Questions tagged [interstellar]
2014 American science fiction movie directed by Christopher Nolan about a crew of astronauts searching for a new home for a dying human society.
135
questions
63
votes
8answers
14k views
How could the human race be saved in Interstellar?
In Interstellar (2014) the human race seemed to be facing pretty poor odds until they discovered a convenient wormhole placed by an unknown entity expressed as "they". Later in the movie, we discover ...
62
votes
3answers
22k views
Why were people led to believe that the Apollo mission was fake in Interstellar?
In the movie Interstellar, Cooper goes to school where he and Murph's teachers have this conversation.
Teacher: It's an old federal textbook. We've replaced them with the corrected versions.
Cooper: ...
54
votes
4answers
11k views
Why are there not any MRI machines available in Interstellar?
In Interstellar, Cooper mentions that they don't have any MRI machines while talking to his kid's teacher. The dialogue goes as follows:
One of those useless machines they used to make was called ...
43
votes
2answers
6k views
Why does Dr Mann act so stupidly?
When Cooper and Tars figure what Dr Mann is up to in Interstellar, he tries to escape with a shuttle and manually docks the Endurance but he doesn't manage to get a secure lock.
As a highly-trained ...
42
votes
10answers
28k views
How did Murph know about Edmunds?
During the end of Interstellar Murph says to her father to go seek Brand as she is all alone on their "new planet". How could Murph know that Wolf Edmunds was dead?
42
votes
6answers
6k views
Why did it take a rocket to lift off the Earth but just shuttles to lift off the other planets?
I remember gravity in both the planets in Interstellar being comparable to that of Earth's. 80% of Earth gravity in case of Mann's planet and 130% in case of Miller's planet. So, why did it take a ...
38
votes
3answers
61k views
Why wasn't Interstellar shot in 3D?
A large part of the story in Interstellar takes place in space and hence there are many occasions when it feels like "wouldn't it have been better to watch this scene in 3D?". Especially after Gravity,...
34
votes
4answers
15k views
If Cooper wanted to stay, why did he send the NASA Coordinates?
In Interstellar, after Cooper arrives in the Tesseract, Cooper tries to send the message STAY to his daughter in the past so she won't let him go on the mission. If that was his intention then why did ...
32
votes
5answers
10k views
How did the watch do what it did?
In Interstellar, after young Murph places the watch on the bookshelf in her bedroom, her father - in the same bedroom but from another dimension - moved the second hand and recorded data in a Morse-...
31
votes
4answers
40k views
What was Mann's motivation?
In Interstellar (2014), the crew members visited the second planet and found Mann. Soon after finding Mann, they discover that he has lied about the data. And then he tried to kill Cooper as he ...
31
votes
4answers
40k views
How does Cooper get out of the black hole?
In the movie Interstellar,
Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey) enters a black hole and sends a message to Murph (his daughter). Later, he is found by rangers, but I don't understand how he gets ...
asked Nov 14 '14 at 6:01
Hussain Akhtar Wahid 'Ghouri'
4191 gold badge4 silver badges5 bronze badges
30
votes
1answer
5k views
Why is the ring of debris (accretion disk) surrounding Gargantua shaped the way it is?
Why does the depiction of the black hole Gargantua in Interstellar look the way it does? I understand why the ring is bright (due to the friction) but why does it loop around what seems to be two ...
26
votes
5answers
52k views
In what time does Interstellar take place?
Any ideas on the timeline of Interstellar's plot? How many years from now does the story take place? We know that it begins in near future, but any approximations or clues about "how many years from ...
26
votes
2answers
10k views
Why doesn't Murph tell her dad that she knew who the 'ghost' was?
In Interstellar, Cooper goes into the black hole and into the 5th dimension. There he starts communicating with his daughter in the past, which she thought was a 'ghost' trying to communicate with her....
26
votes
4answers
25k views
Why did Mann's base explode?
After the scuffle between Mann (Damon) and Cooper (McConaughey) in Interstellar, our protagonist gets a hold of a radio and alerts his shipmates to Mann's duplicity. Then his ship explodes. What ...
26
votes
4answers
9k views
Why did Murph's brother and his wife refuse a doctor for their son in Interstellar?
