The movie's plot centers around Dr. John Lightbody (Aaron Eckhart), a brilliant geophysicist who predicts that the Earth's core has stopped spinning. This catastrophic event causes widespread destruction and chaos on the planet's surface. A team of scientists, including Dr. Lucy Velcro (Charlize Theron), a geologist, and TJ (Taye Diggs), a pilot, assemble to travel to the Earth's core and manually restart its rotation.