December 24th in Chicago. Since this film is directed by none other than Christopher Nolan, it is a must see. Nolan directed, wrote and produced this nearly 3 hour film. There's a lot of science and physics involved. It's actually based on the theories theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, who served as a scientific consultant to the film and received an executive producer credit. My standing rule about science fiction films is that I try to stay away from the science aspect. Since the filmmakers went to great length to try to keep the science real, so much so that Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Michio Kaku have said some positive things. There were detractors given but this type of stuff always brings about debate. My goal will be to briefly describe the film without giving too much away. To be honest, I didn't understand the ending. I had to read this blog (I encourage checking it out) to at least say "oh, well that makes sense," but still not completely understand it. Here we go...
In the not to distant future, a worldwide crop blight has put humans in a bit of a pickle. Crops are failing all over the world and in the United States, only corn is growing and it's days are numbered (the blight aspect of the plot was criticized as it would have taken a really long time for this to happen). Enter Coop (McConaughey) a former hot shot pilot for NASA now a reluctant farmer. Coop lives with his father in law (John Lithgow) and his children; 15 y/o Tom and 10 y/o Murph (Mackenzie Foy). Murph thinks that her room is haunted by a ghost. After a dust storm, Coop and Murph deduce that there is "something" communicating with Murph through gravitational waves using a binary code. The binary code turns out to be coordinates to a secret NASA facility. Coop and Murph (who stows away in the truck) go out to investigate.
The facility is run by an old acquaintance of Coop's, Professor John Brand (Michael Caine), who fills Coop in on the fact that there were several Lazarus missions sent into a wormhole near Saturn to try to locate a new planet capable of supporting life. The wormhole was placed there by a mysterious "they." Ideally, Brand would like to see the Earth's population transported to the new planet but as a back-up, there are fertilized embryos for the repopulation of the species. Brand is planning a new mission to send a team for a follow-up on the beacons of 3 Lazarus missions (there were 10) that are sending back positive reviews of planets. It just so happens that Brand needs a pilot so he recruits Coop (here's where one can ponder the probability of a secret NASA facility so close to a former pilot's farm. The former pilot finds the secret facility and they just so happen to need a pilot, think about that one for a minute) and Coop agrees despite the fact that it will take him away from his family. Coop says goodbye to his family and Murph is none to pleased and she tells him so. It doesn't go well and Murph is really bitter.
The crew that's going into the wormhole consists of Coop; Amelia ( Anne Hathaway), also Brand's daughter; Doyle (Wes Bentley) and Romilly (David Gyasi). So here's the group that's been entrusted with the fate of humanity...
Catwoman
The creepy neighbor kid from American Beauty
The guy most likely to die first because he's black.
Through the wormhole, there are 3 planets to investigate. For some reason the choose the 1st planet that carries the greatest risk. The planet is very close to a giant black hole affectionately known as gargantua. One hour on this planet will be the equivalent of 7 Earth years. Wooderson, Catwoman and creepy neighbor kid from American Beauty will go to the surface, easy in easy out. No muss no fuss. Bad news, this planet is covered by water and is prone to giant tidal waves which hits the landing craft, kills Doyle and causes a huge delay. When they meet back up with Romily, 23 year Earth years have passed and Romily's old. There are also 23 years of messages from Earth. Coops kids are grown up (Tom is now Casey Affleck and Murph is now Jessica Chastain who now works with Brand back on Earth). After a debate, they decide that they will go to Mann's planet (Mann was considered the best of the Lazarus mission leaders) since his beacon is still emitting positive reviews. Turns out that Mann's planet is not all the great. Think Hoth from Empire Strikes Back. Turns out that Mann (Matt Damon) deliberately sent positive reviews over the beacon in order to get rescued (so much for his reputation) and sabotages his computer to cover it up killing Romilly in the process. While trying to kill Coop, Mann tells him that Brand's Plan A theory was never going to happen and Plan B was humanity's only chance.
Mann is unable to kill Coop (never send a scientist to do the work of a henchman) but does take the landing craft back to the Endurance (that's the craft that took them through the wormhole). Brand gets Coop and they chase after Mann. Not being a pilot Mann botches the docking procedure and damages the Endurance killing himself in the process. Coop is able to bring the Endurance under control. There's only enough fuel to explore the last planet and they'll also send the robot, TARS, across the black hole to transmit crucial data back to Earth that I don't understand. In order to lighten the ship and conserve fuel, Coop sacrifices himself and eventually gets sucked into gargantua. This is the part where you need to read the blog I referenced earlier. Let's just say that Coop is able to manipulate the time stream back on Earth and when the black hole spits him out, over 80 years have passed since his departure. He wakes up onboard Cooper Station, a space station (like the one from Elysium) named after Murph because she solved gravity, which allows for a successful Plan A.
Murph is over 90 years old and in failing health. She and her father have the goodbye they didn't have 80 years ago. Murph forgives him for leaving and tells him that Brand is still out there by herself. Coop, reunited with TARS, steal a ship head back through the wormhole to meet up with Brand, who is getting her colony started. Below is a chart that explains the adventure...
Hopefully that didn't give too much away. Some of the stuff I didn't like too much (like the fact that Coop more or less writes off his son because he's just a farmer) are things that probably didn't matter so much. It's a given that the secret NASA facility was going to be near Coop's home. If the "ghost" didn't tell Coop where the facility was then I'm sure that Brand would've paid him a visit when he was ready for a pilot. Who else was going to become
I liked this film a lot and I enjoy films that make me want to learn something or have discussions about it. This film did that. The visuals, the sound editing were spectacular and the acting was nothing short of excellent, McConaughey continues his run of brilliant performances dating back to 2011's Killer Joe. There's a lot of imagery that's similar to 2001 and that's not an accident. Nolan was noted as saying that Star Wars, Alien, Metropolis, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and even Blade Runner were also influences. I also couldn't help but notice that hope plays a big part in the decision making process. Much like Matrix: Reloaded, "Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness," hope forces rational logical people to make irrational decisions (Coop and Mann's desire to go home and Brand's hope that she'll meet up with Edmunds, a Lazarus mission leader who has a beacon still transmitting and her lover). Gravity came out last year, I liked that a lot but I think I like Interstellar a little bit more. If you're going to see this film, make sure to see it in the theater. We saw it in a theater that had assigned seating with the ass kickers in the seats. It was a cool experience. This is not the best film I've seen this year but it's in the top 5.
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