“Interstellar” really does take you between the stars

McKenna Powers, Media Editor

What defines our universe?  The human race, time, or even the planet Earth itself?  It may be hard to think ahead of our generation, to wonder what happens next, but what if the Earth were running out of time?  Would the human race and all other species slowly and painfully die out, or could someone – some higher, more intelligent beings – save us?

In the lengthy but thrilling Interstellar, directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Inception), a widowed former NASA astronaut Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) sets off into space and travels to new worlds to determine the future of the human race, since Earth’s existence seems to be coming to an end.  He leaves behind friends, family, and even his children for years as dangerous, breath-taking adventures come hurtling at him.

In the far away future, crop blight is hitting hard, sending society into a downward spiral.  Cooper runs a local farm with his two children, Tom and Murphy.  Cooper’s daughter believes her room is haunted by a “ghost,” but Cooper and Murphy come to realize it is an unknown intelligence, communicating through gravitational waves.  The waves provide binary coordinates leading them to a secret NASA headquarters where they meet Professor John Brand (Michael Caine), leader of the seemingly disbanded NASA.

Brand asks Cooper to sacrifice everything to be the head pilot on the Endurance spaceship and to look for other astronauts who went out years ago looking for potentially inhabitable planets.  After much persuasion, Cooper agrees, and heads out into space with Brand’s daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway) and a small crew, including two robots Tars and Case.

After many years pass in space, it seems most astronauts who have gone to find other planets have died since all of the planets have been uninhabitable for man, except for Mann (Matt Damon) whose planet seems the most likely to be habitable.  With low fuel, the team travels to Mann’s planet, only to find it icy, frozen, and unsuitable for human life.

Back on Earth, Murphy – now a NASA scientist – learns that Professor Brand is not one hundred percent on board with saving the human race, but might have other plans.

Anymore information would give away the ending, which wouldn’t be a good thing, would it?

Personally, science fiction movies about the human race dying, the world ending, and traveling through space looking for answers did not seem appealing… at first.  However, after much begging from my friends, I decided to see Interstellar and fell in love.  Though I am usually more interested in films that are forbidden love stories, something in this movie changed how I felt about science fiction.

It was very interesting, to say the least.

The movie is pretty long, three hours in total.  It did seem to drag in the beginning, though that may have been because I did not want to see it originally, but by the time the movie ended, I was begging for more.  Interstellar kept my attention.  It had me asking question after question.  As the credits rolled after the mind-blowing conclusion, I looked around the theater and everyone’s – I mean everyone’s – mouths had dropped.

The movies length and depth may make it confusing at first.  My friends and I did still have questions after the ending, but talking through the movie was enough to clear most things up.

I would definitely recommend Interstellar.  It was spectacular in every way, and really made me think and question, “What is going to happen?”  Even if science fiction is not necessarily up your alley, give it a shot.  I did, and I’m glad.

Since this movie is long, and as a lot of in depth parts, it may be a little confusing at first. My friends and I still had questions after the movie ended, but taking through the movie seemed to clear most things up.

So, once Earth’s time is coming to an end, what will actually happen to us?

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.