Yeah, yeah, this discussion is a couple days late, but I actually wanted to see the movie again before I delve into Spoiler-Territory.

That being said: SPOILER WARNING. This post will contain major spoilers from Interstellar. Feel free to read my Spoiler-Free review, then go watch the movie, cuz ya should, then come back here and have some fun with the rest of us. Gone? Good? Good.

Murphy’s Ghost

• Something I’ve heard a lot of people complain about is that they knew Murphy’s Ghost was gonna be Cooper in the future.
  • Being the simple-minded gentleman that I am, I could not predict that.
• I’m not even kidding though, I was thinking last week how I wish movies would do things like this more.
  • Example: in 4^th or 5^th Grade, I read this book The Candy Shop Wars (which I remember liking?) and at the beginning of the book, an old guy runs up to the group of kids, saying he’s the main character from the future. 300 pages later, we find out he is.
    • I was thinking how I wish movies did things like that more, but in a less obvious way.
  • That being said, I was excited at the reveal Cooper was Murphy’s Ghost.
  • I talked to some of my friends (more on that later) and none of them could predict it either.
    • Well one of them could, but that’s cuz he’s just extremely smart.

Division of Acts

• In my Spoiler-Free Review, I broke the movie up into a 5-Act Format, when I usually split movies into 3-Act formats.
• Before I can go on to my next point, let me tell you which act is which, so we know what I’m referring to.
• Act I:
  • The set-up of everything before we get into space. Roughly the first 35-45 minutes, up until the launch.
• Act II:
  • Everything in space until Dr. Mann. The docking, the wave planet, the aging, all of that until the ice planet.
• Act III:
  • Everything on the Ice Planet regarding Dr. Mann.
  • Just for fun, I’m saying that’s a little extended too, and we’ll say Act III goes up until Dr. Mann dies.
• Act IV:
  • Everything regarding Coop going into the black hole.
  • From the moment after Mann’s death, until he exits the black hole.
• Act V:
  • Everything on the Space Station in the last 5-10 minutes.
• It’s not broken up evenly by a long shot, but that’s where I drew the divisions in the film.
• That being said, let’s discuss the majority of the movie I thought could have been condensed or written a bit better.

Act 3

• Pfft! Roman Numerals, am I right?
• So in Act 3, the famous Dr. Mann from the Lazarus missions was finally revealed.
• And while I’m on the topic, let’s discuss Matt Damon in the role, cuz who saw that coming?
  • I DID!
  • I really followed this film through the phases of production and I remember hearing Matt Damon finished filming his ‘brief role’ in Iceland.
  • I’m also a frequent listener of AMC Movie Talk and just a few weeks ago they discussed who Damon may be playing.
  • So I knew when they didn’t show a picture of him, that was the Matt Damon role.
• I think the way they introduced Mann, and the way his character was built up was good.
  • The fact that he had lost hope in everything, not even putting a wake-up date to sleep-chamber.
• But I felt like ‘the reveal’ that his character was evil just lead to a side-story that felt a bit unnecessary.
  • What I thought would happen is Coop still goes into the Black Hole, but he does so while Brand, Mann, and Romilly scrape together the resources to go to Edmunds’s planet.
• The whole 20 minute conversion of Mann was interesting, yes, and I understood the ideas of conflict that it posed, but it just felt like a side episode to drag out the film a little more.
• As I said, this felt like a LONG movie, but at no point did I feel it to be too long, I just think certain parts of Act 3 could have been distributed into Act 2.
  • Example: I feel like Brand’s desire to be with Edmunds was little too flip-the-switch esque, and if Matt Damon’s arc was reduced, her backstory with Edmunds and desire to be with him would have felt more real.
  • I may not have even had a problem with the Mann going evil storyline if it was just cut down a bit, because it felt like way too long a side story to the bigger picture.

Act 4

• I really liked the intellectual questions and thoughts that Act 4 had, despite how trippy it felt for a while.
• I was a really big fan of the Fifth-Dimensional Beings actually turning out to be future humans.
  • I thought this was a very good technique, especially when they originally said that there was “someone else” who put the wormhole there.
    • I was hoping Nolan wouldn’t delve into any fantasy elements, or anything too unrealistic like extra-terrestrials in this film, because I’m sure for such a grounded film he wouldn’t want to.

Final Thoughts

• Just a final thought I had on the film that I want to steal before anyone else on the Internet does:
  • And brace yourselves, cuz it’s gonna be awesome…

• At the end of the movie, you see Brand is on a dessert planet, with a civilization set up a little bit behind her.
• I think we all know what this means…
• The whole movie was…(wait for it)… A PREQUEL TO STAR WARS!
• Yup, I just blew all your minds!
• It’s just missing the second sun…

***

Anyway guys, those are my Spoiler-Filled Thoughts on Interstellar. Feel free to leave your thoughts and theories down below. Again I really enjoyed this film, and can’t wait to see what Nolan does next. And as always, thanks for reading guys.