"The Core": the rise of the infallible scientists

It wasn't received favourably by most critics when it was released, and despite the facial attraction of Hilary Swank ("Million dollar baby"), it certainly didn't make me a fan. But in spite of this I still found the feature film "The Core" too interesting to ignore it completely.


The story goes like this: strange phenomena around the globe are alarming people everywhere. In London powerless bystanders react in panic as otherwise peaceful pigeons turn into murderous missiles crashing wantonly into neighbouring street-level shop windows. In the USA a space shuttle veers mysteriously off course because of an inexplicable magnetic interference. And in many other places unnatural disasters multiply by the hour.

Hey presto: here come the saviours!

The big brains are at a loss of knowing how to explain this, but, luckily, the biggest of them have got a clue. And so we get to meet our heroes, and they're all somehow involved in one field of science or other. With their razor-sharp minds they soon come up with the proper diagnosis: the future of the earth hangs in the balance as the protective electromagnetic field (EMF) surrounding the planet has faltered. The earth's liquid core, the dynamo sustaining the EMF, has stalled, and so mankind risks being exterminated, or, in plain English, is set to be barbequed by the harmful cosmic radiation from the sun - if our heroes, the scientists cannot concoct a master plan.

Which of course they manage in the nick of time. But not without the loss of life, or without plenty of adverse circumstances. In a strange contraption, a subterranean 'drilling machine', they penetrate the different layers of the earth, finally setting off a series of explosions that miraculously restart the dynamo, making the inner core revolve like it must - for the EMF to function properly. And so the earth and humankind are salvaged once again by the 'gods' of this age, the seemingly infallible scientists.

Larger than life-figures

Believe me, I love sci-fi movies, and am repeatedly awed as well by the possible, future technological inventions put on display (not always realistically) in Hollywood blockbusters. But in "The Core" the feted minds of the best Universities aren't portrayed as mere helping hands, aiding outwitted and inept government officials. They seem to grow to become larger-than-life figures, the never-failing sources of help in times of need:

*Never short of solutions in the face of imminent, fatal danger, they evince almost superhuman capabilities (knowing if not all, then all there is need of knowing), always coming out on top of each and every situation.
*Overcoming human frailties like pride and envy, they eventually choose to selflessly sacrifice themselves for the common, greater good. At least three crew members on board die this way, all of them without a trace or a hint of self-pity or bitterness.
*Their advice is obeyed without question or lingering doubt, as they are always proven right in the end. They come across as the bulwarks of truth, never wavering for long even when fiercely opposed by ignorant and hostile bigots.
*When everybody around them despair and panic, these infallibles, the scientists, soothe the raging sea of human emotions, providing tranquilising answers that instill hope.

And here you have them: the saviours of the modern day religion Science.

Hey, this is fiction, boy!

No, I didn't miss the point. This was, and will forever remain, pure fiction. I know full well none of this happened. But the message of "The Core" isn't a novel one. It's been thrown our way many times before. Remember "Independence Day", or "The day after tomorrow"? Yes, they're unmistakably American, yet, I contend, universal in that they convey a badly disguised hope, or even belief, that when our old sources og help and comfort have been emptied (traditional religious beliefs/God), the new ones may be there to replace them.

I certainly don't despise or denigrate science or scientist. We need them badly, but we don't need them as as a kind of all-purpose saviours. Because blind faith in science a well as scientists is dangerous. Or have we forgotten the lessons of WW2 and Nazi-Germany already?