Intro
I’ve always been a fan of Christopher Nolan films. I recently bought a blu-ray collection of his movies, including films back through Batman Begins and The Prestige (wish it had included Memento). For whatever reason, Interstellar was the last of his filmography I had yet to watch. Given my love of sci-fi and the film’s well regarded status, and my brother’s continued attempts to get me to watch it, I’m not quite sure what took me so long. Finally, after years of seeing that meme of Matthew McConaughey crying in a spaceship and not knowing the reason as to why, I gave it a watch. Just as my brother always said I would, I loved it. So, let’s get into it.
Back Cover Blurb
We’ll keep this section brief, because I have to think I’m one of the few who had yet to see this film that premiered over 10 years ago now. I’ll stick with the high level easy to glean aspects of the plot, things that could be learned through cultural osmosis let’s say, or found in a back-of-the-book style blurb, if movies had such things. The film largely follows Matthew McConaughey’s character Cooper, an ex-NASA engineer and test pilot, and his family, a daughter Murph and a son Tom (a young Timothée Chalamet I entirely forgot was in this movie). The earth has been ravaged by blight, such that dust storms are a frequent menace, and food shortages are the main risk to continued human life. Suffice to say, the earth is dying. As one character early on puts it: “The world doesn’t need any more engineers. We didn’t run out of planes and television sets. We ran out of food.” The way a hidden research facility of a now largely defunct NASA suggests to resolve this is through interstellar travel (cue title). They aim to leave earth for another habitable planet. A wormhole has opened near Saturn, allowing for travel to a new system with potential homes for humanity, all near a massive black hole. The real-world theoretical physicist Kip Thorne who advised for this film had a lot to play with here, and it shows. The gravitational time dilation part and parcel to travel near such a massive object is at play to great effect. Those who go in on the mission would be risking it all in order to save humanity. And risk it they do.
Here Be Spoilers
Sci-fi, as with most things, exists on a scale. At one end is Star Trek (which, don’t get me wrong, I love Star Trek The Next Generation, Jean Luc Picard number one!), and at the other end is films like The Martian, based on a book of the same name by Andy Weir. One plays fast and loose with science to the point of their technical sounding nonsense ramblings at times reaching the point of self-parody, and the other sticks with the known rules of the universe as best they are able. To be honest, I enjoy both, so long as they are consistent in their choice. One finds stakes and fun in outlandish scenarios that could never happen in real life, and the other finds drama in dealing with the constraints all us flesh and blood mortals must follow. Most sci-fi stories land somewhere between. This movie, while certainly taking some liberties, largely tries to stay within the bounds of what could be, theoretically anyway. The aforementioned physicist Kip Thorne even wrote a book titled “The Science of Interstellar.” Even the existence of this book should indicate where on this scale this sci-fi move lies. I was particularly struck by the incredible depictions of both the wormhole and the time horizon of the massive black hole Gargantua. They blew my mind. And since we are in the section of spoilers, let’s get to the gravitational time dilation. Its impacts in this film tore at my heart strings. After so many years of seeing that meme of Matthew McConaughey, I finally knew its context, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t cry along with him. As someone who currently has no kids but is leaving that possibility open, I can only imagine the pain of watching your children grow up without you. They had just barely escaped an ocean planet unsuitable for life and had lost a crew member in the process, only to make it back to find 23 years had passed. As usual, the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer was incredible, and its impact hit home in this scene. I wondered why people got all dewy eyed by the song that plays. Now I know. In other heart wrenching moments, I never did trust Matt Damon’s character, but I found the extent of his betrayal both surprising and inevitable. I figured Matthew McConaughey’s character had been the one to be playing with the gravity in Murph’s room, but I still teared up a bit at the reveal. By the time he escaped the black hole and talked with his daughter on her deathbed, I think I was just a touch numb.
Outro
Basically, if you were like me and waiting for just the right impetus to go watch this gem, let this be it. I give it a hearty recommend.
All the best,
M. Weald
M. Weald 