# Interstellar (2014)



## Chris Guillory (Oct 13, 2014)

This looks pretty good! I like Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey:


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## Brian G Turner (Oct 13, 2014)

Good to see more of this film.


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## Harpo (Oct 26, 2014)

http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsand...nterstellar-leads-to-new-scientific-discovery


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## Rodders (Oct 26, 2014)

I'm looking forward to this movie and may even take a trip to see it at the cinema.


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## Vince W (Oct 26, 2014)

This film has been my most anticipated film all year. I will definitely be going to the cinema to see this one.


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## Foxbat (Oct 26, 2014)

Definitely looks promising.


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## Abernovo (Nov 7, 2014)

Well, I went to see _Interstellar _today. At the IMAX in Cheltenham: expensive (very!!!), but I don't regret splashing out for once.

Visually, it's stunning. Conceptually, it held me glued for the better part of three hours. Yes, it is a long film, but it really didn't feel like it to me. It did lose its way in the midsection, with an unnecessary conflict sub-plot, that felt too contrived and cliched. However, it more than redeemed itself, bringing the story back onto the correct vector (sorry, couldn't resist it ) soon after.

There was a definite 2001: A Space Odyssey feel in there. Not that the film makers were trying to copy it, but  rather that they were heavily influenced by it, which included the metaphysical element. The other way it felt similar was that it was not only an intelligent film - one that asked you to think (although you could watch it as pure entertainment and enjoy it, I'm sure) - but also treated intelligence with a certain reverence. For instance, the lead character wasn't just an ex-fighter jock/test pilot, but the script alluded to the knowledge he had to have to do that job - scientific knowledge is treated as admirable without making the owner of said knowledge simply a weak nerd who always got bullied in the playground. (Sorry, rant over, soapbox away. )

All in all, I wouldn't say _Interstellar_ is without flaws; it has them and they stuck out to me*. But, in the big picture, I was mightily impressed. I'd give it 87%. So, in my Twitter response, I rounded up and said 9/10.


*One thing that did get me is an old gripe, and one that Hollywood doesn't seem very good at solving, and that's the whole USA saves the world scenario. Sorry guys, but the whole Earth is dying and the emphasis is on co-operation, but only NASA is seen to be doing anything? Really? Where are the scientists and engineers from the other parts of the world? Even if they all get brought in to NASA, surely they exist. A minor gripe, perhaps, but it feeds into the whole diversity issue. That said, I was impressed with how they use a repeat - on a giant scale - of the US Dustbowl history as a catastrophe scenario, and I recognise that it is a very American part of history (although not solely an American situation - other parts of the world have had dustbowl-like problems). I also recognise it's a US film, but many of its viewers will not be from the USA. I would still thoroughly recommend this movie.


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## Vince W (Nov 8, 2014)

Abvernovo is spot on with his review. Brilliant film.

As an aside Abernovo, you really should use the spoiler code.


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## Abernovo (Nov 8, 2014)

Fair point, @Vince W - I wasn't thinking straight. 

There's an actual spoiler code?


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## BAYLOR (Nov 9, 2014)

I plan to see this one at some point.


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## Lenny (Nov 12, 2014)

Just got back from seeing it: superb. It also surprised me by not feeling like a Nolan film. I do wonder if this may finally be the first SF film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. *Gravity* came close, but it wasn't quite human enough - is *Interstellar*? Either way, it's going to take something really special in the next few months to better it.

My only gripe is that I now feel like I need a refresher on some of the physics, just for the sake of completeness.


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## Nerds_feather (Nov 12, 2014)

The cinematography and visual effects were stunning, but IMHO, the script was just...not good. (The audience at the cinema actually erupted in laughter at one point.)

I do think there was a really good 1:30 film in that 2:49 runtime, though...


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## J Riff (Nov 12, 2014)

Yes, it is almost 3 Hrs. Quite dramatic, character-driven . Could have done with a few more action sequences.
Will have to watch it again someday.


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## Anthony G Williams (Nov 15, 2014)

This is my take on it (from my SFF blog: http://sciencefictionfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/)

This one was the most anticipated film of the year for me, partly because Director Christopher Nolan (*Memento*, *Inception*) is one of my favourites, partly because I don't seem to have seen a traditional SF epic for a long time. These days movie SFF seems to consist mainly of superheroes (silly, if OK in small doses), with an occasional dose of horror (*Prometheus*) or space stories with rather unimaginative plots (*Gravity*). So I made a special effort and went to see *Interstellar* in an IMAX cinema.

