So, I went and watched Interstellar yesterday. An interesting movie,but I agree with MovieBobs assessment that all in all, it just doesn't work very well. The visuals are stunning and the space exploration parts are great, but they just don't vibe with the "love as a tangible force" bits and the somewhat disjointed Drama on earth.
However, what get's to me more is how, for a film which is supposed to be very scientifically accurate, a big number of things don't seem to make sense. And unlike other plotholes, these seemed to be immediately obvious because the Film was drawing attention to them, rather than them just being a background for the story.
So I wanted to write them all down and maybe see what other escapists had to say.
1.) The "Ghost" in Murph's room
So at the beginning we have Murph talking about a supposed ghost, Cooper telling her ghosts don't exist and then telling her to scientifically record the phenomenon. This seems to indicate that something has been going on for an extended time in Murph's room, that she is now going to investigate. But later we learn that the strange phenomenon started just that morning. Why does Murph immediately jump to the conclusion that it's a ghost? How does she record the frequency of book drops when it only happens once?
2.) The anomaly messing with navigation systems
This is a minor one, but: How does the gravitation anomaly mess with a compass? How does it mess with a GPS system? And why, with their systems messed up, do all these farm machines end up at Coopers farm? At best, they should have just gradually missed their programmed paths, not started a congregation at Coopers house.
3.) The planet in Gargantua's rim is a terrible choice for a colony
Seriously, with a time dilation that strong, how are you ever going to get a colony going there? Not to mention that the planet would be in terrible danger of getting sucked into the black hole hours after you arrive because, you know, time dilation - From an outside perspective, the planet might have centuries to go, but once you're there, you might only have hours left.
4.) Scientists conveniently forget how time dilation work when assessing the viability of the Waterworld
How is it that the crew can accurately calculate the time dilation on the planet yet are unable to draw the very obvious conclusion that consequently, their explorer has only just landed on the planet according to local time, and if there is no further signal that doesn't mean anything good.
5.) Tidal waves don't work that way
So I am assuming that huge wave was supposed to be a tidal wave created by Gargantuan's gravitation. But even if I ignore how the team overlooked the giant fucking wave during landing, that's simply not how a wave works. The wave would be a mountain, not a wall, meaning that the water level gradually rises, and you certainly don't go from "completely calm water" to "Tsunami" in 5 Minutes.
6.) Convenient communications blackout
The communications blackout while near the water planet is never explained. The explorer's signal got out fine, and that was send from the planet's surface.
7.) Dr. Mann's booby Trap
So the Dr. Mann story I found pretty good, and relatable, even though it was so strongly telegraphed I really wasn't surprised at all. But what the heck was the point of the booby trap? That thing had a 90% probability to either kill him together with the person triggering it or at least kill the entire rescue team, thereby completely foiling the mission.
8.) The airlock-explosion
Why does a trained astronaut not know how an airlock works? It was stated that he "didn't know the docking procedure", but that is no excuse for manually opening an airlock that, according to your computer, is not properly connected. But I guess he was crazy?
9.) Did the ending cheat with the time dilation?
So this isn't techincally a plot hole, but something that remains a bit mysterious. When Cooper let's himself fall into the Black hole, time dilation would cause thousands of years to pass for everyone else until he finally reaches the singularity. Essentially no-one would be left alive. But since he falls out of time completely by traveling through the singularity, I guess it's fair that he get's out at a convenient time.
Ok, that's it. I just felt I had to write those down, get them out of my system. Feel free to comment, criticize of add your own questions.
However, what get's to me more is how, for a film which is supposed to be very scientifically accurate, a big number of things don't seem to make sense. And unlike other plotholes, these seemed to be immediately obvious because the Film was drawing attention to them, rather than them just being a background for the story.
So I wanted to write them all down and maybe see what other escapists had to say.
1.) The "Ghost" in Murph's room
So at the beginning we have Murph talking about a supposed ghost, Cooper telling her ghosts don't exist and then telling her to scientifically record the phenomenon. This seems to indicate that something has been going on for an extended time in Murph's room, that she is now going to investigate. But later we learn that the strange phenomenon started just that morning. Why does Murph immediately jump to the conclusion that it's a ghost? How does she record the frequency of book drops when it only happens once?
2.) The anomaly messing with navigation systems
This is a minor one, but: How does the gravitation anomaly mess with a compass? How does it mess with a GPS system? And why, with their systems messed up, do all these farm machines end up at Coopers farm? At best, they should have just gradually missed their programmed paths, not started a congregation at Coopers house.
3.) The planet in Gargantua's rim is a terrible choice for a colony
Seriously, with a time dilation that strong, how are you ever going to get a colony going there? Not to mention that the planet would be in terrible danger of getting sucked into the black hole hours after you arrive because, you know, time dilation - From an outside perspective, the planet might have centuries to go, but once you're there, you might only have hours left.
4.) Scientists conveniently forget how time dilation work when assessing the viability of the Waterworld
How is it that the crew can accurately calculate the time dilation on the planet yet are unable to draw the very obvious conclusion that consequently, their explorer has only just landed on the planet according to local time, and if there is no further signal that doesn't mean anything good.
5.) Tidal waves don't work that way
So I am assuming that huge wave was supposed to be a tidal wave created by Gargantuan's gravitation. But even if I ignore how the team overlooked the giant fucking wave during landing, that's simply not how a wave works. The wave would be a mountain, not a wall, meaning that the water level gradually rises, and you certainly don't go from "completely calm water" to "Tsunami" in 5 Minutes.
6.) Convenient communications blackout
The communications blackout while near the water planet is never explained. The explorer's signal got out fine, and that was send from the planet's surface.
7.) Dr. Mann's booby Trap
So the Dr. Mann story I found pretty good, and relatable, even though it was so strongly telegraphed I really wasn't surprised at all. But what the heck was the point of the booby trap? That thing had a 90% probability to either kill him together with the person triggering it or at least kill the entire rescue team, thereby completely foiling the mission.
8.) The airlock-explosion
Why does a trained astronaut not know how an airlock works? It was stated that he "didn't know the docking procedure", but that is no excuse for manually opening an airlock that, according to your computer, is not properly connected. But I guess he was crazy?
9.) Did the ending cheat with the time dilation?
So this isn't techincally a plot hole, but something that remains a bit mysterious. When Cooper let's himself fall into the Black hole, time dilation would cause thousands of years to pass for everyone else until he finally reaches the singularity. Essentially no-one would be left alive. But since he falls out of time completely by traveling through the singularity, I guess it's fair that he get's out at a convenient time.
Ok, that's it. I just felt I had to write those down, get them out of my system. