When unexplained castastrophes strike around the globe, geophysicist Dr, Joh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) and French atomic weapons expert Dr. Sergei Leveque (Tcheky Karyo) are summoned by General Thomas Purcell (Richard Jenkins) to Washington DC, to determine if covert enemy action is to blame.

Working with his team, Keyes discobers the mystery behind the tragedies is more frightening than any act of war - the Earth's inner core has stopped rotating. As a result, the planets electromagnetic field, which shields the earth from deadly solar radiation, is collasping. If the problem is not resolved quickly, airplanes will start falling from the sky and everything electronic will be destroyed. Statis discharge in the atmosphere will create 'superstorms' with hundreds of lightening strikes per square mile, and deadliest of all, microwave radiation will literally cook the planet.

Terrified by his findings, Keyes seeks out the opinion of renown geophysicist Dr. Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci), an arrogant scientist who arrives at the same horrifying conclusion.

Together they discover that the only way to reactivate the core is to travel to it. But how? Man has walked on the moon and landed on Mars, but never has anyone dared to explore the inner, deepest regions of the Earth....until now.