5 stars for Interstellar - A film review by a Year 11 pupil

Epic sci-fi film by Christopher Nolan where theoretical astrophysics plays a starring role.

One of the reasons that the film Interstellar is so compelling is because of its scientific accuracy.  Its complex plot explores wormholes and supermassive black holes and the idea of time dilation due to gravity.  Although time travel as portrayed in the film is not yet a reality, Nolan certainly carries us away with the idea of its theoretical possibility.

The story is set in the not-too-distant future of our planet. The state of the environment is so devastating that everything on earth is dying and soon there will be nothing left. The presentation of the scorched earth and famine conditions are a clear warning about the climate change crisis we face today and the state of the farmland in the film is scarily close to the stories on our news feeds. 

The main character is Cooper, who used to be a NASA pilot, before abandoning his stellar dreams to focus on farming enough food to survive the savage famines. When he intercepts an old drone his imagination is rekindled. He discovers a gravitational anomaly that leads him to NASA’s top secret space mission, to ensure humanity’s survival by colonising space. Cooper has to decide whether to stay with his family and watch the earth die, or join the mission in an attempt to save humanity from extinction. He is torn by the decision to leave his dear family behind, but he yearns for a more meaningful life and says goodbye, with a promise to come back.

Cooper’s mission travels to another galaxy, through a wormhole, to try to find a new planet that humans can live on and start again.  The mission is fraught with danger. The astronauts travel towards a supermassive black hole and launch their ship into the rip in space-time. Many of the planets are really near the black hole and are subject to time dilation; every hour the characters spend there is the equivalent of seven years on earth. As you’d expect, life beyond the reaches of our know galaxy isn’t easy, but Cooper’s most dangerous adversary is the least expected. Surviving this attack, Cooper employs a slingshot manoeuvre to save his crew member, Amelia. Yet, Cooper survives falling into the black hole and finds himself in a 5-dimensional tesseract composed of moments of time from his daughter’s bedroom. He eventually realises that he can use gravity to communicate with Murph. As an accomplished space scientist, now working for NASA, Murph uses the morse code signals from her father to solve the gravity-equation which allows humans to safely leave earth and colonise space.

Because of what space does to time, when Cooper is reunited Murph, his daughter is at the end of her long and fulfilled life, surrounded by her own children and grandchildren. She forgives her father for leaving her and wisely counsels him to find Amelia, and continue humanity’s mission of finding a habitable planet. 

The science behind the film is extremely well-researched and fascinating. The impressive visual effects that conjure up the many worlds of the film, make it very real and believable. It would be remiss not to mention the incredible musical score which subtly reinforces the themes and atmosphere of the film. Interstellar is a film for anyone who loves an action-packed, visually stunning film but beyond its entertainment value this film will make you ponder the big questions of our lives, the universe we live in and our existence in time.