We are talking about internal logic with Star Wars, Trek and Interstellar. "Just beam them up!" "Transporters not working because of ionic interference" That small exchange makes like 1 hour of action possible. Gravity was supposed to be using attainable tech. Still a good movie though.
Wormholes have never been proven to exist, they are only theoretically possible based upon Einstein's equations for relativity. So what happened in the wormhole was complete science fiction. There is a tiny chance that they could occur within the universe naturally, but more than likely if they ever were to exist they would be made by intelligent beings and require a scaffolding utilizing compounds or materials far superior to what we have for them to be open for any given amount of time. Kip Thorne is the physicist who envisioned the possibilities of space travel utilizing wormholes, and he is a producer on the film, and even he has been quoted as saying that wormholes could very well only ever live in science fiction.
Yes. This the predestination / prophecy paradox is explored a lot in Sci-fi. For Trekkies a lot of Deep Space Nine revolves around that idea. You have to drop the idea of a linear progression of causality. While the beings could've been from another reality and based on the many worlds theory it is possible for the past to be changed by time travel, the grandfather paradox. But I think Nolan's intention in Interstellar isn't a grandfather paradox where an alternate reality saves our reality. In the tesseract Cooper says that it is future humans, presumably from this timeline, that created it. In this sense it is a closed loop prophecy that doesn't need someone from an outside reality to intrude. Cooper and Murphy are chosen to save humanity because history, to future humans, records that it was they who saved it. In that sense the future humans couldn't have chosen anyone else. If we consider time as existing simultaneously Cooper and Murphy have always and will always save humanity. While I agree Brand's monologue was clunky and eye rolling it does explain why Cooper and Murphy are necessary, besides that history records them to be. Love in this sense is almost like quantum entanglement where two people are tied together no matter how far they are apart in time in space. Cooper realizes that in the tesseract while the future humans have access to all of Murphy's history they cannot determine which moments are more significant than others. Without love Murphy's life has no meaning other than an abstraction. It's only Cooper who loves her more than anything else who can identify which moments are important to leave Murphy the message(s) that ultimately save humanity.
This stackexchange post and picture below describes what you're saying in more detail. It's a terrible vehicle for a plot device, but a sci fi geek should know better... It came here as a plot twist, but I felt the initial setup made it too convoluted. (Why near Saturn? Why...)
I finally get to read this thread -- watched the movie this weekend and was completely engrossed -- I loved it. As many of you know I really enjoy astronomy/ cosmology/ etc. so I was excited about the premise, but was a bit worried about some parts I saw on the trailers. Needless to say I think Nolen absolutely nailed it -- so many great twists and turns -- excellent visuals and (for the most part) solid science. I put this film right up there with the greatest sci-fi movies of all time.
Agreed. Just the way they were able to portray some of the most difficult concepts in our universe in a somewhat easy to digest manner is what sold me. I hope the success of films such as Interstellar and Gravity gives us more "realistic" science fiction in the days to come.
I think Interstellar will be one of those films that may not have been that well liked immediately but will become more and more favorable over time
Saw this movie tonight. It was an amazing movie. Like all his stuff really. Agree with some of the points in this thread. Agree about some of the CGI not holding up well. Many parts seemed rushed... "Bye gotta go probably never see you again!!" ... Yet it was almost 3 hrs long. I get that he was trying to do his own modern version of a Space Odyysey type movie. But in a sense it was rushed and dragged simultaneously. So some criticism no doubt. But still really amazing and thought provoking.
