For the monthly feature this October, I can’t avoid writing about this science fiction movie that involves a worm hole, a black hole, and a crew of scientists trying to save the human species: Interstellar.
I watched the movie twice during the second week this September. The first time I watched it, I did not understand some of the things shown towards the end. The search took me to different answers. It also took me back to astrophysics.
I have always been attracted by astronomy. I enjoyed reading about stars, planets, satellites, asteroids, and comets. I was introduced to complex objects like black hole through a picture book (published by National Geographic Society, I think) my friend had brought to school. About three years ago, I had read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. It had given me a picture of the universe but I was still not satisfied.
I had heard about Interstellar from my friends in college. I did not know what the movie showed until I watched it for the first time. To keep the suspense (which I don’t usually do in case of movies) I had not even googled its name. After I watched it the first time, I was confused. Because:
I was touched by its drama.
I did not understand anything shown in the end.
I had to know where Cooper went after trying to enter the black hole. I had to know how all things shown in the movie were related.
As soon as I watched the movie, I googled and saw a term “tesseract”. Cooper had gone into the tesseract. How? “They” had sent him. Who’s they?
Who’s they?
Cooper asks the question twice in the movie. If you have watched the movie and listened carefully the conversation between Cooper and TARS in the Tesseract scene you can get the hint. But who built the Tesseract? Only one answer in Quora satisfied me. And to verify it again, I had to watch the movie.
However, I wanted more information on the scientific accuracy of the movie. While sci-fi movies are related to science, they use their artistic freedom to show things which can be misleading. According to the materials I found on the internet, the movie had shown almost accurately the black hole and the worm hole. I thought, ‘There is some science in the movie.’ I found an ebook The Science of Interstellar, written by astrophysicist Kip Thorne. This book helped me know many aspects of the movie and the science used in it. Combined with my undergraduate physics book I could understand relativity and concepts of space-time better than I had before.
Interstellar helped me widen my knowledge on universe. However, it would have been difficult if I had not known some of the concepts previously. I really appreciate the movies which tease my brain and my knowledge. This is one such movie.
Cast
- Matthew McConaughey as Joseph “Coop” Cooper
- Anne Hathaway as Dr. Amelia Brand
- Jessica Chastain as Murphy “Murph” Cooper
- Mackenzie Foy as young Murphy
- Ellen Burstyn as elderly Murphy
- John Lithgow as Donald, Cooper’s father-in-law
- Michael Caine as Professor John Brand
- Casey Affleck as Tom Cooper
- Timothée Chalamet as young Tom
- Bill Irwin as TARS (voice and puppetry) and CASE (puppetry)
- Josh Stewart as CASE (voice)
- David Gyasi as Dr. Romilly
- Matt Damon as Dr. Mann
(Source: Wikipedia)
IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
