3. What to Expect
Based on the title name Interstellar, it is expected that this movie is to occur
somewhere in space
The first dialogue is an interview with an elderly woman in what seems to be the
future, and it is learned that the Earth is no longer what it used to be and that
people are struggling to survive
After the first scene, it is assumed that the main character Joe Cooper and his
family have something to do with how the Earth or how the population are
going to be saved
5. Characters
There are several important characters in Interstellar. The protagonist of this
movie is a former ace pilot named Joseph Cooper. He is accompanied on the
Endurance, the spaceship he captains, by a biologist, Dr. Brand, a geographer,
Doyle, and a physicist named Dr. Romilly. The crew is sent out into space by
Professor Brand, who is Dr. Brand’s father and a scientist at NASA. He sends this
new crew to finish the job of the first scientists Miller, Edmunds, and Dr. Mann,
who turns out to be the antagonist in the movie. Cooper’s family, consisting of his
daughter, Murph, his son, Tom, and his father-in-law, Donald, is left on Earth with
the mindset that they have been abandoned and left to die. Most of the characters
in this movie come from scientific backgrounds so they act and think rationally and
logically.
7. Plot Summary
The first scene is a series of interviews with elderly people, who are talking
about how the world used to be compared to what it is now
The movie then goes back in time and introduces the main character, Joe
Cooper, and his family who are living and working on a farm, although Cooper
used to be a NASA test pilot
We find out that the population of the world has been reduced in half, due to
lack of food and hunger
Technology is at a standstill and there are no more militaries or war
Cooper’s daughter, Murph, keeps talking about a ghost in her room, which
foreshadows events that occur later in the movie
8. Plot Summary
Cooper decides to look into this ghost Murph is talking about, and believes that
the “ghost” is sending signals to them for some reason
He studies the “signals” and believes they are coordinates on a map so he and
his daughter drive to it
Cooper accidentally stumbles upon the new NASA headquarters, where he
ends up being told about a space mission by his old colleague, Dr. Brand,
that could save the human population
He learns about a wormhole near Saturn, and that 10 years prior, 12 astronauts
traveled through it to search for potentially habitable planets
3 of the astronauts sent the “thumbs-up” signal for their planet, and the current
mission is to send more astronauts and gather more data about which planet
is the best
9. Plot Summary
Cooper ends up piloting the spacecraft for the mission, although his family
wanted him to stay, as they thought he was leaving them on Earth to die
Dr. Brand had 2 plans for the mission if Cooper is successful in finding a
habitable planet
Plan A would rescue a large amount of people on Earth by bringing space
stations near the wormhole, but Dr. Brand would need to solve the equation
that would allow them to overcome gravity before Cooper gets back
Plan B is to use frozen embryos to continue the population on whichever planet
is deemed the most habitable
It takes 2 years for the crew to get to the wormhole, and once they are through,
they decide to go to astronaut Miller’s planet first
10. Plot Summary
Due to the gravitational pull of a black hole on Miller’s planet, 1 hour there is
equivalent to 7 Earth years, meaning they needed to work quick
However, they ran into trouble and did not get back into space until 23 Earth
years later
With wasted time and only enough fuel to visit one of the two remaining planets,
they decide to visit astronaut Mann’s planet, because he was still transmitting
a signal from his beacon
While on Mann’s planet, Mann reveals to Cooper the planet is uninhabitable and
tries to kill him and steal his spaceship so he can go back to Earth
Amelia saves Cooper, and they chase after Mann back to the space station
11. Plot Summary
While Cooper and his crew was on Mann’s planet, Murph, who is now an adult
working with Dr. Brand on the gravity equation, discovers that the gravity
equation is impossible without information from a black hole
Dr. Brand dies, but Murph is still set on solving the equation and saving the
population
She thinks about the ghost in her room from her childhood, and goes back to
her old house to try to find something that will help her
She realizes that the “ghost” was her dad the whole time and that he must’ve
gotten inside a black hole to get her the information she needed
Cooper had gotten inside a black hole and was helped by “5th-dimensional
beings” to help code the information onto a wristwatch left in his daughter’s
room
12. Plot Summary
Cooper had gotten into a black hole after Mann died trying to dock his
spacecraft onto the space station
The damage caused by Mann made it impossible for Cooper and Amelia to
make it back to Earth
Cooper said they were both going to astronaut Edmond’s planet, the last of the
3 potentially habitable planets, but when they neared the black hole Cooper
ejected his spacecraft to Amelia’s surprise
He travels through the black hole and thinks he’s in heaven or something when
he wakes up
However, he survived and was able to code the information back to his
daughter with the help of whatever beings were in the black hole
13. Plot Summary
When Cooper wakes up again, he is in a hospital on a space station near
Saturn and the wormhole, and discovers that he and his daughter succeeded
in saving the population by solving the gravity equation
