6 Reasons Why "Interstellar" Was the Best Film of 2014

March 31 marks the release of Interstellar on DVD and Blu-ray. Directed by Christopher Nolan, this sci-fi film is set in a future in which the earth is being gradually overtaken by the Blight, a mysterious ailment that is destroying the planet's crops one by one. Cooper, a NASA pilot turned farmer, is trying to balance a job in which he has little interest with raising his two children, Tom and Murph (short for Murphy).

When Murph unlocks a mysterious puzzle that sends her and her father stumbling into an undercover NASA base, Cooper suddenly finds himself hired to undertake a seemingly impossible mission: follow the cosmic breadcrumbs out into the far reaches of interstellar space -- and find a new planet for humanity to inhabit before Earth becomes a barren wasteland. Joining the crew of Dr. Brand (the NASA scientist overseeing the mission), Cooper will pilot the ship that will take them farther than any human being has ever been before -- even as Cooper fights to get back home to his family.

Released last year, the film was a smash hit. As a sci-fi buff, it was the 2014 movie I was most excited for -- so I was elated when Interstellar turned out to be the weird, wild, wonderful, and wholly unique ride I had hoped it would be.

Haven't seen it yet?  Here's six reasons why you should give it a go:



1.) You haven't seen space like this before

Nolan named 2001: A Space Odyssey as one of the films that served as his inspiration for Interstellar, and it's easy to see that influence in the awe-inspiring shots of space that the Endurance crew travel through.

But since the release of the Stanley Kubrick classic, there's been a plethora of films set in outer space, from Apollo 13 to Gravity. What makes Nolan's take unique?  First, there's consultant Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist whose expert advice and theories allowed the effects crews to offer a unique take on such typical sci-fi fare as wormholes and ice planets. Then there's Nolan's commitment to practical, physical effects over computerized effects whenever possible. Obviously, a sci-fi film like this one will demand the use of some CGI -- but with much of the action being made without the use of a computer, the film often has a more physical feel to it than similar genre offerings.

Best of all, for me, was the chance to see the film in IMAX. The larger-than-life screen packed an extra-powerful wallop, as sheer size helped bring to life the silent, lonely, terrifying, and beautiful emptiness of space. Never before has a film so effectively offered me a window into what a trip through outer space might really be like.

Speaking of:



2.) The alien worlds are actually alien

Being a Christopher Nolan fan girl, all it took were the words "Nolan" and "outer space" to pique my interest in Interstellar. But it wasn't until I caught the film's trailer that I realized I was in for something special. In the trailer, we're shown a scene in which the Endurance crew have landed on a watery world which is caught in the massive gravitational pull of a nearby black hole.

The crew looks out across the alien sea towards a mountain range in the distance:

Then the pilot, Cooper, gets a better look. And realizes it's not a mountain.

It's a wave.

Well, bummer.

Too often in science fiction, the alien worlds don't seem to be anything of the kind; they are, instead, thinly veiled versions of our own home planet. But Interstellar seemed to kick things up a notch, delivering alien worlds that feel alien in their features, geology, and weather.

This is made all the more ironic by the fact that Nolan was filming in real, natural, outdoor locations (with a bit of CGI thrown in later), but that only adds to the effect of bizarre worlds that are still very physical and real.



3.) These archetypal characters are truly archetypes

The characters in Christopher Nolan stories are often thrown into extraordinary circumstances -- navigating the worlds of other people's dreams or fighting crime behind a rather unusual mask. But despite their otherworldly surroundings, the characters remain relatable Everymen, with recognizable and understandable motivations.

While the characters of Interstellar are searching for a way to build a future for humanity and save them from a dying planet, they are also motivated by more personal reasons. Cooper is looking to find a way back to his family. So, in her way, is Dr. Brand, the NASA scientist in charge of the expedition. Murph, Cooper's daughter, finds her own way of searching for the father who had to leave her behind to save her.

Woven into the vastness of space and time is a theme of the timelessness of family, making these characters and their archetypal motivations something relatable and familiar, no matter how weird or wild their surroundings.



4.) It keeps you guessing

In a world of sequels, prequels, and reboots, it's become the truly rare film that has a wholly original story to tell. Of the top-grossing films of 2014, Interstellar was the only movie in the top ten that was not a sequel or adaptation.

I spent the entirety of the film utterly unsure of where the story might be going. While it seemed reasonable to think that the good guys would triumph, I hadn't the foggiest idea of what they might do to get there, and how the hints and clues sprinkled throughout the film would lead to a solution. From ticking clocks to alien contact, the story was intriguing, unsettling, and, ultimately, full-circle. But never in a way I saw coming.

