Mankind was born on earth. But it was never meant to die here.
I sincerely request not to read it, if you don't want to miss the thrill while watching the movie.
The plot can be put in simple words as three stages.
- Food Crisis on earth due to a kind of Dust storms which damages the crops.
- Interstellar travel in search of New planet(s) that supports life.
- Conquering the gravity to transport the whole population to different planets in other galaxies.
But wait, we are talking about a NOLAN latest movie here. If it's that simple and ease to watch, what's the point of Jonathan Nolan's 4 years of course in space science, indulging a working space scientist from NASA and Christopher Nolan's 1 year of film making ? Nolan who hates to fake things, made the film out of 90% true science. The rest 10% is what I couldn't judge. Whether it is his imagination or has he heard the climax from his future...!!!! Don't be confused. It's what the key element of movie interstellar. TIME BENDS. You can travel from time to time forward but you can never change the past.
A scientist sees it all in the first place that the next generation will be the last to survive on earth due to food crisis. By that time, the whole space exploration agencies and military in every country were shutdown (because people think that's waste of money and resources). Instead they need farmers who can cultivate in toughest conditions. But the scientist strongly believes that we are not meant to stay on earth forever. He designs space colonies through which he thinks he can transport whole population to other galaxies where they find planets to survive. But the only problem he faces is GRAVITY. He works 40 years to solve the gravity equation but continuously fails. Mean while Astronauts start interstellar travels to twelve different galaxies in search of planets to live. Out of the twelve, Mann is the leader and inspiration, who initiated these travels.
Now you get a question, how can we travel to other galaxies. we haven't conquered light speed yet ? The answer is a Worm hole. In simplest words worm hole is a spherical folding of space and time, which is a shortcut between two galaxies. If you enter this side, the other side you come out in another galaxy. Humans found this worm hole near to Saturn(which was not there before), in our solar system before they could do all those travels. Scientists think "THEY"(aliens/gods/angels/other forces) must have placed that worm hole in order to allow us to travel to other galaxies.
For the scientist, to solve the gravity equation, he requires data about extreme gravitational force which can be found only in the Core of a BLACK HOLE. Now, what's a black hole ? Black hole is an enormous spacetime with extreme gravitational pull which can attract even things that travel with light speed within its boundaries. Inside the black hole nothing works. Not even light. Once you fall in a black hole, there is no coming back. Even we come out, we don't know where(another solar system/galaxy/nebula) we are and we wouldn't have trace of time. Everything comes in, but nothing goes out. So, literally we cannot get the data about gravity from the black hole. So, the scientist can never solve the gravity equation. So, earth's people can never be transported into space. So, earth simply have to extinct. This is what the scientist thinks Plan A. As he lost his hope on plan A, he makes Plan B.
Plan A: Solve the gravity equation. Send the people of earth into space, which can never be done.
Plan B: Human fertilized eggs are sent into space along with some astronauts. When they find a planet, they can build a home there and grow those eggs to form colonies and prevent human species extinction.
The scientist, as he lost hope on plan A, he executes plan B saying to astronauts that he can solve the gravity equation when they come back to earth. He lies to all the astronauts including his daughter(heroine). The truth that plan A can never work is known only to scientist and Mann, the first interstellar traveler.
This is all the background of the story. Now lets start the movie.
The hero of the film is a ex-military pilot, who once experienced unknown tremendous gravitational pull while flying in air, and crashes. Later as the military is shutdown, he becomes a farmer who cultivates corn, as wheat and other crops are all extinct by then. Mean while, dust storms kill both crops and people. Hero has a daughter who has a great bond with her father. She always complaints him about a ghost behind her book shelf that, "the ghost is trying to tell me something". Hero never believes her stories. One day after a big dust storm, the hero and daughter finds a pattern(code) on her bedroom's floor. Daughter explains the hero that "this is the ghost i'm talking about". But hero says, "its not ghost. Its a Morse code". He decodes it and finds it as co-ordinates of a place. The hero and daughter goes together to that place, which is nothing but abandoned NASA. Inside the NASA, the scientist (the hero knows him before as he worked with US-military) explains everything about dust, food crisis, and interstellar travels to the hero. He says " even corn is going to extinct". With that he asks hero to travel into space and find a new home. Hero agrees. But his daughter asks him not to go. She says she decoded the Ghost's communication and it says "STAY". But Hero leaves along with heroine(daughter of scientist) and two other astronauts. Before leaving he gives a hand-watch to his daughter and synchronizes both to same time. He says " I will come back when we are both the same age".
Lets make it simple form here. Hero with heroine and two other astronauts start. They leave earth. They reach Endurance-the base station to do the interstellar travel. The plan is they have to test three planets, from which they received signals to come (by the previous explorers who reached there). They will reach Saturn. They reach Worm hole. They go into another galaxy. The first planet they have to explore is near a black hole. Instead of going into the planet's orbit(if they did, they would be sucked into black hole), they take different orbit and successfully land on the planet. Only three go on to planet, other astronaut stays at base-station(Endurance). On the planet, every hour is equal to 7 years on earth (remember the black hole sucks time also). Guess where they have landed? On WATER. But as soon as they land on ocean, they get down and find the previous explorer ship wreckage. Then suddenly huge Waves of Mountain size hits their ship and one astronaut dies rescuing the heroine. Soon they find that planet is not fit for living even though it has water. Because of the danger they forget the time.When they reach back to base (Endurance)..the astronaut in the base appears with a beard and says earth time is 24 years ahead..!!!!!
Hero feels desperate. He plays all the videos he received from the earth during these 24 years. (This one scene literally makes you Laugh and Cry at the same time. Hero just nailed it with his action). His daughter sends just one video saying that " I am your age now dad. But you didn't come yet ?" The astronauts realize they have to explore other planets as soon as possible before it's too late on earth time. They have two planets left to explore, but enough fuel only for one of them to choose. Heroine Chooses a planet. But hero disagrees. Hero explains to other astronaut that Heroine is in love with a explorer named EDMUNDUS, who reached a decade ago to that planet which heroine is suggesting.
But heroine says "Its what my heart says to follow me. I know my lover won't be alive there. But still, my heart wants me to follow there with least hope that I may see him again. Its love. Its beyond space and time. We don't know yet what love is. But we feel it. Who knows, may be it is also a dimension like time and space."
But even after that said, hero and other astronaut votes to go to the third planet, from which they are still getting active signal and that signal is sent by Mann, the first interstellar explorer. So, judging by all options (fuel, available oxygen, active signals, the best explorer-Mann), they choose the third planet. They reach it.
Mean while on earth, the scientist life comes to end. He tells the Truth to daughter of hero(she also now works with the scientist), that her father never can come back. And the equation cannot be solved. She thinks her father left her on earth with selfishness to save himself. The old scientist dies. She sends this message as video to heroine.
On the other planet, astronauts find the Mann's space ship and finds him in there, still living(sleeping in a preservation chamber for 10 years). When they wake him up, he explains about that planet saying that " this planet has oxygen at surface. So, possibly life too. Let's live here and send signals to other astronauts to come here" Then, there comes message from earth about scientist death. Heroine feels bad about it. In that video, the daughter reveals that scientist told that there is no plan A. "You people left us to die here". With that, Hero gets the full picture that scientist lied to them about the gravity equation. Even Mann tells them that there is no plan A at all. Only plan B.
Hero then decides to build a home in that planet for others and leave back to earth to their family. But Mann disagrees as he believes "people should only come but not leave that planet in order to save our species". Mann asks hero to come along with him to see around. Their comes a conflict between Hero and Mann. Mann reveals that he is lying all the time. "There is no oxygen at surface. There is no life in this planet. But as I feared I would die alone here, I have sent a FAKE ACTIVE Signal to you to come here. Now you cannot leave this planet". With that he breaks hero's helmet glass and removes oxygen chamber and radio transmitter and leave him there. But Hero tries hard to survive and finds the transmitter and sends signal to heroine that he is in danger. Heroine saves him. Hero tells her that Mann is a coward and lied to them. Mean while the other astronaut dies because of Mann's self destruction mode robot. Mann takes the flight and reaches to Endurance(the base station in space to go back to earth). Hero and Heroine along with robots TARS and CASE leaves that planet and follows Mann.
Mann reaches Endurance and tries to dock (attach the space ship to base station), but fails as docking is locked by TARS (it has changed the settings from manual mode to robot mode before leaving Endurance). Hero and Heroine tries to tell Mann not to dock, but he doesn't listen and opens the air duct(the connection to walk from space ship into Endurance) without authorization. The Endurance de-pressurizes and blasts. Mann dies. Because of the blast effect, Endurance leaves the orbit and begin to fall into Black hole. Realizing that, Hero (without delaying) chases Endurance , docks it with authorization by TARS and saves Endurance from falling in Black hole. They loose so much fuel that they don't have enough to reach back to earth.
Hero makes a decision to send Heroine to EDMUNDUS planet (the second planet which was suggested by heroine) to explore it. Hero and TARS falls into Black hole making a sacrifice from two aspects which are
- The fuel is not enough to pull all the Endurance's weight. So, you have to leave behind some weight to go forward (Newton's third law anomaly)
- The other is, to fall into black hole and get data about gravity. If they succeed in coming out of black hole, they can send that data to earth to solve the gravity equation.
Heroine cries and reaches the EDMUNDUS planet where she finds her lover crashed space ship. She finds that planet is eligible for human living and sends signal to earth.
Time for the Climax. Hero and TARS separately falls into Black hole. Slowly everything turns black. The space ship reaches maximum speed and begin to shatter. Hero gets ejected from the space ship. Now he is floating in Black hole. Suddenly he is forced by great velocity and falls into a INFINITE 5-DIMENSIONAL Space. He continuously falls with no ending. Suddenly he gets hold of something. It is the BOOK SHELF in his DAUGHTER'S ROOM.
