It has been 10 years since Nolan’s Interstellar was released. To commemorate this, IMAX theatres worldwide are showing It again, allowing Nolan cinema enthusiasts to experience it.
Among the films I wanted to see on the IMAX Big Screen before I die, Interstellar holds the number one spot. Quite serendipitously, when I watched Interstellar on the IMAX Big Screen, I realised from the first frame that I had travelled back by 10 years.
In a cinema filled with audiences without any interruptions, amidst the emotional visuals of the film, dimly lit human silhouettes reflected the glow in their eyes, reminiscent of small stars. The delicate sounds that emerged here and there felt like the subtle whispers of ultra-fine glass fragments, demonstrating the experiments and sounds that Nolan subtly wove into the film.
Interstellar – Full Movie Review
Interstellar (2014) is easier to find than looking for someone who hasn’t seen it even once in a non-decaying house. Perhaps even if you haven’t watched Interstellar, you’ve at least seen bits and pieces here and there. It’s amazing, and everyone seems to rave about it, which may have made you hesitant to try it. You might have thought at some point that Interstellar isn’t as fantastic as everyone says. Maybe while watching the film for a bit, you felt bored, or perhaps because you didn’t understand some part of it, you might have given up after someone insisted you watch it.
The best film among the ten that Nolan has released thus far might be Inception (2010), but among those, my favourite Nolan film remains Interstellar (2014). I still wonder why I felt the need to write about Interstellar. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been unable to accomplish something that has been embedded in my memory for a long time. Most of the time, this might even turn into an upset review while writing this now. Maybe I’ll never write something like this again after this.
I know very well that understanding many aspects of the film Interstellar and its intricate themes is not a simple task. Even while writing this introduction, I have no idea how to express my thoughts on the film. Perhaps the reason for this is deep within my subconscious. At some points, I allow myself to make life decisions as required, free from any hesitation or mistakes, and in those moments, I am willing to savour the transcendent feeling that comes with self-reflection.
Today, I am talking about a topic that I have never studied in school or university but have read since childhood. I lived through it with yearning and dreams throughout my childhood, yet I could not attain it.
complex film ever made regarding space travel
In the 21st century, it can undoubtedly be said that Interstellar is the best, most scientifically accurate, and complex film ever made regarding space travel. In the history of world cinema, if Interstellar were to be ranked second, it would only be to 2001: A Space Odyssey, made in 1968.
The film 2001: A Space Odyssey is particularly significant for Sri Lankans, as it was written by esteemed scientist Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who also adapted it for the screen. Since childhood, I’ve always had an interest and fascination with space travel and astrophysics; back in the late ’90s, without even the internet or a computer, I obsessively read the books Clarke wrote, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010 Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey, and I feel that understanding Interstellar is not difficult for someone like me who absorbed those works zealously.
Back then, my access to the world came from school libraries and local newspapers. I remember Professor Nalinda Silva and Professor Chandana Jayaratne’s articles about astrophysics published in local newspapers; I would cut those articles out and paste them into the Astronomy Scrapbook I made with enthusiasm.
I was delighted when my classmates liked that scrapbook in science class because I had cleverly brought up space science, making our science teacher forget the lesson planned for that day. Indeed, ever since childhood, I had such a little track-out.
At that time, my dreams were simple. I would stare mindlessly at the stars every night, fantasising that a UFO would land nearby or that one day, aliens would appear from Area 51 in Nevada, at least a day before I died, to see one up close.
Besides that, I used to argue with school friends, debating the strange events shown in The X-Files, discussing the universe, stars, and planets, driven by an insatiable curiosity not mentioned in our textbooks, and that beautiful history of childhood remains with me.
Thus, even today, regardless of what responsibilities I undertake in this country or this world, when I see a clear night sky, I still find myself gazing nostalgically at it as before.
“When you grow up, what do you want to be?”
“When you grow up, what do you want to be?” In the small classes at school, I didn’t have a simple answer like everyone else. Everyone wanted to be doctors, engineers, or teachers. But I wanted to go to the moon, the planets, the stars in the distance, and beyond the Milky Way to the far corners of the universe.
I didn’t know how to get there or what subjects to study then. Sir Lanka’s traditional education system doesn’t provide proper guidance for children interested in and curious about space to pursue their dreams.
In the A/L Physics syllabus, aside from the fundamental principles established by Isaac Newton centuries ago, such as mechanics and classical physics, we don’t receive even a basic understanding of the theory of general relativity introduced by Albert Einstein in 1915. We do not receive sufficient knowledge about modern methodologies or the latest space research and discoveries beyond Earth. This is the miserable fate of all scientists within the educational system in Sri Lanka.
In reality, Interstellar is a complex film. However, don’t think that just because you haven’t studied Science subjects in A/L, you won’t understand Interstellar; likewise, don’t underestimate the film by assuming that having Science subjects will make it easy to understand.
This article may or may not answer many questions regarding the film Interstellar. I will try my best to explain everything in a way that everyone can understand. While watching the film, you might see things that were indeed intended to be conveyed within it, so bear with me until the end of this intricate paper.
So from here onwards, I will completely spoil the film Interstellar. If there are still those who haven’t watched it or only caught bits and pieces, I recommend you watch the film first. Otherwise, understanding some of what I’m about to say might be difficult.
You probably have read various details and stories about the film Interstellar better than I have, so let’s shift our focus directly to the movie. First, let’s learn about the definitions of physics and astronomy and the specific technical jargon used in the film.
Endurance—This is a space vessel designed to serve as a mother ship. It is circular and has a space station with 12 capsules. It contains four colonisation equipment, engines, a cockpit, and medical labs.
Space-time Continuum – Think of a bacterium that can only be observed through a glass slide in a laboratory. To that bacterium, the population of bacteria within that glass slide is its world. Relative to that bacterium, the glass slide could be its universe. It is also possible for us to see unseen dimensions that are extremely small to that bacterium. Think: if our universe X is something created by a civilisation much like us, shaped like a glass slide examining its experiments in a laboratory. This civilisation X could have many more accessible dimensions than we do.
According to Isaac Newton, time and space are two distinct dimensions. However, according to Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, time is another dimension connected to the three-dimensional space around us.
That means a 4D (space and time) reality exists beyond the 3D (Space) we perceive. We can see three planes: length, width, and height (the x, y, and z axes) (Note: If you see more dimensions than this with your eyes, please contact NASA immediately or consult the nearest psychiatrist).
Einstein asserts that time is another dimension within space. This means the fourth dimension is real, and we, residing in the third dimension, do not perceive it. There are numerous complexities associated with this principle. Right now, this is known.
Curvature of Space-time – Under extreme mass and gravity conditions, this space-time bends. A simple example to illustrate this is to think of four people pulling on a large sheet of fabric into four corners.
Now, place various weighted objects in the middle. If a heavier object is present, the fabric will curve more, right? If a lighter object is present, the fabric will curve less, right? This fabric is space-time, and the objects lying in the middle are massive objects like planets and stars that have a significant gravitational influence. The space-time bending illustrates how massive objects’ effects and gravitational conditions shape it.
Wormhole – A wormhole is a shortcut created between two distant points (a considerable distance measured in light-years) in space and time, allowing for travel in considerably less time than would ordinarily be required in normal space. This is a concept of the fourth dimension and is something that must be artificially created.
Gargantuan Black Hole – A black hole is a place in space with an incredibly strong gravitational pull. It has the capacity to pull in every object around it, including light particles. Gargantuan is such a massive black hole depicted in Interstellar.
Frozen Embryos – These are human embryos that have been frozen. They are taken into space from Earth to create a new human settlement.
Tesseract – This is a location shaped like a cube designed to manifest time as a dimension for three-dimensional beings. In the film Interstellar, it is suspected that this is an artificially created construct by beings from the fifth dimension.
Cryogenic Sleep– refers to sleep induced under very low-temperature conditions and with sedatives, allowing astronauts to enter deep sleep. This can keep their bodies alive without deterioration for many years. This method is used during space travel to conserve energy and prolong life in low-energy voyages to distant planets. This is still largely theoretical, and the cryogenic sleep concept is used in several instances in the film. In scientific literature, this is also referred to as hibernation.
The Story of the Film Interstellar
During the 21st century, the percentage of nitrogen (N2) in the atmosphere rose unusually to 80%, while oxygen (O2) decreased rapidly. This caused various blight species to begin growing in the atmosphere, and this severe blight quickly spread to all other crops.
Regular dust storms make it difficult for people to carry on daily activities; even breathing becomes challenging. As a result, many food-producing crops are devastated, and agriculture becomes increasingly difficult.
This situation poses a fatal threat to human existence. Humanity is gradually heading towards a challenging period for survival. It seems increasingly evident that without intervention, the human population may soon become extinct without sufficient air.
Joseph Cooper is a farmer who lost his wife. He is not just any farmer; he is a former NASA jet pilot and aerospace engineer. Engineers are no longer considered important or high-status professionals in this dire societal situation. What this society needs are skilled farmers who can provide food. The government or society no longer maintains research institutions like NASA and their researchers.
Cooper lives in a small house built in the middle of a vast cornfield with his father-in-law (Donald), his daughter (Murph), and his son (Tom). Their only source of income is this cornfield.
ghost in the room
Cooper’s daughter, Murph, often tells her father about a ghost in her room. This ghost keeps knocking over some books on the shelves in Murph’s room. Murph insists to Cooper that this ghost is trying to communicate something to her, even presenting him with a Morse Code pattern she has crafted.
Unable to escape from these disturbances, Cooper stands in front of the shelf in her room on a day when a dust storm arises, waiting for the ghost to show up. Although he is now a farmer, Cooper was once an engineer.
He notices the dust particles forming an unusual mathematical pattern on the ground. He realises that this “ghost” is trying to communicate using a Binary Code pattern, not Morse Code, through the dust particles on the floor. Cooper understands that gravitational forces create this extraordinary pattern.
It’s a GPS coordinate. Cooper and Murph go to this GPS location. Eventually, they arrive at a secret NASA space exploration research facility that had been halted for years.
There, Cooper meets his former professor, Professor Brand. He also encounters Professor Brand’s team of scientist assistants and his daughter, Dr. Amelia Brand, who are with Cooper and Murph.
Professor Brand tells Cooper about a mysterious wormhole created near Saturn 48 years ago. This wormhole provides a pathway to a distant galaxy, and he explains that there might be habitable planets within that galaxy. Due to the dreadful conditions currently on Earth, their mission is to search for another planet suitable for human colonization.
Ten years ago, a mission called the Lazarus Expedition was launched. A team of twelve astronauts volunteered, including NASA space researcher Dr. Mann, who is searching for habitable planets through this wormhole. Miller, Edmund, and Dr. Mann have already provided data regarding several planets near a black hole named Gargantua.
For their next space journey, Cooper is chosen to pilot the spacecraft sent for further studies. Professor Brand is working to create a formula (Gravitational Theory of Propulsion) needed to bring people from outside the Earth’s orbit to Earth against the force of gravity, which is referred to as Plan A.
Additionally, 5000 frozen embryos are being taken aboard the Endurance ship as Plan B to ensure the continuity of the human species should Plan A fail, either by establishing a human colony or sustaining humanity on another planet.
Cooper joins this mission despite his daughter Murph’s strong objections. As she mentions, the ghost in her bookshelf had also sent her a message via binary codes: “STAY.” She insists that the messages tell Cooper not to go on the space mission. Nevertheless, despite the dissent, Cooper forgets about his family and joins the journey as the spacecraft pilot. The crew includes scientists Romilly, Doyle, and Dr Amelia Brand, as well as two robots, TARS and CASE.
After two years away from Earth, they managed to approach Saturn using the Endurance spacecraft. During this time, the astronauts entered a cryogenic sleep state to conserve their energy and time for future tasks.
Upon approaching Saturn, they see the anticipated spherical wormhole. Entering the wormhole, they eventually arrive near the Gargantua black hole. Leaving Romilly aboard the Endurance, the team comprising Amelia Brand, Cooper, and Doyle decides to travel to Miller’s planet using a Ranger spacecraft.
Miller’s planet is an ocean world named after a woman named Miller, who was the first to travel to that planet during the Lazarus mission. Due to the extreme gravitational forces near Gargantua, time on Miller’s planet is significantly dilated; one hour there equates to seven years on Earth.
On this planet, they find only remnants of Miller’s spacecraft beneath the water’s surface, and Brand succeeds in collecting data from it. However, a massive tidal wave strikes, leading to Doyle’s death while trying to assist Brand. Brand barely escapes while water floods into the ship’s engine. As a result, Cooper and Brand have to stay on Miller’s planet longer than intended, which means several years pass relative to Earth.
Due to unfortunate events, when Brand and Cooper returned to Endurance, 23 years had elapsed relative to Earth. Romilly, who stayed alone on the spacecraft, has aged 23, as has Murph, who is now working alongside Professor Brand on further research to make Plan A successful.
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at the close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night…”
These lines are from a poem by Dylan Thomas, which Professor Brand often recites. The poem’s underlying meaning reflects Brand’s struggles against despair, urging resistance to death and the end of light.
On his deathbed, Professor Brand reveals to Murph that achieving Plan A is unlikely and that the only viable solution is solely Plan B. He admits to knowing that Plan A would fail when he left Earth. This revelation shakes his focus and shifts to at least implementing Plan B.
Murph, and shortly after, Professor Brand dies. The equation for the gravitational theory of propulsion remains an unresolved mystery. Consequently, Murph dedicates herself to solving this gravitational theory because she needs to make Plan A succeed and somehow bring her father, Cooper, back to Earth.
To solve this gravitational theory, Murph requires data related to gravitational singularities (space and time singularities) — that is, quantum data regarding the infinite gravity at the centre of a black hole and the infinite density of matter.
Meanwhile, due to the limited fuel, those aboard the Endurance decide to head to Dr Mann’s planet since it is significantly farther from Edmunds’ planet. Dr. Mann has been sending positive data from that planet.
Dr. Mann
On Mann’s planet, they discover Dr. Mann, who has been in cryogenic sleep for ten years, waiting to wake him. Dr. Mann is the head of the Lazarus missions initiated ten years earlier. Dr Mann’s findings suggest that the planet’s atmosphere, rich in ammonia (NH3), poses no barriers to human habitation.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mann tries to persuade Cooper to take a reconnaissance mission to this new world. Cooper disagrees with Dr. Mann’s mission and becomes a target for Mann, who attempts to kill him. Dr Mann claims that the data he sent was false and that the planet is utterly inhospitable for life, indicating that the next arriving survey team could be misled or endangered by such misinformation.
Eventually, Dr. Mann steals Cooper’s Ranger spaceship and heads for the Endurance. While Cooper and Brand escape from Mann’s planet, Dr. Mann triggers an explosion with a bomb he had set on the KIPP robot, leading to Romilly’s death.
In the meantime, Dr. Mann attempts to connect his spacecraft to the Endurance for docking. His goal is to seize control of the Endurance to prevent Cooper from returning to Earth and to complete his Lazarus mission.
However, Cooper and Brand thwart Dr. Mann’s docking attempt. Despite their warnings, Dr. Mann insists on attempting the docking, which results in an explosion at the airlock. This explosion destroys the Ranger, killing Dr. Mann.
After a very precarious docking operation, Cooper successfully connects the lander to the Endurance. Although he manages to stabilize the Endurance momentarily, it drifts toward Gargantua’s intense gravitational pull. TARS, the robot, is ordered to jettison mass to help steer the Endurance into Gargantua to rectify the imbalance.
Shortly thereafter, Cooper jettison his spacecraft from the Endurance toward Gargantua. The brand was unaware of Cooper’s plan to separate from the Endurance. When Brand discovers this, Cooper quickly undertakes the necessary steps to detach.
Ultimately, Cooper wishes Brand and the CASE robot well as he heads toward the black hole, which, according to Newton’s third law, provides them with the necessary speed to navigate to Edmund’s planet. Due to the proximity to Gargantua, they experience significant time dilation; thus, on the Endurance, they age more than 51 years relative to Earth.
As Cooper and the TARS robot travel toward the core of the black hole by crossing the event horizon, the spacecraft faces significant damage, prompting Cooper to conduct an emergency ejection. Consequently, Cooper finds himself pushed into a tesseract — a complex construct that recreates Murph’s room and bookshelf. Through this, Cooper can traverse various time frames within Murph’s room and attempt to alter a past mistake related to NASA’s interstellar mission.
He sends a message to Murph by knocking books off the shelf in binary code, spelling out “STAY.” However, it becomes clear to Cooper that he cannot change the events of the past. Meanwhile, TARS, at another end of the tesseract, connects with him through a communication message.
TARS explains that the tesseract is an artificial structure created by future beings in the fifth dimension. It allows inhabitants of the third dimension, like humans, to perceive time as the fourth dimension.
TARS emphasises that altering the past is impossible. Understanding this, Cooper sets aside his desires and determination to see his daughter again, focusing instead on ensuring Plan A succeeds. He then transmits the NASA GPS location data to the Cooper of the past using gravitational waves. Now, it becomes clear how the GPS location of NASA, as shown at the beginning of the story, was conveyed to Cooper.
To solve the gravitational equation, TARS transmits quantum data as binary codes to the CASE robot accompanying Dr. Brand using various waveforms and frequencies.
Meanwhile, inside the tesseract, Cooper sees a younger version of Murph at a different time frame. He notices the watch that he gifted little Murph on the bookshelf. Cooper uses the watch to transmit the quantum data on gravitational singularities to Earth. The tesseract collapses as he sends the required quantum data in binary code to solve the gravitational equation.
Later, Cooper is freed from Gargantua through a turbulent ejection and wakes up near Saturn in a developed space habitat called Cooper Station. Thanks to the quantum data transmitted by Cooper, Murph solved Professor Brand’s gravitational equation, and Plan A successfully allowed humanity to escape from Earth into space.
