Interstellar SPOILERS ALLOWED Discussion thread

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You see! The sound design sucks!

[karelm 2,914]

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

Well, Nolan doesn't understand female characters, editing, structure, dialog, or sound mixing either. The more you think about the film, the less positive you'll be towards it. It has wonderful moments but does not have the staying power of a masterful film. The more you think about it, it the less successful you'll find it.

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.

I was actually okay with the scene where old Murph tells her father to move on. To me it indicated that Murph had moved on herself having raised her own family and was the matriarch of a large and happy brood. It actually was a nice way of saying she got over the loss of her father. I actually thought it was a clever and satisfying touch.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

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."

Did the wormhole really close?

It would be completely impossible for Cooper to reach Amelia if it was.

[karelm 2,914]

You see! The sound design sucks!

It's no use, Steph. everyone acknowledges the sound mix sucked but are now saying it's an example of Nolan's genius that he did it that way. It's hopeless.

[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.

I was actually okay with the scene where old Murph tells her father to move on. To me it indicated that Murph had moved on herself having raised her own family and was the matriarch of a large and happy brood. It actually was a nice way of saying she got over the loss of her father. I actually thought it was a clever and satisfying touch.

But it needn't to be any longer and is - in its very obviousness - reducing the cosmic dimensions to a homely Hollywood family drama. I would have preferred something more enigmatic but that wasn't to be.

You see! The sound design sucks!

It's no use, Steph. everyone acknowledges the sound mix sucked but are now saying it's an example of Nolan's genius that he did it that way. It's hopeless.

It's an idiotic internet shitstorm. And mostly attributable to literal-minded americans that obviously are about to raid Hollywood because they didn't understand one or two lines of dialogue. Jeez...

[karelm 2,914]

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.

I was actually okay with the scene where old Murph tells her father to move on. To me it indicated that Murph had moved on herself having raised her own family and was the matriarch of a large and happy brood. It actually was a nice way of saying she got over the loss of her father. I actually thought it was a clever and satisfying touch.

But it needn't to be any longer and is - in its very obviousness - reducing the cosmic dimensions to a homely Hollywood family drama. I would have preferred something more enigmatic but that wasn't to be.

You see! The sound design sucks!

It's no use, Steph. everyone acknowledges the sound mix sucked but are now saying it's an example of Nolan's genius that he did it that way. It's hopeless.

It's an idiotic internet shitstorm. And mostly attributable to literal-minded americans that obviously are about to raid Hollywood because they didn't understand one or two lines of dialogue. Jeez...

Nope. It's more like poor use of grammar and being told that it was the storyteller's intent to tell a story with poor use of language. Yeah, that will open you up to criticism of lazy use of grammar. Some will argue it's the listeners fault because not everyone complained of grammar issues where that just means most don't give a shit about it. That I can't argue.

[crocodile 8,018]

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.

Who said it was about love? I've seen it three times and at no time got an impression this was about chasing the girl. More of a responsibility to the human race and finding new home.

Cooper just doesn't belong on that station. He says that when he's sitting on a porch with TARS. Plus, hi observing his daughter die like this is not appropriate.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It may not be about romantic love. But the film never really established a bond between Coop and Amelia.

Also, Jason is right that Nolan doesn't really understand love. Which is a bit unfortunate in a film which features it as an important plot point.

His actors bail him out, but this is an aspect where Spielberg would have been stronger in I think.

[crocodile 8,018]

Do you understand love, Stefan? Who does? Hollywood?

Because I don't.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Love is an philosophical construct, invented to explain away types of behavior and impulses caused by chemical reactions in the human body. And attempting to make them seem more profound and meaningful then they are.

Like Religion tries to describe meaning to the mundane facts of human nature and the world around us.

If romantic love does indeed excist, and I have my doubts, then it's the most selfish of human impulses.

[crocodile 8,018]

Yes, I agree.

