An amazing accomplishment that may be considered Nolan’s Magnum Opus
“Interstellar poster” — via Paramount Pictures
By Jacobo Rodriguez Solana
Jun. 5, 2021
Inception (2010) is a dream inside a dream .To enjoy the movie, you have to buy into the idea that inside each one of us lie dreams, and inside those dreams reside a version of us that dares to dream as well; layers of dreams inside our conscience, all at once. Ultimately, Christopher Nolan is asking us to believe in those dreams, our dreams, for him, as Saito, one of the main characters, says “take the leap of faith.”
It’s one of the films where Nolan is the least naive about the message, its hiding in plain sight: dream, dreams are good, dreams are therapeutic, dreams are also scary, but dream anyways.
On the other hand, 2014 Interstellar has very little in common with Inception. In Interstellar, Nolan doesn’t want you to believe in dreams, he wants you, at least on the surface, to believe in love, and in the power it holds.
THE PREMISE
The story is simple, after embarking on a space adventure, Cooper, the main character in the movie, left his 10 year old daughter and teenage son to find a new planet for humanity to live in, as earth’s oxygen supply begins to dwindle, subsequently Nolan establishes a simple narrative tool, as they begin their descent to the planet’s surface in search of an astronaut previously there to find the data he has collected. Time, Nolan makes the enemy of the sequence very clear, it’s time, and only time, at least for now, “go, go, go, 7 years per hour here, let’s make it count,” every hour spent on this planet will be 7 years on earth, thanks to a shift in relativity; we know they have to get off this planet as fast as humanly possible, or that little girl crying on her bed may never see her dad again, or even worse, there will be no Earth to save, and so begins the movie inside the movie.
Every moment inside that planet feels like an hour for us because it does for them, and for a few moments inside there, things seem ok, and then it happens: “those aren’t mountains.”
Interstellar “Mountains” scene
THE TWIST
This marks a change in the pace of the movie, and a shift in scope. We as human beings think that we know what space looks like, generally speaking, so does Cooper and Dr. Brand, one of Cooper’s crew mates, the daughter of the lead scientist puppeteering this mission. All of that knowledge they had in the movie, this shot, this wave literally brings all of that crashing down, what he creates here is awe inspiring. Through a single shot, Nolan establishes 3 things: scale, danger, and amusement; these 3 things are a wakeup call to the characters and the audience, it isn’t just time that we should be afraid of, it’s the mission itself.
Brand wants to complete the mission at all cost, Cooper knows that she is not only risking time, she’s risking their lives, and those of their families.
Mountains Original Score by Hanz Zimmer
Some smart eared may have noticed something, from the moment we arrive here, the movie’s composer Hanz Zimmer has been doing something remarkable, he is using the score’s sound to etch the stakes into our mind, a ticking clock, that ticking appears roughly every 1.25 seconds, every tick, is a whole day on earth; through Zimmer’s score, we can literally count, hear, the days passing by, the time wasted, and now that clock is becoming an orchestra of suspense, Brand is sucked under some debris, and all is going to sink at this moment, Doyle, another crew mate accompanying Cooper and Brand, gets struck by the wave and so does the ship as it comes crashing, stuck, for an hour, and then, silence.
We now know the aftermath of what happened “C: What’s this gonna cost us Brand? B: A lot, decades.” And we sit there with them, wating.
Suddenly another wave glimpses over the distance, Nolan makes us stay stranded in the ship, for a reason, so the stakes can sink in, so we can reflect on what had happened: the motor is clean and Cooper and Brand can now safely fly again to orbit, and end this ordeal.
THE PAYOFF
This is the story inside a story finale, the end of the tale, Cooper gets back on the ship only to be told that 23 years have passed, he sits in silence, as he watches the life he should have lived pass in front of his eyes, until the videos end, and the transmissions from his son and daughter stop coming; they have let Cooper go, to him it’s been hours, and he has already been left behind; it is gut wrenching, Nolan doesn’t just let the videos pass on screen, he spends almost 65% of the scene centered on Cooper, and his reactions to his loved ones lives washed away. Nolan knows that the reaction is better than the action, so he keeps the camera where it matters.
Matthew McConaughey’s years of messages
Nolan’s film within a film reminds us that we need to appreciate what we have, to appreciate the moments we have with our children, to remember how ephemeral those moments really are.
Interstellar is somewhat a flawed masterpiece, in the shape of a modern blockbuster, it’s not because we need to buy into an idea such as dreams inside dreams, but in just 15 minutes Nolan creates a tight, suspenseful, short film in a grand, much larger one, Interstellar is an ode to movies, to film, an elevation of what is expected from the biggest names. Today, it is easy to be fatigued by blockbuster cinematic movies, and yet, Interstellar and Cristopher Nolan give us a reason to keep believing in film.
“Interstellar poster” — via Paramount Pictures
Nolan, C. Thomas, E. (2014). Interstellar. Los Angeles, CA: Paramount Pictures.