody have a can
of air freshener?
Uh... Quick and dirty.
The thin skin, that's the Earth's crust.
That's what we live on.
It's 30 miles thick.
The meat here, call it the mantle.
And forgetting all the funky
transitions, it's 2,000 miles thick.
The core, the peach pit
in the centre, that's a tricky one.
There's two parts:
the inner core and the outer core.
Are you following me?
The inner core is...
Well, it's a big solid chunk of iron,
we think.
And that's surrounded by the outer core,
and that is liquid.
Yes, but, most importantly,
this liquid is constantly spinning
in one direction.
So a trillion trillion tons of hot metal
spinning at
a thousand miles an hour, so...
Right, so, Physics 101:
Hot metal moving fast
makes an electromagnetic field.
This spinning liquid outer core
is the engine that drives the EM Field.
And that's where we have our problem.
This engine has stalled.
The core of the Earth
has stopped spinning.
- How could this have happened?
- [people murmuring]
We don't know.
What's the timeline here?
As the EM Field
becomes more and more unstable,
we'll start seeing isolated incidents.
One plane will fall from the sky,
and then two, and then...
...in a few months, anything,
everything electronic will be fried.
Static discharges in the atmosphere
will create superstorms
with hundreds of lightning strikes
per square mile.
After that, it gets bad.
The Earth's EM Field
shields us from the solar winds,
which are a lethal blend of radioactive
particles and microwaves.
When that shield collapses,
microwave radiation
will literally cook our planet.
Dr. Zimsky.
- [clears throat]
- This is the sun.
This is the Earth...
without the EM Field.
- Would you?
- Mm-hm.
Three months, gentlemen,
and we're back in the Stone Age.
A full year, the field collapses...
...and that.
May I?
Feel free to throw up.
I know I did.
So... how do we fix it?
- We can't.
- Not in my vocabulary.
Then you might want
to get one of those
word-a-day calendars, General,
because it's impossible.
The core is the size of Mars. You're
talking aboutjumpstarting a planet.
This is a superheated hyper-fluid
of molten iron and nickel
at 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit,
And the deepest we've ever been
is... seven miles
- with a two-inch drill bit.
- If we can go into space,
- we certainly...
- Well, space is easy. It's empty.
We're talking about millions of pounds
of pressure per square inch.
Even if we somehow
came up with a brilliant plan
to fix the core,
we just can't get there.
[Zimsky] Yes, but...
...what if we could?
Hello, Braz.
Why the hell aren't you dead yet?
OK, this way.
Oh. That went better than I expected.
Dr. Brazzelton,
I see you know Dr. Zimsky.
Yeah. Twenty years ago,
he stole my research. [laughs]
- After that, we kind of lost touch.
- Research that was equally mine.
That's funny, I don't remember a cheque
from any of the patents.
[sighing] All right, Braz,
makes you a prophet and a martyr.
Look, we're here
about your legendary ship.
OK, I'm combining
high-frequency pulse lasers
with resonance tube ultrasonics.
If you've ever seen ultrasonic waves
break up a kidney stone
on the Discovery Channel,
it's the same deal here.
- Uh, you can put your helmets on now.
- [motor starting]
- Firing.
- [powering up]
[shouting]
[shouting]
[engine powering down]
[Braz] Yeah. Oh.
[coughing]
[Spits]
OK, I'm officially impressed.
[Zimsky] Well, all right.
So you've made some progress
with the engine, I will grant you.
Uh, have you begun
to think about a shell?
OK, this is Alex.
OK, Alex. Good.
OK, here we have a concrete block,
and in back of that,
we have a two-inch steel plate.
- [engine powering up]
- OK. We're ready.
And we are... firing.
[engine powering down]
- Voil!
- That's...
- That's impossible.
- [Braz] I combined the crystals
in a tungsten-titanium matrix
at supercool temperatures,
and that's what did the trick.
The applications for this are just...
What do you call this material?
Well, its real name has 37 syllables.
I call it Unobtanium.
- Unobtanium?
- Mm-hm.
The Unobtanium will take
the heat and the pressure
and transform it to energy,
which in turn, reinforces
the shell of the ship, you see.
So the hotter and the deeper she gets,
the stronger she gets, theoretically.
- [Zimsky] Theoretically?
- Theoretically, yes.
This... is Johnson, don't mind him.
This is the prototype
for the cockpit here.
Excuse me, Dr. Brazzelton, when do you
think the ship will be operational?
When I get my fabrication
methods perfected.
Twelve... ten years, ten years.
What would it take to get
it done in three months?
[laughing] Fifteen billion dollars. I...
Will you take a cheque?
Why don't you use a credit card?
You get miles.
Mm.
[pounding]
- [man 1] Shit!
- [man 2] Mr. Finch, this is the FBI.
- We have a warrant.
- [pounding continues]
- [Finch] Purge!
- [Computers beeping]
Come on, purge!
FBI! Freeze!
[dings]
[clattering]
OK.
I know these look like computers.
Totally not.
Theodore Donald Finch.
Carnegie Mellon University. MIT.
Worked at Sun, Lucent, RAND Corp.
My handle's "Rat". Call me Rat.
Sixty-three computer fraud indictments.
Sixty-fou r.
Two convictions.
This is strike three, Mr. Finch.
Wait a second.
You guys aren't here
to whack me, are you?
Because I was really, really hoping
to have sex before that happened.
Yeah. I've been told by the FBI,
whose database you crippled last year,
that you are the best in the business.
So you're about to be given a choice.
- What if I say no?
- Excuse me, but
is this really the best we could do?
I mean...
- How many languages do you speak?
- Five, actually.
Well, I speak one.
One, zero, one, zero, zero.
With that, I could steal
your money, your secrets,
your sexual fantasies, your whole life,
any country, any place,
anytime I want.
We multitask like you breathe.
I couldn't think
as slow as you if I tried.
- Do you have any idea...?
- OK, hey. Hey!
Let's just, let's give the kid a break.
OK, it's a phone. It's just a phone.
Rat...
...we got a big... problem.
A lot of people are going to die.
- We need your help.
- What kind of help?
- [blows on wrapper]
- Information control.
We need you to control the flow
of information on the Internet.
You're dreaming.
Nobody controls the Net.
Could you... with unlimited resources?
You want me to hack the planet?
[chuckles]
- [dialling phone]
- He wants me to hack the planet.
[blowing sounds]
[phone dialling]
You've got free long distance
on that phone... forever.
OK. If I decide to do this,
I'm going to need
an unlimited supply
of Xena tapes and Hot Pockets.
- Hot Pockets?
- They help me concentrate.
Sounds fair.
[shoes squeaking]
[door opens]
[man] Major Childs,
they're ready for you.
[swallows]
Major Childs, a clarification:
You and you alone were responsible
for proposing the descent vectors
for the shuttle, correct?
Yes, General.
[General] We have determined
that the Class "A" landing mishap
experienced by the Shuttle Endeavour
was caused by biased navigational data
from the ground
due to a brief geomagnetic disturbance.
Major Childs,
the resourcefulness you showed
in determining
the descent vectors proved
that you have exceptional
navigational skills.
You've brought much credit
upon yourself,
the space programme
and the United States Air Force.
Congratulations, Major.
You are reassigned with Commander
lverson and Flight Director Stickley
to a new mission, effective immediately.
Transportation is waiting outside.
Good luck and Godspeed, Major.
[chattering]
[Serge] Are you sure you want
to wear this tie?
- [Josh] Why?
- [Serge] I don't know.
I mean, you look so nervous about it.
- You look so...
- So, how are you holding up?
- Oh, hi.
- I'm good, I'm good.
I'm about to tell a couple hundred
people the world is going to end.
- Well...
- I've had better days.
You look good.
Well, no, you don't look good.
Why did he touch his tie like that?
Thomas, let me speak
with you for a moment.
Listen, wouldn't you rather I did this?
I mean, given my reputation,
I think that...
No. No, Keyes is in
the lead here, Zimsky.
Yes. Thomas, this is the most important
scientific operation in history.
And given my status,
I feel that it's my job to present...
Project Destiny was your job, Zimsky.
And you went way beyond
authorised limits.
And let me tell... let me tell you,
I still, I want to know
if Destiny caused this problem.
It's highly unlikely,
but it may be the solution.
- Now, I have not finished checking...
- Excuse me.
Rebecca... I'm so glad I was wrong.
Right over left...
No, the other left, the other left.
- Gentlemen.
- And then you...
Gentlemen.
Commander lverson, Major Childs,
this is your crew:
- Dr. Brazzelton knows the ship.
- Hello.
- [Tom] Dr. Zimsky knows the planet.
- Doctor.
Dr. Leveque knows the weapons system.
- Excuse me, ladies first. Hi.
- [Tom] And Dr. Keyes... [clears throat]
Dr. Keyes built the navigation system.
- So...
- Hi. Rebecca Childs.
Bob lverson.
These are your fellow... fellow what?
- Terranauts?
- [Stick] Hello.
All this brain power over here
is starting to smell
like burning batteries.
- Y'all better come and join in.
- Yeah.
It's the simplest things
that are the hardest, huh?
Yeah. It's official. I'm the
least-qualified person on this base.
Dr. Keyes, I'm sure the people in charge
have every confidence in you.
Well, the problem is that I'm in charge.
- [chuckles] Yeah, I know.
- Can I help you?
Yes, please.
[clears throat]
You're an astronaut,
and you can tie a Windsor?
Mm-hm.
- Is there anything you can't do?
- Not that I'm aware of.
I find that incredibly intimidating.
Yep. Most people do.
Here.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
[Tom] Let me introduce our project
leader, Dr. Joshua Keyes.
[Josh] Thank you, thank you.
Good evening. Good evening.
Wow. This looks like a meeting
for Nobel Prize Winners Anonymous.
I know you are all
the finest in your fields
and have come a long way to be here.
So, I'll outline our programme
over the next three months.
Dr. Brazze/ton will supervise
the building of a ship
which is capable of reaching
the centre of our planet.
Once there, it will deliver
an explosive charge
large enough to restart its core.
Dr. Zimsky will calculate the scale
of the explosion needed.
[Zimsky] This is a program I designed
to simulate the effect
of nuclear detonations on the core.
If my calculations are correct,
a tiny nudge in any direction
will force the core back
into its normal flow.
What's a "tiny nudge"
in planetary terms?
- A thousand megatons, give or take?
- [Zimsky] Tops.
Because any more than that
would create a core instability.
[Serge] We made a few monster warheads
in the 200-megaton range.
Braz, do you think the ship
can handle five of these babies?
Yeah.
- I can enlarge the ejection pod...
- [Bob] Forgive me,
but, you know, I know
I'm not the expert here,
but what if the core
is thicker or thinner?
I mean, what if it's not
what you think it is?
Isn't that going to affect
the way the explosions are...?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
And what if the core is made of cheese?
This is all best guess, Commander.
That's all science is, is best guess.
So my best guess is you don't know.
[Josh] With luck, irony will break
for the good guys for once,
and the world's biggest weapons
of mass destruction
will help save the world.
The ship will be powered by a small
experimental nuclear reactor.
It will be divided into six compartments
like cars on a train:
the locomotive unit,
navigation compartment,
living quarters, engineering,
bomb compartment
and finally the weapons-control module.
Up to a 45-degree angle, every
compartment will be held level
by these gyro control gimbals.
But if we do breach a section,
bulkhead doors engage automatically,
seal off the section in red, and eject.
- Is ejection really the best option?
- Only option.
Each damaged compartment
degrades the entire hull.
[Josh] The objective is simple.
The obstacles are gigantic.
We're going to need
all the help in the world,
but if we are to avoid
panic and chaos,
the world at large can never
know what's happening here.
Which is where our friend
Mr. Rat comes in.
[Rat] It's called Virus-bot. It's a
computer virus that will seek out files
anywhere on the Web that contain
keywords that we designate
and wipes them out.
This is my kung fu, and it is strong.
[Josh] Meanwhile, there are
a million puzzles ahead of us,
and we have three months
to solve them.
We have a committed
and ingenious team.
We have every resource
available to us, and we have the best
of the world's scientific
and technical talents on our side.
With your help we can,
we must... succeed.
[indistinct conversations]
- Feedback in the resonance tube.
- Talk to me, gentlemen.
[Serge] We are losing
structural integrity.
No, it's not feedback.
It's an impeller malfunction, I believe.
No, it's not, no. If it were
an impeller malfunction...
For God's sakes, Braz, make the call!
No, I'll make the call.
I should make the call.
[Beck] Sixty-five knots!
Depth, 8-5 thousand feet.
L0ok,guys...
It's a disaster!
[laughing]
[alarm blaring]
What part of "talk to me"
don't you guys understand?
For the 22nd time in a row,
everyone on Earth is dead.
Let's take a little quiet time,
and you all are going
to try this again.
- Hey
- Hi.
What is this?
Uh, well, it's... I invented it.
It's how you're going to...
going to steer underground.
It's... not very good reception.
[Josh] Well, uh, you're looking
through three feet of lead
at 50 yards away, so...
...it ain't bad.
It's like a CAT scan at a hospital,
but it's, uh, it's souped-up.
I invented it
for deep earth surveying.
And then the government came in,
bought my research,
paid off my student loan guys
and made me a consultant.
I'm sorry, this is really delicate.
And I have it just the way I want it.
So... excuse me.
Uh... Yeah. Then they brought me in
when the pacemakers quit,
and... boom, you know,
I'm Apocalypse Boy.
Apocalypse Boy?
Yeah. I'm having T-shirts made up.
Well, hats sell better.
You know, it's funny, because
that is right where it should be.
Well...
I'm sorry. I'm a little
ragged around the edges.
I'm just trying to get
this thing to focus correctly.
- This is cool, but can I just...?
- Well... Mm-hm.
It's better. It's better. Ah...
[electrical zapping]
God, I hate this sky.
- [crashing sounds]
- [alarm blaring]
[sighs]
[Bob] Crashing one ship
isn't enough for you?
Hey. Practice makes perfect.
You can practise all you like.
It doesn't mean you're ready
to sit on that seat.
So you keep reminding me, sir.
You know, I doubt
you're even going to listen to this,
but I'm going to give it a shot.
Being a leader isn't about ability.
It's about responsibility.
- Got it, sir.
- No, you don't, Beck.
I mean, you're not just responsible
for making good decisions.
You have to be responsible
for the bad ones.
You got to be ready
to make the shitty call.
- What makes you think I'm not?
- Because you're so good.
You haven't hit anything
you couldn't beat.
I mean, hell, you were the one who
figured out how to save the shuttle.