Going to to Interstellar. I still think it doesn't have anything to do with love. Amelia at this point is going to be the only human being to die alone and I just see it as Murph's and Coop's act of kindness than anything else. If that's love, then it's ok.

Now, if the film ended on them two reuniting. That would have been wrong.

Besides, how does the population bomb work exactly? Pilgrim? Anyone?

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Love is a huge part of Interstellar, just not between Coop and Brandt.

[crocodile 8,018]

Yeah,

I'd like to see the film once again in IMAX. But can I justify another £41 to do just that?

Karol

[publicist 4,643]

Nope. It's more like poor use of grammar and being told that it was the storyteller's intent to tell a story with poor use of language. Yeah, that will open you up to criticism of lazy use of grammar. Some will argue it's the listeners fault because not everyone complained of grammar issues where that just means most don't give a shit about it. That I can't argue.

'Poor use of language'? That's a nutty sentence in this context.

Yeah,

I'd like to see the film once again in IMAX. But can I justify another £41 to do just that?

Karol

it seems to get more expensive by the minute, isn't it?

[crocodile 8,018]

No, it includes travelling to get there. And an entire day.

The film is doing well at international box office $321,910,000. But... only $97 million in the United States.

Good they don't need to make a sequel.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I do wanna see it in IMAX. Will probably go to Amsterdam later in the week

[publicist 4,643]

Before watching this a fourth time, i encourage anyone here to obtain a copy of Tarkowsky's VICTIM, a movie that shares some curious similarities with Nolan's tale.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Any theories about what it was that grabbed Brandt when they traveled through the worm hole?

[karelm 2,914]

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?

Didn't the nurse at the end of the movie say that coop was 127 years old? When he was waking up on the station. So that would make murph 100 years old. (assuming she was 10 and Cooper was 36 when he left, so 90 or so years went by.)

[Arpy 4,145]

Any theories about what it was that grabbed Brandt when they traveled through the worm hole?

Wasn't this explained? It was Cooper.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

How?

[crocodile 8,018]

I thought you were making an innuendo.

Of course, it was Cooper. You see the scene through his perspective right after tessaract sequence.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Ok, I must have missed that.

[crocodile 8,018]

Speaking of which: was everyone else amused when Coop asks "Who's they?" for an nth time in the film?

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

for an nth time in the film?

What?

[crocodile 8,018]

He does say that a lot in the film.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Well they never introduced themselves. So it's perfectly normal for a polite Texan buy like Coop to wonder about that.

[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."

Did the wormhole really close?

It would be completely impossible for Cooper to reach Amelia if it was.

I didn't think it did, since it was never addressed, but I read an article where Jonathan Nolan explains the ending a bit and that's what he says.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Link!

[Jay 37,372]

I don't think the wormhole is closed, because that would be pointless and mean that humanity is doomed. I think the only thing that closed was the "beyond time and space" area Coop was briefly in long enough to tap the McGuffin into the watch

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The film clearly establishes that without the wormhole they would be unable to reach the region of space where Brandt is stranded.

There is no mention that in the decades after Cooper left Earth they have developed FTL travel, so the worm hole must still be there at the end of the film or the whole thing makes no sense.

Future mankind can create a wormhole near Saturn to give humanity access to another part of the universe. So that they themselves can exist. Removing the wormhole makes so sense in that context.

[Jay 37,372]

Right. My interpretation was that Murph figuring out the McGuffin was enough to convince humanity to spend money on space travel again, and within a few decades everyone was on board a giant space ship to thravel through the wormhole and set up a new life on Hathaway's planet.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I read another interpretation of the ending that stated that humanity survived thanks to Cooper and Brandt and the genetic material they took with them for Plan B.

But IMO that makes the whole plot about Murph solving gravity, Cooper manipulating his timeline and the ending where Cooper films himself back in our solar-system completely pointless.

[Jay 37,372]

That makes absolutely no sense.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Jay, if you see it multiple times, I think the feeling that it should be longer will dissipate. It flows quite naturally once you're familiar with it. I'll bet that the more you see or think about it, the more you'll like and understand it.

