It’s a nice day in Boston when a businessman notices his watch has stopped. He enters an office to make a presentation, only to suddenly fall dead. Soon people start falling dead all over the city, causing all types of accidents on the streets.
Later in the University of Chicago, geophysicist Josh is teaching his students how sound frequencies work. He’s interrupted by two FBI agents, who take him to Washington DC in a private jet. They also bring Josh’s friend and colleague Serge, a nuclear weapons specialist.
The duo is shown a room full of bodies and General Thomas explains what happened earlier. Josh concludes all the people who fell dead had peacemakers, which Thomas confirms. Both scientists assure him that whatever did this can’t kill healthy humans and Thomas dismisses them, not sharing any more information.
In London, a child notices a dead pigeon on the ground before more and more birds start falling, dying when they hit vehicles or buildings. The ones still flying are losing control, crashing through windows and hurting people. The crowd panics and rushes to hide as chaos takes over the city, causing many car accidents and even making a bus fall.
The incident appears on the news and Josh learns that this has happened in Australia and Japan last month too. He remembers that birds navigate following Earth’s magnetic fields and immediately puts his team to work, asking them to search for all kinds of weird incidents in the past two years while hoping his theory is wrong. In space, Major Rebecca and Commander Robert are getting their shuttle ready to land.
Suddenly NASA loses contact with them and get it back after a few seconds, only to discover the shuttle has gone off course. Somehow all their navigation tools failed and now they’re about to crash into Los Angeles. As it flies very close to a stadium, Rebecca checks the files and does some calculations to land in a canal.
She gives Robert precise instructions and the shuttle touches the water, but it gets some damage as it slides under the bridges. Thankfully Robert manages to make it stop right before it could hurt someone. Sometime later Josh brings his research to Doctor Conrad, saying it’s about the end of the world.
Conrad reads it all and tries denying it because he can’t believe his own studies could’ve missed this. After a disappointed Josh leaves, Conrad takes out some confidential files from a safe. Back to Rebecca, she meets with Thomas and learns it’s over for her crew because they crashed the shuttle, but they’re interrupted when Conrad calls Thomas.
Rebecca goes outside and joins a crowd watching bright lights in the sky. Meanwhile Serge and Josh are getting drunk in a bar when the FBI agents arrive to drag them back. Soon Josh arrives at a room full of important army men and Conrad, who wants him to explain his research.
After announcing Earth will be destroyed in a year, he explains why by using fruit. The electromagnetic field that surrounds the planet is falling apart because Earth’s core has stopped spinning. Without that field, in the new few months planes will start falling, anything electronic will be fried, superstorms will happen everywhere, and eventually the sun will cook the planet.
Josh demonstrates this by burning a peach. Thomas wants to restart the core and Josh says it’s impossible because the core is the size of Mars, it’d be trying to jumpstart a planet. Not to mention they don’t have the means to dig that deep into Earth, however Conrad has an idea.
Afterward the group flies to Utah, where they meet a doctor nicknamed Braz. He isn’t happy to see Conrad, saying he stole his research twenty years ago. Braz still cooperates and shows them a huge machine that breaks rocks with ultrasonic waves.
When he turns it on, the machine digs a huge hole in a hill in just a few seconds. Then he grabs a little rodent and puts it inside a box before turning a smaller version of the machine. The waves don’t damage the box, but they drill the titanium behind it.
Then Braz shows them the animal is ok while explaining the box is made from a new alloy he created called unobtanium. It’s capable of withstanding extreme pressure and converting heat into electricity, which means the deeper and hotter it gets, the stronger it becomes. Braz thinks it’ll take him ten years to finish a ship and jokes he would need fifteen billion dollars to do it in three months, but the military is ready to pay.
Later the FBI bursts into an apartment belonging to hacker Finch, who immediately burns all his disks in the microwave and deletes all his hard-drives with a defibrillator. After he gets arrested, Thomas reads Finch’s file and points out he has two convictions for hacking into government databases. However they offer not to send him to prison now if he works for them by controlling the information that leaks into the internet so their project is kept secret.
Finch agrees after he hears he’ll have all the FBI’s resources, but he also asks for an unlimited supply of Xena tapes and Hot Pockets because they help him concentrate. At the same time Rebecca is informed that it’s been confirmed the shuttle crash was a system issue and the higher-ups congratulate her for thinking fast to solve it. This is why she and Robert have been assigned to a dangerous mission.
Soon all the chosen participants gather in a secret location and Josh has been assigned leader of the operation. Conrad complains to Thomas because he has seniority, but Thomas reminds him that he missed his chance when he failed Project Destiny. In fact Thomas wonders if Destiny caused all this.
Introductions are made and Josh details their jobs for the next three months. Braz will build the ship, which will reach the core and deliver an explosive charge large enough to restart it. Conrad will calculate the scale of the explosion needed by running calculations on a software and Serge designs the nuclear reactor to power it.
Robert is worried because humans don’t actually know the core and lots of this is based on speculation, but it’s the best they can do. The ship is being built with detachable sections in case anything gets damaged at any moment. Soon other countries are also sending people to help with the project and be done as soon as possible.
