InterstellarSurvival is a mountain with no summit; one must climb. One must persevere into the infinite, because to refuse is extinction. All human existence is defined by our capacity for employing our ingenuity, our industry, and our tenacity to exist when nature says that we should not. Born as scavengers, our lives have been a persistent escalation of advancement upon the shoulders of our predecessors; the danger comes when we refuse to see beyond our horizons and allow humility to once again afford us the opportunity for a new way. The message of Interstellar is that survival is not a right--it is a privilege, and one that must be fought for.
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Interstellar is the story of Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), an engineer and pilot forced by necessity to become a farmer in an Earth presumably some fifty years into our future, if the comments by Donald (John Lithgow), the father of his late wife are to be believed. This Earth is dying; it is an inevitability, a groaning apocalypse heralded by the ubiquitousness of mighty dust storms and the disintegration of sustainability. This Earth is also dying at a fundamental social level, where the presence of government tyranny via mandatory oversight and directed assignment for Cooper's children as eventual farmers reflects a complacence and even defeatist attitude as "caretakers" of the decrepit planet; it is akin to accepting death, but before the heart has stopped. The hope is absent, but when Cooper's daughter, Murph (Mackenzie Foy), believes she has been receiving messages from her bookcase by a "ghost" or other force--which eventually reveals to her and Cooper a set of coordinates guiding them to the vestigial remnants of NASA--the sense that there is a guiding hand in the universe becomes inescapable, and seems to guide Cooper to return to the stars. Cooper's meeting with Professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter and fellow scientist, Amelia (Anne Hathaway), reveals that there is one last chance to save humanity...because the Earth cannot be saved. Brand informs Cooper that following their efforts to send scientists through a wormhole generated off the edge of Saturn, there exists the possibility of habitable worlds in the galaxy beyond. The ideal plan is to bring the people of Earth to a new home in the stars, but the ominous-sounding "Plan B" is to bring embryos of humanity to be cultivated off-world as a replacement for the human race doomed to annihilation. It is in the spirit of saving his family that Cooper accepts the offer to pilot the mobile station--the Endurance--through the wormhole to prevent their predicted and no doubt painful deaths, even if it means that he will be separated from them for years...and this is if all goes according to the plan.
Interstellar is a film about bravery. Mankind is a species not that different from the rest of the animal kingdom, save for opposable thumbs and the capacity for abstract thought. What endows us with nobility are the same qualities which define us as special, the benevolent qualities both inexorably bound with and crucial to our survival as a species. Among those qualities is also our ability to forge a sustainable world for ourselves, and survive against the odds. This sentiment is mirrored in the poem by Dylan Thomas spoken to the crew of the Endurance as they depart for space, with the powerful refrain: "rage, rage against the dying of the light". The scientists who preceded the Endurance were a part of the "Lazarus Project", including the vaunted Dr. Mann (Matt Damon), souls who embarked upon the "loneliest mission in human history" to scout these alien worlds, willing to sacrifice themselves for the future of the human race. The reasons these men and women had may vary--just as those of the Endurance, just as it is with those who are willing to make sacrifices for a greater good. Following their emergence from the wormhole, the crew of the Endurance discuss which of three prospective planets in their destination solar system they will choose to solicit. Among these destinations is the planet closest to the central celestial body of the system, a "black hole" dubbed "Gargantua", where Dr. Miller arrived; however this planet is so close to the singularity, that the relativity of time is such that an hour spent there equates to roughly seven years of time passing on Earth. This fact stresses the significance of Cooper's mission--that for him to leave a better world behind for his children, every moment counts, more so on this world. A simple, but critical, mistake leads to a devastating scene where Cooper is forced to witness the consequences of his choices via the transmissions sent back to the Endurance across light years, witnessing his family age by years within minutes. It drives home the severity of his role in the grand scheme of humanity. And following this, Amelia talks of her wish to visit the planet where her love, Dr. Edwards was supposed to have landed upon. She speaks of love as a force, like gravity, which is something that transcends time and space, a part of our being that is vital to our existence and should not be disregarded because it cannot be quantified. Compare that with the alternative, a force equally powerful in its motivating the Lazarus Project: fear; it is also intrinsic to survival, but the difference between them in relation to a society founded on one over the other is that the former can flourish when faced with adversity, whereas the latter can only react to the chaos, and will ultimately decay and collapse.
