Interstellar

Interstellar is a 2014 epic science fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother, Jonathan Nolan. It has an ensemble cast led by Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, and Michael Caine. Set in a dystopian future where Earth is suffering from catastrophic blight and famine, the film follows a group of astronauts who travel through space in search of a new home for humanity.

The film began development in 2006 from a treatment by producer Lynda Obst and theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, and was originally set to be directed by Steven Spielberg. Thorne served as an executive producer and scientific consultant on the film, and wrote the tie-in book The Science of Interstellar. It was Obst's final film as producer before her death. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot it on 35 mm film in the Panavision anamorphic format and IMAX 70 mm. Filming began in late 2013 and took place in Alberta, Klaustur, and Los Angeles. Interstellar uses extensive practical and miniature effects, and the company DNEG created additional visual effects.

Interstellar premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre on October 26, 2014, and was released in theaters in the United States on November 5, and in the United Kingdom on November 7, with Paramount Pictures distributing in the United States and Warner Bros. Pictures distributing in international markets. In the United States, it was first released on film stock, expanding to venues using digital projectors. It was a commercial success, grossing $681 million worldwide during its initial theatrical run, and $774.7 million worldwide with subsequent releases, making it the 10th-highest-grossing film of 2014. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Among its various accolades, Interstellar was nominated for five awards at the 87th Academy Awards, winning for Best Visual Effects.

• Year: 2014
• Runtime: 169 min
• Genre: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
• Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain
• Awards: Won 1 Oscar. 45 wins & 148 nominations total
• Ratings: Internet Movie Database: 8.7/10; Rotten Tomatoes: 73%; Metacritic: 74/100

Plot

In the near future, Earth suffers from crop blight, starvation, and devastating dust storms. Cooper, an ex-NASA test pilot-turned-farmer, raises his children, Murph and Tom, with the help of his father-in-law, Donald, following the death of his wife. Murph believes a "ghost" is trying to communicate with her through her bookshelf but is met with skepticism. Following a severe dust storm, Murph's bedroom experiences dust being pulled by gravity into lines of binary, which reveal coordinates to a secret NASA facility. At the facility, mission leader Professor Brand recruits Cooper for a last-ditch mission to save humanity on Earth, by finding habitable planets outside the solar system via a wormhole near Saturn. Cooper joins scientists Amelia Brand, Romilly, and Doyle, while bidding farewell to his children to whom he promises to return.

The Endurance spacecraft, piloted by Cooper and artificially-intelligent robots, TARS and CASE, passes through the wormhole and emerges into a faraway galaxy, orbiting a supermassive black hole, Gargantua. Previous NASA explorers have made this journey and three—Miller, Mann and Edmunds—have reported their planets being potentially habitable. Arriving on Miller's planet, the crew finds her spacecraft ripped to shreds. A massive tsunami, apparently occurring often due to the planet's proximity to Gargantua, barrels towards them and sweeps Doyle away. Amelia and Cooper return to the Endurance to find decades have passed in Earth-years. Alone on the spacecraft, Romilly has aged significantly.

On Earth, an older Murph is a scientist with NASA, helping Brand with his equations. On his deathbed, Brand admits that it was all a farce, and that humanity's Earth-existence is doomed; Murph relays this information back to the Endurance crew on Mann's planet, prompting Cooper to abandon the mission and return to Earth. Mann attempts to stop him, revealing that he falsified information about his planet's habitability in hopes of being rescued. Amelia saves Cooper, but Romilly dies in an explosion at the camp. Flying into space, Mann initiates an unauthorized docking maneuver with the Endurance, which depressurizes the airlock and kills him instantly. Cooper pulls off a daring rescue to save the spinning Endurance.

Without enough resources aboard to return to Earth, lone survivors Cooper and Amelia chart a course towards Edmunds' planet. Cooper sacrifices himself and TARS by detaching from the Endurance, keeping Amelia on course to survive the mission with the resources remaining. Cooper and TARS fall into the black hole, emerging inside a higher-dimensional tesseract where time is "physical." Here, Cooper sees his past-self leading him and Murph to the NASA facility through messages in Murph's bedroom. Knowing that quantum observations of the black hole could help Murph develop solutions to save humanity, Cooper encodes the data into a wristwatch placed on Murph's bookshelf. The tesseract dissolves, and Cooper and TARS are ejected from both the black hole and wormhole into the path of a human spacecraft orbiting Saturn in the future.

Aboard the cylindrical space-station, Cooper learns that Murph is now a venerated scientist, who developed the equations that allowed mass exodus from Earth. Murph is now much older than him due to the extreme time dilation he experienced near Gargantua. Having assured humanity's continued existence, Murph is nearing death but does not wish Cooper to witness it. She suggests he seek out Amelia on Edmunds' planet instead. Cooper and TARS embark on another journey to reach Amelia, who directs CASE and other robots to erect a new colony on the surface of Edmunds' planet. She kneels over his grave, takes off her helmet and breathes in the air from the surrounding atmosphere, indicating the planet could be humanity's next home.

Cast

Matthew McConaughey as Joseph "Coop" Cooper, a widowed NASA pilot who reluctantly becomes a farmer after the agency is closed by the government, and eventually joins the Endurance mission as the lead pilot.

Anne Hathaway as Dr. Amelia Brand, Professor Brand's daughter and NASA scientist aboard the Endurance mission, is responsible for conducting planet colonization.

Jessica Chastain as Murphy "Murph" Cooper, Joseph's daughter, eventually becomes a NASA scientist working under Professor Brand.

Ellen Burstyn as elderly Murph

Mackenzie Foy as 10-year-old Murph

John Lithgow as Donald, Cooper's father-in-law

Michael Caine as Professor John Brand, a high-ranking NASA scientist, father of Amelia, former mentor of Cooper, and director of the Lazarus and Endurance missions

Casey Affleck as Tom Cooper, Joseph's son, who eventually takes charge of his father's farm

Timothée Chalamet as 15-year-old Tom

Wes Bentley as Doyle, a high-ranking NASA member, and Endurance crew member

Bill Irwin as TARS (voice and puppetry) and CASE (puppetry), robots assigned to assist the crew of the Endurance

Topher Grace as Getty, Murph's colleague and love interest

David Gyasi as Professor Romilly, a high-ranking NASA member, and Endurance crew member

Matt Damon as Dr. Mann, a NASA astronaut sent to an icy planet during the Lazarus program

Also appearing are Josh Stewart as the voice of CASE; Leah Cairns as Lois, Tom's wife; Liam Dickinson as Coop, Tom's son; David Oyelowo and Collette Wolfe, respectively, as school principal and teacher Ms. Hanley; Francis X. McCarthy as farmer "Boots"; William Devane as Williams, another NASA member; Elyes Gabel as Cooper Station administrator; Lennart Nowak as Tom's cousin; and Jeff Hephner as Cooper Station doctor.

Source: Interstellar (film), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); facts via OMDb.