Interstellar is no different, turning his attention to space travel and pushing the concept to its extreme with one key difference \u2013 the events of Interstellar might just be physically possible.<\/p>\n
Released in 2014, the iconic film stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as astronauts who travel through a wormhole in order to find a new home for humanity before Earth becomes uninhabitable.<\/p>\n
Given that the film was based on the work of Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Dr. Kip Thorne, it\u2019s no surprise that Interstellar\u2019s exploration of black holes and the fifth dimension can get a tad confusing at times.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll break down the film\u2019s plot and meaning for all of the non-astrophysicists out there \u2013 so it goes without saying that there will be some rather in-depth spoilers below!<\/p>
Interstellar plot<\/h2>\n
Before we get into the nitty-gritty details, a reminder of Interstellar\u2019s complex plot may well be worthwhile.<\/p>\n
When Earth becomes uninhabitable and humanity faces extinction, farmer and ex-NASA pilot Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) pilots a ship of scientists and engineers through a wormhole to find a new habitable planet in another galaxy.<\/p>\n
NASA had previously sent astronauts through the wormhole to twelve potential worlds as part of Project Lazarus, with three reporting potential that would be investigated by this team.<\/p>\n
NASA had two plans:<\/p>\n
- Plan A: Cooper finds a new home planet for humanity. NASA constructs large space stations capable of transporting most of humanity, and Professor Brand (Michael Caine) solves the gravity equation that allows them to launch.<\/li>\n
- Plan B: Cooper establishes a colony on another world using frozen fertilised eggs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>
When does Interstellar take place?<\/h2>\n
Interstellar does not give an exact date for when events take place, but appears to begin in the not-too-distant future after Earth has started to fail.<\/p>\n
During the amateur baseball scene Cooper\u2019s father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow) reveals that he remembers watching professional baseball as a child, suggesting that Donald\u2019s youth took place before the environmental catastrophe when there were enough resources to devote to the baseball industry.<\/p>\n
Cooper then replies that people were too busy fighting over food to play baseball during his youth, suggesting that food shortages and societal collapse took place between these generations.<\/p>\n
Therefore the events of Interstellar take place at least a few generations or around 50 years after the present day, suggesting a late 21st-century setting.<\/p>\n
At least another 70 years then pass during the course of the film thanks to the time dilation of various planets, bringing the movie\u2019s final scenes to the early 22nd century.<\/p>\n
This is just a rough estimate, however \u2013 like many elements of Christopher Nolan\u2019s films, this particular detail is left intentionally ambiguous.<\/p>\n
For those desperate for a date however, Kip Thorne\u2019s tie-in book The Science of Interstellar<\/a> states that the wormhole appeared in 2019. During the NASA conference scene, it is stated that the wormhole was first seen 48 years ago \u2013 which would mean the film begins in 2067.<\/p>\n
What was the problem with Earth in Interstellar?<\/h2>\n
There\u2019s no world-ending asteroid or sudden apocalyptic event here \u2013 instead Interstellar goes for a less cinematic but far more likely reason for Earth to become uninhabitable.<\/p>\n
The main villain of Interstellar is arguably crop blight, a disease that leads to the browning and death of plant tissue, leading to food shortages and fierce competition for resources.<\/p>\n
Professor Brand explains how wheat and okra have both succumbed to the disease, and even though most of Earth\u2019s population has turned to farming to grow the one remaining crop \u2013 corn \u2013 it is only a matter of time before that too meets the same fate. Look closely during eating scenes \u2013 you can see characters only eating corn-based products, including cornbread and popcorn.<\/p>\n
Earth\u2019s atmosphere is around 80% nitrogen which we humans cannot breathe \u2013 but blight does. As blight continues to thrive and devour plants, the air will receive less and less oxygen and as Brand succinctly puts it \u201cthe last to starve will be the first to suffocate\u201d.<\/p>\n
All this leads to a perfect storm to wipe out humanity, with resources not predicted to last past Murph\u2019s generation.<\/p>\n
It seems much of the world is suffering also from dust storms, which we see leads to respiratory illness in Tom\u2019s children. Nolan was inspired by the Dust Bowl of 1930s America, and the interviews seen at the beginning of the film are real-life accounts from the Ken Burns documentary The Dust Bowl.<\/p>\n
Interstellar wormhole explained<\/h2>\n
When Cooper enters the secret facility that turns out to be NASA, it is revealed that a wormhole has appeared near Saturn.<\/p>\n
A wormhole is a theoretically possible structure based on Einstein\u2019s general theory of relativity, and acts by bending spacetime to bring two disparate points together. Romilly neatly explains the concept in the film by pushing a pen through a folded piece of paper \u2013 the exact same method used in cult horror sci-fi Event Horizon.<\/p>\n