However, due to the gravitation he experienced in space, he was technically
124 Earth years old even though he still looked to be in his forties
He was able to visit his daughter, who is now 90 and about to die
He didn’t know anybody or anything about this space station, so he decided he
wanted to go on a mission to find Amelia on Edmond’s planet
The movie ends with him taking another spacecraft towards the wormhole
15. Setting
The story starts off someplace in the rural Midwest at some point in the future
There has been a major drought and the earth has become very barren
The setting changes when the protagonist, Joe Cooper, takes off into space in an effort
to find a planet suitable for life, and the rest of the action takes place on the
different planets and parts of space he and his crew venture to
16. Setting
Time is an essential element of this piece
The point of the crew’s mission is to find a new planet to inhabit before the rest of the
people on earth die
The catch is that a lot of their time is spent near a black hole called Gargantua, which,
when they are close enough to it, causes severe gravitational time dilation
For example, every hour the crew spends on Miller’s planet (the first planet they
journey to) is actually seven Earth years
Cooper is especially concerned with time given that his underlying goal for the mission
is to save his two children, Murph and Tom, and to one day see them again
17. Setting
The stage directions describe the setting very well, for they give descriptions of many
of the places in the story
However, actually seeing the surroundings gives a great representation of how
important the setting is to the story, for a lot of the work depends on sights like the
vast cornfields, the utter blackness of space, the beauty and terror of the black hole,
etc.
19. Style of Dialogue
The style of the dialogue is concise. Each of the characters talks in short sentences or phrases. They
rarely talk over each other, and normally take turns talking. The vocabulary is rather simple with a few
exceptions. When the characters are talking to each other to move the plot forward, the dialogue is rather
simple, however in many situations that arise, the dialogue becomes much more complex. For example,
when the astronauts approach the wormhole, the dialogue becomes much more complex and scientific.
The only times the dialogue behaves in this manner, is when they are discussing the scientific aspects of
the setting. This represents that the science that they are using and studying are bigger than they are. It
shows that they do not really understand all that is going on in the universe, but they are a small part of it,
and have to try to understand their place in the universe. There are periods of great science, and often
times, in periods of great conflict. These periods happen in space, and in space, sound does not travel.
This represents the astronauts trying to understand their place and react to conflict. There is no dialogue
when these things happen, until they discover a solution. The main characters talk more than anyone else
to represent that they are the chosen ones to save the human species, while the others are there just to
assist the main characters in their tasks.
20. Images and Figures of Speech
There are a couple of uses of figures of speech. Throughout the play, the
characters keep referring to what they do not understand as “they.” When the
Wormhole appears, they allude to an idea that “they” placed it there. At the end of
the story, we learn that there never was a “they,” instead, everything that was
happening already existed, the characters just did not understand these
occurrences. Similarly, at the beginning of the movie, when Cooper and Murph
did not understand the mystery of the bookcase, they referred to the cause as a
ghost. It’s not until closer to the end of the play that we understand the mystery,
and we discover what the ghost actually was all along.
21. Tone and Mood
The tone and mood can be described as curious. There are many questions that, not only the audience
does not understand, but the characters do not understand either. It is not until the end of the play that
the characters and the audience get the answers to the questions. The entire story considers the curiosity
of the main character Cooper, and his desire to explore. He even goes as far as to refer to the entire
human species as explorers and pioneers. This curiosity leads the audience to be curious about what the
characters will do, how they will react to situations and solve problems, and to receive answers to
questions that are purposed at the beginning of the story. The author considers the concept of time
throughout the entire play. He uses time and the emotions of time throughout the entire story. In the
scene where Cooper returns to the spaceship after spending over 23 Earth years searching another
planet, he reviews all that has happened over the past 23 years. The author takes the audience on an
emotional rollercoaster. We experience every emotion within a short period of time as Cooper lives 23
years in about a minute and a half. This shows the consequences of time, and uses emotions and tone to
convey the point.
23. Theme
There are many themes that can be drawn from this movie
The theme that is most inevitable though, is Love
This movie shows just what Love can make someone do, even when they are in a
different planet, galaxy, or dimension
Each character displays in different ways what Love makes them do, like Cooper
doing everything he can to make sure his children survive or like Dr. Brand, who
dedicated his whole life to solving the gravity equation that would continue the
human population
