The verdict
Better than its detractors allow and messier than its defenders admit. Watch it for the physics and the docking scene.
Quick facts
- Written by
- Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan
- Released
- 2014
- Runtime
- 2 hours 49 minutes
- Starring
- Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Mackenzie Foy
- Awards
- Academy Award for visual effects
- Where to watch
- Amazon Prime Video
- Genre
- Hard science fiction
Director Christopher Nolan
Interstellar is Christopher Nolan’s 2014 film about a farmer who used to be a pilot, a dying Earth, and a wormhole that someone else put next to Saturn. It is a film about time, love and gravity that is entirely sincere about all three, and how you feel about that sincerity is the whole question. It is also one of the most beautiful things ever photographed in a spacecraft.
The idea behind it
Nolan built the film around a real piece of physics: time runs slower in strong gravity, so a few hours on a planet near a black hole costs the crew decades back home. That is not a decoration. It is the engine of every emotional scene in the second half, and it means the film’s most brutal moments happen while people are simply standing still.
Around that he puts a straightforward crisis. Earth’s crops are failing one strain at a time, and the fix is not on Earth. The film takes the position that leaving is the only rational thing left to do, and then makes the leaving as expensive as it can.
The story, spoiler-light
Cooper, a widowed engineer farming corn because the world no longer needs engineers, is recruited by what is left of NASA to fly through a wormhole in search of a habitable world. His daughter stays behind, and the film is as much about the cost of that decision as about the mission.
Two things are worth knowing before you start. First, the film’s middle act is the strongest part, and it is structured around a single terrible arithmetic problem. Second, the last twenty minutes divide people sharply, because Nolan stops being subtle and starts explaining. Both halves are deliberate.
What makes it science fiction
The physics is taken seriously. The black hole was rendered using equations published by Kip Thorne, the film’s scientific consultant and a physicist who worked on gravitational waves, and the result was accurate enough to be used in research papers afterwards. Very little in a Hollywood film stands up to that.
What the film does invent is a fifth dimension treated as a place you can reach, and a theory of love as a force that crosses time. That is the part that loses people, and it is worth noticing that Nolan commits to it completely rather than hedging.
Who should watch it, and who should skip it
Watch it on the largest screen you can find, and watch it if you want science fiction that is unembarrassed about being about people. The docking sequence alone justifies the runtime.
Skip it if sentimentality irritates you, or if you want the science to stay clean all the way to the end. The organ, the bookshelf and the monologue about love are all doing the same thing, and if that does not land for you then the last act will feel like a betrayal rather than a payoff.
Where to watch it
It is available on Amazon Prime Video, and on the usual digital stores to buy or rent. It is a film that gains from scale, so it is worth the extra for a large screen and decent sound if you have the option.
The verdict
An ambitious, sincere, occasionally ridiculous film that is better than its detractors allow and messier than its defenders admit. Watch it for the physics and the docking scene, and forgive it the ending.
Frequently asked questions
How long is Interstellar, and where can I watch it?
Two hours and forty-nine minutes. It is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and available to buy or rent on the usual digital stores.
Is the science in it real?
The black hole and the time dilation are grounded in real physics, worked out with the physicist Kip Thorne. The wormhole, the fifth dimension and the idea that love is a measurable force are not.
Did it win any awards?
It won the Academy Award for visual effects, which was the least surprising result of that year. Hans Zimmer’s score was nominated as well.
Do I need to understand the physics to follow it?
No. The film explains the one rule you need, which is that time passes at different speeds in different places, and it explains it twice.
Is there a sequel?
No. It is a self-contained film.