5-DIMENSIONAL SPACE (shown by Nolan in the movie) is a combination of x axis , y axis, z axis ,time and a single memory of Hero. Its like a bridge that connects Black hole and earth and Hero's memory. That single memory is nothing but the scene of his daughter's room,when Hero leaves her on earth for space travel(remember ?). That single scene repeats infinitely as a dimension in that space. Hero amazes. How can he be behind the book shelf in his daughter room on earth, from a black hole ? He suddenly sees his daughter(when she was a child) on the other side of book shelf. He shouts to her. But she cannot see him or hear him from the other side. He then realizes that the ghost his daughter complained in her childhood is HIM - from the FUTURE. He sees himself coming into that room and talking with daughter about leaving her. He shouts "make him stay. Dont make me leave you". But the daughter couldn't hear what the ghost(hero from future) is trying to say. And this whole scene repeats again. Hero feels desperate. He suddenly gets an idea. He remembers that his daughter has a love towards Morse Code.
When the whole scene repeats again, Hero converts the word "STAY" into Morse code and moves the books in shelf accordingly and waits. (How can he move books in the shelf on earth when he is in a black hole ? Yes, he can. Because its a 5-dimension space, where time and memories can also be touched and accessed.). So he waits. His daughter decodes it and tells her dad " the ghost send a code. it says STAY. Dad please STAY" but as we know..hero doesn't listen and leaves(in the past). The hero in the 5th dimension scolds himself for leaving her. He looses all his hope. Suddenly he gets a signal from TARS (the robot that fell along with him in black hole).
He asks TARS "where are we?" TARS explains everything about 5-dimensional space and the 5th dimension is nothing but your memory of your daughter and that room. He asks TARS "Who could have created this?" TARS says "THEY. But I don't understand why THEY kept only your memory in this 5th dimensional space"
With that Hero realizes that "THEY are nothing but Humans. Us. Humans from an advanced civilization who have explored and found 5-dimensional space. And they created this bridge and choose me and my daughter as her generation is last to survive on earth. So, I brought myself here. There must be a reason TARS. Find it. Think." Suddenly he finds Hand-Watch, which he gave to his daughter when leaving earth, on the book shelf.
And he asks TARS whether he got the data from the black hole required for solving the gravity equation. TARS says "yes". Hero asks to convert all that data into Morse code to send it to her daughter. But TARS says " A child can never decode that huge data. Even if she does, it will take her years to understand what she has decoded." Hero says lets take her time, but let us hope the best that she can solve it and save our earth. With that He asks TARS to tell the co-ordinates of NASA. He sends them on to the floor of his daughter's bedroom as a code made by dust. (remember, this is how hero and daughter found abandoned NASA and everything else). Then, TARS converts all the gravity data it collected from black hole into Morse code. Hero stores that Morse code into the "HAND-WATCH's" seconds hand. (As the father leaves her, the daughter hates him and keeps that hand watch on that book shelf). As soon as he finishes storing the code, TARS says "May be this could work. We can save earth." Hero asks "How do you know?" TARS says "Look. the infinite bridge, the 5-dimensional space bridge is closing".
Hero and TARS falls out of black hole. The time they have spent in black hole is equal to 90 YEARS on earth !!!! In those ninety years, the daughter one day comes back to her home and collect all her old things including the WATCH. She realizes that When her dad said "I will come when we have same age" giving that watch, he meant something. And that some thing is nothing but the code(data) which he sent through 5d space from future. She solves the equation. She builds the space colonies
and sends the whole earth population to different galaxies. All this took her 90 years. So, when Hero and TARS fall out of black hole, they are found by Space colonies people and saved.
When Hero wakes up, he finds himself in a hospital. The doctors explain that he looks young but his age is 123 years. And his daughter is 100 years old, still alive. Hero goes to meet her. Imagine the scene. He is as he is when came from earth. But his daughter is 100 year old.
Hero: " I was your ghost Murph."
Daughter: " I know dad. And I know that it was you who sent me the gravity data through the Watch from future. But no one here believes that."
Hero: "How did you believe that I will come back, even after this long ?"
Daughter: "I know. Because my dad promised me".
This scene touches our hearts.
She says they received signals from heroine on EDMUNDUS planet. "She is alone on that planet since 90 years(as per earth time, but as per black hole time its just one or two days). Go for her". And she dies. With that Hero and TARS leave to EDMUNDUS.
Directed by Christopher Nolan. Movie Ends.
I tried to explain what I have understood from the movie within a paragraph. But what can I do, I fell in love with the script too much, that I couldn't stop re-writing with my own hand. Whatever I analysed and wrote here may be 80% of the movie as exactly what Nolan intended. I am unsure of the remaining 20%.
The movie is unlike any other sci-space fiction movie. It has got 90% facts. No hyper visual effects. No hyper background scores. Only cold music. (Dude, its vaccum. you can't hear sound). Ultimate screenplay. Informative and make-you-think script.
A family drama between father and daughter took into galaxies.
A coward explorer's mistake made a chaos in space.
A girlfriend's desperate love took her into another planet.
A scientist's dream saved earth.
A Christopher Nolan's Movie to die for.