Meanwhile Finch has programmed a virus-bot that searches for keywords related to strange incidents or the project and wipes them out to keep the secret. Once they have the first navigation prototype, the mission crew starts doing test runs but they always fail because they can’t get along and argue over who must give orders. Even while everyone is resting, Rebecca continues practicing how to pilot the machine and gets frustrated whenever she crashes.
Robert is supportive, reminding her that she’s talented and that leadership is about making both good and bad calls. One afternoon the crew notices a lightning superstorm coming and Finch confirms it's appearing all over the world. In Rome, the electronics start failing and shocking anyone touching them.
Lightning starts hitting the city and destroys the Colosseum, causing people to panic and run as it hits several buildings and statues at the same time. After a few moments, the city is nothing but ruins on fire. The team starts working faster and harder to finish the project.
When they’re ready they fly to the South Pacific, where it’s raining heavily. Braz names the ship “Virgil” after the poet who led Dante through Hell in the Divine Comedy. The crew boards the Virgil and after a short countdown, the ship is finally launched into the ocean.
The first few miles go smoothly and the crew discovers that whales are singing and swimming around them. The ship’s resonance tubes vibrate so technically they’re singing to the whales. Suddenly the ship starts shaking because of an underwater earthquake.
Rocks begin falling and hitting the ship, but the crew sticks to this area because of the crust is thin here. They speed up the Virgil as it moves in but they worry the lasers don’t have enough pressure power to fire. Fortunately they make the right move at the last second and the generator finally ignites, going through the outer core crust without trouble.
The ship is soon surrounded by magma, but the unobtanium is as good as Braz promised and the heat doesn’t hurt them. Now their systems are working fully and the coms are in contact with the base. The Virgil starts digging and the crew calculates they have around fifteen hours to reach the border between inner and outer core.
Everyone is excited and fascinated by the lights but soon Conrad and Braz are arguing again. Twelve hours later, they notice something strange on the screen. They don’t know what it is but it’ll block their way.
Josh realizes it’s empty space, which they never took into account so the computer doesn’t know how to read it. Before they can form a plan, the Virgil goes through that empty space and destroys a bunch of crystals before gaining even more speed. Then it lands on the ground, sliding through even more crystals for a while until it gets stuck.
The cameras seem to be blocked too, so the crew has no choice but to go outside. The men suit up and leave the ship, discovering a fantastic view created by the crystals. They start working on breaking the crystal that is blocking the ship, but at that moment magma begins falling from above and causing crystal chunks to rain on them.
The team works as fast as possible but the cutting tool starts losing oxygen, so Josh connects it to his own suit. This allows the team to finish cutting the crystal down however it also makes Josh collapse. Rebecca manages to activate the Virgil again and the team carries Josh inside.
At that moment a big crystal piece drops on Robert’s head, instantly killing him before he falls into the magma. The team has no time to grieve, they must keep going. While the Virgil keeps on digging, Josh is taken care of in the infirmary.
He’s a little weak but otherwise fine. On the second day of the mission, the team starts getting the nukes ready and makes sure they’re synchronized. There are huge black things ahead of the ship and Conrad realizes they’re giant diamonds.
Rebecca pilots the Virgil as carefully as possible, moving in between diamonds to cross the area. At first it looks like they’re out safely, however when they’re almost gone a diamond damages the last part of the ship which contains the detonation timers. Josh and Braz immediately run out of that section, but Serge stays to grab the timers and his notes.
The door is about to close and Josh tries to help him, however Serge gives him the objects and tells him to let go. Josh insists on saving him and asks Rebecca for more time, but Braz drags him out of the way. After some hesitation Rebecca ejects the damage section of the ship and Josh washes on the screen how the metal bends and crushes Serge, killing him.
As he cries, Josh checks Serge’s notes and finds a drawing from his kid and a family picture. Furious, he shows the pages to Rebecca and insults her, however Rebecca assures him she already feels guilty enough and reminds him that Serge died so they could save his family. Thirty-five hours pass since launch and the ship finally approaches the core interface.
The Virgil goes through it very smoothly and for a second the team smiles at the sight, however the ship soon gets a huge speed jump that keeps getting faster. The core appears to be much thinner than they estimated, which means the explosion won’t spread far enough to restart the spinning. Conrad announces they’ve failed and that they should go home, then he calls Thomas to activate Destiny.
Its name stands for Deep Earth Seismic Trigger Initiative and it’s capable of sending electromagnetic energy waves that can trigger earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The rest of the workers and the crew are confused and angry because information has been kept secret from them, and Josh gets even angrier when he realizes it was the army that caused the core to stop by testing that weapon. He thinks Destiny will destabilize the core and just destroy the planet faster.
Thomas shuts him up saying he has permission from the president so Josh negotiates: he wants to reach the core and try something else, and if they fail then they can shoot Destiny. Conrad protests because that would kill the crew, but Rebecca and Braz support Josh. Ignoring Thomas’ orders, Rebecca makes the ship advance and Conrad starts screaming so much that Braz punches him to knock him out.