You made me, you made the rest
of NASA just look like an ass.
It's just that
you're used to winning...
...and you're not really
a leader until you've lost.
[Braz] $20 billion has been spent
developing this system...
[Josh] Oh, come on, guys,
the chefs at NASA...
- I wouldn't call them chefs.
- [all arguing]
I want wine! I need wine!
It's about nutrition.
In five days, I think...
- Whoa!
- [Zapping]
That's high-level static discharge.
I think we should check this out.
This doesn't look so good.
[rapid chattering]
[Josh] It's a lightning superstorm.
- Popping up all over the world.
- Got 'em. Tracking.
Uh-oh. Rome does not look good.
[electrical zapping]
[crowd murmuring]
[patrons chattering]
[man speaks foreign language on TV]
[hissing]
[all shouting]
[howls]
[all screaming]
[screaming continues]
[Sirens]
[woman speaking foreign language on TV]
This planet is decaying faster
than we thought.
It's just the start.
Soon they'll be EM spikes and microwaves
will break through the weak spots and...
All right. Get this ship
in the ground. Now.
Fihunde
[sneezes]
[groans]
Summer in the Pacific.
Yeah, the world is inside out.
[Serge] I was saving this
for later, but...
- ...this is the time for...
- [laughs]
- Josh, do you mind?
- No, not at all. Yeah.
We should have a name
for this baby.
- Oh, she's called Virgil, actually.
- Virgil,
the poet that led our man
into the depths of hell?
- That's it.
- That's appropriate, I guess.
Well, here's to Virgil.
To the planet.
[all] To Virgil.
No flashbulbs, no press,
nobody cheering. It's... weird.
Let's go.
Fihunde
[chattering]
[Bob] Cabin pressure, TSI, 3.5.
[Beck] Check.
[Bob] E CS cabin repress open
And repress VLV closed.
- Check.
- Fluid dump valve.
We are about to begin ourjourney
into the heart of the cosmos...
- [Bob] Close.
- ...Into the core of our own planet.
- Where we find therein...
- [Beck] Check.
- ...the secrets of the universe...
- [Bob] ...3.5 PSI.
- ...the mysteries of time...
- [Bob] Helen circuit lockup.
- [Beck] Check.
- ...hope for the future.
- [Bob] And signal.
- Deep Earth Control, this is Virgil.
- Signal check.
- This is Deep Earth Control.
I have thumbs-up across the board.
You are clear to initiate power-up.
Reactor power confirmed.
[Stick] At 1,000 rpm, we will
countdown to launch. On your mark.
Pad leader, stand by for launch.
All right, Virgil.
- Mark.
- Gantry count. Ten, nine,
eight, seven, six, five, four...
...three, two, one... launch.
- Five hundred feet.
- Levelling out.
OK, guys, let's swing forward.
- Eight hundred feet.
- Light 'em up, Beck.
[beeping]
- Gyro levelling operational.
- Hull integrity holding.
I'm going to keep her nose
down about 15 degrees and...
- [whale sounds]
- Oh, my goodness.
They're singing to us.
Virgil's resonance tubes are powered up,
so they're vibrating subsonically.
Actually, we're singing to them.
[hull creaking]
What's our depth?
Sixteen hundred feet,
plenty of room on both sides.
- Hull integrity is good.
- You sure?
Let's increase impeller speed. I think
we'll be needing additional control.
- [beeping]
- Stick, I'm getting a seismic reading.
- What's happening?
- T-phase. Underwater earthquake.
[rumbling]
Still think the water-launch
was a good idea?
Yes, yes, I chose this location
because the crust is thin here.
The downside is... there's lots
of seismic activity.
Four thousand feet.
You see that rock?
That is not good.
We're losing steering here.
There's some kind of crosscurrent.
Fourteen thousand feet.
OK, guys, fasten your seat belts.
We're turning into the skid.
Eighteen thousand.
- Eighteen-five.
- They're going way too fast.
[alarm blaring]
- Twenty-one thousand feet.
- We hit the wall,
we're rabbits on the highway.
[Braz] Pressure, pressure,
pressure, pressure.
What do you mean, pressure? I thought
you said this thing was indestructible!
I said the pressure makes us stronger.
We just don't have enough of it yet.
We're at 25,000 feet. Pull out, sir.
- Can't.
- What?
- We're locked in.
- Go to full throttle.
Standby to engage front
and lateral lasers, please.
But what if we hit bottom
in ten seconds here?
Just give it a couple of more seconds.
The lasers will fire.
No, there's not enough time
for power-up.
Twenty-seven thousand feet.
[Braz] The lasers will deploy.
Twenty-nine thousand feet.
- Do it!
- And...
- Do it!
- Now.
[monitor beeps]
- [beeping]
- And we've got a signal.
- [man] All right.
- [all applaud]
All right. [clears throat] Switching on
electron spin burst transmitters.
Ah, plotting through
lowest density material,
- reconfiguring every five minutes.
- [exhales]
Hull integrity 100 per cent.
Reactor power 100 per cent.
- All green on the bomb compartment.
- Speed is 60 knots.
[laughs] Hot damn.
All right, we'll be through the crust
in 15 minutes and into the mantle.
Twenty-four hours to the core,
and then assuming we survive...
- Assuming?
- Yes, assuming.
Another 15 hours to the
inner core-outer core border.
[beeping]
- They're doing well.
- The crust is just rock.
Now, it gets interesting.
Virgil, can we get a status check?
We're about to make
the transition into the mantle.
- [rumbling]
- Come on, come on.
[exhales]
Well, exterior pressure
is 800,000 pounds per square inch.
And hull integrity is 100 per cent.
It's as if we we're diving
through the memories of the planet.
But we are about to pass
from memory into madness.
Are you going to be doing
that Carl Sagan narration
all the way to the core?
- I beg your pardon?
- I said...
[stammers] I have an obligation
to my students...
An obligation to make
a book deal perhaps?
[Zimsky] Two book deals,
if you'd like to know the truth.
I read that last book.
It wasn't very good.
[Zimsky] Oh, really? Really?
When did you learn how to read?
[Braz] You amaze me.
[Bob] People.
Drs. Zimsky and Keyes?
You guys are
our resident geophysicists.
What do you make of this?
The mantle is a chemical hodgepodge
of... a variety of elements...
Say it with me: "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 as black.
- So, what's... what's static?
- It's nothing.
- What do you mean?
- It's nothing.
It's empty space.
L.-
I never taught the computer how
to read empty space.
And I never taught Virgil
how to fly.
Oh, God!
[all grunting]
Oh, no, man!
[Bob] Oh, dear God.
[grunts]
[shouts]
[groaning]
Ah!
[screams]
[all grunting, panting]
Serge, you all right?
Yeah.
- Anybody hurt?
- No. You OK?
- Yeah.
- [craft hissing]
What's that? What is that?
From the cooling system.
Shut that down. Shut it down.
I told you to go around her.
Nobody listens to me.
Where in God's name are we?
Whatever has us jammed up
is inside our lasers. Shut 'em down.
We're not going anywhere.
Powering down.
[ship powers down]
Josh, is there any other image
you can pull up?
Nope. Whatever it is,
it's also inside our MRI cameras.
- We have to go outside.
- [Serge] What?
Believe me, I hate to admit it,
but I think he's right.
- I'm coming. I want to collect samples.
- [Bob] Wait, hang on, hang on.
The first problem is,
the only way out of the ship
is the way we came in,
which is through the impeller outlet...
- Which is still at 5,000 degrees.
- Exactly, I mean...
I'll just flush it with liquid nitrogen
from the cooling system.
Wait. The cooling system that's keeping
us from roasting to death in this ship?
Well, just a small part of it.
Alternatives? Anybody.
[heavy breathing]
[Bob] Whoa, whoa, that's it.
[Josh] It's like a giant...
giant crystal.
- [Zimsky] Where the hell are we?
- [Bob] Well, the good news is,
it looks like the suits
can take the pressure.
It's completelyjammed
the laser assembly.
We just... we got to hope,
if we can cut it loose,
- they're still functional.
- Careful!
OK.
Got it.
- Beck, try the lights, will you?
- Lighting up.
- Oh, it's magnificent.
- [Zimsky] Oh, my God.
[Braz] Aladdin's cave.
[Zimsky] It's like
a crystal Grand Canyon.
I think it's a geode.
But I don't understand
how it could have survived down here.
- Cobalt shell, maybe?
- [Zimsky] Well, I mean,
in a magma environment
of 5,000 degrees.
Something would have to protect it.
Unbelievable.
- Zimsky.
- Yeah?
We're inside a giant gem bubble,
wrapped in a cobalt cocoon
of the Earth.
- Hell of a day.
- [Zimsky laughing]
Yes, it is.
- [Braz] I'll start cutting.
- [Bob] OK, Braz.
I'm going to check the hull.
Call me if you need me.
- OK.
- [tool powering up]
[Zapping]
[hissing]
Oh, no.
- Zimsky!
- Yeah?
- Zimsky...
- Look! It's an amethyst.
[Zimsky] Oh, God,
we've breached the shell.
[shouts]
- [gasps]
- [all shouting]
Guys, you don't have to be here!
I want you back inside!
Well, I think that means me.
Orders are orders.
VVaH,Josh.
The problem is I'm losing oxygen.
- Braz, what can I do?
- Check the feeds for me.
Check the feeds for me, Josh.
Quick!
I'm coming. I'm coming
as fast as I can.
Hey, guys, at this rate we have three
minutes before the lava gets to us.
Come on, guys. Come on.
[beeps]
[Braz] It's not going to work
without oxygen!
We're losing oxygen!
[air hissing]
I fixed it. Now cut!
[Braz] That's good. It's working now.
It's working well now!
That's good, Josh!
- Josh's vital signs are dropping.
- What?
[exhales]
Serge!
[Braz] You're almost there.
You're almost there, Josh.
- [grunts]
- Josh!
[grunting]
[grunts]
- Joshua!
- OK, guys, connect the oxygen.
- [Bob] Braz, you got that?
- [Braz] Yes. Connected!
[Bob] Good. I got to check these lasers.
OK, Beck, turn 'em over.
Pre-lasers only,
if you don't mind.
Initiating.
This better work.
The tide's really coming in.
Yes!
We got lucky! I think we're going
to swim right out of this one.
Bob?
[gasps]
[long beep]
Bob?
Bob...
Braz, come on, it's over.
OK. OK.
Beck! Beck!
We're coming in.
[panting] Initiate start sequence.
Beck!
- Beck, do you hear me?
- [Serge] Careful.
Start the impellers!
The door, open the door.
Activate bulkhead doors!
Now, Beck!
[gasps]
You OK? You're going to be weak.
You're OK.
Good job, good job. Good man.
- Well done, well done.
- [Josh] I'm fine. Thank you.
So... we have some good news, and...
...and we have some bad news.
Good news.
I'll take good news.
- All right.
- Well, we're alive and we're moving.
That's g... that's good news.
Oh, it is hot in here.
Yeah, that nitro we flushed out of the
cooling system, it's causing things
just to heat up a little. I'm going
to go back and make some adjustments.
- I'll lend you a hand.
- I'm fine.
[Beck] I'm going to check
your heartbeat, OK?
Thanks, Braz. Appreciate it.
So, that's the bad news?
That's not too bad.
No. Commander lverson died.
But... we're living,
and he would want to...
He'd want us to
complete our mission,
so I think that it's
important that we all...
- It's all right.
- Thank you.
I'm sorry.
Let's give him a second, OK?
He deserves that.
Oh, God, this all just seems
too big, doesn't it?
I think you were attempting
the impossible.
You were trying
to save the world, and...
...it's overwhelming.
I came here to save my wife
and my two children
and... six billion lives...
it's too much.
I just hope I'm smart enough
and brave enough to save three.
You did a nice job, Joshua.
Very nice. Great.
- You'd have done the same thing.
- Well, maybe, maybe.
Hey... who's steering the ship?
- Video screen autopilot.
- I hope he knows the way.
You and me both.
So... you're really
a college professor?
You're not from the CIA or the NSA
or any of those three-letter places?
No. I am a boring college professor.
Wrong place, wrong place.
That was the bravest thing
I've ever seen.
Well, I just, I just...
Listen, the lack of oxygen
kept me from weeping
like a little girl,
as is my custom
in dangerous situations.
[Beck] Hey, guys, we're close
to the mantle core interface.
Where are you?
[Serge] Key's in, Dr. Brazzelton.
- Ready.
- [Josh] We are in the
- luxurious, beautiful...
- [Serge] OK, the code...
...weapons control
checking the controls on the nukes.
[Serge] This is
the birthday of my daughter.
[Braz] O-3-1-9-9-5.
- Ready? Three, two and one.
- Yeah.
Thank you.
Green. All green.
Great. So we have
to synchronise the babies now.
Just a second.
- There.
- Mm-hm.
All right, now let's
put them to bed.
Zimsky, could you please come up
here for a second?
- Yes?
- We're not supposed
- to go through anything black.
- Yes, so please don't.
What is this?
[Zimsky] They're scattered everywhere.
Oh, my God! They're diamonds!
[Beck] Great.
You might want to sit down and buckle
up. We're on a collision course here.
Alrighty. Careful.
Guys, we're dodging diamonds
the size of Cape Cod, so bear with me.
Not exactly nimble here.
- Diamonds? I want some.
- Can I help?
Oh!
- [thudding]
- OK. It's OK.
[Beck] OK, it looks like
we're in the clear.
- [scraping]
- [alarm beeping]
Breach!
Guys! Weapons control, get out!
Get out now!
[Josh] Serge!
Serge! What the hell are you doing?
Come on!
[$6rge] My notebook!
Serge!
Take the time reg, Joshua!
- Come on Serge! Come on!
- My notes! You'll need them!
No! God, no, Serge!
- It's OK.
- Serge, come on! No!
Serge!
We need the box!
[Braz shouting]
We can get him!
We can get him!
Hold on, Serge!
Beck! Beck!
Override the ejection system!
Beck, no! One damaged compartment
threatens the whole ship!
Beck! Beck!
Override the ejection system!
Serge, we're right here. We're not
going to forget about you, man.
- Josh, can you hear me?
- Serge! Serge...
Hey, buddy, look in your monitor
right now. Serge, look in your monitor.
- I'm right here. Serge...
- Josh, I can't see you.
Braz is going to override
the doors manually, OK?
We're working on it right now.
Braz, how long?
Going as fast as I can,
fast as I can.
- OK, I'm scared.
- We're going right now.
- Shouldn't be two seconds, all right?
- Josh!
Beck, override
the ejection systems, OK?