By this point, Cooper is 124 years old relative to Earth. This is due to the time dilation experienced under Gargantua’s intense gravitational conditions. Cooper then takes Murph, who has just awakened from a cryogenic sleep, to see Cooper Station. By this time, she is already in the final stages of her life.
At Murph’s request, Cooper and TARS depart from the Saturn habitat on a spaceship to find Brand. As part of Plan B, Amelia Brand is working on establishing a new human colony on Edmunds Planet with the CASE robot.
This concludes the movie “Interstellar”
To understand the film to this extent, one would need to watch “Interstellar” at least n times from the beginning (n ≥ 3).
Up to this point, the details provided are just the events presented on the surface of Nolan’s film. Indeed, we often stop thinking about the film beyond this point. Sometimes, we prefer to grasp it less and think of a satisfying ending without delving deeper.
Otherwise, we might delete the film, feeling like, “What kind of time-space fabric is this? I didn’t understand anything; there’s nothing of significance here.”
Please do not bother reading further if you feel satisfied having understood “Interstellar” to this extent or think your mind is still fatigued or indifferent.
Because going further might distort your mind.
You may even have the chance to forget the usual problems of your life.
You could lie at night, gaze at the sky, and read alone.
“It’s possible for me too,” you might say, “to end up saying that the crazy guy who wrote this post messed up my perfectly good mind.”
So, only those who genuinely have an interest and curiosity about astrophysics and want to delve a little deeper into “Interstellar” should proceed past this point.
The article gets a bit complex from here. You might want to prepare a couple or three good cups of coffee. Reading this without a high dose of caffeine will likely be a strenuous task for your mind.
Interstellar – Detailed Explanation
Up to this point, what I’ve said may have been understood by many, while some might not have fully grasped it. Regardless, it doesn’t matter; I’ll try to explain those complex points in a way understandable to everyone on this side of the discussion.
Black Hole
Sir Albert Einstein first defined the concept of a black hole in his theory of General Relativity. However, we got the first image of a black hole in April 2019. This black hole is located at the centre of the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy, approximately 55 million light-years away.
The image was initially produced by Dr. Katie Bouman using data captured by an array of eight radio telescopes. Although we may not realize its significance in Sri Lanka, this is a new milestone in astrophysics, akin to humanity’s first steps on the moon. After over a century, we have discovered a black hole that Einstein had theorized.
A black hole forms when a massive star or astronomical object collapses under gravity. At this point, all the mass of that object condenses into a singularity, which is a point of infinite density. At this moment, the volume of the singularity reaches a value of zero (d = m/V), resulting in infinite density.
A singularity is characterised by having infinite density and lies at the centre of the black hole. Surrounding it is an outer boundary known as the event horizon. If an object crosses this event horizon, it cannot escape. This applies even to light rays, making anything that falls into a black hole impossible to return.
There are primarily two types of black holes:
- Stellar-Mass Black Holes: These are black holes formed from stars with masses greater than that of our Sun. They usually have a radius of fewer than 10 kilometres.
- Supermassive Black Holes: Typically located at the centre of galaxies, these black holes can have masses that are billions of times that of the Sun. Our Milky Way contains a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A, with about 4 million solar masses and a radius of approximately 22 million kilometres. The supermassive black hole in M87 has a radius of about 19 billion kilometres. Imagine the size; this black hole is larger than our entire solar system and among the biggest known, with a mass of approximately 6.5 billion solar masses.
Since light cannot escape a black hole, we cannot observe it directly. Instead, we see the accretion disks around black holes, which consist of matter falling into them. An accretion disk is a swirling disk of gas and dust generated by the destruction of stars and astronomical objects.
Typically, the accretion disk extends beyond the event horizon, and due to the curvature of space-time, we can see the light from the accretion disk appearing both above and below the black hole vividly. The curvature results in the light bands appearing more intense and distorted. This effect in the fourth dimension creates an optical illusion for us, who reside in the third dimension.
The Gargantua black hole depicted in the film is also supermassive. Upon closer observation, we see how the accretion disk is structured and how the curvature of space-time affects the light from the accretion disk as it travels above and below the black hole.
Due to space-time curvature, the light bands can appear much brighter. The Gargantua black hole shown in “Interstellar” in 2014 resembles the actual image of the M87 black hole obtained in 2019.
Simply put, the depiction of the Gargantua black hole in “Interstellar” is scientifically accurate to 100%. This is why “Interstellar” can be said to have genuinely portrayed the future with precision.
When an object falls toward a stellar-mass black hole, it is quickly consumed by the singularity. However, when an object approaches a supermassive black hole, it doesn’t go directly toward the singularity immediately.
Instead, the object has time to “wander” around the inside of the black hole before being destroyed, which allows it to study the interior. As Cooper travels toward Gargantua, he gets the opportunity to enter a tesseract and send quantum data to Earth because, due to Gargantua being a supermassive black hole, he has a bit more time to linger before reaching the singularity.
Time Dilation
According to Einstein’s General Relativity Theory, an external observer perceives time experienced by an object travelling at a speed close to that of light (299,792,458 m/s) as less. This phenomenon is known as time dilation. Additionally, time dilation occurs for astronomical objects under intense gravitational forces.
Wormhole
This is also referred to as an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. (Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen both studied this wormhole concept.) According to Einstein’s General Relativity Theory, space can twist, bend, stretch, and contract. Because this happens through the fourth and fifth dimensions, those of us in the third dimension do not perceive it.
However, due to this twisting nature, creating a shortcut between two points in space that are light-years apart may be possible. We would call it a wormhole if we artificially create a shortcut that allows travel between these two light-years apart.
This allows for travel between stars that are thousands of light-years apart in a very brief period. However, a wormhole is highly unstable; even a beam of light entering it could cause it to collapse. As of now, a wormhole remains a concept in astrophysical theory. In the third dimension, artificially creating one is extremely difficult, but it may be achievable by beings existing in the fourth dimension or beyond.
Kip Thorne
Kip Thorne is not an astronomical object but a person. So, who is Kip Thorne?
He is a theoretical physicist and a specialist in scientific physics in the film Interstellar. I believe Kip Thorne is the best person behind the film’s success. He is not just any random person; he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017 and received the Albert Einstein Medal in 2009 as one of the world’s best physicists. He is currently one of the leading and most prestigious physicists in the field of astrophysics.