I am pleased to report that it lived up to expectations, although it was rather more downbeat, desperate and gritty than I had imagined (I deliberately avoided reading any reviews beforehand). This review contains some spoilers, so if you like everything to be a surprise, stop reading and go and see it.

_________________________________


It is a very long film and the pace is quite slow, especially at the beginning (set several decades in the future) when the focus is on a rural part of the USA where farmers are desperately trying to cope with an environment which is sliding down the pan, with droughts, dust-storms and blights killing off the food crops one after another, and even the air gradually losing its oxygen. Humanity on Earth is slowly heading for an irretrievable disaster.

Enter Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), now a farmer but previously a NASA pilot. He is intrigued by what appears to be poltergeist activity in his young daughter Murphy's room, especially when she becomes convinced that some unknown being is trying to communicate with her. She manages to interpret a message – in the form of map coordinates. Cooper sets off to the location and discovers that while the steady decline of civilisation has left very few spare resources available, there are two parallel projects running which offer a last, desperate hope for humanity – to find a new world to live in by flying a spaceship to another galaxy through a large and stable wormhole which has conveniently appeared in orbit around Saturn, followed by developing anti-gravity to enable giant space-stations to carry people off the Earth. Manned missions had already been sent through the wormhole, and three of them had apparently landed safely on different worlds, but none had returned. There was just one ship left to send to find out what had happened to them. Cooper leads three other explorers plus an old military robot called TARS through the wormhole.

What they find on the other side brings them one problem after another and they are soon struggling to survive. In a last desperate measure they fly too close to a large black hole in order to try to find a way back, and catastrophe seems certain. But at this point the story shifts into a surreal adventure and the film ends on a vision of hope for the future.

The slow pace gives time to develop the characters who are all good, especially McConaughey, Mackenzie Foy as the young Murphy and the impressive Jessica Chastain as the older version. Michael Caine puts in an appearance, and Anne Hathaway is one of the astronauts. The visuals are brilliant as one might expect from this director (IMAX is definitely worthwhile), and the plot stretches the imagination in a way that used to be typical (in fact, the main appeal) of SF. There are echoes of *2001* here, and a little bit of *Contact*. The film is unusually emotional for an SF thriller, although that does involve some occasionally clunky and improbable dialogue (e.g. Anne Hathaway arguing the value of love in making important decisions). There is even an occasional moment of humour, mostly courtesy of TARS oddly enough. On the downside, there are some puzzling issues within the plot that prompted an "Eh, what?" reaction from this viewer. A more practical complaint is that the soundtrack volume was sometimes well above my comfort level. Despite this, *Interstellar* is a magnificent epic which promptly jumps into my top-ten list of best SF films, and every SF fan should see it.

__________________________________


Final major spoiler warning: I did have a problem with the conclusion concerning the nature of the force which seemed to be helping humanity, which if I understood it correctly involved a classic SF paradox; those who know Heinlein's 1941 short story "By His Bootstraps" will understand what I mean!


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## Vertigo (Nov 17, 2014)

I watched this in imacs a week ago, and my only big complaint was with the cinema which had, in my opinion and that of my mates, the volume way too loud. Sufficiently so that some of the dialogue was pretty much indecipherable. This was a shame as I do agree that it was excellent and with more than a couple of nods to one of my all time favourite SF films - 2001 A Space Odyssey - was probably the most enjoyable SF films I've seen for a long time.

Form the science point of view I agree that I too was uncomfortable with the "By His Boostraps" theme though I was pretty much anticipating it by about half way through. Another thing I was uncomfortable with was the apparent abundance, or at least no apparent shortage, of fossil fuels alongside the realistic ideas of crop diseases and (presumably) water issues (with the dust storms etc.).

However overall an excellent film well worth seeing on the big screen.


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## Chuluun Sarangerel (Nov 22, 2014)

I've just come back from watching Interstellar and agree with the reviews above. Overall, I'd give it a 9/10, however.....



Spoiler



Could someone explain how the parardox works (or doesn't work)?


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## Abernovo (Nov 22, 2014)

If you mean 



Spoiler



how Coop is the ghost in his own and his daughter's past, then I saw a pretty good Neil deGrasse Tyson video, explaining the concept could, although it is completely fantastical...





Spoiler: So...



We live in a 3-dimensional world. But, we would never have only those 3 points of reference: we would give a fourth dimensional reference point, which is time. So, meet downstairs in the restaurant...at 11:45.

For us, though, time is fixed, and only the 3 spatial dimensions are movable; i.e. we can move to different points in 3 directions, but we can only ever be at one point - the 'now' - in time, never going back or forward, although time does progress around us.

If, there was a (completely hypothetical) scenario where we, or another species could see more dimensions and experience them, then (again hypothetically) it _might_ be possible to move along time lines as well as physical dimensional lines. And, you would potentially be able to view it from outside.

Of course, this is the 'heart' part of the story, rather than any hard science basis, as we know it. But, the mixture of emotion and intellect forms a great deal of the story.


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## Chuluun Sarangerel (Nov 22, 2014)

Abernovo said:


> If you mean
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I got all that, but:



Spoiler



If the 'ghost' from the future hadn't sent those messages, then Cooper would never have gone on the mission and then he wouldn't end up in the black hole and the ghost wouldn't send the messages. So we've got a loop here and I'm not sure it matters much whether it's possible to move along timelines. (I'm not ranting at you, I'm just saying that they should have explained it better so that there isn't a time loop.)


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## Abernovo (Nov 22, 2014)

Ah, now there you've got me. We could debate that, but I suspect it would be take multiple pots of tea to get through it. 

Only Mssrs Nolan know the answer, possibly.

Although, I have my own interpretation, which is enough for me. Oh, and welcome to Chrons.


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## Chuluun Sarangerel (Nov 22, 2014)

Abernovo said:


> Ah, now there you've got me. We could debate that, but I suspect it would be take multiple pots of tea to get through it.
> 
> Only Mssrs Nolan know the answer, possibly.
> 
> Although, I have my own interpretation, which is enough for me. Oh, and welcome to Chrons.



What is your own interpretation, then? (And do you need to be on drugs or consume multiple pots of tea to understand it?  )


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## Anthony G Williams (Nov 23, 2014)

Chuluun Sarangerel said:


> I got all that, but:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I agree



Spoiler



That is what I meant by my reference to Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps"; it's a classic SF paradox.


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## Vertigo (Nov 24, 2014)

Exactly! As Anthony says. And to be honest this sort of bootstrap, ouroboros style endless time loop does tend to be a rather overdone trope in time travel stories. Probably, for me, this was the most disappointing aspect of the film. However to be fair these days many (most?) SF filmgoers are not SF readers and so this was perhaps a novel idea for most of them.


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## stirdgit (Apr 11, 2015)

My apologies if I missed it, but I wanted to start an Interstellar thread.  

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this movie.


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## mgilmour (Apr 12, 2015)

stirdgit said:


> My apologies if I missed it, but I wanted to start an Interstellar thread.
> 
> I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this movie.


I saw the movie and really enjoyed it.

WARNING - COULD BE INADVERTENT SPOILERS

A lot of reviewers focused on silly things such as the odds of NASA having a secret base just up the road from the main character's house....but this sort of thing is pretty irrelevant to the overall plot.
What I liked was the massively expansive vision of the universe, contrasted against the importance of the seemingly tiny personal relationships. This combined with the interesting realistic view of space exploration kept my attention for the 3 hours.
I found that the end of the movie was more like something directed by Night Shyamalan (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs etc). Everything coming rapidly together and finally makes sense to the movie goer. I'm a bit of a fan of Syamalan so this style was one that I was quite comfortable with.
My recommendation would be to keep an open mind and enjoy the spectacle.


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## clovis-man (Apr 18, 2015)

mgilmour said:


> A lot of reviewers focused on silly things such as the odds of NASA having a secret base just up the road from the main character's house....but this sort of thing is pretty irrelevant to the overall plot.
> What I liked was the massively expansive vision of the universe, contrasted against the importance of the seemingly tiny personal relationships. This combined with the interesting realistic view of space exploration kept my attention for the 3 hours.
> I found that the end of the movie was more like something directed by Night Shyamalan (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs etc). Everything coming rapidly together and finally makes sense to the movie goer. I'm a bit of a fan of Syamalan so this style was one that I was quite comfortable with.
> My recommendation would be to keep an open mind and enjoy the spectacle.



When Coop & Murph were taken into the complex, I noticed a sign outside saying "Norad". Coincidence or not, it represented a real place, the underground complex in Wyoming. Are those cornfields anywhere near there? Don't know, but some poetic license, I suppose.