Damn it. I don't think
Beck can hear me.
Serge, look at me now. Serge!
Serge, we're right here, OK? We're not
going to forget about you, man.
I'm going to get you out of here.
We're working on it, all right?
- Stay with me here. OK?
- [sobs] I don't know what to do.
You can hear me now?
All right, here I am.
I'm not going to let you go, man. I'm
not going to let you go, all right?
Stay with me here, OK?
I'm going to come to Paris
and we'll go out, all right? After this.
After this is all
said and done, all right?
- Josh!
- Serge!
- Serge! Serge! Serge!
- [Serge screaming]
Serge /
[sighs]
- [inhales sharply]
- [kicking console]
Did you reset the overrides?
I never pushed them.
You let him die.
Actually, you really want to know?
I killed him twice.
First when I hit the diamond, and then
when I didn't hit the override.
Do you want me to feel any worse
about that than I already do?
It's not possible.
Why are you being so smug about that?
- Could you have made the decision?
- [Josh] Yes.
- Could you?
- Yes, I could've.
If you would've hit that switch,
I could've got him outta there!
I was yelling for you!
Take it and look at it!
I was two inches from him!
I was two inches, and I told you
to put the door up and you didn't!
I was screaming for you!
Why didn't you do it?!
Because I had to make that decision.
Fate or God...
No! Damn it!
You leave God out of this!
Serge died so that we could
complete ourjob.
Oh, that's right,
the job of saving the world.
Not the whole world, Josh!
Just three of them.
- [monitor beeping]
- [quiet chattering]
Virgil, you are approaching
core interface. Are you good to go?
[Braz] Josh?
Josh, can you hear me?
Josh, can you hear me?
Ready as we'll ever be, Stick.
Dr. Keyes.
Right here.
Deep Earth, we are green
and good to go.
We just got a huge speed jump.
We're at 95 knots...
...110...
...13O... 140.
Our speed's jumped
because the density of the core
is different than our estimates.
It's lighter than we thought.
- So much for best guesses.
- [Beck] I'm fine with this.
At this rate, we'll,
what, hit the inner core
in a little over five hours.
I think we finally bought some luck.
- Braz.
- Yeah.
Would you please punch
the new core density into the equations
for the nuclear detonation?
Please tell me this is enough.
- Failure.
- [Beck] You're telling me
the 1,000 megatons
of nuclear warheads
we hauled down here
isn't going to cut it?
No. This core material is too thin.
- What?
- [Zimsky] The energy waves from
the explosion
won't spread far enough.
They'll just bleed
away into nothing.
[exhales, stammers]
That's it.
- We go home. We go home.
- [Josh] Home?
Our commander is dead.
Our weapons specialist is dead.
Our weapons control systems are gone.
We don't know whether
we can arm the nuclear devices,
and our plan to fix the core
no longer works. So... we have failed.
We have not failed.
We have failed, and we go home,
and we go to the alternative.
What alternative?
What are you talking about?
General, this is Dr. Conrad Zimsky.
Destiny is a go.
Repeat. Destiny is a go.
[sighs] Damn.
I need to know
everything to do my job.
You don't have to know this.
General, it is my job
to ensure the safety of this mission.
Anything that affects it is my business.
Now what the hell is Destiny?
It's a device.
Deep Earth Seismic Trigger
Initiative, DEST-INI. Destiny.
We had reason to believe that our
enemies were building a weapon
that could generate
targeted seismic events.
They would be able to create massive
earthquakes under our territory.
- No way of telling who did it.
- So?
So... we built one, too.
M.A.D. Mutually Assured Destruction.
A perfect acronym
if ever there was one.
- Beautiful.
- They built it first.
I built it better.
I beamed high-powered
electromagnetic energy waves
down Deep Earth fault lines,
- and, you know.
- Zimsky, what makes you think
- that Destiny would touch the core?
- [Josh] 'Cause it already did.
This isn't a fluke.
We killed the planet.
[Beck] You keep saying
that the core is too big
to be affected by anything
short of nukes.
- So...
- The core is an engine.
Throw a small wrench into a big engine,
you can still stall it.
Deep Earth, this is Virgil.
We require clarification on
the status of Project Destiny.
- Why weren't we notified of this, sir?
- Because you didn't need to know.
Now you may not like this.
I may not like it either.
But it's my job,
and I do it for my country,
and if we don't develop these
devices, someone worse will
and they will use them against us.
But you have my word.
No one in this
administration, no one,
had any idea
that this could happen.
So the device that killed the
planet is your backup plan?
An electric shock can stop a heart.
It can certainly restart one.
- Destiny will work. It has to.
- No, it won't work.
If you fire that thing again
with the core already stalled,
- it'll terminally destabilise it.
- Yes, granted,
there is a marginal risk involved,
but given the circumstances,
- I hardly see that as an alternative.
- No, Zimsky, listen to me.
Every volcano on the planet will blow.
There'll be earthquakes big
enough to rip us to pieces.
- [Tom] Dr. Keyes.
- What?
I'm afraid it's all we've got.
Now, I have orders from the president.
Come home, Virgil. We go to plan B.
- Well, what about plan C?
- What? What?
Well, plan C. We continue on.
We restart the core... somehow.
We don't do it, you fire Destiny.
I can't wait for you
to get out of there.
- Then don't. We fail, fire Destiny.
- Oh, come on! That's ridiculous!
- What choice do we have, Zimsky?
- Are you kidding me?
If they set that thing off,
the shock waves will wipe us out!
We'll be lucky to get back
if we turn back right now!
Virgil, I'm telling you right now,
we will fire Destiny,
and we need to do so
as quickly as possible,
and if you're still there,
you will be destroyed.
Rebecca ?
Please don't make me
have to do this.
Plan C.
It's your call, Commander.
Majority decision.
We're going in.
I'm sorry, sir.
Oh, come on, you're a bunch of suicidal
morons! What are you, crazy?
Plan C?
Restart the core "somehow"?
Oh, that's a great idea!
That's a brilliant idea!
I can't believe I'm stuck in this
floating septic tank with you lunatics!
You may have nothing to lose.
You may have nothing to lose!
You may have nothing to lose,
but I have my life to lose,
thank you very much,
while you're up! Now turn it around!
He told us to go back
and we're going back!
Why? You want to be a hero?
You want to be a martyr?
What do you want to be?
You're out of your mind!
- Thank you! Turn it around!
- No!
- Zimsky.
- I'm not gonna die like this!
- I don't wanna die!
- Zimsky, it's not about you!
- If you wanna die like this...
- ...three people...
Shut up!
[panting]
It's not a stupid ship.
I had to.
- It had to happen sometime.
- Yeah.
- [computer beeping]
- Um...
- Status! What is that?
- [Rat] It's the EM monitoring station.
It's the one that tracks EM pulses.
God, no.
[sighs]
- Just talk, Mr. Rat.
- [Rat] No.
- That's a good boy.
- Um...
Remember those invisible microwaves
that Josh was talking about?
Well, they just found a hole.
[water boiling]
No, it's a parking lot out here...
- [sizzling sound]
- [screams]
[sizzling sounds continue]
Oh, my God.
[rumbling]
- [sizzling sounds continue]
- [gasps]
[screams]
[people screaming]
[woman on TV] And now with this
horrific breaking news,
we go live to San Francisco,
where Leo Jacks has the story.
[Leo] Yes, Claire, it's hard to believe
that half of San Francisco
is in ruins today
following the most devastating
and the most baffling
event in our nation's history.
Uh, it's a horrific situation here.
Thousands are dead.
Many are missing.
- It's hotels, hospitals.
- Bring up the power grid.
- [typing]
- [computer beeping]
The whole West Coast is out.
That means we're going to have
to suck up just about every drop
of juice east of the Rockies
to fire Destiny.
Another EM spike, we're not
going to have enough power.
General, you have got
to give them more time.
[Tom] There is no more time.
Colonel, call Destiny.
I am launching
a formal complaint against you
- with the Department of Defense.
- Rat to Josh.
Go, Rat.
Hey, here's the EM field data
that you're primed for.
Digging that, Rat.
Primed for. Primed for.
Prime numbers...
One, two, three, five,
seven, 11, 13, 17...
[typing]
[typing]
Here we go.
[electrical zapping]
[telephone ringing]
[man] James.
[exhales]
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Here we go, folks.
[Josh] OK, this time it's going to work.
Here you go... beautiful. Yeah. Mm-hm.
Come on, baby. Come on,
Daddy wants to see the sky again.
OK, OK, OK. Let's try again.
- Your torque is R, cross F...
- No, your R is too small, Josh.
- Right.
- Wait, hold on.
[Zimsky laughing]
- What are you laughing at?
- No, I mean,
it took me and 400
of the world's smartest people
- to come up with the first plan.
- You want to help?
No. I want to turn around and go home.
- It's not going to happen.
- Well, then we're going to die.
- True.
- All right, look
- let's start from square one.
- OK.
Let's start from square one. The bulk
modules... depends on density.
Your torque is R cross F,
but you have to integrate volume...
But here, here...
just consider this.
Now, we got this...
OK, now, R cross F,
we're putting put in pi. What's V?
- Oh, for God's sake!
- All right. I'm hitting him again.
No, no, no!
Braz, no, look, I have a theory.
- Are you interested?
- Yes. We're interested.
Then let me smoke a cigarette,
and I'll tell you.
- Oh, thank God.
- [Braz whistles]
Hm? All right, fine, look. Look,
we have to use wave interference, OK?
Because one explosion won't do it.
Think about stones in a pond.
You drop a large stone into a pond,
you get a big splash,
and then that's it, it's over.
But drop a smaller stone,
wait until the ripples weaken
and drop another and another,
and another,
and fluid dynamics 101.
The ripples reinforce each other
in geometric progression.
[Braz] The whole bigger than
the sum of the parts.
Then we'll have five
Instead of one big bang.
- [Josh] So, we hotwire the nukes.
- Yes.
As one does.
We seed them through the core
at locations that have
to be accurate to the inch.
We detonate them in a sequence
that has to be accurate
to the millisecond,
then we outrun the biggest
nuclear shock wave in history.
- Right.
- Yeah.
I mean, that should be fairly simple.
[alarm blaring]
[man 1] ...should now be
diverting to the central...
[man 2] Final calibration
on both transmission systems...
[indistinct chatter]
[computer beeps]
Cut the... cut the rouge.
The red wire above the circuit.
- OK. OK.
- No, no, wait, hold it!
I'm sorry, cut it below.
- [computer beeps]
- I don't know what that means.
[man 1] Extensions A, B.
- [man 2] Here we go.
- [man 1] F, check. Increase power
- to reactors ten through 15.
- We're almost there, folks.
[typing]
[computer beeping]
- [typing]
- [beeping continues]
[Beck] OK, guys we're closing
on the inner core.
The nukes are ready.
Timers are on.
- Great. Let's start dropping them.
- No. The bombs are not built
for these pressures.
That's why they were in that pod.
If you send them out now,
out of that casing,
they'll be crushed instantly.
- I'm assuming we have a Plan D.
- Plan D is Virgil's compartments.
We put a nuke in
each section of Virgil,
and then eject the individual sections
one at a time. They should stay intact
- long enough for the nuke to go off.
- [groans]
- What?
- Virgil's not designed
to eject undamaged compartments.
OK, these are the ejection mechanisms
holding each compartment in place, um...
They're all connected
by one master hydraulic gear, um,
kind of like keys on a key ring.
What we have to do,
we have to unlock the piston.
That will release the compartments
so the bombs can be jettisoned.
Where's the master gear?
In the crawl space
we used to get out earlier.
Well, what the hell is it doing there?
I built the ship
in three damn months.
I didn't think I'd be intentionally
sabotaging it. I'm sorry!
So one of us has to go in there.
- Correct.
- Into the crawl space
- that has core fluid at 9,000 degrees.
- [Braz] Yes.
Can you flush it
with liquid nitrogen?
[Braz] We don't have
enough at this point.
And our suits are built to withstand...?
- Half that, probably.
- Right. Half that.
So, what you're saying
is whoever goes into that crawl space,
is not coming back.
- Together.
- Yes, thank you.
Wait.
- On three.
- OK.
One... two... three.
Huh.
Well, I better go on, get myself ready.
No, Braz, wait.
No, Braz. Excuse me.
Just a moment, may I see that?
- No.
- May I? May I?
- Yes.
- Thank you.
- Magic.
- I mean, Braz,
three straws of equal length.
I mean, this is childish.
Let's do it again.
No, we will not do it again. [laughs]
I thought you'd be happy.
No. Not at the expense
of you making us look like fools.
He's right. Why do you get dibs
on being the hero?
- Because it's my damn ship.
- Oh, that makes perfect sense.
Look, for 20 years, I've done
nothing but Virgil, 20 years.
Virgil belongs to me,
and I will not let her fail.
I will not. Now if you want to know
what's worth dying for... this ship.
Building it instead of imagining it.
If Virgil needs more blood,
it will be my blood.
Now I am going to go and get ready.
Good to go.
Beck.Josh.
It's a hell of a boat you built, Braz.
I am really proud to
have known you guys.
[Josh] Thank you.
Braz. Edward.
Yes, Conrad?
You're right. It is your ship.
But I wish to God it had been ours.
[whooshing]
[beeping]
The chamber's sealed, Beck.
Ready.
Open the hatch.
[grunts]
[Braz grunting]
[screams]
[sizzling]
Hang on, Braz.
Come on, hang on.
[glass shattering]
[computer beeping]
Manual override is complete!
Braz, we can still get you out of there.
No... Start... start the impeller.
No.
[panting]
We got a job to do. Let's do it.
Let's go.
[man] Magnetic shielding systems are up.
- Power level's 85 per cent.
- [computers beeping]
- Increase power to Reactor ten.
- All personnel should be clear.
- [typing]
- [computer beeps]
[Zimsky, Josh shouting]
[Zimsky] Oh, God! Oh, I'm sorry.
- [both grunting]
- OK, she's down.
[Beck] Approaching the first
drop-off point.
We got to be accurate
to the second here, boys.
And drop in three-five seconds.
And... timer on.
- Pull it.
- [timer beeping]
Clear... and... ejecting.
[telephone ringing]
- All right. Initiate firing sequence.
- Sir...
It's our last shot, Stick.
- Damn you.
- Damn me? Too late.
[man] Ten, nine, eight...
[Rat] What's that?
Gotcha!
- [man 1] ...four, three, two...
- Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Someone's diverted our energy.
Where the hell's it gone?!
It looks like...
Coney Island.
Your kung fu is not strong.
Well, how long will it take
to get it back online?