The Spielberg draft was good but a lot more... Spielbergy, with your usual cliches and somewhat cringey moments. Visually it would have given the chance for more widely appealing alien and sleek futuristic cool stuff.

Jonah's interview stating that the wormhole is closed is him talking about an earlier draft, confusing conversation. But in the novelization and the final screenplay it's clear that the wormhole is still open.

Cooper doesn't leave because he has a crush on Brand or because he doesn't care about his daughter. He leaves because it's in his nature. Like he says he doesn't like sitting around like nothing happened. He needs to find her and see if Edmunds' world is promising, because until then he really hasn't completed his mission. Plan A involves the gravity problem, the big colony ships, but also an eventual relocation to a real planet. He's only 2/3 done, and so leaves to finish things.

[Jay 37,372]

OK, that makes more sense about why Coop goes to see her. A lot more sense actually, so thanks for that.

My question is, why had NOBODY else gone to see her in the intervening years? Or did nobody know that she was alive + on a planet that probably sustains life until Coop woke up?

[publicist 4,643]

Were these clichés encouraged by Spielberg? or put authors them in preemptive obedience?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I'll see if my second viewing changing my opinion. But I really do think that the final part, after Mann blows himself up, the spiraling docking scene, descending towards Gargantua etc etc goes too fast. Up until that it's a fairly slow paced film and suddenly everything goes into overdrive.

OK, that makes more sense about why Coop goes to see her. A lot more sense actually, so thanks for that.

My question is, why had NOBODY else gone to see her in the intervening years? Or did nobody know that she was alive + on a planet that probably sustains life until Coop woke up?

Thoughout the film Endurance is able to receive messages from Earth but not reply. So there is no way they would have been able to know what was going on at all. Till Cooper woke up.

[Jay 37,372]

OK.

So hypothetically, what would have happen if after Coop tapped the McGuffin into the watched, he just died?

Murph still would have solved the equation, they still would have built that new space station and be heading towards Saturn. What did Coop being found alive change?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I have actually no idea how Cooper got from being past the event horizon of a black hole suddenly in our solar system again.

That seemed to be a big leap of logic right there.

[Jay 37,372]

Well, I assume the 5th dimensional beings relocated him there. But I don't know how or why.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Exactly. The tesseract "location" is part of higher dimensional space - the kind that Doyle says they pass through in the wormhole. It's all interconnected, so he's sent back through the wormhole (encountering the Endurance on the way) once his work there is done.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

To have a slightly underwhelming reunion with his 100+ year old daughter, and then set of again....

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Hey, reunite with your daughter after 100+ years, even just for a few minutes, and then tell me it's underwhelming!

[Jay 37,372]

Exactly. The tesseract "location" is part of higher dimensional space - the kind that Doyle says they pass through in the wormhole. It's all interconnected, so he's sent back through the wormhole (encountering the Endurance on the way) once his work there is done.

Yes, I know. But:

what would have happen if after Coop tapped the McGuffin into the watched, he just died?

Murph still would have solved the equation, they still would have built that new space station and be heading towards Saturn. What did Coop being found alive change?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Hey, reunite with your daughter after 100+ years, even just for a few minutes, and then tell me it's underwhelming!

I'm sorry, loved the film, but the ending could have been stronger.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Exactly. The tesseract "location" is part of higher dimensional space - the kind that Doyle says they pass through in the wormhole. It's all interconnected, so he's sent back through the wormhole (encountering the Endurance on the way) once his work there is done.

Yes, I know. But:

what would have happen if after Coop tapped the McGuffin into the watched, he just died?

Murph still would have solved the equation, they still would have built that new space station and be heading towards Saturn. What did Coop being found alive change?

Nothing really, except for getting a full account of the Endurance mission and learning that at least two of the three worlds were uninhabitable.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Happy ending syndrome!

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

What's wrong with a happy ending?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Nothing at all. But in Interstellar's case it all felt a bit off kilter.