The screenplay for Interstellar was co-written by the Nolan brothers, Christopher and Jonathan Nolan. However, while making the film, the Nolan brothers had to adhere strictly to Kip Thorne’s scientific principles. Everything in the film, including the screenplay, was created based on Thorne’s scientific concepts. Agreements prevented the Nolan brothers from deviating from scientific principles.
Thorne’s brilliance enabled a project like “Interstellar” to happen instead of just creating a garbled mess. If someone were to write a story, it would often confuse viewers and alter their minds. Nevertheless, this collaboration by these three individuals resulted in a creation that stands out as unique due to their powerful synergy.
Kip Thorne and Jonathan Nolan briefly discuss the film “Interstellar” in a program. During this, the interviewer asks Jonathan about the film “Inception,” to which Jonathan gives a very straightforward answer.
“I didn’t write the story for ‘Inception’; that was my brother Chris. He’s crazy. I can’t talk about it.”
A few months after “Interstellar,” Kip Thorne wrote a book titled “The Science of Interstellar.” The depictions of scientific accuracy in the film, including the black hole, wormhole, and various astronomical objects, were all designed based on Thorne’s concepts. This is part of why “Interstellar” won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects that year.
Nolan’s film-making
Nolan’s filmmaking style deserves separate discussion. I won’t deal with that in this article. Nolan is known for making films with a non-linear narrative style. The story of “Interstellar” begins with some people in the future describing the destruction of Earth. If you look closely, you can also see an aged Murph there.
Cooper is a former NASA jet pilot. He is a test pilot for prototype aircraft at NASA and an aeronautical engineer. Generally, in Sri Lanka, only supersonic aircraft are available through the Air Force, most of which are fighter jets and other training jets. One well-known example is Israel’s Kfir jet, which can travel at speeds exceeding 2,400 km/h. The Sri Lankan Air Force also uses Russian-made MIG-27 and Chinese-made F-7 fighter jets and K-8 training jets.
At the film’s beginning, we see Cooper wearing an anti-G flying suit as a fighter jet pilot inside a Ranger, which later crashes. A jet is an aircraft, not a spaceship. Professor Brand chooses Cooper as the pilot for their interstellar expedition due to his skill in handling aircraft. Before the interstellar expedition, Cooper had not yet travelled beyond Earth’s orbit. Hence, everyone in the film briefs Cooper about black holes, wormholes, and time dilation and how these functions operate.
Miller’s Planet
Miller’s Planet is very close to Gargantua. Due to the intense gravity present there, the rate of time flow is significantly slower (time dilation). Therefore, one hour on Miller’s Planet equals seven years on Earth.
To escape time dilation, Cooper proposes that the Endurance spacecraft remain in an orbit parallel to that of Miller’s Planet, using the Ranger to travel to Miller’s Planet. This way, the Endurance will not be subjected to Gargantua’s intense gravity and hence will be free from time dilation.
The high gravitational pull from Gargantua creates large water waves on Miller’s Planet. This effect can be compared to the tidal forces exerted by the Moon on Earth. Even though the Moon is much smaller than Earth, its gravitational influence is significant.
Similarly, the gravity from Gargantua vastly outweighs that of the Moon, leading to massive tidal waves on Miller’s Planet. Additionally, the time difference between the wave cycles (wave periods) is more than five years relative to Earth time. This discrepancy is a result of time dilation.
Dr. Mann
The hidden hero of the Interstellar movie, the character Dr. Mann (played by Matt Damon), is one of the strongest portrayals I noticed in the film. Mann was aware that Plan A would not succeed even before leaving Earth. He was at risk of endangering his life for the sake of the entire human species. Mann was the lead official for the Lazarus mission and was one of the most skilled scientists in the NASA team at that time. He was perhaps even eligible to succeed Professor Brand as the head of NASA.
He sacrificed his life for a greater purpose and found himself alone on an unknown planet in space, dying daily in extreme cold with no breathable air. The film elegantly illustrates how self-interest can override individual aspirations in the face of survival.
Even until the last moment of his life, Mann is portrayed as someone who dedicates himself to his mission, subordinating his self-interest for a higher cause. Mann’s character represents ordinary human desires despite being characterized by intelligence, education, and capability.
While it may seem that Matt Damon’s (Dr. Mann) role is a cameo, it becomes clear by the film’s end that Mann’s character underpins the entire storyline. In many scenes, Matt Damon’s performance surpasses Matthew McConaughey’s (Cooper). A unique aspect is that Matt Damon’s character is not shown in Interstellar’s promotional posters or trailers. Nolan kept his character a secret until the film’s release.
Mann’s Ranger spacecraft suffers a catastrophic failure, creating an instant imbalance of forces on the Endurance spacecraft. This unexpected angular momentum from the cylindrical Endurance results in a severe increase in angular velocity, making it uncontrollable.
Due to the Endurance’s high angular velocity, Cooper faces complications when trying to dock his Lander with it. He determines the Lander should achieve a similar angular momentum relative to the Endurance for docking. This becomes a risky operation since if the angular velocities of the two spacecraft are not aligned, Cooper and Brand could face the same fate as Mann.
After connecting the Lander with the Endurance, the Endurance experiences the strong gravitational pull from Gargantua’s singularity, pushing it toward its event horizon. Cooper makes a hasty decision to use Gargantua’s gravitational slingshot effect (modifying trajectory and speed using the gravitational forces) to obtain the necessary momentum to travel towards Edmunds Planet. Due to the proximity to Gargantua, time dilation causes their time to flow more slowly relative to Earth.
According to Einstein’s General Relativity Theory, the flow of time for objects under intense gravitational conditions slows down. This means one year on Earth corresponds to only a few seconds near Gargantua. Therefore, those aboard the Endurance age over 51 years in what feels like a brief period compared to Earth time. The time dilation effects highlighted in Interstellar reflect highly accurate mathematical estimates grounded in Kip Thorne’s findings.