Well, then get to it!
Oh, hey, General.
ls there something I can do for you?
- Mm.
- [computer game beeping]
- Timer on.
- [timer beeping]
Clear... ejecting.
Ejecting.
Pull it.
All right.
Let's go throw our last little
I always wanted to make a splash
in nuclear physics.
You know, that energy propagation stuff
you were talking about...
- Oh, that was high school physics.
- Yeah, it's not exactly...
I just took the wavelengths from the
core fluid off the MRI readings.
- Yeah, and multiplied by 800...
- Six hundred.
Surely you compensated
for the MRI bias.
We got to reset the timers!
[Zimsky] It's not the timers!
No! It just won't work.
It's not the timers!
This is not enough!
- What's not enough?
- The last bomb is not enough.
- To complete the wave form.
- Yeah. No.
The last bomb has
to be 30 per cent larger.
That's six or seven pounds
of plutonium.
Where are we going to get six
or seven pounds of plutonium?
Ahh!
Guys, we got hit by an energy flare.
I can't keep us on course.
Ejecting compartment
in 50 seconds.
- No, Beck! No, wait! No! Push it!
- You push it!
Come on, guys, I can't hear you.
- It's got my shoulder! Ahh!
- Push!
Guys! Clear!
Clear the compartment!
What are you doing?
I think the flare
has knocked the come out.
- I can't get it, Josh. I can't get it.
- Go...
- I can't.
- OK.
- I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
- Can you hear me?
I'm correcting course. Now!
[shouts, grunts]
ZimSky!
No!
[groaning]
- Push it!
- [both grunting]
Ejecting compartment
in ten seconds. Can you hear me?
Josh, go! Go! Go!
Get out! Get out!
Now! Get out! Now! Go!
[panting]
Josh.
For the last bomb,
to make it larger,
use the fuel rods from the react...
[BGCK] Ejecting.
[groans]
I got to get... I got to...
Beck.
Beck, can you hear me?
Beck, if you have any better
ideas, you tell me now.
We've only have three minutes
to eject this one. Beck!
Come on, guys. I can't hear you.
Beck.
[beeping]
[alarm blares]
- [sizzling]
- [grunts]
[straining]
[groaning]
[sizzling]
[cries out]
Oh!
[beeps]
[beeping]
Josh, come on.
- Are you OK?
- [panting]
- Are you OK?
- Will you take my gloves off?
- Oh, my God.
- Please.
[both wincing]
I had to build the blast.
- I'm sorry.
- Hold on, let me get...
No. Stay here for one second.
I was trying to call you.
- I know the come were down.
- Right.
- I know what you did.
- We don't have enough energy...
- I know.
- ...to get back.
You did good.
I would've done the same thing.
Where's Zimsky?
Come here.
You did good.
You did good.
[exhales] One minute
to the first detonation.
And 12 until the blast hits us.
I was hoping we'd
suffocate to death first.
[beeping]
Beck.
Beck, Beck.
What could you do if I got you enough
power to fire the impeller?
Maybe not the laser, but the impeller.
- What? From where?
- The heat of the core.
It's 9,000 degrees.
Unobtanium converts heat to energy.
So this whole damn ship
is like a big old solar panel.
Come on, I need your help.
- Number two's going!
- Come on, come on.
For here in the
great infinite unknowable...
...man can come to know the most
important thing of all:
Himself.
He can understand...
What the fuck am I doing?
[chuckles]
- [man 1] We've got full rotation!
- [man 2] It's turning!
[cheering]
All right!
[cheering continues]
[Josh] Come on, Beck, where is it?
Come on. Come on, hurry up.
Is that the last one?
Yeah.
Give it a couple seconds.
- [zap]
- [beeping]
It worked!
Get ready to pull a few G's.
- Four hundred twenty knots.
- Now, this is more like it.
Four-forty.
Mr. Rat, what's the
centre of this quake?
It's everywhere!
It's one giant shock wave!
The planet's healing itself.
At this speed, we're going to be home
in a third of the time.
As long as we can surf
these magma flows, we'll be OK.
Let's just pray we don't run
into any dead ends,
or we're going to miss those lasers.
OK, navigator, which way?
We've got greater
flow density on the left.
Go with the flow.
- [beeping]
- Bill, where are they headed?
Looks like she found
a space between
some tectonic plates
somewhere near Hawaii.
- Josh...
- Yeah?
They're closing in on us too fast.
- I don't know if I can...
- Beck, you got it.
[beeping]
Um... [stammers]
We lost them, Stick, and I...
[Beck] Where'd our power go?
[Josh] We were powered by the heat.
It's stone cold down here.
Well...
Look on the bright side.
At least we're not
going to boil to death.
- You always look on the bright side?
- Always.
OK, let's assess:
We've got no communications,
we're probably 800 feet down,
but we might as well be 800 miles.
We're in an Unobtanium
cigar tube with the sonar
signature of a rock.
We've got just enough power
to make the ultrasonics burp,
but no one's listening
on those frequencies anyway, and...
...nobody even knows we're alive.
OK.
Give me a minute on this one.
This is hopeless.
Come on, General, we've got to be
getting close. We can't...
Mr. Rat, even if they were still alive,
there's no way they could contact us.
[telephone rings]
Bdge.
Skipper, Combat relays that our
sub has something on the sonar.
- Where do they think?
- Bill, put it up on the hydrophone.
[whale sounds]
Whales, sir.
They're a long way off their usual path,
but that's not uncommon since that...
What are they calling it?
Orbital wobble?
Yeah, that's what they call it.
Well, thank you very much, Captain,
but I think we're done here.
General.
J.O., this is the captain.
Stand down from SAR Operations.
It's whales! It's whales!
Hey! General! Stick!
It's whales! The ultrasonics!
They're singing to them!
You gotta find the whales!
[man] Alpha X Ray, this is
November Echo six one zero.
I'm changing...
Hold on, I'm seeing those whales now.
Whoa! OK, ball's in the water.
This is neat. Those whales
are circling something.
Hold on, hold on.
We have a strong echo here.
Depth, 800 feet.
There's something down there.
There's definitely
something down there.
I told you pulsing the
ultrasonics would work.
Do you ever get tired
of being right?
Yes.
So, what's next for you?
- A shower.
- [laughs]
Then back to NASA, I guess.
You?
Deep-dish pepperoni pizza,
green peppers, onions,
- extra mushrooms, then a shower...
- Mmm.
...and then back to the classroom.
NASA could use
a few good men, you know.
Yeah. Unfortunately, so could my
freshmen geophysics students.
You know what makes me
really, really angry?
Bob, Serge, Braz, Zimsky...
No one's going to ever know
what they did or why they died.
Unless... it all got out somehow.
- That's unthinkable.
- Yeah.
[chattering]
[cracks knuckles] OK, here we go.
[beeping]
- [all computers beeping]
- [people murmuring]
Sweet.
[woman] It is now emerging that
the world owes its survival
to the heroism of six
remarkable individuals:
- Shuttle Commander Robert Iverson...
- [man 1] This extraordinary craft...
[woman] ...French Scientist,
Dr. Serge...
[man 1] ...was captained
by NASA astronaut Dr. Bob Iverson.
[man 2] Edward Brazze/ton is a name...
[man 3] ...Dr. Conrad Zimsky
will be best remembered...
[man 4] On Capitol Hill today,
everyone's asking the same question:
What is Project Destiny?
[reporters overlapping]
Destiny, meet world.
World, meet Destiny.
[man] Dr. Brazze/ton, Dr. Zimsky...
[reporters fade]
[I 30 Seconds to Mars: "Echelon"]
====================
[distorted sounds]
- [calliope music]
- [chattering]
[ticking]
[ticking stops]
[scoffs]
- It stopped.
- What's that, Dave?
Nothing. How we doing?
Oh, we're ready.
- You, uh, feeling the magic?
- Oh, I'm feeling the magic, all right.
- Let's hit 'em.
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
- Here we go.
- Let's hit 'em.
- Let's go make $30 million.
[Dave] Good morning.
Before I begin, let me...
[all murmuring]
- David?
- I'll go get help.
- [horns honking, brakes screeching]
- Jesus. Jesus, David.
- [cars crashing]
- Phone 911. Phone 911!
[woman] David?
[crashing continues]
[people screaming]
[man] Nick? Nicky?!
N icky!
[screams continue]
[sirens approaching]
[man 1] OK.
[man 2] It's OK, it's OK.
You'll be OK.
Get everybody else off the bus.
[ticking continues]
[man 3] Sound waves.
So...
...if we know that sound waves
gain wavelength...
[writing on chalkboard]
...and lose frequency
as they travel
through more dense materials...
...then the anomalies in these waves...
...are the means
by which we can surmise
the fundamental architecture
of our planet.
- How are the nails coming, Christine?
- [laughter]
Good. All right,
let's have a demonstration.
Mr. Acker, Veronica.
Thank you very much.
[blows loud note]
All right. Mrs. Limestone,
being a big softie, you know,
loves walks in the park, bedtime
stories, big romantic. Loves Chet.
I can't play Chet,
but I'll see what I can do.
Watch the oscilloscope, all right?
Here we go.
[playing off-key]
[clears throat]
- Dr. Joshua Keyes?
- Maybe.
- Yes or no, sir?
- The first one.
Please come with us, sir.
- [stammers] Guys, what's going on?
- We don't know, sir.
What do you mean, you don't know?
Your security clearance
is higher than ours.
I have security clearance?
We're just here to
bring you to yourjet.
I have a jet?
[man speaking French]
Hey, Serge.
Serge. Serge.
Damn! It's about time.
You're always late.
Let's keep moving, gentlemen.
What am I doing here? They wouldn't
brief me until you got here.
You know, there are biochemists
everywhere, military. I hate them.
When are you going to meet a nice girl
and bring her for dinner?
- I'm married to my work.
- So am I.
Which makes my wife my mistress.
That's why I'm still in love with her.
- You were always a romantic.
- I love my wife.
- Yeah, I know. I love your wife, too.
- I know.
But I don't love your wife.
You know what I mean.
You don't love her
the same way, you know.
It's the French.
I think it's the cheese.
- Ah, the cheese.
- [both laugh]
- You're... you're teasing me, right?
- Oh, my...!
Whoa. Wait, these are bodies.
I think we're
in the wrong place here.
- Yeah, we're in the wrong place.
- [man] No.
If you were in the wrong place,
you would've already been shot.
- That's a hell of a greeting.
- Serge.
- Serge.
- Serge. Yes. Always a pleasure.
Same here, Thomas.
Dr. Keyes.
I know. Tom Purcell.
Gentlemen, you do realise
that everything here
is totally classified, OK?
At 10.30 a.m. local time,
all within a ten-block radius...
...died.
They didn't get sick first.
- They simply hit the ground dead.
- Nerve agent?
- [Tom] Our first guess. No.
- They all died at the same time?
[Tom] As far as we can tell,
to the second.
This hits CNN in one hour.
I need a reason.
[Serge] ls there a variation
in sex, age, body type?
They all had pacemakers.
Under a minute.
Your reputation is well-deserved.
- Hey, hey, hey.
- [Tom] How did you guess,
- without any clues from the victims?
- No, that's...
Serge and I are the clues.
I mean, he specialises in high energy
weapons. I do geomagnetics.
So calling us means you suspect
an electromagnetic pulse weapon.
If these are the only fatalities,
they must be people susceptible to...
- ...electronic interference.
- QED pacemakers.
- You're spooky sometimes?
- [Tom] Now, I need to know,
did some sort of weapon
kill these people?
The power that you would need
to create an EM pulse strong enough...
I mean, that's... that's not a weapon
that I've ever heard of.
- No.
- OK, we're done.
We're not done, sir. There's nothing
on the other side of the equal sign.
- I agree with Joshua...
- Thank you.
Our greatest concern was this
may have been an act of war,
but since it's not, I think we can all
breathe a little easier, can't we?
[door opens]
[cooing]
- Look at my hat.
- [child squeals]
What is it, sweetheart?
[pained cooing]
It's OK, son. These things
happen all the time...
[birds squawking]
Let's go, let's go! Come on!
[screams]
- [thudding]
- [people shouting]
- [squawking continues]
- [people screaming]
Jusfin!
You bloody idiot!
- [boy] Hurry! Run!
- [screaming continues]
- [grunts]
- [tyres screech]
[both grunt]
- [child shouts]
- [squawking continues]
[all screaming]
[Child] Daddy!
[sobs]
[man on TV] The skies are empty
over Nelson's Column now,
but a few hours ago,
it was a different story.
Eyewitnesses claimed that
the frenzied swarms of birds
were not in fact attacking
people deliberately...
And it's not just this time.
No,no,no,no,no,no.
The Fortean Times reported
violent bird swarms
twice last month in Australia and Japan.
...this bizarre and terrifying incident
in London's historic Trafalgar Square.
- Weird.
- Mm-hm.
- Quite strange, also.
- Mm. Strange, indeed.
- How do birds navigate?
- [woman] By sight?
- No, no, no, the long range stuff.
- [woman] Magnetic fields.
Little ions in their brains align
with the magnetic field of the Earth.
- Yeah, what she said.
- Right?
Acker. Hit the Net, do a search for,
oh, two years ought to do it.
Any and all, like, "weird news,"
you know, bizarre animal migrations,
specifically birds.
Whale and dolphin beachings.
Uh, unusual atmospheric phenomenon,
unexplained plane crashes,
- you know, just use your imagination.
- That is a huge search.
You can use our T-1 line to look up
Sailor Moon crap. You're up to this.
Danni, Danni, get me the brightest kids
from the Field Theory class
and design a computer model
of an electromagnetic field.
- What are we doing?
- I need a 3-D computer model
- of the Earth to lay the field over.
- Whoa, the planet Earth?
Yeah, the planet Earth.
You know, the pretty blue one.
Map out the anomalies that Acker finds
and grunt out the equations.
And... grab those smelly kids
from the Non-Linear Diff class, too.
Listen, Josh, do we even
have time for this?
Do this and I'll sign
your doctorates blindfolded.
- [Danni] Blindfolded?
- Blindfolded. Do not pass Go.
Go directly to PhD.
Be wrong. Be wrong.
[typing on keyboard]
Tim, I'm coming in a little hot.
Give me some drag, will you?
Roger that.
[clears throat]
We are in attitude and ready
for entry interface.
Nice work, Major.
I have the controls now for E.l.
I could take us in.
You could... but you won't.
- I'm ready for this, Bob.
- Oh, no, you're not, Beck.
You're trained, and you're certified.
Doesn't make you the commander.
And the commander lands the bird.
