Review: INTERSTELLAR

Since its premiere on October 26^th Interstellar has been a widespread topic on the internet, people around the world  discussed every aspects of the movie. Furthermore, Interstellar triumphed 9.0 on IMDb which classified as high mark. Considering the facts that was mentioned above, along with our needs to cool down our minds after a week full of ten tests in a row, we decided to watch Interstellar on November 22^nd together.

            The movie was set in the near dystopian future. Humanity was facing extinction for the earth could no longer sustain life. It has been plagued with famine, crop blight, and drought. The story was focused to a former NASA pilot, Cooper, portrayed by Matthew McConaughey, who managed a farm with his family. He lived with his father in law, his adolescent son, Tom, and 10-years-old daughter, Murphy, portrayed by Mackenzie Foy. Murphy thought that there was a ghost in her room that was trying to communicate. Soon, Cooper and Murphy found out that the “ghost” was an unidentified intelligence that attempted to connect with them through gravitational waves that symbolises binary and morse code. The code was interpreted by Cooper, revealing a coordinate to a hidden NASA headquarter.

            Cooper and his daughter were welcomed by Professor Brand and his collegaues. They uncover a plan to restore humanity on alternative planet using a wormhole that has been made by extraterrestrial intellect to escape the solar system. Three potential planets, which orbit Gargantua black hole, have been examined each by three astronauts; Dr. Mann, Edmunds, and Miller, on former Lazarus missions. Cooper is given a task to pilot a spacecraft called Endurance on a mission to retrieve the astronauts data. Professor Brands explained two plans; Plan A and Plan B. Plan A was if any planet is proved habitable, humanity will follow on space stations which will be completed when they come back, while Plan B was if Plan A fails, they will not come back and will spawn civilisation, with fertilised embryos they brought, in another planet. The fact that Cooper had to leave his family made Murphy upset. Consequently, she choosed not to talk to Cooper even after his departure. Despite her daughter’s rage, Cooper still said that he will come back and he loves her so much.

            Cooper joined with biologist Amelia Brands (Anne Hathaway), Brand’s daughter, physicist Romilly (David Gyasi), geographer Doyle (Wes Bentley), and artificial intelligence TARS (voiced by Bill Irwin) and CASE (voiced by Josh Stewart). They entered the wormhole and went to Miller’s planet. Because of gravitational time dilation, every hour spent on the surface was akin to 7 years on Earth. The planet was found inhabitable as it covered with water and shook by enormous waves. When a wave hit, Doyle was killed and their vehicle was damaged that it took them several hours to be able to return to the spacecraft. When they got back to Endurance, 23 years had passed.

            On Earth, Murphy was grown up and currently worked at NASA, helping Professor Brands. On his deathbed, he disclosed that he have not and could not solve the equation to migrate humanity to another world. Murphy realised that she could solve the problem, but only if she had data to black hole’s singularity.

In the Endurance, the ship was low on fuel. The crew had to choose between Mann’s and Edmunds’ planet. Despite Amelia’s intuition to go to Edmunds’, Cooper and Romily won the vote to go to Mann’s Planet for they knew that Amelia was emotionally involved with Edmunds and Mann was still transmitting data.

            Arrived at Mann’s planet, Cooper received a message from Murphy that said the whole Plan A was a deception and it has always been Plan B all along. Cooper was disappointed. Moreover, Mann unveiled to him that his data was fake, the planet was fulfilled with ammonia, frosty, and unpromising. He lied so that he could be saved. Mann, then tried to kill Cooper because he wanted to proceed Plan B, whereas Cooper wanted to go home. He smashed Cooper’s space helmet and then fled. On the other side, Romily died as an explosion ensued when he found out Mann’s data was implausible. Fortunately for Cooper, Amelia came to rescue him. They saw Mann’s shuttle landed improperly on Endurance. Its airlock depressurised, destroying Mann along with his shuttle to pieces. The Endurance was also damaged and lost its control, but, Cooper was able to stabilise it.

            With only a little fuel left, they decided to go to Edmunds’ Planet, using the Gargantua black hole’s enormous gravity to slingshot. Unbeknownst to Amelia, Cooper and TARS detached themselves to venture the black hole and search data for singularity, also to subside Endurance mass. Hence, Amelia would reach Edmunds’ Planet. Cooper and TARS mysteriously found themselves inside a hyperspaced cube, a tesseract, where time was appeared as a spatial dimension and gateways to Murphy’s bedroom at different times. Cooper learned that the tesseract has been constructed by future human in order to communicate with Murphy through him, as the “ghost”. Cooper and TARS transmitted their data to adult Murphy, using gravitational waves through binary and morse code. Murphy was successfully solve the equation. Cooper later awakened on a space station and reunited with elderly Murphy that told him to rescue Amelia on Edmunds’ Planet, the new habitable world..

            Interstellar was indeed a complicated movie. Its long plot brought us deeper to the story gradually. It was not a monotonous movie with the duration of 169 minutes. A lovely plot as the basic combined with a great filmography and smooth editing techniques kept audiences astounded during the movie. We got the chance to see how life goes in outer space and had our questions about outer space mechanism answered.

            “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” A poem by Dylan Thomas was uttered many times during the movie. It turned out that the poem more or less described the plot of the movie. ‘Good night, close of day, and dying of the light’ were a metaphor for the end of the day which was the condition people confronted in the movie. And by the second and third lines, it was declared that old men was not supposed to die or disappear easily from life but they should struggle against the death.

              The plot itself was not only speak about science but also many life values such as, kinship, humanity, bravery, and self-control. A kinship between father and daughter was clearly seen from the beginning until the end of the movie. It presented how father and daughter should connected and loved each other. Interstellar also exposed humanity that was needed to be fought for all people on earth. Moreover it showed how important it was to have bravery and sel-control to survive at unpleasant times.

            By and large, Christopher Nolan, the director and co-writer of the movie, succeeded at creating a high standard for science fiction. The story was well written and the plot twist was thoughtful. Our formidable universe was depicted with stunning animation techniques. Even though the movie lasts for hours, every second wasted is worthy. Also, Interstellar  successfully communicated complex science in such a way that people without specialised knowledge in astrophysics, would be able to understand. We are looking forward to watch it again.