Where we left him last Saturday, Cooper was reunited with Professor Brand and asked to pilot a mission that might save humanity from extinction.

Cooper and his crew set out. They are Doyle, Romilly, Dr. Brand, Professor Brand’s daughter, TARS, and CASE, (the latter two are robots programmed for the mission). Their first stop after leaving Earth is Saturn.

Of course, they must enter cryosleep because the journey takes two years. Before bedding down for their “long nap,” they listen to final messages from their families. The crew and their loved ones can also send video messages back and forth during their trip.

Apparently, they can also do this after they go through the wormhole. At least, that’s the theory because the previous crew that went through the wormhole was able to send data about their planets back to NASA.

After listening to the messages, everyone goes to sleep and wakes up two years later, where the wormhole awaits, near Saturn. While traveling through it, Dr. Brand notices a mysterious blur inside their ship. She reaches out and touches the blur, then calls it a “first handshake” because she believes she’s interacting with the mysterious “They.”

The dread — and possibly quite real — secret of a time warp

The crew makes it through the wormhole in one piece, so the next course of action is to decide which of the three planets to visit first. They refer to the planets by their explorers’ names. Their first destination is Miller’s planet, but a giant black hole nearby is creating time shifts. This plot twist delves into the subject of Einstein’s relativity theory.

From what I’ve read, scientists tend to accept the movie’s treatment of relativity, but many question whether a planet could exist so close to a black hole. Regardless, the writers, Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, did their homework. They used the work of Nobelist (Physics) Kip Thorne to guide them through the theoretical issues in the movie, Apparently, their depiction of a black hole was eerily similar to the first photograph taken by the Event Horizon Telescope.

The problem with Miller’s planet turns out to be this: For every hour the crew spends on it, seven years go by on earth. After spending some time discussing the problem, they decide that Doyle, Dr. Brand, Cooper, and one of the robots will land a shuttle on the planet. They will pick up Miller so that she can talk about her findings on the ship. Thus they can minimize their contact with the planet. Meanwhile, Romilly and the other robot will stay behind and study the wormhole itself.

It’s Miller’s planet but where’s Miller?

Cooper and the others land on the planet, which is covered in shallow water, but Miller is nowhere to be seen. They look around and find pieces of her ship. It doesn’t take them long to realize what probably happened.

As Cooper is looking out the window, he sees a giant wave coming towards them. He tells the others to return to the shuttle. Dr. Brand and the robot make it, but Doyle is swept away. They barely manage to close the doors in time and are forced to ride the wave. They survive, but the ship’s engines now have to drain, which costs them precious time. They barely escape the planet before the next wave overtakes them.

Time, however measured, stops for no man

When they return, Cooper and Dr. Brand find that Romilly has aged a great deal. He tells them that over twenty years have gone by, and he’s passed the time sleeping and studying the black hole.

Horrified, Cooper runs to the room where the video transmissions are received and watches his children growing up through the screen. It’s a pretty tough scene.

At this point, the movie shifts points of view. Cooper’s daughter Murphy has grown to become Professor Brand’s pupil. She’s trying to help him solve the gravity equation, but they’re getting nowhere. However, Murphy remains optimistic, believing that a solution is possible.

Transitions

This transition provides a useful illustration of how to make an unlikeable character likeable. In my review of Spaceman (2024) starring Adam Sandler, I talked about how Jakub’s wife, Lenka, came off as a very unlikable character because the writers chose to show her as bitter and ready to leave her husband right at the beginning of the story. This made it hard to root for her or for Jakub’s relationship with her.

Here in Interstellar (2014), there is a similar set-up in terms of the stakes. Cooper wants to return to his daughter in the same way Jakub wants to return to his wife. In both stories, Lenka and Murphy feel angry because they were abandoned. But the reason Interstellar succeeds where Spaceman fails is that the viewer sees Murphy enjoying her time with her father before she’s left on Earth. There is a clear contrast between who she was and who she becomes. Plus, Murphy takes an active role in the plot.

Despite her bitterness towards her father, clearly portrayed earlier in the film, she chooses to help Professor Brand solve his equation. She doesn’t stand idly by, ignoring the consequences of her choices. This makes the viewer root for Cooper and Murphy’s relationship in a way that was almost impossible to do for Jakub and Lenka.

The dreadful secret revealed

However, Murphy’s efforts appear to be in vain when she makes a horrible discovery. It turns out Professor Brand was lying. As he’s dying on his hospital bed, he tells Murphy that there was never any need for Cooper to come back. The embryos aboard Cooper’s ship are meant to be the new humanity. He couldn’t figure out the gravity equation and had decided a long time ago that starting human life all over again on another planet was the only valid option. Mankind is essentially doomed. Murphy asks him if her father knew about this, but the old man dies before giving her an answer.

Meanwhile, relatively speaking, Cooper and his crew are now flying to Dr. Mann’s planet. The extra time spent on Miller’s planet has left them with too little fuel to visit both of the remaining planets, so this might be their last chance to find a new home for humanity. As the crew takes one of their shuttles to find Dr. Mann, Murphy delivers a message, informing Dr. Brand that her father has passed away.

She also asks if Dr. Brand knew about Professor Brand’s lie. She also asks if her own father knew as well.

The message is only picked up by the ship, but before long, one of the robots will give Murphy’s message to Cooper and the others. We’ll cover what happens then next Saturday.

Here are all five instalments of my extended review:

Starting Out at the End of the World. As Earth’s surface is turning to dust, a former NASA pilot is offered another mission, to help find a way to transport humanity to a habitable planet. Interstellar’s visuals and music score are excellent but more backstory would have helped orient the reader. We are largely left to guess how the disaster occurred.

Interstellar (2014): The plot thickens— well, relatively… Aside from adventures and misadventures exploring Miller’s planet, discovery of a dreadful secret awaits the crew. Interstellar succeeds in the difficult task of creating sympathy for an initially unlikeable character via a harrowing plot turn.

Interstellar (2014): Dr Mann uses nature to justify murder. The awful secret that comes to light while the crew visits Dr. Mann’s planet has nothing to do with the planet. If the data from the black hole was all Professor Brand was missing to finish his equation, then someone could read it and solve the problem.

Interstellar (2014), Review Part 4: So Who Are “They” Anyway? Will we at last find out? Cooper says that the mysterious “They” have “evolved.” How in the world did natural selection select the fifth dimension?

Interstellar 2014, Part 5: Time travel saves — but also destroys. Time travel solves some problems for planet Earth but it turns out to be no match for human mortality and sundered relationships. While the film begins well, it eventually falls into the trap of spectacle over substance. I recommend it for the music, the acting, and the visuals.