You got to be the youngest person
ever in space. You should say,
thank you, be happy. Now.
[man] Endeavour, Houston, at this time
we show you go for re-entry.
[Beck] Houston, Endeavour descending
through 400,000 feet
- coming upon entry interface.
- Endeavour, this is Flight.
Weren't able to annoy the commander
into letting you bring her in this time?
That's a negative, Stick. I'll
have to be more annoying next time.
- Is that even possible?
- [laughs]
[man] Endeavour, we see you
in good entry config.
[Beck] Roger, Houston.
[Tim] Advise.
[Bob] I'm seeing
those plasma trails now.
- [Tim] All right, mark 24 and a 1/2.
- [Bob] So, a minute to air.
[Beck] I don't believe in be/ts.
Just get me through the Earth's
atmosphere in this spaceship.
- [beeping]
- Com dropout.
- [Tim] Start the I Com.
- [Bob] Let's wait till the, uh...
Com restored.
[alarm beeping]
- [chattering]
- Quiet!
We are out of position here.
Guidance shows us on energy
and on course.
Well, I've made this approach
- We're not where we should be.
- Where the hell are we?
[Stick] Endeavour, guidance is bad.
You are now 1-2-niner miles off course.
Roger, Houston.
We sort of noticed. Is that...?
Los Angeles. That is confirmed.
We are 1-5 thousand feet.
We got maybe two minutes
of glide time left.
Doesn't make sense. The guidance,
the beacons are all wrong?
We're heading straight for downtown.
We're not gonna crash
into Los Angeles.
They're going to hit
downtown LA at 300 knots.
Bob, you know LA?
Because I have an idea.
Houston, those buildings
are getting mighty big.
- Can you clear a freeway?
- OK, thank you.
Come on. Come on.
It's rush hour, Commander,
and it's bumper-to-bumper.
Sir, I have an alternate.
If you turn to heading 1-7-5...
It's Houston's call. Houston?
- Computers are still plotting.
- Come on.
[rumbling]
[crowd murmuring]
Houston, we are running
out of time here.
- Sir, I have an alternate.
- All right, Beck, what do you got?
Houston, I have coordinates for an
alternate landing site. Can you confirm?
- Endeavour, give them to me.
- I show possible touchdown
at 33-55 north, 1-18-10 west.
- [Stick] Bill?
- It's theoretically possible.
Endeavour, that is confirmed.
Turn right, heading 1-7-5.
Expect visual contact
with Los Angeles River in five seconds.
No, that will not work, Houston.
We got bridges every few hundred yards.
Our wingspan alone
is going to fold us up.
I've figured the "L" over "D" max.
We can make it
if you can bring us straight in.
We're coming in high and hot.
Two-ninety feet, 320.
- Two-seventy, 3-0-5...
- Arm the gear.
- [Tim] Gear on.
- Gear down. Now.
[Tim] Gear in transition.
Two-forty feet, 290.
[Bob] Hang on.
This isn't going to be subtle.
Two-ten feet, 265.
Get out of the way! Move!
- Derotate.
- [Bob] Inward.
- 230... 210...
- Speed brakes!
- One hundred per cent.
- [Bob] We're way too fast.
- Deploy the chute.
- No. We'd snag the bridge.
We'll tear the tail off.
Banking right.
[Beck] Commander, that next bridge!
Watch it! We're way too high
for that one!
- Suck up the gear!
- Not yet. We'll lose all steering.
We hit, it's over!
And... gear up now!
Lock your harnesses.
It's out of my hands.
[all shouting]
- Let's get out of here!
- Run! Let's get out!
[grinder buzzing]
' [grinder off]
' [gasps]
- [Endeavour powering down]
- [exhales]
[breathing deeply]
[sirens approaching]
[man] Dr. Zimsky?!
Will you make sure my assistant
has your number, darling?
Sure.
- Dr. Zimsky!
- Hello. No, it's all right.
- Hello.
- Thank you, sir.
- Dr. Zimsky.
- Yes. What's your name?
- Josh Keyes.
- Josh.
No, sir, I don't need you to sign it.
I need you to read that.
[laughs] I'm sorry, I don't have time.
- I'm late for the White House, please.
- Sir...
I need you to confirm my results, sir.
Young man, do you have
any idea who I am?
Yes, I do, sir. Please read this.
[camera clicking]
What's it about?
It's the end of the world.
[papers rustling]
[sighs]
No, I... this is impossible. I'm sorry.
aughs]
I... I can't have missed this.
You... You have to be wrong.
I mean, look, I'm sure with careful
comparison to my own work,
we'll find that you are mistaken.
No of fence, but...
Well, I mean,
we'll know soon enough.
The bigger effects will start up
any day now.
[beeping]
- Rebecca?
- Only you and Dad ever call me that.
Right, Beck.
So, what brings you to sunny D.C.?
The Board of Review is next week.
Just trying to get a sense
of the mood upstairs.
- How bad is it?
- Your crew crashed the space shuttle.
Now, how good do you
think it could be?
- Sir, this is my life.
- Well...
I was studying for the academy
when I was 13.
It still is and has
always been my life.
It's over.
It's over, Rebecca.
I'm sorry.
- [elevator dings]
- [chattering]
- [man] Really?
- It's like the 4th of July.
- What the hell's the hurry here?
- [cell phone rings]
Rebecca, would you excuse me, please?
Excuse me.
- Purcell.
- Thomas, um, look...
...it seems that destiny
may have caught up with us.
Did Zimsky really try
to give you his autograph?
Ah, Monsieur Zimsky.
Conrad Zimsky. Herr Zimsky.
Superstar.
Ahh. [exhales]
I think I skipped drunk.
Went right to hangover.
[low-tempo music plays]
I spoke with the kids.
They don't sleep at night.
They look at the sky, and...
and they think it's pretty.
- Is there any chance you're wrong?
- No. The sky, man.
The sky... I mean,
that's just the beginning.
- That's high-altitude static discharge.
- I know.
[man] Dr. Keyes...
...your presence is
required at the Pentagon.
Ahh! It's my best buddies. Hey!
Why don't you join us for a drink?
We'd be grateful if you could
join us for a ride, sir.
And if I were to say no?
- Just asking.
- Yeah.
- Well, we have no sense of humour.
- That's true.
- Oh.
- And we're armed.
Thank you.
- [Tom] Dr. Keyes, welcome.
- Thank you.
Dr. Zimsky informs us
that you made a useful contribution
to his investigations, so he wanted you
to assist him with the briefing.
That's very generous of you,
Dr. Zimsky.
Science is a selfless business,
dear boy.
Now, why don't you begin,
and I'll fill in all the difficult bits.
[clears throat]
All right, I'll put this
as simply as I can.
[sighs] Everybody on Earth
is dead in a year.
And let me explain why.
Wrapped around the Earth
is an invisible field of energy.
It's made up of
electricity and magnetism,
so it's called, creatively enough,
the electromagnetic field.
It's where we get our magnetic
North Pole and South Pole,
and it protects us
from cosmic radiation.
- So this EM field is our friend.
- But now...?
But now, that field is falling apart.
- Why?
- [scoffs] Why?
This here.
Does somebody have a can
of air freshener?
Uh... Quick and dirty.
The thin skin, that's the Earth's crust.
That's what we live on.
It's 30 miles thick.
The meat here, call it the mantle.
And forgetting all the funky
transitions, it's 2,000 miles thick.
The core, the peach pit
in the centre, that's a tricky one.
There's two parts:
the inner core and the outer core.
Are you following me?
The inner core is...
Well, it's a big solid chunk of iron,
we think.
And that's surrounded by the outer core,
and that is liquid.
Yes, but, most importantly,
this liquid is constantly spinning
in one direction.
So a trillion trillion tons of hot metal
spinning at
a thousand miles an hour, so...
Right, so, Physics 101:
Hot metal moving fast
makes an electromagnetic field.
This spinning liquid outer core
is the engine that drives the EM Field.
And that's where we have our problem.
This engine has stalled.
The core of the Earth
has stopped spinning.
- How could this have happened?
- [people murmuring]
We don't know.
What's the timeline here?
As the EM Field
becomes more and more unstable,
we'll start seeing isolated incidents.
One plane will fall from the sky,
and then two, and then...
...in a few months, anything,
everything electronic will be fried.
Static discharges in the atmosphere
will create superstorms
with hundreds of lightning strikes
per square mile.
After that, it gets bad.
The Earth's EM Field
shields us from the solar winds,
which are a lethal blend of radioactive
particles and microwaves.
When that shield collapses,
microwave radiation
will literally cook our planet.
Dr. Zimsky.
- [clears throat]
- This is the sun.
This is the Earth...
without the EM Field.
- Would you?
- Mm-hm.
Three months, gentlemen,
and we're back in the Stone Age.
A full year, the field collapses...
...and that.
May I?
Feel free to throw up.
I know I did.
So... how do we fix it?
- We can't.
- Not in my vocabulary.
Then you might want
to get one of those
word-a-day calendars, General,
because it's impossible.
The core is the size of Mars. You're
talking aboutjumpstarting a planet.
This is a superheated hyper-fluid
of molten iron and nickel
at 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit,
And the deepest we've ever been
is... seven miles
- with a two-inch drill bit.
- If we can go into space,
- we certainly...
- Well, space is easy. It's empty.
We're talking about millions of pounds
of pressure per square inch.
Even if we somehow
came up with a brilliant plan
to fix the core,
we just can't get there.
[Zimsky] Yes, but...
...what if we could?
Hello, Braz.
Why the hell aren't you dead yet?
OK, this way.
Oh. That went better than I expected.
Dr. Brazzelton,
I see you know Dr. Zimsky.
Yeah. Twenty years ago,
he stole my research. [laughs]
- After that, we kind of lost touch.
- Research that was equally mine.
That's funny, I don't remember a cheque
from any of the patents.
[sighing] All right, Braz,
makes you a prophet and a martyr.
Look, we're here
about your legendary ship.
OK, I'm combining
high-frequency pulse lasers
with resonance tube ultrasonics.
If you've ever seen ultrasonic waves
break up a kidney stone
on the Discovery Channel,
it's the same deal here.
- Uh, you can put your helmets on now.
- [motor starting]
- Firing.
- [powering up]
[shouting]
[shouting]
[engine powering down]
[Braz] Yeah. Oh.
[coughing]
[Spits]
OK, I'm officially impressed.
[Zimsky] Well, all right.
So you've made some progress
with the engine, I will grant you.
Uh, have you begun
to think about a shell?
OK, this is Alex.
OK, Alex. Good.
OK, here we have a concrete block,
and in back of that,
we have a two-inch steel plate.
- [engine powering up]
- OK. We're ready.
And we are... firing.
[engine powering down]
- Voil!
- That's...
- That's impossible.
- [Braz] I combined the crystals
in a tungsten-titanium matrix
at supercool temperatures,
and that's what did the trick.
The applications for this are just...
What do you call this material?
Well, its real name has 37 syllables.
I call it Unobtanium.
- Unobtanium?
- Mm-hm.
The Unobtanium will take
the heat and the pressure
and transform it to energy,
which in turn, reinforces
the shell of the ship, you see.
So the hotter and the deeper she gets,
the stronger she gets, theoretically.
- [Zimsky] Theoretically?
- Theoretically, yes.
This... is Johnson, don't mind him.
This is the prototype
for the cockpit here.
Excuse me, Dr. Brazzelton, when do you
think the ship will be operational?
When I get my fabrication
methods perfected.
Twelve... ten years, ten years.
What would it take to get
it done in three months?
[laughing] Fifteen billion dollars. I...
Will you take a cheque?
Why don't you use a credit card?
You get miles.
Mm.
[pounding]
- [man 1] Shit!
- [man 2] Mr. Finch, this is the FBI.
- We have a warrant.
- [pounding continues]
- [Finch] Purge!
- [Computers beeping]
Come on, purge!
FBI! Freeze!
[dings]
[clattering]
OK.
I know these look like computers.
Totally not.
Theodore Donald Finch.
Carnegie Mellon University. MIT.
Worked at Sun, Lucent, RAND Corp.
My handle's "Rat". Call me Rat.
Sixty-three computer fraud indictments.
Sixty-fou r.
Two convictions.
This is strike three, Mr. Finch.
Wait a second.
You guys aren't here
to whack me, are you?
Because I was really, really hoping
to have sex before that happened.
Yeah. I've been told by the FBI,
whose database you crippled last year,
that you are the best in the business.
So you're about to be given a choice.
- What if I say no?
- Excuse me, but
is this really the best we could do?
I mean...
- How many languages do you speak?
- Five, actually.
Well, I speak one.
One, zero, one, zero, zero.
With that, I could steal
your money, your secrets,
your sexual fantasies, your whole life,
any country, any place,
anytime I want.
We multitask like you breathe.
I couldn't think
as slow as you if I tried.
- Do you have any idea...?
- OK, hey. Hey!
Let's just, let's give the kid a break.
OK, it's a phone. It's just a phone.
Rat...
...we got a big... problem.
A lot of people are going to die.
- We need your help.
- What kind of help?
- [blows on wrapper]
- Information control.
We need you to control the flow
of information on the Internet.
You're dreaming.
Nobody controls the Net.
Could you... with unlimited resources?
You want me to hack the planet?
[chuckles]
- [dialling phone]
- He wants me to hack the planet.
[blowing sounds]
[phone dialling]
You've got free long distance
on that phone... forever.
OK. If I decide to do this,
I'm going to need
an unlimited supply
of Xena tapes and Hot Pockets.
- Hot Pockets?
- They help me concentrate.
Sounds fair.
[shoes squeaking]
[door opens]
[man] Major Childs,
they're ready for you.
[swallows]
Major Childs, a clarification:
You and you alone were responsible
for proposing the descent vectors
for the shuttle, correct?
Yes, General.
[General] We have determined
that the Class "A" landing mishap
experienced by the Shuttle Endeavour
was caused by biased navigational data
from the ground
due to a brief geomagnetic disturbance.
Major Childs,
the resourcefulness you showed
in determining
the descent vectors proved
that you have exceptional
navigational skills.
You've brought much credit
upon yourself,
the space programme
and the United States Air Force.
Congratulations, Major.
You are reassigned with Commander
lverson and Flight Director Stickley
to a new mission, effective immediately.
Transportation is waiting outside.
Good luck and Godspeed, Major.
[chattering]
[Serge] Are you sure you want
to wear this tie?
- [Josh] Why?
- [Serge] I don't know.
I mean, you look so nervous about it.
- You look so...
- So, how are you holding up?
- Oh, hi.
- I'm good, I'm good.