In Interstellar, when Murph visits her brother and his wife, she notices that their son is coughing hard, and she offers to arrange a visit from a doctor for him. The brother and his wife refuse, ...
25
votes
1answer
11k views
How does the high gravity on Miller's planet create big waves?
In Interstellar the gravity on Millers planet was about 130% of earth's gravity, which made everything heavy.
Shouldn't the waves be low, fast and heavy as well?
24
votes
1answer
5k views
What happened to the other 9 astronauts?
In the beginning of the mission, it's mentioned that 12 pioneers went out to try to find a new world for humanity. During the duration of the film, they only visit 3 of those 12 planets and respective ...
24
votes
5answers
11k views
Why was the wormhole in Interstellar placed near Saturn?
Why was the wormhole placed near Saturn in Interstellar?
If 'they' (advanced future humans) placed the wormhole from future, why didn't they place it near Earth or at-least near the planet Mars?
...
24
votes
1answer
2k views
How was Plan B supposed to work?
In the movie Interstellar, a backup plan was made in case the primary plan to evacuate earth failed. The plan entailed deployment of frozen human embryos on the new planet to essentially restart the ...
21
votes
3answers
5k views
Why did they go to visit the first water planet in Interstellar?
In interstellar, the first planet they visit is the closest one to Gargantua, and hence the one with the biggest time dilation effect (1 hour on the planet = 7 years in the Earth).
Now, if we make ...
20
votes
1answer
5k views
Where is this quote about overcoming the impossible said in “Interstellar”?
On IMDb, a quote from Interstellar says:
Cooper: We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to ...
19
votes
2answers
15k views
Who are “they” in Interstellar?
In Interstellar, NASA scientists keep saying "they" in most of their conversation with Cooper.
Does "they" refer to some alien or supernatural race?
18
votes
4answers
31k views
How did Romilly survive 23 years on the Endurance?
It is stated in Interstellar that each one hour spent on Miller's Planet equals seven years earth time.
Cooper and his colleagues spend some time on the planet, and by the time they return, Romilly ...
18
votes
2answers
6k views
At the end of Interstellar, who built the colony?
At the end of Interstellar, we see a colony-camp built on Wolf Edmunds' planet. Is it built by Dr. Brand after her arrival or was it built by Edmunds for the arrival of the human race?
17
votes
2answers
4k views
What is the significance of Murphy's law?
What is significance of Murphy's law in the film Interstellar. What is the message behind it and how is it related to the plot?
17
votes
6answers
29k views
Condition of Earth in Interstellar
What caused the earth condition in Interstellar in the first place? Was it global warming that caused the dust storms because of soil erosion?
16
votes
1answer
734 views
Why didn't NASA contact Cooper?
If Dr. Brand knew Cooper, and knew him well enough to know that he was capable of flying the mission, why didn't he just contact him? It seems like they were pouring a ton of resources into the ...
16
votes
5answers
38k views
What do Murph and NASA do to save humanity after solving Brand's equation?
In Interstellar, what do Murph and NASA do to save humanity after solving Brand's equation? Do they get the entire human race on giant space ships and transport them to a habitable planet? (How ...
16
votes
1answer
3k views
What is the significance of the robot names in Interstellar?
In Interstellar, robots are quite unconventional looking (which I have discussed already here), but they all have quite catchy names like TARS, KIPP, CASE and PLEX (in game).
So what is the ...
15
votes
3answers
3k views
Why the Robots were so unconventional?
In Interstellar, why robots are so different from conventional robots.
Robot from Intersteller:
They look more like a refrigerator.
I mean, mostly its tried to made robot more human looking but ...
15
votes
3answers
2k views
What's with Interstellar's strange sound mixing?
I hope this question doesn't come across as too opinion-based, but when watching Interstellar I noticed, that the sound mixing was a bit "off". Dialogue was sometimes very hard to understand and ...
15
votes
1answer
3k views
Is Nolan citing Borges?
When I was watching Interstellar a few days ago and Cooper passed the black hole horizon to find himself in a "non-space" on the other side of his daughter's bookshelves where he had access to all ...
14
votes
2answers
9k views
How did Murph figure it out?
From Interstellar we learn that
What I don't get is how did she connect all this weird happenings to this fact? I find this a little too far fetched.
14
votes
2answers
983 views
How was Cooper confident about landing his Ranger on Miller's planet?
When Cooper enters Miller's planet in Interstellar, how does he know that he can land the ranger on the water surface? Also, when Brand and Doyle hop out of the ranger to collect data, how are they so ...
13
votes
2answers
34k views
Why is the “STAY” message sent in Interstellar?
In the movie Interstellar, why does Cooper send the “STAY” message? When Cooper winds up in the tesseract (event Z), there are two related events that are in his past that he knows about: the ...
13
votes
3answers
21k views
Significance of Dr. Brand's poem
Do not go gentle into that good night;
Old age should burn and rave at close of day.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light
These are famous lines from a poem by Dylan Thomas.
These lines are ...
12
votes
1answer
5k views
Why does the Endurance rotate in Interstellar?
In the 2014 film Interstellar, why does the spacecraft Endurance spin? I think it really has to do something with physics?
12
votes
1answer
686 views
How was the main problem dealt with?
[Source]
In Interstellar a pathogenic organism (the blight) is responsible for a global food shortage.
Corn seems to be the last crop that can be grown, although it is hinted that it's only ...
11
votes
3answers
3k views
How did Cooper find the location of NASA from the patterns?
How did Cooper find the location of NASA from the patterns in the dust in Interstellar?
But what I don't get from the movie is how did Cooper make to it to be the coordinates since that data could be ...
11
votes
2answers
14k views
Was Gargantua not a “real” black hole?
A black hole presents a gravitational pull that nothing, not even light can escape as it is the housing for a singularity -- a collapsed star. But in Interstellar Cooper escapes the black hole because,...
11
votes
1answer
2k views
Why this way of making earth uninhabitable in Interstellar?
In Interstellar we see that in Earth's future, a global crop blight and second Dust Bowl are slowly rendering the planet uninhabitable.
However, current projections are the scarcity of oil, ...
11
votes
1answer
3k views
How much of a gravitational time dilation did the three planets in Interstellar experience?
In Interstellar, there are multiple planets that are accessible via a worm hole/gravitational anomaly near Saturn. Of twelve, only 3 were considered the most promising, and the ones that returned a ...
11
votes
2answers
11k views
What was Prof. Brand's plan?
Having rewatched "Interstellar" (2014), I realized that I don't understand the original plan.
We learn that Prof. Brand never intended to go through with Plan A, as he was convinced that it cannot be ...
10
votes
1answer
2k views
How does Cooper know that jumping in blackhole can gain back years?
After being hit by first wave at Miller's planet in Interstellar, Cooper and Amelia discuss something about time slippage etc.
At that time Cooper says that, "can't we just jump in black hole to gain ...
10
votes
4answers
2k views
Why Cooper or Dr. Brand can't send message?
In Interstellar, we saw Murph, Tom, Prof. Brand are able to send message to Cooper. Then why Cooper or Dr. Brand can't send message as well?
10
votes
2answers
3k views
Why did those trucks/tractors act in a strange way?
In Interstellar Cooper has those completely automated robotic farm trucks.
As we have seen they perform their tasks without any human interaction. Somewhere in the middle of the movie there is a ...
10
votes
1answer
14k views
How many years away from Earth did Cooper experience in Interstellar?
Same as in the title: how many years did Cooper experience away from Earth? In the end they waste 23+ years on the water planet and 51+ years when the Endurance gets almost destroyed, but while for ...
10
votes
1answer
3k views
Why was the Chinese drone replaced with an Indian drone by the filmmakers?
In the beginning of Interstellar Cooper follows an Indian drone. There are claims all over the internet that the drone was supposed to be Chinese in the initial scripts, but was changed to an Indian ...
10
votes
1answer
2k views
What happened to Lazarus mission's Endurance?
In the events of Interstellar, Brand finally reaches Edmund's planet on the starship Endurance, via Miller's and Mann's planet.
Where is the equivalent vehicle for the original 12 probes which were a ...