Which leads me to:



5.) It's "A Wrinkle in Time" for adults

Well, to be fair, Madeleine L'Engle's classic YA novel can be enjoyed by any reader of any age. But the fact remains that I couldn't help but be reminded of A Wrinkle in Time while watching the final act of Interstellar. The film ultimately ties together ideas of space, time, and the way in which love and family can transcend those realms -- which is more or less precisely what L'Engle did in her own sci-fi adventure over fifty years ago.

There's nothing overtly linking Nolan's space adventure to L'Engle's. But just as A Wrinkle in Time opened my nine-year-old mind to worlds I had never before considered -- while also telling a story about the unbreakable bonds of love and family -- so, too, did Interstellar achieve the same feat. It's a sci-fi adventure film, but it's also a tale that resonates on the most personal of levels -- making it the rare story that broadens the limits of imagination and tells an important truth, all at the same time.



6.) There's a snarky robot

I could watch this all day.

And then there's TARS -- the sarcastic, snarky, good-natured, and uniquely-designed robot, used by the Endurance crew to help them on their expedition.

Because what's a sci-fi story without a snarky robot?


Request "Interstellar" on DVD from the Catalog

Request "Interstellar" on Blu-ray from the Catalog

Request "The Science of Interstellar" by Kip Thorne from the Catalog

Request "Interstellar: Beyond Time and Space -- Inside Christopher Nolan's Sci-Fi Epic" by Mark Cotta Vaz from the Catalog

Request the Hans Zimmer soundtrack from the Catalog

-- Post by Ms. B 

[GUEST POST] There and Back Again: A Scientific Journey Through Space and Time

This week, "New @ MPL" is proud to showcase the writings of local teens and young adults from MPL's very own Teen Writing Group. (Our Teen Writing Group meets every Monday afternoon at the Library.)

Today, enjoy this entry from Bruce Howard, who takes us on a tour of very ancient history:

The "nearby" Andromeda Galaxy -- located  2.5 million light-years away

It is almost quintessentially human to ponder matters of history and to perceive the passing of time.  In my early twenties, it’s sometimes easy to feel like you’ve been around a while.  I’ve been through 16 years of schooling (with about seven more to go before I’m done).  I’ve also witnessed several world-, nation-, and life-changing moments in history.

However, I did not just suddenly appear out of nowhere, a newborn baby in a foreign universe.  The rules of physics might have a few problems with that scenario.  I’ve been alive for less than .0000002% of the time the universe has been around, and inevitably, that which came before me factors into who I am.

Obviously, I directly owe my existence to the fact that my parents met.  If that were the only factor, though, this wouldn’t be much of a story.  Stepping a bit further back, I can trace my ancestors to World War II, World War I, the Civil War, and even the American Revolution.  War is quite obviously a dangerous thing, so it might seem a bit odd to note that had my ancestors not been in these conflicts, I might not be here.  Consider this: a young soldier heading off to war would have to put starting a family on hold for the duration of his service.  If not for that setback, perhaps that soldier would never have had a child when they had your mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, and/or other ancestor.  One might even say that every little thing that has happened since the rise of humanity has, in some way or another, affected today’s world.  There is that famous quip about how going back in time and killing a single animal could drastically change the present.  But I don’t want to stop this tour of history at the rise of humanity.

There are approximately 13 billion years of universal existence.  So let’s start a bit further back than the mere dent in time that is human existence.  Shortly after the universe was created some 13 billion years ago, in what is called the Big Bang, the universe had expanded a bit, enough that the universe was able to cool some and allow particles to combine.  Thus, the first atoms were formed.  These were mostly hydrogen, with only small amounts of a few other elements (like lithium) forming.  If only these very light atoms had formed in the Big Bang, one might wonder how it is that the atoms we’re made of formed.

Drawing an atom

As the universe continued to expand, gravity did its thing, pulling the hydrogen and trace elements together.  Eventually, these elements had formed clumps.  Then, in time, these clumps had condensed enough to reach the conditions necessary for nuclear fusion.  These giant balls of mostly hydrogen gas had become the universe’s first stars.  Stellar nuclear fusion is the process by which stars continually produce their energy.  A few nuclear processes steadily convert hydrogen atoms into helium atoms, giving off other things as well.  Among these are light, along with somewhat elusive particles called neutrinos that have been the focus of intense study recently.  Indeed, this has been the focus of my research experiences.  The process of converting the maximum amount of hydrogen to helium takes varying amounts of time.  However, after this process is complete, the star will then convert helium to heavier atoms, and then those atoms to heavier atoms still.  This process will continue on until the star runs out of fusion material.  If the star has enough material, it will continue undergoing fusion until reaching iron.  Due to nuclear properties, it stops being energetically preferable to fuse elements heavier than iron.  This concludes the fusion process.  Big stars, those several times the size of our sun, will supernova after ending its fusion process.  The supernovae produce incredible energies, allowing elements heavier than iron to form.  In the process, the star’s material is ejected into the vast … space … of space.