I finally saw it. I have to say those were 3 hours wasted. It is truly a terrible movie. I would not call it intelligent. It did not make any sense but it was also so unbelievable predictable. Spoiler Everybody could see that he was the “ghost” from a mile away. My biggest grips were Too long.. It was boring Absurd and still predicatble Characters were terrible I really couldn’t care for the characters (the only one I cared for was the daughter, but only when she was young, Since she reminded me of my oldest daughter). 1 hour on the planet was 7 years outside of the planet, but they couldn’t figure out that that meant that they could not have gotten many readings since the explorer could only have been on the planet for a couple of hours. I thought they were supposed to be smart. They did not explain anything about the mission to cooper beforehand. They had to fill him in on the way (like that he could not change the direction of their ship in the vortex, that could have been usefull information before he went in there). Cooper didn’t need to train with this ship, since it has been years he was actually in a ship (which crashed). So he went away when his daughter was still angry, but if he had waited 5 minutes he would have seen her. He could not wait a couple of hours and explain it all to his daughter... The grudge that the daughter hold even though she did decide to work at the same station understanding the importance of it all is just strange. So he really did not care for his son did he. Spoiler Love conquers all??? Oh come on.. The ending, wow just wow. So he did get back to his family, but he immediately leaves again before actually meeting his grandchildren Overall a terrible move. And I did have high expectation since I am a Nolan fan. But this was terrible (I also really did not like Prometheus)
I can get not liking the story, but I disagree with a lot of the points you make about the science. 1. They decided to go to the first planet (Miller's) because of proximity, due to getting the most out of their fuel and because Edmond's "pings" went down three years prior. It should be noted that they didn't know about Garguantua until they came through the worm hole, so they had to prepare on the fly. They had no idea that a black hole was on the other side of the wormhole. 2. Not sure what you mean about them not explaining anything to Cooper, a lot of the science was told to Cooper for the audience's benefit. Like when Romilly drew the wormhole on the piece of paper, that was for the audience's benefit. Any die hard science fiction fan knows what a wormhole is, so I imagine Cooper would have known. They also didn't know what inside the wormhole was like until they were in it. If you'll recall, Cooper actually asks Doyle, "Any trick to this Doyle?" as they were approaching the wormhole, and Doyle says, "Nobody knows." One can assume that once inside, Doyle observed the conditions and then informed Cooper that his controls couldn't do anything, they were along for the ride. I think Nolan did a tremendous job in breaking down the hard science in easily digestible chunks for the masses. 3. How was Cooper supposed to know that his daughter was going to come running after him? He could have said goodbye in the days and weeks leading up to the launch - they don't give any indication of how long after finding out that NASA was still functioning to liftoff, but I think it is easily alluded to that some time passed. After all, they didn't even have a pilot until Cooper stumbled upon the location. Either way, the film is a drama, so drama elements are going to happen. 4. His son was nearly grown when he left, so of course he would pay more attention to his younger daughter - as his son was now "the man." I compare it to Mel Gibson's character in The Patriot. Also, remember that for Cooper during the entire film only a couple of months of time passes for him. He goes to sleep for 2+ years while traveling to Saturn, and then is only gone a few days once through the wormhole. For him, it was like not being really close to your 17 year old son for a few weeks. Which is pretty normal. I wouldn't say that he didn't care for his son considering how emotional he got watching all of his son's videos once they got back from Miller's planet. 5. He didn't know his grandchildren or extended family, and his daughter told him to go - because Brand was still out there alone. Murph knew that her father was an explorer (something Cooper mentions everal times). Again, we also don't know just how much time elapses from the time they meet - most movies don't go like "... three months later..." on the screen, but you can assume some time had passed. As for the love conquers all I guess I look at it differently. Everything they did was because they loved each other, and nothing more. Cooper left, because he wanted a better future for his family. Murph worked tirelessly to find the answers because she didn't want her father's work to be in vain. You do crazy things for the ones you love, like truly believe that your father sent you a message in code, on an old watch from another dimension. Truthfully, the only answer to why you would think something like that could be love... or hallucinogenics. But that isn't really family friendly, now is it?
