Interstellar SPOILERS ALLOWED Discussion thread

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

The real answer is that "we don't know". Which is what allows science-fiction to play with the concept. We don't know why happens in a black hole really, and we don't know what would happen if we could work on a higher dimension, so as long as the film largely plays by the parameters we DO know about, then it can definitely get away with being a little creative with the things we don't know much about.

I do love how NDT explains the idea of higher dimensions.

Indeed. Pushing plausibility in minor artistic ways, like clouds freezing or the incorrect apparent size of a black hole from a planet orbiting closely to it (to preserve any close up shots for later climactic scenes), is perfectly acceptable.

[nightscape94 965]

Nolan apologist, lol. No, just advocate for common sense and imagination.

Apparently also an advocate for passive aggressiveness

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Pretty much no choice in this place.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

TGP just needs a punch bag. Use gkgyver.

[Jay 37,369]

Rust Cohle already explained the ending of interstellar

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

True!

[publicist 4,643]

Now i saw it - though only in glorious 2D, since none of us wanted to part with 20€ for Imax 3D (except me). Since we are very much through here i make it short (not):

It was the first movie in a very long time i felt moved and inspired by (in a cosmic sense) - and that is besides the Hollywood hokum and huckster emotionalism that inevitably was attached to it. While it started a bit too didactic (the scene with the teacher robotically feeding Cooper the fake moon landing bullshit to be rightfully enraged about was the worst Stanley Kramer bleeding liberal impression since James Cameron discovered his eco conscience in AVATAR) but everything after they started became a beautifully packaged DRAMATIC journey.

I don't care much about the science (and Nolan didn't either, he just had a bunch of highly gifted scientists coaching him in what he could and couldn't get away with) - the movie treaded a very fine line between high concept sci-fi, action spectacle (which it thrice ventured into) and tearjerker about human beings and their need for love, exploration, endurance, fears and stubbornness. The journey to the planets was very thoughtfully designed, philosophically right up to Matt Damon's insane scientist who was as much a springboard for a big action sequence but also a well-done portrait of human faults at work that just had the right timing without becoming too textbook-like or pathetic. The decision to hang the story so much on human conscience made absolute (dramatic) sense to me and made the film much more moving to me than the sexless 2001 and the likes.

The only fault i could find, apart from being mildly disappointed by the lack of a totally fucked-up soundmix, was Nolan's over-eagerness to explain too much in the last 20 minutes. It felt too much like convenient wrap-up though though no one but McConaughey saved Nolan through this last big crying scene (why oh why Hollywood thinks people are only moved if they clobber us with sobbing actors i will never understand).

Zimmer's score didn't stood out a s much as i thought (hoped?), though the Koyaanisqatsi-organ was noticed and appreciated. So all said and done for a blockbuster movie it undoubtedly was the best of both worlds: good at being a mind-blowing spectacle (though i never saw so many people walk out on a big event movie) but also a philosophical excursion that may occupy the brain even after the end credits start rolling.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Now i saw it - though only in glorious 2D, since none of us wanted to part with 20€ for Imax 3D (except me). Since we are very much through here i make it short (not):

It was never released in 3D.

[publicist 4,643]

It runs in Imax 3D here.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Really?

[publicist 4,643]

No, right it's IMAX 70mm 4K that is supposed to have a 3D effect...still bloody expensive.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I bet its "immersive"!

Agree with your review, btw.

[publicist 4,643]

I was surprised how cold a reception it got (seeing people leave all the time and overhearing conversations during the pee break). I saw people livelier and tugging along merrily in GRAVITY in big Vienna IMAX cinema while INTERSTELLAR got more chuckles and groans than TAKEN 3 (presumably). I predict it will need time to be really appreciated though i hope it's lucrative for WB - it would be terrible if the final gross again is proof that we need more GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXIES and less INTERSTELLAR's.

[crocodile 8,017]

In Poland it got some really terrible comments. How it feels like Paulo Coelho's novel and stuff ( which is quite a slap in the face). Very few positive ones.