So, after these early stars went supernova, their heavier elements (among them oxygen, carbon, iron, and others necessary for life) mixed in with other hydrogen nuclei.  By approximately five billion years ago, some of the mix that had been made by prior stars had collapsed to form the Sun and its satellites.  Contained on Earth were carbon, oxygen, iron, and the other elements necessary to produce life as we know it.  Fast forward upwards of five billion orbits of the Sun, and here we are, inhabiting the Earth today.  We are literally made of star atoms.

The closest star to Earth -- our Sun

So, clearly, both human history and cosmological history play quite prominently in determining how it is that a person came to be here and now.  The cosmic story doesn’t end with us, though.  What about the future of the universe?  Our sun has about five billion years of hydrogen-burning left.  Once it starts to fuse helium, it will swell, making Earth uninhabitable.  If we can find a way to inhabit another planet or another system by then, the story of humanity can continue with that of the cosmos.  Who knows when the end of the universe will be?  A lot of that depends on certain parameters like dark energy -- which, notably, was only discovered 14 years ago.

I feel that it is a very neat thing that we can trace our lineage to the stars.  As you can see from this musical YouTube video below of several talks put together, I’m not the only one.  However, while it is easy to get caught up feeling small when thinking of the universe as it is, there are some important things to remember.  We may not have a long life span in terms of the life of the universe, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do beautiful things with it.  What we do in our lives can affect both the world itself and the generations to follow.  These effects can, in turn, affect the generations to follow them.  Who knows?  One day, those effects might even be carried to other planets or other star systems.  It’s the human perspective that guides our lives, not the cosmic perspective, from which we appear to be mere mayflies.  And remember, you’re all stars in my book.

-- Post by volunteer Bruce Howard

(For more on the history of space and time, check out MPL's cosmology collection.)

[GUEST POST] The Space Shuttle: Thirty Years of Space Exploration

This week, "New @ MPL" is proud to showcase the writings of local teens from MPL's very own Teen Writing Group. (Our Teen Writing Group meets every Monday afternoon at the Library.)

Today, enjoy this entry from Allen H., sharing some of his in-depth knowledge about the history of the Space Shuttle, and its role in our space program:

One-hundred thirty-five missions.  One-hundred thirty-three successes, two failures.  These are just a small number of the many statistics that the five space shuttle orbiters -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- have played a part in.

First launched in 1981, the space shuttle was the first reusable spacecraft.  Prior to this launch, however, there were approach and landing tests.  A sixth shuttle, a prototype called Enterprise, flew these tests.  It was carried on the back of a modified Boeing 747 and jettisoned off the back to test the landing feature of the space shuttle.  At an altitude of 300 feet, the shuttle would lower its landing gears and gently touchdown on a runway.  There were a number of runways the shuttle could land at: Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility, Edwards Air Force Base, and White Sands Space Harbor, just to name a few.

During the thirty-year campaign, the shuttle has seen many great accomplishments.  One of the most notable was the deployment, and subsequent repair of, the Hubble Space Telescope.  After the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, it was discovered that the main mirror was ground to the wrong specifications, making the pictures blurry.  NASA was faced with two options: leave the telescope in its state, or send a space shuttle to repair it.

The Hubble telescope in orbit

Finally clearing a shuttle mission to fix it, NASA put together an elite crew, who had all been to space.  They conducted multiple spacewalks and even did back-to-back spacewalks.  After the repairs, Hubble started to fulfill its promise of peering into the past and uncovering the origins on the universe.  This mission proved that NASA could use the space shuttle to its full potential.

After the initial repair, Hubble has been serviced several times -- the most recent, and final, in 2009, when Space Shuttle Atlantis flew the STS-125 mission.

After the success of the repairs, NASA got involved in an international project: the International Space Station.  Partnering with the Russian Space Agency, European Space Agency, and countless others, construction was started on the space station.  The orbiting outpost was constructed on opposite sides of the world and then put together for the first time in space.  Crews are rotated by Russian Soyuz, and, at times, the space shuttle.  The space shuttle also carried most of the heavy cargo to the station, being the only space vehicle that could lift enormous payloads.  Having been completed in 2011, the space shuttle was retired at the conclusion of the last flight.

