Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar is a science fiction movie directed by Christopher Nolan and released in 2014. It stars Matthew McConaughey as Joseph Cooper- a former space pilot. Nolan attempted to create a realistic portrayal of interstellar space travel with the help of a theoretical space physicist (Kipthorne).

Later on in the twenty first century, food production is devastated by blight and dust storms. Mankind is on the brink of extinction. Cooper works on his farm but he is persuaded to join a team of astronauts to travel through a wormhole, which formed near Saturn, and explore a whole different galaxy for new habitable worlds. Previous missions to venture through the wormhole identified three possible planets named each after the explorers who travelled there: Mann’s planet; Miller’s planet and Edmund’s planet. He leaves his daughter (Murf) behind-she becomes very upset and refuses to talk to him, whilst also believing that there were ghosts in the house.

Two years after leaving Earth, their ship- called Endurance- finally arrives at the wormhole and travels straight through it. The three planets orbit a super-massive black hole. The first planet they arrive at is Miller’s planet which is a water world and also, because the planet is so near to the black hole, one hour on the planet is seven years on the Endurance. When they land, Cooper and his two other teammates encounter a surprising and challenging situation which makes the time ratio very important. The next planet they arrive at is Mann’s. It is a bleak, ice planet; so cold that the atmosphere above freezes. They find the explorer who discovered the planet, who tells them that beneath the ice there is a habitable zone where beings can live and thrive. Mann however may not be telling the entire truth putting the Endurance and its crew in danger. The final section of the film is the most confusing but brings all of the strands of the plot together in a surprising but fulfilling fashion.

What I liked about this film is the gorgeous visuals and how it depicts space and the very cool things within it, like black holes and planets. All through the movie there are amazing scenes and shots of planets especially Miller’s planet and the way the black hole’s gravity influences and affects this water world. The black hole itself looks beautiful with the streaks of light and plasma that twirls around it like a snow globe. Mann’s planet and its icy structures also looked stunning.

Like all good action movies, the set pieces were exciting and fast paced, but possessed a certain amount of wonder. The set piece on Miller’s planet kept me on the edge of my seat because of the importance of time for Cooper.

Despite my high praise for the film (I felt it was one of the best films I’ve ever heard), the whole film was very much confusing, and a lot of the time I had to pause and take time to understand the concepts it was trying to communicate. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and I think I have learnt a lot just from watching a film.

As the film was very confusing, I would recommend this film to children and adults who are fascinated by space and all the aspects of space travel. If a child was watching this, I would certainly suggest watching this with someone with a good grasp of physics or someone who has watched this or something like this before.