Karol

[Romão 2,274]

I can't remember in recent years waiting this long for the soundtrack release of a major Hollywood production. Not even sound samples

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I'm glad you enjoyed it Pub, great to read your thoughts on it.

I can't remember in recent years waiting this long for the soundtrack release of a major Hollywood production. Not even sound samples

It's maddening!

[KK 3,307]

Yeah, looks like we're on the same page pub. Nice reading your thoughts.

[publicist 4,643]

Glad to. The 'a world that searches' approach sadly is not a very frequent bedfellow to sci-fi movies or it is done in a facepalm way. I can only imagine how fascinating a putrid abomination like TIMELINE could have been if it were not designed as harebrained action movie but as serious science fable.

[Jay 37,369]

I'm planning on reading through this whole thread sometime soon but right now I just had one question

What does Murph say when she runs out to the NASA center area and throw the papers in over the railing? Before and after "it's tradition" I mean

[KK 3,307]

I think it was "EUREKA!"

[Jay 37,369]

Hmmm, that's all?

Oh! Also, the end credits said "Cast (In Order of Appearance)" and listed Ellen Burstyn as Old Murph as the very first person. What was her appearance at the beginning of the film? Was she one of the talking head interviews?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Yeah. I kept that in the back of my head because I thought it was weird how Nolan cut to those as if the film was part mockumentary on climate change.

[KK 3,307]

Yeah, from what I remember, I believe she was trying to mimick Archimdes, shouted Eureka once or twice, than kisses the other dude.

[Jay 37,369]

Oh yea - that's another thing. When she kisses Topher Grace, was that because they were already dating? Or was that the start of their relationship? I mean, I assume his character is one of her family in her final hospital scene

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Yeah. I kept that in the back of my head because I thought it was weird how Nolan cut to those as if the film was part mockumentary on climate change.

Ever seen Warren Beaty's REDS? Well that sequence was REDS lite.

[Romão 2,274]

I immediatly recognized Burstyn in one those interviews at the beginning. I thought it was a great way to establish the current state of the world

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Oh yea - that's another thing. When she kisses Topher Grace, was that because they were already dating? Or was that the start of their relationship? I mean, I assume his character is one of her family in her final hospital scene

Probably safe to assume that he's dead by that point, like Tom. Remember, they mention that she's been in cryo-sleep for two years, trying to hang on until Cooper managed to make it back. She's outlived even the people who were her own age, let alone her older brother and possibly older boyfriend(?).

[Jay 37,369]

Hmmm yea, it wasn't clear at the end how much time passed between Murph's Eureka moment and Coop waking up in the space station

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Well, the initial trip to Saturn, Miller's planet, and the final black hole stunt cost them a number of years. In all, 76 years Earth time, I think. Murph is 10 when Cooper leaves, around 35 when she makes the discovery, and apparently 86 at the end of the film. Seems a bit young to be so frail so maybe I'm missing something?

[Jay 37,369]

Don't they tell Coop he's 120 or so when he wakes up in the hospital?

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Yeah which means there's about a decade missing somewhere... hmmm. What am I forgetting? Clearly need to see this a fourth time.

[Jay 37,369]

Well they purposely never tell you anyone's age in the film so it's all kind of ambiguous. Doesn't really need to be analyzed, either.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Nope!

[KK 3,307]

But Nolan has left us crafted those layers of plot for a reason! Surely we must dissect and decipher it to the last detail!!

[Jay 37,369]

That's one of the things I liked about it. It doesn't go deep into the explanations of everything like Inception did. You learn everything you need to while watching the film. The details don't matter.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

But Nolan has left us crafted those layers of plot for a reason! Surely we must dissect and decipher it to the last detail!!

Ironically, there's probably far more fertility for that in this relatively straightforward film than there was in Inception. I think this one will have excellent rewatch value, with appreciation and understanding deepening each time. Inception has never been that rewarding for me. Once you know what's up, you know what's up, and it's just fun.