Interstellar may deal with the prospect of literal world-ending gloom, but there is the sense that a design is in place and a future exists for humanity from the start, courtesy of a series of retrospectives accounting for the days when the Earth was constantly overrun with dust storms and failing crops. There is the sense that we have agency over our destiny; and while it is far from easy, it is necessary and within our grasp should we have the bravery to reach for it. The wormhole--identified as a phenomenon which does not occur naturally--is described as being crafted by an unknown force, ostensibly for the purpose of reaching the far off galaxy destined to be the new home for humanity. Destiny--as it is understood in Interstellar--is principally the far-reaching actualization of cause and effect, at both the local level and the galactic. Cooper's actions prior to his departure leave Murph in need of a father, which in turn leads her as she grows into a young woman (played by Jessica Chastain) to become an apprentice and successor to Professor Brand's legacy, while also filling the role as a surrogate daughter to him. Between these themes of mankind reaching out to a new level of cosmic understanding to the conceptualization of dimensions beyond our understanding, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar shares much in common with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. This film is a cautionary reminder about what it means to be human beings, the capacity for leveraging our hearts and minds, and our intrinsic curiosity, indivisible from our need to survive. The unknown is a riddle, and we are its explorers and forgers of a new path.
Recommended for: Fans of a large-scope science fiction film about family, humanity, space travel, quantum mechanics, and even destiny. It is still surprisingly grounded in human emotion, but possessed with breathtakingly realistic vistas of worlds beyond our own. It is a thought-provoking dream of why it is so important to look to the stars, lest your eyes be cast down into the dirt.
Interstellar is a film about bravery. Mankind is a species not that different from the rest of the animal kingdom, save for opposable thumbs and the capacity for abstract thought. What endows us with nobility are the same qualities which define us as special, the benevolent qualities both inexorably bound with and crucial to our survival as a species. Among those qualities is also our ability to forge a sustainable world for ourselves, and survive against the odds. This sentiment is mirrored in the poem by Dylan Thomas spoken to the crew of the Endurance as they depart for space, with the powerful refrain: "rage, rage against the dying of the light". The scientists who preceded the Endurance were a part of the "Lazarus Project", including the vaunted Dr. Mann (Matt Damon), souls who embarked upon the "loneliest mission in human history" to scout these alien worlds, willing to sacrifice themselves for the future of the human race. The reasons these men and women had may vary--just as those of the Endurance, just as it is with those who are willing to make sacrifices for a greater good. Following their emergence from the wormhole, the crew of the Endurance discuss which of three prospective planets in their destination solar system they will choose to solicit. Among these destinations is the planet closest to the central celestial body of the system, a "black hole" dubbed "Gargantua", where Dr. Miller arrived; however this planet is so close to the singularity, that the relativity of time is such that an hour spent there equates to roughly seven years of time passing on Earth. This fact stresses the significance of Cooper's mission--that for him to leave a better world behind for his children, every moment counts, more so on this world. A simple, but critical, mistake leads to a devastating scene where Cooper is forced to witness the consequences of his choices via the transmissions sent back to the Endurance across light years, witnessing his family age by years within minutes. It drives home the severity of his role in the grand scheme of humanity. And following this, Amelia talks of her wish to visit the planet where her love, Dr. Edwards was supposed to have landed upon. She speaks of love as a force, like gravity, which is something that transcends time and space, a part of our being that is vital to our existence and should not be disregarded because it cannot be quantified. Compare that with the alternative, a force equally powerful in its motivating the Lazarus Project: fear; it is also intrinsic to survival, but the difference between them in relation to a society founded on one over the other is that the former can flourish when faced with adversity, whereas the latter can only react to the chaos, and will ultimately decay and collapse.
Interstellar may deal with the prospect of literal world-ending gloom, but there is the sense that a design is in place and a future exists for humanity from the start, courtesy of a series of retrospectives accounting for the days when the Earth was constantly overrun with dust storms and failing crops. There is the sense that we have agency over our destiny; and while it is far from easy, it is necessary and within our grasp should we have the bravery to reach for it. The wormhole--identified as a phenomenon which does not occur naturally--is described as being crafted by an unknown force, ostensibly for the purpose of reaching the far off galaxy destined to be the new home for humanity. Destiny--as it is understood in Interstellar--is principally the far-reaching actualization of cause and effect, at both the local level and the galactic. Cooper's actions prior to his departure leave Murph in need of a father, which in turn leads her as she grows into a young woman (played by Jessica Chastain) to become an apprentice and successor to Professor Brand's legacy, while also filling the role as a surrogate daughter to him. Between these themes of mankind reaching out to a new level of cosmic understanding to the conceptualization of dimensions beyond our understanding, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar shares much in common with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. This film is a cautionary reminder about what it means to be human beings, the capacity for leveraging our hearts and minds, and our intrinsic curiosity, indivisible from our need to survive. The unknown is a riddle, and we are its explorers and forgers of a new path.
Recommended for: Fans of a large-scope science fiction film about family, humanity, space travel, quantum mechanics, and even destiny. It is still surprisingly grounded in human emotion, but possessed with breathtakingly realistic vistas of worlds beyond our own. It is a thought-provoking dream of why it is so important to look to the stars, lest your eyes be cast down into the dirt.