A spacewalk outside the International Space Station

Success was not met without failure, however.  During the thirty-year career, two space shuttle missions ended in tragedy.  On January 28th, 1985, space shuttle Challenger broke up 73 seconds after liftoff.  The accident resulted in the death of all seven astronauts, including the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe.  Space shuttle Discovery would fly the return-to-flight mission in 1988.

The second failure happened on February 1st, 2003.  Space shuttle Columbia was returning from a science mission.  Sixteen minutes before landing, the space shuttle broke apart, killing all seven astronauts.  The subsequent investigation showed that a piece of foam struck the orbiter during the ascent that made a hole in the underside of the shuttle.  This caused it to lose the thermal protection and break apart during the high temperatures of reentry.  Space shuttle Discovery again flew the return-to-flight mission in 2005.

Even with these failures, NASA continued to move forward.  Eileen Collins said it best: “We want to explore. We're curious people ... We believe in what we're doing. Now it's time to go.”  NASA has made major security improvements, including requiring the shuttle to perform heat shield inspections (which include flipping 360 degrees on flights to the Space Station), as well has having a secondary method of returning the astronauts from space.  After these requirements, NASA has not experienced any major problems with a spacecraft.

In July of 2011, the space shuttle was retired from flight, with these words from Chris Ferguson at the final landing: “Mission complete, Houston. After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle found its place in history. It's come to a final stop.”  The International Space Station is complete, the space shuttle retired; now it is time to move on.  Back to the moon, and then -- to Mars.

The space shuttle Endeavour

-- Post by teen volunteer Allen H.

(For more on the history of the space shuttle, check out Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years - detailing the astronauts' experiences in their own words.)

On a Magic Carpet Ride

An artist's depiction of the Curiosity rover touching down on Mars. 

The Olympics might be the biggest news story on the planet right now -- but offworld, things are proving to be just as interesting. The new NASA rover, the Curiosity, touched down on Mars early Monday morning, to the cheers of NASA technicians and scientists.

It's not the first time a rover has been sent to Mars. Opportunity, originally sent to Mars in 2004 for a planned three months of operational time, has been working ever since. Another rover sent in 2004, Spirit, only ceased working in 2010. 

What sets the Curiosity apart from its fellow rovers is, in part, its mission goal. Curiosity is equipped with scientific tools designed to explore the surface of Mars for clues as to whether or not the planet was ever capable of sustaining microscopic organisms of life. 

With a successful landing down pat, Curiosity is poised to pull NASA into a new era of discovery. Check out the links below to find out more about this amazing mission -- and about other journeys we've taken into the stars.

From the Apollo 11 moon landing.

A Look at Another World:

-- "Greeley Panorama" from Opportunity's Fifth Martian Winter: Moving Panorama -- 817 images were taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars rover Opportunity, and then artificially colored. The images were then converted by artist Hans Nyberg into a moving panorama of the surface of Mars that must be seen to be believed. If you click on one link, make it this one! (You can see the original NASA photograph here.)

The Curiosity:

-- NASA Spacecraft, Curiosity Rover, Land Safely on Mars -- from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Curiosity cost $2.5 billion, took eight months to complete a 352-million mile journey ... and it all came down to the landing. Read the details here.

-- Mars Science Laboratory -- from NASA. This trip isn't just about the photos. Stay up-to-date on NASA's findings by following this link!  (You can also use this link to check out the latest photos coming back from the Curiosity, too -- including ones in color.)

-- Mars Rover Landing "Miracle of Engineering," Scientists Say -- from Reuters. Check out the first photos to be returned by the Curiosity!

-- An Inside Look at the Mars Curiosity Rover -- from Time Magazine. All about the making of the Curiosity, complete with photos of the rover "in progress."

Other space-links:

-- Voyager 1 Zooming Ever Closer to Edge of Our Solar System -- from NBC News. Curiosity isn't the only man-made spacecraft currently exploring the stars. Voyager 1 and 2, launched in 1977, are still going strong ... and Voyager 1 seems to be on the verge of leaving our solar system entirely.

-- The Great Moon Hoax -- from NASA. Some still claim that the 1969 moon landing was all a hoax, designed to ensure that the USA would appear to beat Russia in the space race. Here, NASA uses the evidence to dispute that theory.

Two Travelers:

-- Sally Ride -- NASA's biography about the first American woman in space.

-- Neil Armstrong -- Currently in the news for recovering from bypass surgery (soon after his 82nd birthday on August 5), Neil Armstrong is the first person to ever stand on the Moon. Watch the historical footage here:

-- Post by Ms. B