Buddhist philosophy
Buddhist philosophy often states that a year in our world can equal a day in some higher realms, touching on time dilation and variations in gravity affecting different worlds. This connection illustrates that Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, proposed in 1915, discusses time dilation across different celestial bodies and changes due to gravity, even anticipating concepts of higher dimensions beyond the third.
The Theory of Everything aims to study the behaviour of tiny particles and how they combine to form larger objects, allowing for a fundamental equation describing the universe’s workings. String Theory is one of the most promising avenues of research to prove this.
It explores additional dimensions beyond the four of spacetime. String Theory proposes that the universe must be understood at the quantum level. Still, the behaviours of the incredibly tiny vibrating fundamental strings mentioned in String Theory are beyond our observational capabilities.
As shown in the film, resolving Professor Brand’s gravitational theory of propulsion is the only way to make Plan A successful. Plan A involves determining how to generate the necessary power to send humanity and existing Earth populations into higher space while overcoming the forces of gravity.
Brand requires data at the quantum level within specific universe regions. He needs the empirical evidence necessary to prove the parameters outlined in String Theory. This quantum data could potentially be acquired from studies around the singularity of the Gargantua black hole, and Brand had no clue how to access this data before his death. Ultimately, Cooper transmits this gravitational quantum data to Murph’s wristwatch.
In several scenes of the film, the highly developed entities from the fifth dimension referred to as “They”, create a colony of frozen embryos on Edmunds’s Planet as part of Plan B. The film concludes with Dr. Brand’s vision of building a human colony on Edmunds Planet.
If the story continues, humans born in this colony will develop technology to explore even the fifth dimension. They understand that if the lifeforms on Earth are destroyed, they, too, will meet the same fate. This connection arises because all events occur within a single time loop (where past and future events happen sequentially like a spiral).
To maintain this time loop, the lifeforms on Earth must open a doorway leading to Edmunds Planet. In other words, a wormhole must be artificially created. To do this, they plan to create a wormhole from near Gargantua’s black hole to reach the vicinity of the Tesseract.
The film portrays the Tesseract as an artificial construct created by “advanced beings” from the fifth dimension, allowing inhabitants of the third dimension to perceive time as the fourth dimension within Gargantua.
For advanced beings, time—the fourth dimension—adds a layer to the familiar dimensions of length, width, and height. Moreover, they also perceive gravity as the fifth dimension. Within the Tesseract, Cooper utilizes gravity to manipulate the dust particles to send NASA’s GPS data back to his past self, as this gravitational dimension is comprehensible to him within the Tesseract. Thus, my argument is that the Tesseract is not just a construct of the fourth dimension but rather an embodiment of the fifth dimension, made perceivable to Cooper.
The events represented within the Tesseract—such as the room containing Murph’s bookshelf and Cooper sending GPS information back to himself and providing the necessary quantum data for solving Murph’s gravitational equation—should now be clear to you. Here, advanced beings conduct a continuous process to maintain the time loop.
Without the technological data transmitted through the Tesseract to help Murph solve the gravitational propulsion equations, the human inhabitants of Earth face certain extinction. After sending the necessary quantum data to solve the equations, the Tesseract breaks apart to avoid the threat of its continued existence. This is potentially a safeguard against creating time travel paradoxes; any disruption could threaten the stability of the time loop, causing catastrophic events in the future.
Time Travel Paradoxes
Time travel paradoxes refer to complex issues when considering the possibility of travelling backwards or forwards in time. While we advance in time on Earth, if we could move back or ahead in time, it could lead to significant complications. The changes made in the past could affect the present and future, potentially creating a vast web of chaos. These problematic situations that could arise from travelling through time—either back to the past or ahead to the future—are known as time travel paradoxes. There are three main types of these paradoxes:
- Grandfather Paradox: Imagine a person named Y who travels back in time and accidentally kills their grandfather when he was a child. In that case, Y’s grandfather would never have become a father, meaning Y would never have been born. This situation leads to a puzzling condition called the Grandfather Paradox.
- Predestination Paradox: In this scenario, a person named Y travels back to the past to correct a mistake they made. However, Y’s actions in the past result in unintended consequences that affect their present. This, in turn, creates various problematic situations in Y’s future. If you’ve seen the film “Predestination,” this concept will be clearer.
- Bootstrap Paradox: This occurs when an object that did not originally exist in the past is sent back in time. For example, what would happen if a smartphone is sent back 50 years into the past? The technology for the smartphone wouldn’t exist at that time, yet it is suddenly present. This raises the question of how the smartphone would ever be invented since it already existed. (Don’t think too much about time travel paradoxes, or it might drive you crazy!)
Cooper Station
You might have several questions about Cooper Station, as shown in the latter part of the film, particularly why it is cylindrical. Don’t people at the top of the cylinder fall? How is it structured?
This is still a scientific concept under research. The artificial cylindrical habitats created for humans living in space are called O’Neill Cylinders. Cooper Station, an O’Neill Cylinder, rotates around its axis while orbiting the planet.
Thus, the centrifugal force generated allows objects and people inside the cylinder to remain grounded against its inner surface, preventing them from being pulled toward the centre. In this way, artificial gravity can be created. However, if a large O’Neill cylinder like Cooper Station could be built in the future, the scenes depicted in the film could realistically be observed.
Final Argument
This lengthy description is presented to provide a shortcut for those who wish to understand the film deeply and to establish the scientific evidence necessary for my arguments regarding how the ending of Interstellar resolves itself.
Take the scenes showing Dr Brand on Edmunds’s Planet and the moment Cooper exits the Endurance to approach the Gargantua Black Hole. In both these instances, Brand’s face expresses an indescribable, sorrowful, and painful emotion. She knows that anyone who goes to Gargantua is unlikely to return. It becomes clear to her that Cooper has selflessly chosen death for the sake of all humanity. Cooper may be aware that he, too, will inevitably die inside Gargantua.
What happens here is that Cooper will be destroyed by the extreme gravitational pull of the singularity within the black hole, experiencing a phenomenon known as spaghettification. Spaghettification occurs when an individual approaches the black hole’s event horizon; the immense gravitational force there exerts a stronger pull on the lower part of their body than the upper part.