I'm about to tell a couple hundred
people the world is going to end.
- Well...
- I've had better days.
You look good.
Well, no, you don't look good.
Why did he touch his tie like that?
Thomas, let me speak
with you for a moment.
Listen, wouldn't you rather I did this?
I mean, given my reputation,
I think that...
No. No, Keyes is in
the lead here, Zimsky.
Yes. Thomas, this is the most important
scientific operation in history.
And given my status,
I feel that it's my job to present...
Project Destiny was your job, Zimsky.
And you went way beyond
authorised limits.
And let me tell... let me tell you,
I still, I want to know
if Destiny caused this problem.
It's highly unlikely,
but it may be the solution.
- Now, I have not finished checking...
- Excuse me.
Rebecca... I'm so glad I was wrong.
Right over left...
No, the other left, the other left.
- Gentlemen.
- And then you...
Gentlemen.
Commander lverson, Major Childs,
this is your crew:
- Dr. Brazzelton knows the ship.
- Hello.
- [Tom] Dr. Zimsky knows the planet.
- Doctor.
Dr. Leveque knows the weapons system.
- Excuse me, ladies first. Hi.
- [Tom] And Dr. Keyes... [clears throat]
Dr. Keyes built the navigation system.
- So...
- Hi. Rebecca Childs.
Bob lverson.
These are your fellow... fellow what?
- Terranauts?
- [Stick] Hello.
All this brain power over here
is starting to smell
like burning batteries.
- Y'all better come and join in.
- Yeah.
It's the simplest things
that are the hardest, huh?
Yeah. It's official. I'm the
least-qualified person on this base.
Dr. Keyes, I'm sure the people in charge
have every confidence in you.
Well, the problem is that I'm in charge.
- [chuckles] Yeah, I know.
- Can I help you?
Yes, please.
[clears throat]
You're an astronaut,
and you can tie a Windsor?
Mm-hm.
- Is there anything you can't do?
- Not that I'm aware of.
I find that incredibly intimidating.
Yep. Most people do.
Here.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
[Tom] Let me introduce our project
leader, Dr. Joshua Keyes.
[Josh] Thank you, thank you.
Good evening. Good evening.
Wow. This looks like a meeting
for Nobel Prize Winners Anonymous.
I know you are all
the finest in your fields
and have come a long way to be here.
So, I'll outline our programme
over the next three months.
Dr. Brazze/ton will supervise
the building of a ship
which is capable of reaching
the centre of our planet.
Once there, it will deliver
an explosive charge
large enough to restart its core.
Dr. Zimsky will calculate the scale
of the explosion needed.
[Zimsky] This is a program I designed
to simulate the effect
of nuclear detonations on the core.
If my calculations are correct,
a tiny nudge in any direction
will force the core back
into its normal flow.
What's a "tiny nudge"
in planetary terms?
- A thousand megatons, give or take?
- [Zimsky] Tops.
Because any more than that
would create a core instability.
[Serge] We made a few monster warheads
in the 200-megaton range.
Braz, do you think the ship
can handle five of these babies?
Yeah.
- I can enlarge the ejection pod...
- [Bob] Forgive me,
but, you know, I know
I'm not the expert here,
but what if the core
is thicker or thinner?
I mean, what if it's not
what you think it is?
Isn't that going to affect
the way the explosions are...?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
And what if the core is made of cheese?
This is all best guess, Commander.
That's all science is, is best guess.
So my best guess is you don't know.
[Josh] With luck, irony will break
for the good guys for once,
and the world's biggest weapons
of mass destruction
will help save the world.
The ship will be powered by a small
experimental nuclear reactor.
It will be divided into six compartments
like cars on a train:
the locomotive unit,
navigation compartment,
living quarters, engineering,
bomb compartment
and finally the weapons-control module.
Up to a 45-degree angle, every
compartment will be held level
by these gyro control gimbals.
But if we do breach a section,
bulkhead doors engage automatically,
seal off the section in red, and eject.
- Is ejection really the best option?
- Only option.
Each damaged compartment
degrades the entire hull.
[Josh] The objective is simple.
The obstacles are gigantic.
We're going to need
all the help in the world,
but if we are to avoid
panic and chaos,
the world at large can never
know what's happening here.
Which is where our friend
Mr. Rat comes in.
[Rat] It's called Virus-bot. It's a
computer virus that will seek out files
anywhere on the Web that contain
keywords that we designate
and wipes them out.
This is my kung fu, and it is strong.
[Josh] Meanwhile, there are
a million puzzles ahead of us,
and we have three months
to solve them.
We have a committed
and ingenious team.
We have every resource
available to us, and we have the best
of the world's scientific
and technical talents on our side.
With your help we can,
we must... succeed.
[indistinct conversations]
- Feedback in the resonance tube.
- Talk to me, gentlemen.
[Serge] We are losing
structural integrity.
No, it's not feedback.
It's an impeller malfunction, I believe.
No, it's not, no. If it were
an impeller malfunction...
For God's sakes, Braz, make the call!
No, I'll make the call.
I should make the call.
[Beck] Sixty-five knots!
Depth, 8-5 thousand feet.
L0ok,guys...
It's a disaster!
[laughing]
[alarm blaring]
What part of "talk to me"
don't you guys understand?
For the 22nd time in a row,
everyone on Earth is dead.
Let's take a little quiet time,
and you all are going
to try this again.
- Hey
- Hi.
What is this?
Uh, well, it's... I invented it.
It's how you're going to...
going to steer underground.
It's... not very good reception.
[Josh] Well, uh, you're looking
through three feet of lead
at 50 yards away, so...
...it ain't bad.
It's like a CAT scan at a hospital,
but it's, uh, it's souped-up.
I invented it
for deep earth surveying.
And then the government came in,
bought my research,
paid off my student loan guys
and made me a consultant.
I'm sorry, this is really delicate.
And I have it just the way I want it.
So... excuse me.
Uh... Yeah. Then they brought me in
when the pacemakers quit,
and... boom, you know,
I'm Apocalypse Boy.
Apocalypse Boy?
Yeah. I'm having T-shirts made up.
Well, hats sell better.
You know, it's funny, because
that is right where it should be.
Well...
I'm sorry. I'm a little
ragged around the edges.
I'm just trying to get
this thing to focus correctly.
- This is cool, but can I just...?
- Well... Mm-hm.
It's better. It's better. Ah...
[electrical zapping]
God, I hate this sky.
- [crashing sounds]
- [alarm blaring]
[sighs]
[Bob] Crashing one ship
isn't enough for you?
Hey. Practice makes perfect.
You can practise all you like.
It doesn't mean you're ready
to sit on that seat.
So you keep reminding me, sir.
You know, I doubt
you're even going to listen to this,
but I'm going to give it a shot.
Being a leader isn't about ability.
It's about responsibility.
- Got it, sir.
- No, you don't, Beck.
I mean, you're not just responsible
for making good decisions.
You have to be responsible
for the bad ones.
You got to be ready
to make the shitty call.
- What makes you think I'm not?
- Because you're so good.
You haven't hit anything
you couldn't beat.
I mean, hell, you were the one who
figured out how to save the shuttle.
You made me, you made the rest
of NASA just look like an ass.
It's just that
you're used to winning...
...and you're not really
a leader until you've lost.
[Braz] $20 billion has been spent
developing this system...
[Josh] Oh, come on, guys,
the chefs at NASA...
- I wouldn't call them chefs.
- [all arguing]
I want wine! I need wine!
It's about nutrition.
In five days, I think...
- Whoa!
- [Zapping]
That's high-level static discharge.
I think we should check this out.
This doesn't look so good.
[rapid chattering]
[Josh] It's a lightning superstorm.
- Popping up all over the world.
- Got 'em. Tracking.
Uh-oh. Rome does not look good.
[electrical zapping]
[crowd murmuring]
[patrons chattering]
[man speaks foreign language on TV]
[hissing]
[all shouting]
[howls]
[all screaming]
[screaming continues]
[Sirens]
[woman speaking foreign language on TV]
This planet is decaying faster
than we thought.
It's just the start.
Soon they'll be EM spikes and microwaves
will break through the weak spots and...
All right. Get this ship
in the ground. Now.
Fihunde
[sneezes]
[groans]
Summer in the Pacific.
Yeah, the world is inside out.
[Serge] I was saving this
for later, but...
- ...this is the time for...
- [laughs]
- Josh, do you mind?
- No, not at all. Yeah.
We should have a name
for this baby.
- Oh, she's called Virgil, actually.
- Virgil,
the poet that led our man
into the depths of hell?
- That's it.
- That's appropriate, I guess.
Well, here's to Virgil.
To the planet.
[all] To Virgil.
No flashbulbs, no press,
nobody cheering. It's... weird.
Let's go.
Fihunde
[chattering]
[Bob] Cabin pressure, TSI, 3.5.
[Beck] Check.
[Bob] E CS cabin repress open
And repress VLV closed.
- Check.
- Fluid dump valve.
We are about to begin ourjourney
into the heart of the cosmos...
- [Bob] Close.
- ...Into the core of our own planet.
- Where we find therein...
- [Beck] Check.
- ...the secrets of the universe...
- [Bob] ...3.5 PSI.
- ...the mysteries of time...
- [Bob] Helen circuit lockup.
- [Beck] Check.
- ...hope for the future.
- [Bob] And signal.
- Deep Earth Control, this is Virgil.
- Signal check.
- This is Deep Earth Control.
I have thumbs-up across the board.
You are clear to initiate power-up.
Reactor power confirmed.
[Stick] At 1,000 rpm, we will
countdown to launch. On your mark.
Pad leader, stand by for launch.
All right, Virgil.
- Mark.
- Gantry count. Ten, nine,
eight, seven, six, five, four...
...three, two, one... launch.
- Five hundred feet.
- Levelling out.
OK, guys, let's swing forward.
- Eight hundred feet.
- Light 'em up, Beck.
[beeping]
- Gyro levelling operational.
- Hull integrity holding.
I'm going to keep her nose
down about 15 degrees and...
- [whale sounds]
- Oh, my goodness.
They're singing to us.
Virgil's resonance tubes are powered up,
so they're vibrating subsonically.
Actually, we're singing to them.
[hull creaking]
What's our depth?
Sixteen hundred feet,
plenty of room on both sides.
- Hull integrity is good.
- You sure?
Let's increase impeller speed. I think
we'll be needing additional control.
- [beeping]
- Stick, I'm getting a seismic reading.
- What's happening?
- T-phase. Underwater earthquake.
[rumbling]
Still think the water-launch
was a good idea?
Yes, yes, I chose this location
because the crust is thin here.
The downside is... there's lots
of seismic activity.
Four thousand feet.
You see that rock?
That is not good.
We're losing steering here.
There's some kind of crosscurrent.
Fourteen thousand feet.
OK, guys, fasten your seat belts.
We're turning into the skid.
Eighteen thousand.
- Eighteen-five.
- They're going way too fast.
[alarm blaring]
- Twenty-one thousand feet.
- We hit the wall,
we're rabbits on the highway.
[Braz] Pressure, pressure,
pressure, pressure.
What do you mean, pressure? I thought
you said this thing was indestructible!
I said the pressure makes us stronger.
We just don't have enough of it yet.
We're at 25,000 feet. Pull out, sir.
- Can't.
- What?
- We're locked in.
- Go to full throttle.
Standby to engage front
and lateral lasers, please.
But what if we hit bottom
in ten seconds here?
Just give it a couple of more seconds.
The lasers will fire.
No, there's not enough time
for power-up.
Twenty-seven thousand feet.
[Braz] The lasers will deploy.
Twenty-nine thousand feet.
- Do it!
- And...
- Do it!
- Now.
[monitor beeps]
- [beeping]
- And we've got a signal.
- [man] All right.
- [all applaud]
All right. [clears throat] Switching on
electron spin burst transmitters.
Ah, plotting through
lowest density material,
- reconfiguring every five minutes.
- [exhales]
Hull integrity 100 per cent.
Reactor power 100 per cent.
- All green on the bomb compartment.
- Speed is 60 knots.
[laughs] Hot damn.
All right, we'll be through the crust
in 15 minutes and into the mantle.
Twenty-four hours to the core,
and then assuming we survive...
- Assuming?
- Yes, assuming.
Another 15 hours to the
inner core-outer core border.
[beeping]
- They're doing well.
- The crust is just rock.
Now, it gets interesting.
Virgil, can we get a status check?
We're about to make
the transition into the mantle.
- [rumbling]
- Come on, come on.
[exhales]
Well, exterior pressure
is 800,000 pounds per square inch.
And hull integrity is 100 per cent.
It's as if we we're diving
through the memories of the planet.
But we are about to pass
from memory into madness.
Are you going to be doing
that Carl Sagan narration
all the way to the core?
- I beg your pardon?
- I said...
[stammers] I have an obligation
to my students...
An obligation to make
a book deal perhaps?
[Zimsky] Two book deals,
if you'd like to know the truth.
I read that last book.
It wasn't very good.
[Zimsky] Oh, really? Really?
When did you learn how to read?
[Braz] You amaze me.
[Bob] People.
Drs. Zimsky and Keyes?
You guys are
our resident geophysicists.
What do you make of this?
The mantle is a chemical hodgepodge
of... a variety of elements...
Say it with me: "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 as black.
- So, what's... what's static?
- It's nothing.
- What do you mean?
- It's nothing.
It's empty space.
L.-
I never taught the computer how
to read empty space.
And I never taught Virgil
how to fly.
Oh, God!
[all grunting]
Oh, no, man!
[Bob] Oh, dear God.
[grunts]
[shouts]
[groaning]
Ah!
[screams]
[all grunting, panting]
Serge, you all right?
Yeah.
- Anybody hurt?
- No. You OK?
- Yeah.
- [craft hissing]
What's that? What is that?
From the cooling system.
Shut that down. Shut it down.
I told you to go around her.
Nobody listens to me.
Where in God's name are we?
Whatever has us jammed up
is inside our lasers. Shut 'em down.
We're not going anywhere.
Powering down.
[ship powers down]
Josh, is there any other image
you can pull up?
Nope. Whatever it is,
it's also inside our MRI cameras.
- We have to go outside.
- [Serge] What?
Believe me, I hate to admit it,
but I think he's right.
- I'm coming. I want to collect samples.
- [Bob] Wait, hang on, hang on.
The first problem is,
the only way out of the ship
is the way we came in,
which is through the impeller outlet...
- Which is still at 5,000 degrees.
- Exactly, I mean...
I'll just flush it with liquid nitrogen
from the cooling system.
