I love disaster movies; people are always coming up with new ways to destroy the planet. Rarely is a script written by -- or reviewed -- by a scientist however.
This turd of a TV movie (2011) had some of the WORST special effects I've ever seen, and the plot was so logically flawed that the writer obviously didn't consult even his 5th grade son. it wasn't quite in the "so bad it's good" category, it was just plain appallingly bad.
Plot:
A piece breaks off a neutron star(!) and hurtles toward Earth. The baseball-sized piece is so dense that it goes right through Earth (!), leaving a 12" smoking hole (!) in the California highlands and another 12" exit hole (!) in Australia (!). In the process it also passes right through (!) the only scientist (!) on Earth who is studying the possibility of this happening (!) As he dies, he whispers to the FBI agent (!) chasing him, "Take care of my circles."
The FBI agent doesn't know what this means.
Because the Earth's core has been pierced the Earth's magnetic field starts collapsing (!), which causes the earth to stop rotating (!). The Earth begins being plagued by really strong Aurora Borealis displays (!), which are so close to the ground that they sear anything they touch on the ground -- blackening roads, starting fires, instantly vaporizing people unlucky enough to be hit by one (!).
Evil government scientists (!) very quickly figure out that once the Earth stops rotating, the side facing the sun will become a scorching desert and the side facing away from the sun will become a frozen wasteland. Only a narrow band on the border between the desert and the frozen wasteland will be habitable. So immediately they begin making plans to relocate the US government, and a few key rich people, to the narrow habitable zone (!).
The FBI director happens to know that a scientist has been held in solitary confinement for 15 years because he predicted the Earth's magnetic field would be destroyed by falling pieces from a neutron star, so he goes to the facility where the scientist is being held (which looks a lot like a college campus). The scientist tells him to get stuffed, because he's angry at being imprisoned for the past 15 years. The Director tries to force him to help the government, but in the ensuing chaos the scientist escapes.
Shall I go on?
Scientist meets up with the FBI agent who witnessed the first scientist's death (now gone rogue from the FBI) and his computer-hacking son. They discover -- because "circles" is code for some latitude and longitude figures -- the long-abandoned control computers and a 1-meter satellite dish, and begin contacting a pair of satellites in Earth orbit. One is conveniently hovering over California (in low Earth orbit) and the other is hovering over Australia. The FBI shoots the scientist and he dies. The kid and his girlfriend figure out the computer software and get the satellites to position themselves exactly over the exit and entrance holes, and command them to shoot high energy plasma beams into the holes, through the Earth's core, thus restoring the Earth magnetic field, thus getting the Earth to start rotating again.
Meanwhile the government is trying to prevent this. Fistfights, gunplay, car chases. Every time an Aurora Borealis comes down and burns up a bunch of shit, you have shaky camerawork indicating the extent of the damage. While the father is shooting it out with FBI agents surrounding them, the genius kid programs the satellites and saves the world. Within a minute everything is back to normal.
Hugs and tears all around. The son is forgiven for hacking, the father gets a new girlfriend, the son redeems himself in front of the girl he wants to impress.
Wow. I could not stop watching.
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