The Core

Factual error: The ship, VIRGIL, is diving straight down from the crust to the core. Although the interior of the ship pivots to make the cockpit perpendicular to the descent, the ship itself is "digging" straight down so when people move from compartment to compartment they should be climbing up and down rather than simply walking back and forth.

Factual error: When 'Rat' is trying to hack into Project Destiny control, he gets several '404' errors, but '404' is page missing, not access denied. It should say '401- Access Denied'. (01:56:19)

Factual error: When Victor and the crew are 2600 miles below the surface and Rat is trying to let Dr. Keyes know that Project Destini is going to happen, he contacts the ship via radio and even transfers computer data to the ship. This would be completely impossible because the ground would block any radio signals from reaching the ship. By the time the ship had reached about a mile down, there would be no radio contact whatsoever, no matter how powerful their transmitter was. Audio communication would be unfeasible too - the ship would make too much noise cutting through the earth to allow for any communications to be transmitted through solid rock.

Factual error: When the Golden Gate Bridge is destroyed by the sun's unfiltered rays (ya, right) the two towers of the bridge lean in the wrong direction. When the middle of the bridge is gone, only the tension from the anchor wires (connecting to land) would remain and they would pull the towers outward. However, in the movie the towers lean inward. (01:27:40)

Factual error: When they realize they need to make the last nuclear explosion 30% bigger, they simply pull the fuel rods from the reactor and set them next to the bomb. This is ludicrous, a nuclear bomb is a carefully engineered piece of equipment, with carefully shaped charges imploding the radioactive material. Setting some fuel rods next to the bomb will accomplish nothing.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: By adding the fuel rods, what they did was not alter the initial reaction to the charges. What it does is amplify the reaction after the charges have gone off. Adding more reactive material increases the size of the blast.

This would have merely added more neutrons in the vicinity of the bomb's core, causing it to go prompt critical before the implosion charges could compress it. The result would be a fizzle.

Factual error: At the very end of the movie when the credits are rolling you see a panned view of the earth. The earth is rotating the wrong way. (02:00:50)

Factual error: When Becca is waiting to be called before the flight review board and while standing in front of the board she is wearing earrings that hang below the bottom of her ear lobes. Military regulations only allow small spherical conservative earrings centered in the middle of the ear lobe.

Brian Cote

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: NASA Air Force actually are given special exemptions that are required by traditional military personnel.

Factual error: In the very first shot of the movie David's watch shows an invalid time. If it were 10:30, the hour hand would be between 10 and 11. The hour hand is exactly at the 10:00 mark even though the minute hand is at 30 minutes.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: There are actually watches where they design it so that the hour hand jumps from hour to hour as the minute hand travels. This is to aid some people in reading watch dials that have trouble otherwise.

Factual error: The scientists were surprised that the space suits were able to withstand the intense pressure encountered when they were walking around in the geode 500 miles below the surface of the earth. They should have been - the suits were made of flexible materials. No matter how heat resistant they were they would have to be completely solid (like the white deep-sea suit worn by the bad guy attacking Bond in "For Your Eyes Only") to provide protection from thousands of pounds per square inch of external pressure. The scientists should have been crushed like eggshells the second they stepped off the ship.

BocaDavie

Factual error: While Dr. Brazzleton is turning the hydraulic gear, his glasses fragment. If it was hot enough in his helmet to fragment his glasses, then his face should've been burned. (01:44:45)

Factual error: When the brackets holding "Virgil" in position are released, we can see all of them releasing simultaneously. "Virgil" should start to drop immediately, not after 1 or 2 seconds. (00:51:05)

Christoph Galuschka

Factual error: At the beginning of the movie, the space shuttle is landing off course and they only have moments to figure something out. This makes no sense. Shuttles take a long time to land - about an hour from the time of the reentry burn to touchdown. After the burn, reentry begins about a half an hour before touchdown. There is at least 20+ minutes of glide time. Surely somebody would have noticed they were off course a lot sooner than they did.

Factual error: In the end when Rat sends the information about DESTINI around the world, it says "Der Spiegel" in Berlin, Germany. "Der Spiegel" is based in Hamburg.

Tanngrisnir

Factual error: The Mariana's trench is not found in the South Pacific, but about 500 east of the Philippines,putting it in the centre closer to the north.

Factual error: When Dr. Keys is giving a lecture, he mentions that sound waves gain wavelength and lose frequency as they enter a denser medium. That's not completely true. Sound does gain wavelength, but frequency NEVER changes. It is velocity and wavelength which change to maintain the relationship velocity = frequency x wavelength. It is impossible for frequency (no. of waves per second) to change since that would mean waves get lost or created from nothing.

Factual error: It is claimed that the Unobtanium shell doesn't conduct heat, but gets stronger from it. If it can't conduct heat, then how do they solder the thermocouple to it and obtain electricity? If the wall could conduct enough heat for the thermocouple then it would have had to have been hot enough to roast the two crew alive.

Factual error: When Eckart is decrypting data from Qualls using primes, the first number he enters is '1', which is not prime. [Some people have debated this, saying that as primes are any numbers not divisible by any number except themselves and 1, 1 must be prime. While it technically fits the description, 1 is generally considered NOT to be prime (http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/lists/small/1000.txt)].

Factual error: In a few shots through the movie the gauges or screens displaying information, they use "PPI" for pounds per sq. inch instead of PSI. PPI is wrong it's always PSI. The first time you see it is in the scene when they just launch the ship right before they pierce the crust with Braz and Serge for sure.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: They are measuring pounds per linear inch which is PPI.

Pounds per Linear Inch is PLI, not PPI.

Bishop73

Pressure is defined as force over area. Any force (i.e, pounds) over any area (length × width, i.e. inches squared or meters squared or...squared) as defined in 1961 if not earlier.

Noman

Factual error: If you are in the military, you will note that all of service dresses worn by army and air force officers have their U.S. insignia pinned onto their collars incorrectly. The insignia is supposed to be pinned so that the letters are parallel to the ground, not parallel to the bottom collar. It's a complete myth that movie uniforms are frequently deliberately incorrect to avoid prosecution, so that's not a valid reason.

Factual error: The view of the Earth at the end of the movie while the credits are rolling shows a sunrise line advancing in a direction that appears to be east south-east.

Factual error: The ship, VIRGIL, is diving straight down from the crust to the core. Although the interior of the ship pivots to make the cockpit perpendicular to the descent, the ship itself is "digging" straight down so when people move from compartment to compartment they should be climbing up and down rather than simply walking back and forth.

More mistakes in The Core

Dr. Josh Keyes: So what's this about then?
FBI Agent: We don't know. You have higher security clearance than us.
Dr. Josh Keyes: I have security clearance?
FBI Agent: Yes sir, we're just here to take you to your jet.
Dr. Josh Keyes: I have a jet?!

More quotes from The Core

Trivia: If you look closely with time-frame advance during the pigeon scene you will see a fish "flying" into a window instead of a pigeon. (00:08:35)

More trivia for The Core

Question: When Rome is been destroyed by that superstorm, just after the Colosseum explodes which building is the one that is destroyed by the lightning bolts? (The one with the statue of a knight)

Answer: I believe you are referring to the Vittorio Emanuele Monument. Victor Emmanuel II was the first monarch of Italy in the mid to late 1800's. The monument has also been nicknamed the "typewriter" and the "wedding cake".

More questions & answers from The Core

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.