Wait. The cooling system that's keeping
us from roasting to death in this ship?
Well, just a small part of it.
Alternatives? Anybody.
[heavy breathing]
[Bob] Whoa, whoa, that's it.
[Josh] It's like a giant...
giant crystal.
- [Zimsky] Where the hell are we?
- [Bob] Well, the good news is,
it looks like the suits
can take the pressure.
It's completelyjammed
the laser assembly.
We just... we got to hope,
if we can cut it loose,
- they're still functional.
- Careful!
OK.
Got it.
- Beck, try the lights, will you?
- Lighting up.
- Oh, it's magnificent.
- [Zimsky] Oh, my God.
[Braz] Aladdin's cave.
[Zimsky] It's like
a crystal Grand Canyon.
I think it's a geode.
But I don't understand
how it could have survived down here.
- Cobalt shell, maybe?
- [Zimsky] Well, I mean,
in a magma environment
of 5,000 degrees.
Something would have to protect it.
Unbelievable.
- Zimsky.
- Yeah?
We're inside a giant gem bubble,
wrapped in a cobalt cocoon
of the Earth.
- Hell of a day.
- [Zimsky laughing]
Yes, it is.
- [Braz] I'll start cutting.
- [Bob] OK, Braz.
I'm going to check the hull.
Call me if you need me.
- OK.
- [tool powering up]
[Zapping]
[hissing]
Oh, no.
- Zimsky!
- Yeah?
- Zimsky...
- Look! It's an amethyst.
[Zimsky] Oh, God,
we've breached the shell.
[shouts]
- [gasps]
- [all shouting]
Guys, you don't have to be here!
I want you back inside!
Well, I think that means me.
Orders are orders.
VVaH,Josh.
The problem is I'm losing oxygen.
- Braz, what can I do?
- Check the feeds for me.
Check the feeds for me, Josh.
Quick!
I'm coming. I'm coming
as fast as I can.
Hey, guys, at this rate we have three
minutes before the lava gets to us.
Come on, guys. Come on.
[beeps]
[Braz] It's not going to work
without oxygen!
We're losing oxygen!
[air hissing]
I fixed it. Now cut!
[Braz] That's good. It's working now.
It's working well now!
That's good, Josh!
- Josh's vital signs are dropping.
- What?
[exhales]
Serge!
[Braz] You're almost there.
You're almost there, Josh.
- [grunts]
- Josh!
[grunting]
[grunts]
- Joshua!
- OK, guys, connect the oxygen.
- [Bob] Braz, you got that?
- [Braz] Yes. Connected!
[Bob] Good. I got to check these lasers.
OK, Beck, turn 'em over.
Pre-lasers only,
if you don't mind.
Initiating.
This better work.
The tide's really coming in.
Yes!
We got lucky! I think we're going
to swim right out of this one.
Bob?
[gasps]
[long beep]
Bob?
Bob...
Braz, come on, it's over.
OK. OK.
Beck! Beck!
We're coming in.
[panting] Initiate start sequence.
Beck!
- Beck, do you hear me?
- [Serge] Careful.
Start the impellers!
The door, open the door.
Activate bulkhead doors!
Now, Beck!
[gasps]
You OK? You're going to be weak.
You're OK.
Good job, good job. Good man.
- Well done, well done.
- [Josh] I'm fine. Thank you.
So... we have some good news, and...
...and we have some bad news.
Good news.
I'll take good news.
- All right.
- Well, we're alive and we're moving.
That's g... that's good news.
Oh, it is hot in here.
Yeah, that nitro we flushed out of the
cooling system, it's causing things
just to heat up a little. I'm going
to go back and make some adjustments.
- I'll lend you a hand.
- I'm fine.
[Beck] I'm going to check
your heartbeat, OK?
Thanks, Braz. Appreciate it.
So, that's the bad news?
That's not too bad.
No. Commander lverson died.
But... we're living,
and he would want to...
He'd want us to
complete our mission,
so I think that it's
important that we all...
- It's all right.
- Thank you.
I'm sorry.
Let's give him a second, OK?
He deserves that.
Oh, God, this all just seems
too big, doesn't it?
I think you were attempting
the impossible.
You were trying
to save the world, and...
...it's overwhelming.
I came here to save my wife
and my two children
and... six billion lives...
it's too much.
I just hope I'm smart enough
and brave enough to save three.
You did a nice job, Joshua.
Very nice. Great.
- You'd have done the same thing.
- Well, maybe, maybe.
Hey... who's steering the ship?
- Video screen autopilot.
- I hope he knows the way.
You and me both.
So... you're really
a college professor?
You're not from the CIA or the NSA
or any of those three-letter places?
No. I am a boring college professor.
Wrong place, wrong place.
That was the bravest thing
I've ever seen.
Well, I just, I just...
Listen, the lack of oxygen
kept me from weeping
like a little girl,
as is my custom
in dangerous situations.
[Beck] Hey, guys, we're close
to the mantle core interface.
Where are you?
[Serge] Key's in, Dr. Brazzelton.
- Ready.
- [Josh] We are in the
- luxurious, beautiful...
- [Serge] OK, the code...
...weapons control
checking the controls on the nukes.
[Serge] This is
the birthday of my daughter.
[Braz] O-3-1-9-9-5.
- Ready? Three, two and one.
- Yeah.
Thank you.
Green. All green.
Great. So we have
to synchronise the babies now.
Just a second.
- There.
- Mm-hm.
All right, now let's
put them to bed.
Zimsky, could you please come up
here for a second?
- Yes?
- We're not supposed
- to go through anything black.
- Yes, so please don't.
What is this?
[Zimsky] They're scattered everywhere.
Oh, my God! They're diamonds!
[Beck] Great.
You might want to sit down and buckle
up. We're on a collision course here.
Alrighty. Careful.
Guys, we're dodging diamonds
the size of Cape Cod, so bear with me.
Not exactly nimble here.
- Diamonds? I want some.
- Can I help?
Oh!
- [thudding]
- OK. It's OK.
[Beck] OK, it looks like
we're in the clear.
- [scraping]
- [alarm beeping]
Breach!
Guys! Weapons control, get out!
Get out now!
[Josh] Serge!
Serge! What the hell are you doing?
Come on!
[$6rge] My notebook!
Serge!
Take the time reg, Joshua!
- Come on Serge! Come on!
- My notes! You'll need them!
No! God, no, Serge!
- It's OK.
- Serge, come on! No!
Serge!
We need the box!
[Braz shouting]
We can get him!
We can get him!
Hold on, Serge!
Beck! Beck!
Override the ejection system!
Beck, no! One damaged compartment
threatens the whole ship!
Beck! Beck!
Override the ejection system!
Serge, we're right here. We're not
going to forget about you, man.
- Josh, can you hear me?
- Serge! Serge...
Hey, buddy, look in your monitor
right now. Serge, look in your monitor.
- I'm right here. Serge...
- Josh, I can't see you.
Braz is going to override
the doors manually, OK?
We're working on it right now.
Braz, how long?
Going as fast as I can,
fast as I can.
- OK, I'm scared.
- We're going right now.
- Shouldn't be two seconds, all right?
- Josh!
Beck, override
the ejection systems, OK?
Damn it. I don't think
Beck can hear me.
Serge, look at me now. Serge!
Serge, we're right here, OK? We're not
going to forget about you, man.
I'm going to get you out of here.
We're working on it, all right?
- Stay with me here. OK?
- [sobs] I don't know what to do.
You can hear me now?
All right, here I am.
I'm not going to let you go, man. I'm
not going to let you go, all right?
Stay with me here, OK?
I'm going to come to Paris
and we'll go out, all right? After this.
After this is all
said and done, all right?
- Josh!
- Serge!
- Serge! Serge! Serge!
- [Serge screaming]
Serge /
[sighs]
- [inhales sharply]
- [kicking console]
Did you reset the overrides?
I never pushed them.
You let him die.
Actually, you really want to know?
I killed him twice.
First when I hit the diamond, and then
when I didn't hit the override.
Do you want me to feel any worse
about that than I already do?
It's not possible.
Why are you being so smug about that?
- Could you have made the decision?
- [Josh] Yes.
- Could you?
- Yes, I could've.
If you would've hit that switch,
I could've got him outta there!
I was yelling for you!
Take it and look at it!
I was two inches from him!
I was two inches, and I told you
to put the door up and you didn't!
I was screaming for you!
Why didn't you do it?!
Because I had to make that decision.
Fate or God...
No! Damn it!
You leave God out of this!
Serge died so that we could
complete ourjob.
Oh, that's right,
the job of saving the world.
Not the whole world, Josh!
Just three of them.
- [monitor beeping]
- [quiet chattering]
Virgil, you are approaching
core interface. Are you good to go?
[Braz] Josh?
Josh, can you hear me?
Josh, can you hear me?
Ready as we'll ever be, Stick.
Dr. Keyes.
Right here.
Deep Earth, we are green
and good to go.
We just got a huge speed jump.
We're at 95 knots...
...110...
...13O... 140.
Our speed's jumped
because the density of the core
is different than our estimates.
It's lighter than we thought.
- So much for best guesses.
- [Beck] I'm fine with this.
At this rate, we'll,
what, hit the inner core
in a little over five hours.
I think we finally bought some luck.
- Braz.
- Yeah.
Would you please punch
the new core density into the equations
for the nuclear detonation?
Please tell me this is enough.
- Failure.
- [Beck] You're telling me
the 1,000 megatons
of nuclear warheads
we hauled down here
isn't going to cut it?
No. This core material is too thin.
- What?
- [Zimsky] The energy waves from
the explosion
won't spread far enough.
They'll just bleed
away into nothing.
[exhales, stammers]
That's it.
- We go home. We go home.
- [Josh] Home?
Our commander is dead.
Our weapons specialist is dead.
Our weapons control systems are gone.
We don't know whether
we can arm the nuclear devices,
and our plan to fix the core
no longer works. So... we have failed.
We have not failed.
We have failed, and we go home,
and we go to the alternative.
What alternative?
What are you talking about?
General, this is Dr. Conrad Zimsky.
Destiny is a go.
Repeat. Destiny is a go.
[sighs] Damn.
I need to know
everything to do my job.
You don't have to know this.
General, it is my job
to ensure the safety of this mission.
Anything that affects it is my business.
Now what the hell is Destiny?
It's a device.
Deep Earth Seismic Trigger
Initiative, DEST-INI. Destiny.
We had reason to believe that our
enemies were building a weapon
that could generate
targeted seismic events.
They would be able to create massive
earthquakes under our territory.
- No way of telling who did it.
- So?
So... we built one, too.
M.A.D. Mutually Assured Destruction.
A perfect acronym
if ever there was one.
- Beautiful.
- They built it first.
I built it better.
I beamed high-powered
electromagnetic energy waves
down Deep Earth fault lines,
- and, you know.
- Zimsky, what makes you think
- that Destiny would touch the core?
- [Josh] 'Cause it already did.
This isn't a fluke.
We killed the planet.
[Beck] You keep saying
that the core is too big
to be affected by anything
short of nukes.
- So...
- The core is an engine.
Throw a small wrench into a big engine,
you can still stall it.
Deep Earth, this is Virgil.
We require clarification on
the status of Project Destiny.
- Why weren't we notified of this, sir?
- Because you didn't need to know.
Now you may not like this.
I may not like it either.
But it's my job,
and I do it for my country,
and if we don't develop these
devices, someone worse will
and they will use them against us.
But you have my word.
No one in this
administration, no one,
had any idea
that this could happen.
So the device that killed the
planet is your backup plan?
An electric shock can stop a heart.
It can certainly restart one.
- Destiny will work. It has to.
- No, it won't work.
If you fire that thing again
with the core already stalled,
- it'll terminally destabilise it.
- Yes, granted,
there is a marginal risk involved,
but given the circumstances,
- I hardly see that as an alternative.
- No, Zimsky, listen to me.
Every volcano on the planet will blow.
There'll be earthquakes big
enough to rip us to pieces.
- [Tom] Dr. Keyes.
- What?
I'm afraid it's all we've got.
Now, I have orders from the president.
Come home, Virgil. We go to plan B.
- Well, what about plan C?
- What? What?
Well, plan C. We continue on.
We restart the core... somehow.
We don't do it, you fire Destiny.
I can't wait for you
to get out of there.
- Then don't. We fail, fire Destiny.
- Oh, come on! That's ridiculous!
- What choice do we have, Zimsky?
- Are you kidding me?
If they set that thing off,
the shock waves will wipe us out!
We'll be lucky to get back
if we turn back right now!
Virgil, I'm telling you right now,
we will fire Destiny,
and we need to do so
as quickly as possible,
and if you're still there,
you will be destroyed.
Rebecca ?
Please don't make me
have to do this.
Plan C.
It's your call, Commander.
Majority decision.
We're going in.
I'm sorry, sir.
Oh, come on, you're a bunch of suicidal
morons! What are you, crazy?
Plan C?
Restart the core "somehow"?
Oh, that's a great idea!
That's a brilliant idea!
I can't believe I'm stuck in this
floating septic tank with you lunatics!
You may have nothing to lose.
You may have nothing to lose!
You may have nothing to lose,
but I have my life to lose,
thank you very much,
while you're up! Now turn it around!
He told us to go back
and we're going back!
Why? You want to be a hero?
You want to be a martyr?
What do you want to be?
You're out of your mind!
- Thank you! Turn it around!
- No!
- Zimsky.
- I'm not gonna die like this!
- I don't wanna die!
- Zimsky, it's not about you!
- If you wanna die like this...
- ...three people...
Shut up!
[panting]
It's not a stupid ship.
I had to.
- It had to happen sometime.
- Yeah.
- [computer beeping]
- Um...
- Status! What is that?
- [Rat] It's the EM monitoring station.
It's the one that tracks EM pulses.
God, no.
[sighs]
- Just talk, Mr. Rat.
- [Rat] No.
- That's a good boy.
- Um...
Remember those invisible microwaves
that Josh was talking about?
Well, they just found a hole.
[water boiling]
No, it's a parking lot out here...
- [sizzling sound]
- [screams]
[sizzling sounds continue]
Oh, my God.
[rumbling]
- [sizzling sounds continue]
- [gasps]
[screams]
[people screaming]
[woman on TV] And now with this
horrific breaking news,
we go live to San Francisco,
where Leo Jacks has the story.
[Leo] Yes, Claire, it's hard to believe
that half of San Francisco
is in ruins today
following the most devastating
and the most baffling
event in our nation's history.
Uh, it's a horrific situation here.
Thousands are dead.
Many are missing.
- It's hotels, hospitals.
- Bring up the power grid.
