I finally rewatched Interstellar. I actually watched it 8 years ago when it first came out in the theaters, and it’s quite amazing how much time has passed since it was released. I’m not really sure what came over me to rewatch it; I was just sitting around, stressed about finals, and suddenly had the urge to put it on the TV. I think I wanted to listen back to the orchestral soundtrack, which has been tumbling around in my mind for a long time.
It was an excellent choice for a Saturday night; 3 hours of solid cinematography and beautiful CGI, a result of countless hours devoted in the collaboration of world-class physicists, astronomers, and movie directors. I was surprised to see Timothée Chalamet playing the son—he was definitely not as famous then, and I think I glossed over the fact that he was actually young and without that “heartstring-tugging” look (??) that attracts so many girls. Then there was Anne Hathaway, glowing as ever, and Matt Damon playing the villain dressed in a comfortable hoodie. I can’t and won’t ever get over the fact that actors can portray so many emotions in a split second, even when their faces seem to be staying literally still. Acting is such a delicate art, and it’s so impressive how people can assume the role of another human being. The beauty of human personalities!
I found interest in two scientific concepts in the movie:
- Murphy’s Law
- Wormholes
Murphy’s Law
Murphy’s Law seems like a scam.
“‘Murphy’s law or the fourth law of thermodynamics’ (actually there were only three last I heard) which states: ‘If anything can go wrong, it will.’”
– Fred R. Shapiro, Wikipedia
Hmm. The movie kept referring back to this law, in a very professional and scientific way, that I became intrigued at how much this held up. Obviously, not every “what if” question becomes reality, unless you really believe in the parallel world theory. There’s also a side of human mind bias, as Wikipedia states:
“According to Richard Dawkins, so-called laws like Murphy’s law and Sod’s law are nonsense because they require inanimate objects to have desires of their own, or else to react according to one’s own desires. Dawkins points out that a certain class of events may occur all the time, but are only noticed when they become a nuisance.”
In Interstellar, the law is stated in another way:
“It means that whatever can happen, will happen.”
I think this is quite nice and optimistic, but in no way actually feasible in everyday life, only in the very broad term of future human progression. For example, I could perhaps someday reach a 7:30 2k, but it unfortunately won’t happen (unless…?!). Pessimistically, in some regards, it also means that every little bug in my code can and will create substantial problems. Interesting concept, but I think I’ll have to dig a little deeper, because the scientific and mathematic proofs listed tell me that the law is not as abstract as I think it is. Maybe I’ll write about this more someday.
Wormholes
The other concept that stood out to me was the idea of a spherical wormhole. It makes so much sense that in a 3D to another 3D space, the hole will look spherical, as per the “hole in the paper” analogy that Dr. Doyle gives. The graphics that they choose for this spherical hole is polished and so well executed, albeit with the limitations that a 2D TV screen provides. This led me to wonder what a wormhole would look like in 2D space; for us, it’s a circular, 2D hole, but if you were a person living inside the thin edge of a paper, it would look like a line. A line! A normal “hole” in 2D space would be a point, but that wouldn’t get you anywhere but to the next unit square space instead of the bending of space. Thinking about the intersection and relationship between different dimensions is a great thought-provoking rabbit hole that can suck you in for hours of mindless daydreaming. I often have dreams about being in the fourth or fifth dimension (actually, in morning fever dreams, when I wish I could turn back time so I can get some more sleep). Walking through time! There, I would meet someone at the Empire State building, 60th floor, on 13th April 1984, just like I would set up an appointment with someone else in the third dimension. Traveling through time is mind-boggling, and I wonder if there’s a constant increasing rate of something in the higher dimensions, just like how we have time as a constant factor in the third dimension world. See, now I’m rambling about my rabbit hole again—and it’s always more enjoyable if you fall into it yourself.
All in all, Interstellar is such a great sci-fi movie, probably one of the best standards for the coming decades. I doubt that many movie directors would want to spend this much time and resources to achieve this level of scientific accuracy, but it would really be nice if audiences could gain various knowledge in popular media. And me, too! I’d love to learn more about everything. Everything. What a great movie, honestly.