At the base, Finch discovers that the sun’s ultraviolet rays have finally found a hole on Earth’s electromagnetic field. This reaches San Francisco, boiling the ocean and killing the fish. Cars quickly heat up and the Golden Gate Bridge starts breaking until it snaps in two.
Dozens of vehicles immediately fall to the ocean, killing their drivers. The city also catches on fire and soon the entire West Coast is out. Fearing the country won’t have enough power in a few hours, Thomas decides they must launch Destiny sooner.
Finch sends Josh a coded message offering his help and Josh asks him to slow Destiny down. Lots of hacking later reveals Destiny is in Alaska, but Finch is having trouble getting into its systems because of the strong cybersecurity and it leaves him in tears. In the ship, Josh and Braz continue going over calculations to solve the problem.
Conrad hears them and gets an idea: instead of doing one big explosion, they need to drop the nukes in smaller parts to create a series of ripples that will reinforce each other in progression. This will also mean they’ll have to move away faster than the explosion itself to get away. Forty-two hours have passed and they crew finally finishes hotwiring the nukes, they’ve also made a better plan: they’ll put each nuke in a different section of the Virgil and eject them one at the time.
Braz points out the ship can’t eject undamaged compartments, so they’ll have to unlock the piston from the gear that keeps them attached. To do so, someone will have to enter a small crawl space that has core fluid at nine thousand degrees, which means that person isn’t coming back. The men draw straws and Braz cheats to be chosen.
Josh and Conrad get angry, so Braz admits this is his life project and it’s his right to end with it. After suiting up, Braz says goodbye to Josh and Rebecca, and Conrad finally tells him this is indeed his ship but he wishes it could’ve been “theirs”. As soon as the hatch opens, Braz is hit by a very strong hot wind and it’s hard for him to walk.
The tool in his hand starts heating up and when he drops it, the tool melts the metal floor. Braz drags his feet through the heat and burns his hands as he opens a small chamber to effectively override the system manually. As he collapses, Rebecca says they still can rescue him, however Braz demands to activate the impeller.
This time Josh helps Rebecca press the button and together they get the impeller going, which immediately kills Braz. While Finch still fails to hack into Destiny, Conrad and Josh get the first nuke ready and run out of the room right before Rebecca ejects the compartment. At the same time, Thomas gets a call saying the Destiny is finally ready to go.
A countdown starts in Alaska and Finch hurries up, finally making his way into Destiny’s system to shut it down. Suspicious, Thomas checks on Finch but only finds him playing videogames. In the Virgil, the second and third compartment are released successfully in succession.
However when they’re about to do the fourth, they realize there’s a mistake in the calculations and they need more explosive power than they thought. Suddenly the ships makes a sharp turn and the nuke falls on top of Josh, pinning him against the wall. Rebecca explains they got hit by an energy flare, so she can’t keep them on course for long.
Conrad tries to move the nuke but it’s too heavy, so Josh tells him to leave without him. At that moment Rebecca corrects the course and the ship shakes again, causing the nuke to fall and Conrad to hit his head against some furniture. Then the nuke rolls toward him, trapping his legs.
Now it’s Josh turn to try to help him, however the nuke continues to be heavy so Conrad pushes Josh out of the door to save him. During the last seconds, Conrad uses the camera to tell Josh to use the ship’s reactor to make the last bomb bigger. As the compartment is ejected, the nuke rolls off, but it’s too late for Conrad to escape.
Josh runs to shut down the power and grabs some chains to remove the reactor, however the chains break. He has no choice but to use his own hands, burning them in the process. Then he drags the reactor to the last bomb and presses the emergency ejection button, running out of the compartment just in time.
Afterward Josh runs back to Rebecca and tells her they don’t have enough power to go back, but she thinks he did the right thing and bandages his hand while they wait for the end. As the first bomb goes off, Josh remembers that unobtanium can convert heat into energy, which means the ship is a big solar panel that could absorb the heat from the explosion. The duo starts changing the ship’s wiring while the bombs go off in sequence, and the people at the base are shocked to see some movement on their screens.
When it’s the turn of Conrad’s bomb, he just laughs as his compartment explodes. Soon all the nukes have gone off and the core finally starts spinning again. As the people at the base celebrate, Rebecca and Josh finish rewiring the system and the ship recovers its power.
Their excitement is so big that they kiss. The ship takes off at amazing speed and the shockwaves reach the surface. Finch confirms it’s happening all over the world and the storms are disappearing, as if the planet was healing itself.
Rebecca pilots the ship with her best skills and manages to go through various dangerous spots, going through tectonic plates to eventually reach an area near Hawaii. Unfortunately this area is very cold and the power came from the heat, so the ship shuts down and loses contact with the base. Soon the army sends a rescue team, but they search for hours and finds nothing.
Thomas is ready to give up because the only thing on the sonar is whales, however Finch remembers what happened at the beginning and tells the soldiers to follow the whales to find the Virgil. Rebecca and Josh are successfully rescued and they lament that the world won’t know the heroes who sacrificed themselves to save the Earth. A week later, Finch goes to a cafe and leaks all the confidential files through the internet so the world can know the story behind Destiny and the Virgil.