This imbalance creates a situation where the lower part of the body is stretched out much more than the upper part, resembling a simple string of spaghetti. Therefore, an individual approaching the singularity would die, elongated like noodles. Retrieving large objects, spacecraft, and dust particles while being drawn violently toward the singularity is impossible for Cooper.
Advanced beings have created the Tesseract within the Gargantua Black Hole, allowing them to send the necessary quantum data to achieve Plan A. After that, the Tesseract collapses, potentially sending anyone inside it to their destruction at the singularity. This avoids creating a paradox and preserves the secrets of beings in the fifth dimension. Consequently, Cooper’s actions can realise both Plan A and Plan B.
You might recall when the Endurance first enters the wormhole, Dr. Brand reaches out to someone, claiming it is a gesture acknowledging time and space. This happens as the Tesseract collapses, and Cooper sees the Endurance as it once was because he is still in the fourth dimension of spacetime. He can see Brand inside the Endurance, and she reaches out to him. This act occurs because the dimension of time remains perceptible to Cooper.
Christopher Nolan is adept at conveying profound meanings and messages to the audience by incorporating such subtle, overlooked images within his films. The seemingly simple frames in Nolan’s work often conceal deep, profound meanings.
Nolan leaves us with something to ponder through this specific frame: the Final Goodbye. Yes, Cooper, who willingly rushes into the black abyss of death for the sake of the human race, shares a final farewell gesture by extending his hand to Dr Amelia Brand, who chooses to move toward the wormhole for the next generation’s survival.
This moment marks the convergence of Plan A and Plan B timelines. It represents the last moments a hero named Cooper lives in this extraordinary cinematic work, encapsulating Cooper’s fateful farewell moment.
The final moments of Cooper awakening in a hospital on Cooper Station, just before death, might be a fantasy woven into his mind as he dies within the Gargantua black hole. During his death throes, he might be experiencing a vision or optical illusion related to his deepest thoughts.
He might have been waiting for many years to connect with his father, whom he believes he will see one day, while elderly Murph waits for him on Cooper Station. This could be a dream or thought he has as he is in the throes of death. The film portrays this as a significant farewell reflective of the deep bond between a father and daughter.
I see this as a moment transcending the cinematic realm where Nolan goes beyond Kip Thorne in his storytelling. To think Cooper is saved from a supermassive black hole by a director as bold as Nolan feels improbable.
If Nolan were to allow that, it would undermine the fundamental principles of black hole theory established by Kip Thorne. If that were the case, it would mean that Nolan would falter more in Kip Thorne’s physical laws. Thus, reluctantly, we must accept that Cooper, as a hero, breathes his last breath in the Gargantua black hole.
Yes, Cooper dies. The hero dies painfully. It is a majestic death.
I strongly object to the ending with my heart and emotions. However, based on science and theoretical concepts, I am willing to accept the reality presented in the story.
If we ever had a chance, how often would we want to go back in time and correct some of the painful moments in our past and undo our mistakes? What if we could alleviate some heartache that happened to a loved one who was close to us? Fill that chasm created by sorrow with beautiful memories. If we could relive those beautiful moments in the past, how differently might our lives have turned out if we could go back in time and change the things we wanted?
Some scientific documentaries and films show us these beautiful possibilities. They depict individuals who travelled back in time to correct their past mistakes, people who changed their lives from then on, and those who rekindled lost love and subsequently lived happily.
Unfortunately, no matter how theoretically or practically, traveling forward in time is impossible. Time flows only forward. The speed at which time passes can vary in different parts of the universe. Aside from that, no backward time travel occurs. Albert Einstein stated this in the principles of his relativity.
This is also illustrated through examples in Interstellar. Kip Thorne himself confirms within the film that for us living in the third dimension, travelling back in time is impossible. This is echoed in Amelia Brand’s dialogue to Cooper on Miller’s Planet:
“Time is relative, okay? It can stretch, and it can squeeze, but… it can’t run backwards. I just can’t… Gravity is the only thing that can move across dimensions, like time.”
Dr. Wolf Edmunds, a particle physicist and a prominent astronaut in the Lazarus mission, is depicted as the one to whom the Endurance lands on Edmunds Planet.
“I’m drawn across the universe to someone I haven’t seen in a decade, who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing we can perceive that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can’t understand it. All right, Cooper. Yes. The tiniest possibility of seeing Wolf again excites me. That doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
Dr. Amelia Brand
Perhaps we have felt a deep connection with one person throughout our lives—a love so profound that we might never be able to fully realize it, yet we cannot forget those feelings. The love depicted between Amelia Brand and Wolf Edmunds in Interstellar is just that.
Even though ten years passed since Edmund left with his team for the Lazarus mission, Amelia still waits for him on Earth. Edmund likely harbours similar feelings for Amelia, but it is not the right time for him to pursue such a bond. His responsibilities loom larger than his desires. With his life at stake, he must save a world and venture to another.
For this reason, Amelia willingly joins the Interstellar mission, driven by a profound desire to witness Edmund alone in an unknown galaxy before either of them can perish. Whether venturing to the universe’s farthest reaches or risking their lives, Amelia chooses a painfully long journey, hoping to see her beloved.
In the deepest recesses of her heart, she hides her love for him, and expressing it before he potentially dies becomes her sole purpose. The feelings directed toward him transcend space and time, conveyed by Amelia as she tearfully tells Cooper that she must go to Edmund’s planet. Yet, the majority of the crew’s interests lie elsewhere. The decision is made to divert the spacecraft to Mann’s Planet instead of heading to Edmunds Planet, marking the last opportunity for her to see Edmund again.
The only habitable planet discovered by the Lazarus mission was Edmund’s Planet. After battling between life and death, when Amelia arrives at Edmund’s Planet, her beloved has unfortunately already died.
“She’s out there, setting up camp. Alone in a strange galaxy. Maybe right now, she’s settling in for the long nap… by the light of our new sun… our new Home.”
In a new world on the distant edge of the universe, Amelia, alone on a planet, sacrifices her remaining life to successfully realise the entire human race in memory of her deceased beloved.
