INTERSTELLAR: Time and Love

Christopher Nolan is a name many will know. He is typically regarded as that movie director who thoroughly enjoys confusing the heck out of his audience. Cinephiles, film bro’s, and critics alike consider many of his films to be noteworthy in the world of cinema. He is well-known for his The Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception. Another title those who are familiar with Nolan may recognize… Interstellar. A truly magnificent cinematic feat. Eight years have come and gone since its release and I still have yet to see its equal. Interstellar is an epic space-time adventure with lots of mind-boggling scientific theory and visuals that truly are a spectacle to watch on the big screen. However, these things are not what I most appreciate about the movie, as amazing as they are. No, I rather think this movie has something much more important than great cinematography or plot (though, it certainly contains both). 

These aspects of Interstellar are, of course, a massive part of the film’s success. But there is, I think, something even more important than what Nolan so obviously did well…

*Spoilers ahead*

Interstellar is a confusing piece of cinema. No matter how many times I watch it, I still can't seem to fully comprehend all the science. After all, much of the physics behind it is theoretical. This makes the movie chaotic to the viewer. As we watch, our brains are hard at work trying to understand all this fancy scientific jargon we’ve never heard of. This is how I spent my first couple of watches. I was reading articles and googling phrases like “tesseract” and “quantum gravity,” puzzling over what I couldn't understand as I tried to figure this movie out. Little did I know I was missing the very heart and soul of Interstellar.  

Sure, the science behind Interstellar is an endlessly intriguing topic, but even more so is the way the film handles love, as both a transcendent dimension and an emotion. 

Interstellar takes its audience on a voyage through space and time. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and a team of brilliant scientists embark on a journey across the vast expanse of outer space in an attempt to save humanity from an earth that has turned its back on them, shoveling dirt on top of their graves one dust storm at a time. The team faces incredible odds. They win some, they lose some. Mostly, though, they take heavy losses throughout their journey. Their adversary? Time. And it is shown time and time again (get it?) that it is a force to be reckoned with. All the science, all the resources and planning in the world could not have prepared Cooper and his team for their race against time. This is the human condition, we are bound by time. There is no escaping it. And yet, even time is no match for the connection between a father and his daughter.

The relationship between Cooper and his daughter, Murph (Mackenzie Foy), is evidently a strong one, and this is made clear from the very start of the film. Murph has much admiration for Cooper. So it comes as no surprise when Murph is angered deeply by her father’s decision to leave earth. Despite his leaving on rather bad terms with Murph, his desire to get back to her is the very thing that saves the human race and leads to the eventual reuniting of a father to his daughter. 

When Cooper accesses the 5th Dimension, he has not left behind the bounds of time, but he has transcended them. He finds himself in a place where all of time is happening all at once. In this place Cooper says something unforgettable, “Love, TARS, love. It's just like Brand said. My connection with Murph, it is quantifiable. It's the key!” Cooper’s connection to Murph is a “quantifiable connection” and it's what They (the mysterious beings the movie speaks of) use to bridge the gap between their dimension and ours in order to save the world.

The one thing more powerful than the human condition –than our limitations, than time itself– is our ability to love. 

It contrasts well with the rest of the film. It can feel cold at times– empty, even. Like a void. Even the ambiance of Zimmer’s score seems to echo endlessly into the darkness of space. But then at the very heart of the film is this relationship. The thing we are all rooting for. Just when you feel your senses have been deserted by color and life and light, we see Murph, now aged into a woman (Jessica Chastain), reaching out. Extending a hand into the void. Cooper and Murph guide one another simultaneously from different dimensions of space and time back to each other. Cooper not only saves Murph, but she saves him. Whatever it was that made Murph wear her father’s jacket all those years, despite her resentment toward him for leaving her, it was that very same thing that led him back to her. 

This, my friends, is the beauty of Interstellar. All the science in the world –all the practicality– could not save a species, not without love. It was love that was able to travel across dimensions of time. A quote from the movie delivered by Anne Hathaway’s Dr. Brand has always stood out to me, it says, “Listen to me when I say that love isn’t something we invented, it’s observable and powerful, it has to mean something…maybe it means something more, something we can’t yet understand. Maybe it’s some evidence, some artifact of a higher dimension that we can’t consciously perceive. Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.”

- AL