Gripes: Couldn't stand the soundtrack, e.g., Philip Glass on 'ludes. Matthew McConaughey seems always to speak in _sotto voce_, just like his car commercials.

Otherwise, Anne Hathaway put in a much stronger performance than I expected. 



Spoiler



And once you got used to the idea that a robot could figure out and transmit to Earth enough about quantum mechanics to allow us to build a tube world, ala *Rama*, it was not a bad wind-up to the film at all.


 The main strength of the piece was the human drama overlaying the space opera context. Nicely done and worth the length of it.


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## Foxbat (Apr 18, 2015)

I actually liked the soundtrack and thought that it did its job of working with the movie rather than overpowering it. 

Never seen a Matthew McConaughey car commercial so can't comment.

Apart from that I agree that it was a very good piece of film making


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## mgilmour (Apr 18, 2015)

I really liked the soundtrack as well.....so much so that I bought it.


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## clovis-man (Apr 18, 2015)

mgilmour said:


> I really liked the soundtrack as well.....so much so that I bought it.



Ahh. To each his own then. Although a good many people hated the soundtrack for *The Fifth Element*, I liked it enough to buy it.


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## mgilmour (Apr 18, 2015)

clovis-man said:


> Ahh. To each his own then. Although a good many people hated the soundtrack for *The Fifth Element*, I liked it enough to buy it.


That was an awesome soundtrack as well LOL!


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## HanaBi (Apr 18, 2015)

I have yet to get round to watching this, primarily because I have a nagging doubt it's another "*Gravity*" : all style and no substance.

Visuals are important of course, but a decent, absorbing story should top that! Regrettably, *Gravity*, and that other over-hyped mish-mash of a movie, *Prometheus*, had plenty of the former, but sadly lacking in the latter.

So will *Interstellar*, live up to my expectations of good story & visuals; or can I add it to the above two examples, and create a triumvirate of "_All that glisters....._"


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## mgilmour (Apr 19, 2015)

I actually enjoyed Gravity....it was the first time that you really got the true impression of what it would be like in weightlessness. I found the effects staggering with all of the different pieces shooting around. The fact that Sandra Bullock (with a little help from George) had to carry the whole movie was pretty amazing. I've heard that a lot of people didn't like the movie but I wasn't one of them. 

Prometheus was a dud....plain and simple. I love Ridley Scott but he blue it with this one.

I like to think that Interstellar was more like a Night M Shamalyan (however you spell his name)....there's lots of mystery and tension in the characters. This combined with some pretty incredible special effects gave a realistic view of humanities first foray into the stellar void.


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## clovis-man (Apr 19, 2015)

HanaBi said:


> I have yet to get round to watching this, primarily because I have a nagging doubt it's another "*Gravity*" : all style and no substance.



Opinions vary widely on *Gravity*. It wasn't one of my favorites, although it was worth a watch. *Interstellar* is more of a thinking person's space opera. A lot of layers, but ultimately very much a human story.


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## Nechtan (Apr 21, 2015)

clovis-man said:


> *Interstellar* is more of a thinking person's space opera



Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it .

Actually, I did really like it until near the end. At that point I couldn't decide if it was pure genius or total tosh. Very confusing.


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## svalbard (Apr 23, 2015)

Nechtan said:


> Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it .
> 
> Actually, I did really like it until near the end. At that point I couldn't decide if it was pure genius or total tosh. Very confusing.



A bit of both?


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## Brian G Turner (May 9, 2016)

Just watched this on Blu Ray, and the sound levels were awful. Thsi is what I got from the film:


mumble mumble dust mumble whisper mumble earth is dying mumble mumble mumble fly to a wormhole mumble mumble astronauts explain basic physics to one another mumble mumble no one takes readings of planets before landing on them, resulting in huge waste of life, equipment, time, and money mumble mumble HANS ZIMMER'S PIPE ORGAN mumble mumble Gravity is important - except when you're near a Black Hole - then you ignore it mumble mumble HANS ZIMMER'S PIPE ORGAN AGAIN

The film had gripping moments - but the script was self-indulgent and made no sense so much of the time. For example - why did the crew never take readings of the conditions of the planets they wanted to visit, before landing on them? Because they didn't it resulted in a huge waste or life, equipment, time, and money.

It was also Hollywood casual discrimination by the numbers: white man is boss, black friend dies, and female lead is hysterically emotional and exists to make babies (literally).