The wormhole in the film is scientifically accurate \u2013 rather than the 2-D portal often shown in most media, a wormhole would be spherical in shape and show a distorted view of the target galaxy.<\/p>\n
Who are \u201cThey\u201d in Interstellar?<\/h2>\n
As Cooper states wormholes are not naturally occurring phenomena, and thus the wormhole near Saturn was placed there by someone \u2013 or something.<\/p>\n
From then on these unknown beings are simply referred to as \u201cthey\u201d and are assumed to be an ultra-advanced civilisation, likely hailing from the fifth dimension who conveniently placed the wormhole there to help save humanity.<\/p>\n
However, Cooper speculates at the film\u2019s climax that these beings are not a \u201cthey\u201d at all but rather a \u201cwe\u201d \u2013 humans from the future who exist in the fifth dimension and therefore have easy access to travel through infinite time and space. It was these ultra-advanced humans who created the library \u201ctesseract\u201d that Cooper discovers in the black hole so that Cooper could then relay the data needed to save humanity.<\/p>\n
How did 23 years pass while on Miller\u2019s planet?<\/h2>\n
Christopher Nolan sure loves messing with time \u2013 and the first instance of this occurring in Interstellar is when Cooper, Brand and Doyle leave the Endurance ship to investigate the water planet, now named Miller\u2019s planet.<\/p>\n
Romilly explains that every hour on Miller\u2019s planet is equal to seven years on Earth due to a process called time dilation. This is because Miller\u2019s planet is close to a supermassive black hole called Gargantua. According to Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity, the larger the object the more spacetime is warped and twisted around it. Spacetime is warped around Earth for example, as atomic clocks at different altitudes have been demonstrated to show different times (only by nanoseconds however).<\/p>\n
As Gargantua is significantly<\/em> bigger than Earth \u2013 at around 100 million times the size of the sun \u2013 spacetime is warped considerably more, resulting in time passing more slowly relative to Earth. This is a rather extreme example, however \u2013 Thorne has stated in his book that Miller\u2019s planet was as close to Gargantua as it could get without falling in.<\/p>\n
Cooper and Brand were on Miller\u2019s planet for 23 years, four months and eight days in Earth time \u2013 meaning they were only on Miller\u2019s Planet for roughly three hours and seventeen minutes. Listen closely to the ticks during the Miller\u2019s planet scene \u2013 they occur around every 1.5 seconds, representing one day on Earth.<\/p>\n
Gargantua\u2019s gravity is also the reason for the extreme tidal waves on Miller\u2019s planet \u2013 and the time dilation means that Miller herself was only killed minutes earlier likely by the first wave spotted by the Endurance crew.<\/p>\n
Is that Matt Damon in Interstellar?<\/h2>\n
Surprise! Despite being kept out of all trailers, premieres and publicity for the film, Matt Damon makes a shock appearance in Interstellar as the stranded Dr. Mann, the leader of the Lazarus mission. However Mann\u2019s purpose in this film is to represent the worst of humanity \u2013 the clue is in the name \u2013 and it is soon revealed that Mann lied about his planet being habitable in order to return to Earth, and he then attempts to kill the Endurance crew and steal their spacecraft.<\/p>\n
Nolan is known for having his productions shrouded in secrecy \u2013 one security measure included shooting Interstellar under the name Flora\u2019s letter, a reference to his daughter Flora Nolan.<\/p>\n
Less than a year later Damon would star as yet another stranded astronaut in The Martian (also starring Jessica Chastain), causing many to believe that he is playing the same character and that the two movies are connected somehow. However, this is just another Hollywood coincidence \u2013 Damon has stated that he nearly turned down his role in The Martian due to the similarities, but Ridley Scott convinced him that the two projects were entirely different.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The Martian<\/span><\/figcaption> SEAC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n Matt Damon isn\u2019t the only surprise name in the cast, however \u2013 even those who have seen the film may not have realised that a then-unknown Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a> has a key role as 15-year-old Tom Cooper, in a time before his name would be plastered all over posters.<\/p>\n
Interstellar black hole explained<\/h2>\n
A completely separate phenomenon from wormholes, black holes are areas of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing \u2013 not even light or radiation \u2013 can escape.<\/p>\n
While Gargantua is a fictional black hole, Nolan and the Interstellar crew went to great lengths to ensure it was scientifically accurate. Thorne wrote pages of theoretical equations for the Double Negative visual effects company, which created brand new CGI software based on these equations to create accurate computer simulations. The software ended up reaching 800 terabytes of data, while some individual frames took up to 100 hours to render.<\/p>\n
Thorne ended up writing two papers based on this experience \u2013 you can see more in the video below:<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/The-Martian-d061044.jpg?quality=90&crop=63px%2C0px%2C634px%2C422px&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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