In the film’s final frame, Amelia gazes toward the audience from a gallery, her eyes filled with tears, creating a myriad of unspoken, shadowy, and profound emotions in our hearts. It is astonishing that if your breath were to pause for even a moment, you too might be struck by her sorrowful gaze. What is it that Amelia, looking toward us from Earth, questions?
Is it a lament for a collection of dreams that could never be fulfilled, born from the unspoken love between two souls who have never been united?
This is an unsettling frame, deprived of a specific answer. It captures an unquantifiable span of time and leaves me feeling helpless. Interstellar presents a powerful image in which even complex science takes a backseat to human emotions and connections.
Amelia Brand is a fascinating and beautiful heroine who has sacrificed her spirit of love for the continuity of life for Earth’s inhabitants.
In a complex scientific narrative like Interstellar, which is challenging for us to grasp from our standpoint on Earth, Cooper’s character, portrayed by Matthew McConaughey, brings the story closer to us. McConaughey’s remarkable acting merges seamlessly with the warmth of character relationships that arise alongside Cooper’s bravery.
Through Interstellar, Christopher Nolan artfully conveys how limitless human connections, love, and compassion can transcend enormous barriers in the universe. This distinguishes Nolan from other directors of scientific films.
Before reading this lengthy piece, many people might regard Interstellar as a beautiful scientific film with a lovely ending. Sadly, I must say that it is not quite so. It is, in a way, a lamentation.
It is the mourning of a beloved father who sacrificed his life, family, and all cherished connections for the continuity of humanity.
Despite knowing her beloved is dying in an unknown world in the far reaches of the universe, the love Amelia holds for him remains unfulfilled. It is a heartfelt cry from a lover who has made boundless sacrifices for the residents of Earth.
Cooper, Murph, Brand, and all who sacrificed their lives for the success of the Lazarus and Interstellar missions are all participants in this lament.
As Interstellar illustrates, the heroes of the coming century will not be soldiers armed for battle but travellers seeking new frontiers in the universe, risking their lives for humanity’s survival.
“Yes, Interstellar is an epic poem of the heroes in space who sacrificed their lives for the continuity of human existence in the future.”
Interstellar and Hans Zimmer
I cannot recall another scientific film that has moved me as deeply as this one. The moment Cooper leaves home to go to Murph’s house, years later, after 23 years spent on Miller’s planet, witnessing changes in his family on Earth—the passing of loved ones, and realizing that Murph is no longer the little girl he left behind—those moments portrayed in the film are profoundly impactful. That would be surprising if those moments didn’t bring a tear to your eye. The emotional imagery of watching those sequences still resonates strongly with me.
The background music only heightens this lament; its haunting emptiness sharpens the sentiment. German composer Hans Zimmer directs the score for Interstellar. Zimmer prominently used the Church Organ (Pipe Organ) for the film’s soundtrack. Before composing the music, Nolan provided Zimmer with very little additional information about the film.
Nolan is somewhat mysterious and makes unique choices. So, Zimmer created this poignant music while reflecting on the bond between a father and son, personally inserting his emotional experience into it. The enormous Pipe Organ, symbolising the breath of life for the entire world, plays with an overwhelming grandeur.
This musical instrument has a massive piano-like structure, which was used in ancient Catholic churches. Ultimately, Nolan must have liked Hans Zimmer’s theme. When you listen to this piece keenly, you will sense a sound reminiscent of a deep breath.
In the few quiet moments away from tasks or during solitary journeys, I often prefer to listen to energetic rock/metal music. However, there are days and moments when words fail to capture what I feel—restlessness, pain, tiredness, emptiness, or a longing for something lost.
I am accustomed to savouring a single piece of music during such moments. It is stronger and more impactful than any other song. I sometimes wonder whether this music is truly the voice of my heart.
As it softly plays, cupped in the quiet of my mind, it occupies my thoughts gently while stirring intense feelings in my heart. In certain passages, the music intensifies, making my heart flutter, and I feel my entire body becoming lighter, almost as if it’s floating away.
Sometimes, I wish to immerse myself entirely in that feeling, gazing at the night sky with both eyes wide open. At such moments, I can envision the little boy who once gazed curiously at the stars in the night sky. Beautiful moments of life resurface again and again. The feeling engendered by this music is overwhelmingly strong, mysterious, soulful, and difficult to comprehend, akin to being warmed by iron drenched in the heart. Just try listening to that wondrous music.
“Thinking about returning to the past, you’ll realize just how powerful music can be.”
Main Theme song of Interstellar
I had grown accustomed to talking to even the smallest star in the night sky.
That star is far away.
It’s hard to even think of approaching it.
We were just two maidens.
That’s the truth I know.
But I like some things that are unattainable.
To place infinite hopes and fill my heart’s dark chasm with fresh dreams.
To live in a moment of a dream in that dark chasm.
Perhaps that’s why I do it,
To talk to that little star, thousands of light-years away, pray,
I feel I am foolish.
Those prayers,
More powerful than the speed of light.
Even if those prayers go unanswered, I question myself,
Did I really speak to the stars?
I’ve seen that little star.
At this moment too, it has died, vanished.
But the light released from it, long before its death,
Still finds me for my prayers.
Having died thousands of times, I will again be reborn in this world.
But that light from that star,
Will find me in the same way.
Much time has passed,
That little star I haven’t seen in ages,
I know well that you are likely gone.
I traveled across the universe in search of you.
I went beyond the dimensions of time and space.
You may find it impossible to understand; yet you must believe.
Even the tiniest possibility of seeing you again,
I now submit even in discomfort.
Now, I am a vast black hole formed from a dead star…
A universe, where small stars collide,
Is indeed wondrous,
Just like my heart.
Mysterious, deep, with no end,
It is truly difficult to grasp.
I deeply cherish that mysterious nature of yours.
I cherish even the remaining part of my heart,
Closed off by that dark, deep, and enigmatic essence.
Then, I can go,
Carrying the final beam of light emitted from that little star
Through this abyss of infinity,
Gently dancing like a beam of light named thought,
Seeking eternal cosmic solace…
English translation of the Sinhala review of Interstellar by Chanaka Colombage.