1: I understood why they went to Millers planet first. That was logical. But when they found out that an hour there would be 7 years in real life they should have come to the logical conclusion that if that was the case Miller could only have been there a couple of hours. Hence it might not be the ideal planet they thought it would be. 2: I have a problem with this. There are 2 options. Either Cooper doesn’t know it. And they explain everything when they are already in space. The other option is that he does already know it and then it does not make any sense explaining everything to him, and they only do it for the audience, which I find lazy storytelling. To me both options are bad writing. I see your point about the wormhole. Maybe they really didn’t know, to me it came across like they knew that would happen. But I can see your point. I do agree that he did a good job in breaking down the science. 3: I agree that he could not have known. And maybe he did try to talk to her for days/weeks. But they way they filmed it it really seemed like it was the same day (which is strange since like you said it seemed like they didn’t really have a pilot, before they found Cooper). I do understand that her running outside is good drama, and I do not have a problem with it. However if really some time has passed they should have made that more clear. To me that is bad writing. 4: The grandfather said something like It is no problem for the son, and that was it. Yes he got emotional when he watched the videos (which was nicely done). But beside that I did not feel any connection between him and his son. 5: I could be that he spend some time with his grandchildren. And some time passed. But they did not show any of it. Yes he was an explorer, but the movie was also about him wanting to get back to his family. He seemed very eager to get away from his family again to go to Brand (also are we to assume they will be lovers now? I really did not see any chemistry between them). To me this again was bad writing. 6: That might be the case, but it is strange that Murph tries to make her father’s work not in vain, but at the same time she doesn’t want to send any message to him. The grudge she is holding is just inconsistent to me. Also they sort of hinted that the bond of Cooper to his daughter was how he could find the important moments when he was in the black hole, since for some reason the future humans could not do that. 7: I also find it strange that Murph immediately thinks that the ghost is here father, (even before she found the watch). How did she make this deduction? I do agree that love is better than hallucinogenics.. at least more kid friendly
1. Miller's planet had water and organics. Doyle even says, something along the lines of "we don't have much data, but it is very promising." They also commented on the fact that water and organics were very rare. Water being the key to life was the reason they jumped at the opportunity. 2. How is it bad writing to explain scientific concepts to the audience in easily digestible ways? They had to explain time deviation, wormholes, black holes, gravity, etc - short of having a classroom scene for 30 minutes I'm not sure how you expect them to teach the audience any better than they did. 3. I don't know of anyone else that I've discussed this film with (and there have been many) that thinks Cooper left the day he found out about mission. In fact, the night before he left he was having a beer with his father-in-law, so at the very least it was the next day. 4. I agree that the son seemed like an afterthought, but again it was a different world where he was basically a grown man. I think of it as similar to back in the days of the great expansion, where a boy was considered grown in his early teens - due to the world they lived in. 5. Again, not sure why there is the need to show that time elapsed between scenes - I think it is generally assumed, especially considering the fact that the movie was nearly 3 hours. 6. Women can be illogical, so the reasoning for her actions is typical to me. The tesseract is the only thing we don't know much about. Who built it and how, and why did they choose Cooper and Murph? It isn't ever answered, other than the fact that it was humans who did it and those probably choose Cooper and Murph because of their special bond. 7. I disagree. She didn't immediately think that the ghost was her father, the ghost was in her room her entire childhood. She knew it was something, because it gave them real coordinates that lead to her father leaving. The scene where he is screaming "Murph!" through the tesseract/bookshelf she's reliving in her head every time "the ghost" did something. She pieced together a puzzle based upon the signs Cooper was sending her over her life via the bookshelf. We also know she learned Morse code as a kid, so when she saw the watch it instantly clicked.
1: I understand why this was a good planet. But they did not figure out that Miller could only have been on the planet for a couple of hours, after they returned they figured out that the data was on a loop. This is just a dumb move by them (similar to the brilliance of a biologist who sees a snake creature and decides to take his helmet of) 2: I agree that it is difficult to explain it in another way. But it bugs me that they explain it to someone who should already know that information. They could have explained it to someone who didnt have that info already. 3: Ok so it was the next day. But when you watch the movie you get the feeling the daughter is in her room until he leaves. But maybe that is just me 4: I think we agree on this point, it just annoyed me. It is similar to one of mine pet peeves in the show Supernatural. At the end of a case when the 2 brothers have saved another person, that person always only says goodbye and thank you to one of the brothers. In hardly any episode do they acknowledge that there are 2 brothers 5: I think showing 4 seconds of him hugging or talking to his grandchildren could be squeezed in there. They could just remove 90% of the Matt Damon dialogue. 6: I disagree with you. Woman can be more emotional than most man, but they are not illogical. This actually shows another point I read in one of the reviews of this movie which I agree with. Nolan is not good at writing strong woman. 7: I should not have said immediately. Of course she had her whole life with the Ghost. But for me it was pretty random why she finally figured it out. There was not really something that would make her suddenly realize it was her father. However it could be that I missed it since I had enough of the movie (and was also checking Clutchfans to see if we had a trade) at that point of the movie. I do like the exploring of the alien worlds. I would have loved it that was 90% of the movie. We are discussing some minor points in the movie. You make some good points why they are less bad than I initially felt they were. I was just really disappointed in the movie. I had big expectations and it did not deliver. Overall I feel it was just a bad movie that was absurd and much too predictable. It was clear that Copper was the “ghost” the minute they said gravity could go back in time. Also it just was boring.
Watched it again last week and I can safely conclude it's one of my top 5 movies of all time. I love Nolan's dedication to set pieces and limited use of CGI. I'm hoping Star Wars is saved because of the same type of philosophy.
