MovieChat Forums > The Core (2003) Discussion > Cell phone service is crap but their com...

Cell phone service is crap but their comms work in the mantle of Earth?

posted 15 years ago by vivace1
17 replies | jump to latest

I enjoyed this movie a bit, don't get me wrong...mostly because of the cast. It held my attention to the end.
But did anyone else think the most unbelievable part was the fact that they had communications working down in the middle of the earth? I know the astronauts have comms in space and everything but really in 9000 degrees in the middle of the earth's core the comms work? That plus the whole science of what they were doing were the biggest "suspensions of belief". The hacker made me laugh though.
Plus it was pretty much the movie Armageddon except in the middle of the planet instead of in space. Kind of a blatant rip off actually.

[–] teh_KiNgKoNg 15 years ago

The communication was the thing that bothered me the most.

[–] synthaxmechanix 15 years ago

yeah, this bothered me too. I've been a fan of radio broadcastings since I was a kid, and I surely know it's impossible for radio waves to go underground. Hey, everyone knows that you won't receive any radio at the subway. And no cell phones worked at the subway until they mounted relays for cell phones down there.
For short waves you need a huge antenna, fm/ukw are local broadcastings no longer than 100-150 km. wide range, and long & medium waves reflect in the atmosphere and in oceans. But none will penetrate ground. Plus, inside the Earth it's presuming there's a lot of electromagnetic radiations, there would be a great amount of jamming.
No, the temperature isn't a problem for radio waves, the hotter it is, or higher humidity, radio waves travel even more far than usual.. but in AIR only, not unerneath the ground, especially at 4000 km.
And hey... did you notice the audio signal was crystal clear, no noise at all ? :))) Hilarious

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] sollidottingen 15 years ago

Really? This is the most obvious flaw in the movie? I thought the biggest flaw was gravity in the center of the earth. When you have just as much mass in every direction around you, you become weightless. I still like the movie and i respect your oppinions but thats the most obvious flaw in my eyes (not that i didn't notice the comunication too).

[–] databyter 14 years ago

When the mission commander died (hit by a falling crystal or something) there was a flashback to mission control and everyone was quiet and glum, and I was thinking, really? they know, how?

Lol. This was my first clue that the movie was going to have some communication technology aiding them that I did not know existed.

[–] mattsf 14 years ago

Ridiculous, aye, but then, so are live chats in outer space in sci-fi movies... ships going faster than light is one thing, but video signals?

The bottom line is, it aided the story by amping up the drama. Good enough for moi.

[–] Jordan_Haelend 14 years ago

This is one of the most obvious blunders in "Total Recall." Richter and his boss, Mr. Cohaagen, are conversing in real time via the phone in Richter's car. But Mr. C is on Mars while Richter is on Earth, and the time lag should be considerable.

"An Archer is known by his aim, not by his arrows."
-Li Chen-Sung (Richard Loo) The Outer Limits

[–] Nizzemancer-1 14 years ago

Since Total Recall takes place in the future they could be using some form of quantum communicator which would be faster than the speed of light and unaffected by line of sight problems, in the core however that would be highly unlikely since we don't have that technology at present and if it's possible we won't have it for a long time.

Light travels faster than sound,
that's why people seem bright,
until you hear them.

[–] ladyMoonEclipse 14 years ago

just finished watching the movie for like second time ever, and it just occured to me, how come they can monitor if the core is functioning again after nuclear blast yet they never monitored it before to notice it had stop,esp in light of what project destiny was really doing to the earth
its a enjoyable movie if u dont think at all coz its one implausible action after another
the geek definetly had the best line "the earth is healing itself" lollll...

[–] Delorean14 14 years ago

I don't know how they explained it in the movie as I haven't seen it in years but a possible explanation *could* be terrestrial stationary waves. Google it. Tesla wirelessly lit 200 lamps 25 miles away from his lab. The Earth is highly conductive in nature. Therefore, if the Earth itself can conduct electricity then it could be easily manipulated to carry a signal. This is how I was able to not spontaneously combust while watching this movie. It is still very improbable but not *completely* impossible...

-Comment is brought to you by the number e who's exponential function is the derivative of itself.-

[–] clerlic 14 years ago

Maybe instead of using radio waves and electricity, they used seismic waves.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] thepartydjz 12 years ago

"its a enjoyable movie if u dont think at all" Perfect for the american theater going audiences, what a sad state of society, pure idiots.

[–] Starcraft_90 12 years ago

Seriously... Where are you from so I can make stereotypical remarks about 'your people'.

[–] Nizzemancer-1 8 years ago

Megaphones and huge speakers.

Light travels faster than sound,
that's why people seem bright,
until you hear them.

[–] Strazdamonas 12 years ago

Cell phone service is crap only if you live in some country whose communicatios is stuck i 20th cetury, like, say, america.

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