- [typing]
- [computer beeping]
The whole West Coast is out.
That means we're going to have
to suck up just about every drop
of juice east of the Rockies
to fire Destiny.
Another EM spike, we're not
going to have enough power.
General, you have got
to give them more time.
[Tom] There is no more time.
Colonel, call Destiny.
I am launching
a formal complaint against you
- with the Department of Defense.
- Rat to Josh.
Go, Rat.
Hey, here's the EM field data
that you're primed for.
Digging that, Rat.
Primed for. Primed for.
Prime numbers...
One, two, three, five,
seven, 11, 13, 17...
[typing]
[typing]
Here we go.
[electrical zapping]
[telephone ringing]
[man] James.
[exhales]
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Here we go, folks.
[Josh] OK, this time it's going to work.
Here you go... beautiful. Yeah. Mm-hm.
Come on, baby. Come on,
Daddy wants to see the sky again.
OK, OK, OK. Let's try again.
- Your torque is R, cross F...
- No, your R is too small, Josh.
- Right.
- Wait, hold on.
[Zimsky laughing]
- What are you laughing at?
- No, I mean,
it took me and 400
of the world's smartest people
- to come up with the first plan.
- You want to help?
No. I want to turn around and go home.
- It's not going to happen.
- Well, then we're going to die.
- True.
- All right, look
- let's start from square one.
- OK.
Let's start from square one. The bulk
modules... depends on density.
Your torque is R cross F,
but you have to integrate volume...
But here, here...
just consider this.
Now, we got this...
OK, now, R cross F,
we're putting put in pi. What's V?
- Oh, for God's sake!
- All right. I'm hitting him again.
No, no, no!
Braz, no, look, I have a theory.
- Are you interested?
- Yes. We're interested.
Then let me smoke a cigarette,
and I'll tell you.
- Oh, thank God.
- [Braz whistles]
Hm? All right, fine, look. Look,
we have to use wave interference, OK?
Because one explosion won't do it.
Think about stones in a pond.
You drop a large stone into a pond,
you get a big splash,
and then that's it, it's over.
But drop a smaller stone,
wait until the ripples weaken
and drop another and another,
and another,
and fluid dynamics 101.
The ripples reinforce each other
in geometric progression.
[Braz] The whole bigger than
the sum of the parts.
Then we'll have five
Instead of one big bang.
- [Josh] So, we hotwire the nukes.
- Yes.
As one does.
We seed them through the core
at locations that have
to be accurate to the inch.
We detonate them in a sequence
that has to be accurate
to the millisecond,
then we outrun the biggest
nuclear shock wave in history.
- Right.
- Yeah.
I mean, that should be fairly simple.
[alarm blaring]
[man 1] ...should now be
diverting to the central...
[man 2] Final calibration
on both transmission systems...
[indistinct chatter]
[computer beeps]
Cut the... cut the rouge.
The red wire above the circuit.
- OK. OK.
- No, no, wait, hold it!
I'm sorry, cut it below.
- [computer beeps]
- I don't know what that means.
[man 1] Extensions A, B.
- [man 2] Here we go.
- [man 1] F, check. Increase power
- to reactors ten through 15.
- We're almost there, folks.
[typing]
[computer beeping]
- [typing]
- [beeping continues]
[Beck] OK, guys we're closing
on the inner core.
The nukes are ready.
Timers are on.
- Great. Let's start dropping them.
- No. The bombs are not built
for these pressures.
That's why they were in that pod.
If you send them out now,
out of that casing,
they'll be crushed instantly.
- I'm assuming we have a Plan D.
- Plan D is Virgil's compartments.
We put a nuke in
each section of Virgil,
and then eject the individual sections
one at a time. They should stay intact
- long enough for the nuke to go off.
- [groans]
- What?
- Virgil's not designed
to eject undamaged compartments.
OK, these are the ejection mechanisms
holding each compartment in place, um...
They're all connected
by one master hydraulic gear, um,
kind of like keys on a key ring.
What we have to do,
we have to unlock the piston.
That will release the compartments
so the bombs can be jettisoned.
Where's the master gear?
In the crawl space
we used to get out earlier.
Well, what the hell is it doing there?
I built the ship
in three damn months.
I didn't think I'd be intentionally
sabotaging it. I'm sorry!
So one of us has to go in there.
- Correct.
- Into the crawl space
- that has core fluid at 9,000 degrees.
- [Braz] Yes.
Can you flush it
with liquid nitrogen?
[Braz] We don't have
enough at this point.
And our suits are built to withstand...?
- Half that, probably.
- Right. Half that.
So, what you're saying
is whoever goes into that crawl space,
is not coming back.
- Together.
- Yes, thank you.
Wait.
- On three.
- OK.
One... two... three.
Huh.
Well, I better go on, get myself ready.
No, Braz, wait.
No, Braz. Excuse me.
Just a moment, may I see that?
- No.
- May I? May I?
- Yes.
- Thank you.
- Magic.
- I mean, Braz,
three straws of equal length.
I mean, this is childish.
Let's do it again.
No, we will not do it again. [laughs]
I thought you'd be happy.
No. Not at the expense
of you making us look like fools.
He's right. Why do you get dibs
on being the hero?
- Because it's my damn ship.
- Oh, that makes perfect sense.
Look, for 20 years, I've done
nothing but Virgil, 20 years.
Virgil belongs to me,
and I will not let her fail.
I will not. Now if you want to know
what's worth dying for... this ship.
Building it instead of imagining it.
If Virgil needs more blood,
it will be my blood.
Now I am going to go and get ready.
Good to go.
Beck.Josh.
It's a hell of a boat you built, Braz.
I am really proud to
have known you guys.
[Josh] Thank you.
Braz. Edward.
Yes, Conrad?
You're right. It is your ship.
But I wish to God it had been ours.
[whooshing]
[beeping]
The chamber's sealed, Beck.
Ready.
Open the hatch.
[grunts]
[Braz grunting]
[screams]
[sizzling]
Hang on, Braz.
Come on, hang on.
[glass shattering]
[computer beeping]
Manual override is complete!
Braz, we can still get you out of there.
No... Start... start the impeller.
No.
[panting]
We got a job to do. Let's do it.
Let's go.
[man] Magnetic shielding systems are up.
- Power level's 85 per cent.
- [computers beeping]
- Increase power to Reactor ten.
- All personnel should be clear.
- [typing]
- [computer beeps]
[Zimsky, Josh shouting]
[Zimsky] Oh, God! Oh, I'm sorry.
- [both grunting]
- OK, she's down.
[Beck] Approaching the first
drop-off point.
We got to be accurate
to the second here, boys.
And drop in three-five seconds.
And... timer on.
- Pull it.
- [timer beeping]
Clear... and... ejecting.
[telephone ringing]
- All right. Initiate firing sequence.
- Sir...
It's our last shot, Stick.
- Damn you.
- Damn me? Too late.
[man] Ten, nine, eight...
[Rat] What's that?
Gotcha!
- [man 1] ...four, three, two...
- Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Someone's diverted our energy.
Where the hell's it gone?!
It looks like...
Coney Island.
Your kung fu is not strong.
Well, how long will it take
to get it back online?
Well, then get to it!
Oh, hey, General.
ls there something I can do for you?
- Mm.
- [computer game beeping]
- Timer on.
- [timer beeping]
Clear... ejecting.
Ejecting.
Pull it.
All right.
Let's go throw our last little
I always wanted to make a splash
in nuclear physics.
You know, that energy propagation stuff
you were talking about...
- Oh, that was high school physics.
- Yeah, it's not exactly...
I just took the wavelengths from the
core fluid off the MRI readings.
- Yeah, and multiplied by 800...
- Six hundred.
Surely you compensated
for the MRI bias.
We got to reset the timers!
[Zimsky] It's not the timers!
No! It just won't work.
It's not the timers!
This is not enough!
- What's not enough?
- The last bomb is not enough.
- To complete the wave form.
- Yeah. No.
The last bomb has
to be 30 per cent larger.
That's six or seven pounds
of plutonium.
Where are we going to get six
or seven pounds of plutonium?
Ahh!
Guys, we got hit by an energy flare.
I can't keep us on course.
Ejecting compartment
in 50 seconds.
- No, Beck! No, wait! No! Push it!
- You push it!
Come on, guys, I can't hear you.
- It's got my shoulder! Ahh!
- Push!
Guys! Clear!
Clear the compartment!
What are you doing?
I think the flare
has knocked the come out.
- I can't get it, Josh. I can't get it.
- Go...
- I can't.
- OK.
- I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
- Can you hear me?
I'm correcting course. Now!
[shouts, grunts]
ZimSky!
No!
[groaning]
- Push it!
- [both grunting]
Ejecting compartment
in ten seconds. Can you hear me?
Josh, go! Go! Go!
Get out! Get out!
Now! Get out! Now! Go!
[panting]
Josh.
For the last bomb,
to make it larger,
use the fuel rods from the react...
[BGCK] Ejecting.
[groans]
I got to get... I got to...
Beck.
Beck, can you hear me?
Beck, if you have any better
ideas, you tell me now.
We've only have three minutes
to eject this one. Beck!
Come on, guys. I can't hear you.
Beck.
[beeping]
[alarm blares]
- [sizzling]
- [grunts]
[straining]
[groaning]
[sizzling]
[cries out]
Oh!
[beeps]
[beeping]
Josh, come on.
- Are you OK?
- [panting]
- Are you OK?
- Will you take my gloves off?
- Oh, my God.
- Please.
[both wincing]
I had to build the blast.
- I'm sorry.
- Hold on, let me get...
No. Stay here for one second.
I was trying to call you.
- I know the come were down.
- Right.
- I know what you did.
- We don't have enough energy...
- I know.
- ...to get back.
You did good.
I would've done the same thing.
Where's Zimsky?
Come here.
You did good.
You did good.
[exhales] One minute
to the first detonation.
And 12 until the blast hits us.
I was hoping we'd
suffocate to death first.
[beeping]
Beck.
Beck, Beck.
What could you do if I got you enough
power to fire the impeller?
Maybe not the laser, but the impeller.
- What? From where?
- The heat of the core.
It's 9,000 degrees.
Unobtanium converts heat to energy.
So this whole damn ship
is like a big old solar panel.
Come on, I need your help.
- Number two's going!
- Come on, come on.
For here in the
great infinite unknowable...
...man can come to know the most
important thing of all:
Himself.
He can understand...
What the fuck am I doing?
[chuckles]
- [man 1] We've got full rotation!
- [man 2] It's turning!
[cheering]
All right!
[cheering continues]
[Josh] Come on, Beck, where is it?
Come on. Come on, hurry up.
Is that the last one?
Yeah.
Give it a couple seconds.
- [zap]
- [beeping]
It worked!
Get ready to pull a few G's.
- Four hundred twenty knots.
- Now, this is more like it.
Four-forty.
Mr. Rat, what's the
centre of this quake?
It's everywhere!
It's one giant shock wave!
The planet's healing itself.
At this speed, we're going to be home
in a third of the time.
As long as we can surf
these magma flows, we'll be OK.
Let's just pray we don't run
into any dead ends,
or we're going to miss those lasers.
OK, navigator, which way?
We've got greater
flow density on the left.
Go with the flow.
- [beeping]
- Bill, where are they headed?
Looks like she found
a space between
some tectonic plates
somewhere near Hawaii.
- Josh...
- Yeah?
They're closing in on us too fast.
- I don't know if I can...
- Beck, you got it.
[beeping]
Um... [stammers]
We lost them, Stick, and I...
[Beck] Where'd our power go?
[Josh] We were powered by the heat.
It's stone cold down here.
Well...
Look on the bright side.
At least we're not
going to boil to death.
- You always look on the bright side?
- Always.
OK, let's assess:
We've got no communications,
we're probably 800 feet down,
but we might as well be 800 miles.
We're in an Unobtanium
cigar tube with the sonar
signature of a rock.
We've got just enough power
to make the ultrasonics burp,
but no one's listening
on those frequencies anyway, and...
...nobody even knows we're alive.
OK.
Give me a minute on this one.
This is hopeless.
Come on, General, we've got to be
getting close. We can't...
Mr. Rat, even if they were still alive,
there's no way they could contact us.
[telephone rings]
Bdge.
Skipper, Combat relays that our
sub has something on the sonar.
- Where do they think?
- Bill, put it up on the hydrophone.
[whale sounds]
Whales, sir.
They're a long way off their usual path,
but that's not uncommon since that...
What are they calling it?
Orbital wobble?
Yeah, that's what they call it.
Well, thank you very much, Captain,
but I think we're done here.
General.
J.O., this is the captain.
Stand down from SAR Operations.
It's whales! It's whales!
Hey! General! Stick!
It's whales! The ultrasonics!
They're singing to them!
You gotta find the whales!
[man] Alpha X Ray, this is
November Echo six one zero.
I'm changing...
Hold on, I'm seeing those whales now.
Whoa! OK, ball's in the water.
This is neat. Those whales
are circling something.
Hold on, hold on.
We have a strong echo here.
Depth, 800 feet.
There's something down there.
There's definitely
something down there.
I told you pulsing the
ultrasonics would work.
Do you ever get tired
of being right?
Yes.
So, what's next for you?
- A shower.
- [laughs]
Then back to NASA, I guess.
You?
Deep-dish pepperoni pizza,
green peppers, onions,
- extra mushrooms, then a shower...
- Mmm.
...and then back to the classroom.
NASA could use
a few good men, you know.
Yeah. Unfortunately, so could my
freshmen geophysics students.
You know what makes me
really, really angry?
Bob, Serge, Braz, Zimsky...
No one's going to ever know
what they did or why they died.
Unless... it all got out somehow.
- That's unthinkable.
- Yeah.
[chattering]
[cracks knuckles] OK, here we go.
[beeping]
- [all computers beeping]
- [people murmuring]
Sweet.
[woman] It is now emerging that
the world owes its survival
to the heroism of six
remarkable individuals:
- Shuttle Commander Robert Iverson...
- [man 1] This extraordinary craft...
[woman] ...French Scientist,
Dr. Serge...
[man 1] ...was captained
by NASA astronaut Dr. Bob Iverson.
[man 2] Edward Brazze/ton is a name...
[man 3] ...Dr. Conrad Zimsky
will be best remembered...
[man 4] On Capitol Hill today,
everyone's asking the same question:
What is Project Destiny?
[reporters overlapping]
Destiny, meet world.
World, meet Destiny.
[man] Dr. Brazze/ton, Dr. Zimsky...
[reporters fade]
[I 30 Seconds to Mars: "Echelon"]
====================