This fall, Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” opened on Nov. 7 to positive reviews and is quickly rising to be the biggest box office hit of the season. In under a week, “Interstellar” has made almost $50 million in ticket sales and holds a “Certified Fresh” rating on the notable movie critic website Rotten Tomatoes. Lagging just behind “Big Hero Six” in the box office, Nolan’s blockbuster appears to be the standout film for the holiday season.
“Interstellar” is the story of space-pilot-turned-farmer Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, and his fight to save the human race. In the almost apocalyptic world, Cooper lives on a farm with his son and daughter in a community that is slowly suffocating under a persistent cloud of dust. After a severe dust storm, Cooper and his daughter, Murph, find a binary code pattern in the debris that reveals the coordinates to the secret NASA headquarters. Cooper and Murph go to NASA where Cooper is recruited as a pilot for the Endurance space mission. Cooper faces the most difficult decision of his life. Does he stay home with his children, or does he abandon them on Earth and leave for a space mission that would save all of humanity?
After much deliberation, Cooper decides that he will accept the mission. Before he leaves, Cooper gives his daughter a watch. He tells her that time is going to change while he is in space, and it will run more slowly relative to time on Earth. A modern take on the classic special relativity thought experiment “the twin paradox,” Cooper tells Murph that by the time he would return to Earth, they would be the same age.
In the next scene, Cooper is launched into space with a group of astronauts, including Anne Hathaway’s character, Amelia Brand. Cooper, Brand and their crew head into space destined for a worm hole near Saturn. The Endurance crew enters the worm hole and is deposited a great distance from our solar system and arrives near an enormous black hole dubbed “Gargantua.” Previous space-exploration missions had placed astronauts on three planets near the black hole. To prevent any spoilers, I will leave you guessing about the decisions made by the crew of the Endurance and the impacts these decisions had on the future of humanity.
Like any Christopher Nolan film, “Interstellar” is visually impressive and is the kind of movie you have to see in a theater. “Interstellar” is a piece of art in which quite a lot of the science in the film is accurate. Renowned theoretical physicist Kip Thorne was an executive producer and a scientific consultant for the film. While the science in the movie is not inaccessible to the general audience, “Interstellar” delves into some complex content about the nature of reality. The theory of relativity is a significant driving force for several of the plot points. On one of the planets that the Endurance team visits, the time is inflated because of the proximity to Gargantua. For each hour the crew spends on the planet, seven years will have passed on Earth. Someone unfamiliar with theoretical physics may be left saying “Whoa, this is heavy,” like Marty McFly after his experience with time travel in “Back to the Future.” As odd as this time inflation may seem, relativity supports the theory that such events are possible when you approach black holes.
As much as I enjoyed “Interstellar,” there were a few logical issues with the film. The most glaring issue was the wormhole near Saturn. To maintain a worm hole large enough for a spaceship to pass through for the two years the Endurance traveled to reach it would require an enormous amount of energy, and the film never discusses where this source of energy is derived. Also, if a worm hole like the one in the film truly existed next to Saturn, it would noticeably alter the structure of our solar system, but the movie glosses over these little details.
While “Interstellar” is marketed as a science fiction film, there are pieces of the film that most movie-goers would enjoy. “Interstellar” has a star-studded cast, featuring the talents of McConaughey, Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, John Lithgow and Casey Affleck. The film employs McConaughey’s solid acting to develop the dramatic emotional bond of a strong father-daughter relationship. Fans of the Stanley Kubrick classic “2001: A Space Odyssey” will clearly recognize the film’s influence on Nolan’s work.
If you have not yet seen “Interstellar,” take a few hours over the upcoming Thanksgiving break to experience the film. The movie is entertaining but also has content suitable for interesting conversation and debate. Like Nolan’s previous films, such as “Inception” and the Dark Knight Trilogy, “Interstellar” is likely to have a lasting impact on popular culture.
