Written by Zach Andrews
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons
In Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” Earth is plagued with famine and the human race is on the cusp of extinction. Matthew McConaughey stars in this sci-fi drama as Cooper, a father, farmer and retired NASA pilot.
When an unquantifiable phenomenon leads Cooper to NASA’s undercover base, the fate of humanity and his family depend on his decision to pilot their spaceship. Alongside Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), Cooper embarks on the journey to save the human race.
“Interstellar” was presented in both theater and IMAX. I attended both showings and enjoyed the normal showing more. If you’re looking for a sensory overload, though, then the IMAX showing may be for you. Thanks to the sound, the IMAX version captured the movie’s loud, impressive score, as well as the silent vacuum of space.
On the surface, the conflict at hand may seem to be the human race’s salvation, but the true antagonist of “Interstellar” is time. Its passing is relative to each character, and whether it be Cooper in space, where the clock ticks too slow, or his Earth-bound daughter, Murph, whose timer won’t slow down, everyone is at the mercy of the clock. In order to conquer the many conflicts at hand, the film’s characters must first transcend the dimension of time.
Conceptually, the movie deals with issues such as abandonment, honesty and morality. The notion of the former is clear in the relationship between Cooper and Murph, which revolves around her struggle to get over her resentments and forgive his absence.
Fortunately for Cooper, according to Dr. Brand, “Love is the one thing that we are capable of perceiving that transcends time and death.” In a weird science fiction-supernatural sort of way, she is right. In fact, at the climax of the movie, love becomes a quantifiable force that is indispensable to Cooper and humanity as a whole.
“Interstellar” combines a potent mix of science, philosophy and storytelling to create the entertaining experience viewers have come to expect from Christopher Nolan. It made audiences think and instilled upon them a beautiful truth: although “our empathy rarely extends beyond our line of sight…” our love for each other can withstand and surpass both space and time. We are all at war with time in some way or another. According to Nolan, love is our only weapon against this elusive adversary.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Anne Hathaway’s character, Amelia Brand, as “Amelia Brandt.” A typo in the last sentence was also corrected – “elusive” was originally “allusive.”