[KK 3,307]

I actually agree Grey! This film is more rewarding with multiple viewings (says the guy who shamefully hasn't had the chance to see it his second time yet...).

That's one of the things I liked about it. It doesn't go deep into the explanations of everything like Inception did. You learn everything you need to while watching the film. The details don't matter.

Well, as you'll learn on your expedition through the pages of this thread, I find the ending falters because of that whole "explanation syndrome" you're sort of describing. Suddenly, the end becomes all about the details, and that was the real shame in it.

But as I keep saying, I'm sure I'll feel less so when I've seen it again.

[Jay 37,369]

I think the ending was perfectly biguous, if that's a word.

This is a really great film.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Yeah. I've seen people really disappointed by the lack of ambiguity... as though Nolan should be doing the same thing at the end of every non-Batman film. Naturally that doesn't prevent them from forming all sorts of conspiracy theories about parallel universes and whatnot to compensate!

[KK 3,307]

Oh God, I didn't want anything like the Inception ending! That would not work here at all.

But I would have preferred if the wonders and mystery of space and inter-dimensional travel wasn't tied up together is so neat, or rather, tight a bow....you didn't need to make it so that every little detail in the 2 hours that preceded it, was involved significantly in the plot.

[Jay 37,369]

Oh I don't think that's the case at all.

For example, what did the Indian drone they found have to do with anything?

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I took it to be like the farm equipment, drawn by the gravitational anomaly. Speaking of that, I still think there's something to the other ones they mentioned including the one that caused Cooper's crash... I feel like there's something really obvious I'm missing about that. I thought that when Cooper first fell into the tesseract and was trying to grab onto something, he was causing those other anomalies by hitting various "strings". But Romilly mentions them stretching back fifty years, and even if Cooper's own timeline were represented there, he's not 50.

[KK 3,307]

That's a good point Grey.

What we need though, is a spinoff!

[Jay 37,369]

Anybody else wish the film was longer? This scope of this story is so epic, it could easily be a 3 part miniseries. I'd happily watch a 4 hour version of this.

Somethings were summed up really quickly. They basically jumped directly into the 3rd act after the second, for example.

I know the script leaked ages ago of the version Spielberg would have filmed. Anybody here read that one?

[KK 3,307]

TGP read the leaked script of the Spielberg version, and says this is an improvement.

And the film could definitely have used an extra half hour to flesh out that ending.

By the way, didn't you find it odd how rushed the final moment between Cooper and his daughter is, and the film ends on a strangely abrupt note with Hathaway?

[Jay 37,369]

Yea, I was going to mention that. I think in reality he probably spent a long while hanging out with his daughter when they were finally reunited, but the movie just shows him coming in, a brief exchange, and then him leaving.

The ending with Hatheaway on her crush's planet was completely unnecessary, but didn't hurt the film either.

[KK 3,307]

It was just a strange note to end on, because here you have this grand 3 hour epic hinged on the father-daughter relationship, and then in the last 5 min, it's ditched like an after-thought so McConaughey could go hook up with Hathaway?

[Jay 37,369]

Nolan doesn't understand love. All this films are completely unsexy and unromantic. Like I said, it was a completely unnecessary ending, can't argue with that. But it doesn't lose any stars for me.

~~

According to this graph, 93 years pass from Coop leaving earth till reuniting with Murph

http://i.imgur.com/MgwWMFU.jpg

[Koray Savas 2,251]

From what I understand, Hathaway is still lost in space. The rest of humanity found him near Saturn. The wormhole is closed, so he's got a bit of exploration to do in order to find her. It's not like "oh hey my daughter just died lemme go chill with my newfound love."

[publicist 4,643]

Him contacting Murph IS the emotional payoff. The whole scene with the old lady is long enough as it is - and cliched enough (look, it's her loving family gathered around her bed!). The ending is not award-worthy but it is not improved by more father-daughter bonding, that's for sure.