The film was too long as well. The Damon scenes added nothing but a huge digression - in fact, they could have dropped the whole planetary system bit and simply had the Black Hole experience within the wormhole itself. It would have made just about as much sense, but drastically cut the film - and a ton of silliness.

The ending? White man gets into ship, flies away into the ... sunset? What happened to earth? Looks like they didn't do well saving it to have mined so much material as to create the Saturn space station.

The film had potential, but IMO was badly put together.


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## Adam Stubbings (May 9, 2016)

stirdgit said:


> My apologies if I missed it, but I wanted to start an Interstellar thread.
> 
> I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this movie.


 
The scene where the crew return from the tidal wave water planet and are confronted by the crew member who waited 15 (or something) years for them to return (due to the gravity-time fiasco) is so powerful, i cant even imagine what that was like for him to be alone so long and have them come back all nonchalant after aging...like...5 hours.


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## Frost Giant (May 11, 2016)

It's well-acted and the effects are good (especially the visual of Gargantua) but you have to ignore physics and biology to enjoy the story. There is also the need to overlook some plot holes (at the end Cooper doesn't really seem to care whatever happened to his son). I expected the story to be somewhat more cohesive coming from Christopher "Memento" Nolan. But it is an enjoyable popcorn flick.


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## Rodders (May 11, 2016)

This is still on my to watch list. I'll try and watch it Sunday.

I like the look of it and I love what I've seen of Christopher Nolan's work so far, although I haven't seen Inception or The Dark Knight yet.


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## BAYLOR (May 30, 2016)

A first fate film,  easily Christopher Nolan's best film. In the category of science fiction film it is is one the best of all time and a future classic.


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## Brian G Turner (Mar 26, 2017)

Well ... I'm listening to Hans Zimmer's soundtrack now, and it's powerful stuff. It's making me want to watch the film again. Though I had criticisms before, coming at it with lower expectations might make for a more interesting experience 2nd time around.


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## AstroZon (Jul 10, 2017)

I read the reviews when Interstellar came out, but I finally got the DVD a few days ago and watched it last night.  I'm not even sure where to start except that it wasn't what I expected. 

I didn't really understand the premise: was it post apocalyptic? There were no more standing armies and the world's population had been greatly reduced, but they had baseball, enough gas to drive large pickups, and cold beer in bottles.  The schools taught reformed history, but the crops were failing due to blight.  Still, I thought the interplay between Cooper and his daughter Murphy was good.  

Then through some gravitationally telegraphed coordinates, they find the secret remnants of NASA which, it turns out, wasn't even very far away.  The good folks at NASA twist Coopers arm a little, and he's ready to pilot a space journey into an intergalactic wormhole sans his daughter (come on, there's plenty of room!)   

So then we're off to another galaxy to find a habitable planet to which Earth's remaining denizens can be resettled.  Preceding this incredible journey were other single astronaut scout missions which may or may not have found a good place to live.  Cooper and company will target their homing signals and check them out. 

Naturally, all doesn't go as planned.  The first planet's surface is entirely water with the gnarlyist waves this side of Teahupo'o.  They lose a crew member but make it back to the mothership.  And oh yea, one hour on the water planet is 7 years everywhere else.  So when they get back to the ship, their fellow crewman and everyone on Earth are 22 years older. 

And up until this point, I was ok with Interstellar.  But then things started falling apart.

Cooper and crewmate Brand debate which homing beacon to pursue next realizing that only one is achievable.   Cooper pulls rank and they go to find Mann.  After landing on Mann's icy planet they find him in a cryogenic sleeping chamber.  After revival, it seems that Mann lost a few brain cells in the cryo freeze and wants to kill Cooper and commandeer the mothership.  Well they wrestle a bit, another crewmember gets killed, and Mann manages to destroy himself and part of the mothership while fighting Cooper in a docking port battle.  

Now Mann and Brand rescue the damaged ship and decide to go to Brand's boyfriend's planet which happens to be orbiting a black hole.  Cooper sets her on course to the planet while he abandons ship in the shuttle and flies toward the black hole.  Once across the event horizon, he warps and wefts and then finds himself behind his daughter's bookshelf back at his house on Earth (huge WTF moment!)  He manages to get his daughter to transcribe Morris code though a watch and reveals the formula for saving Earth - or moving Earth to a space station orbiting Saturn or something.

I'm not sure how Interstellar went so far south, but I highly recommend Europa Report.


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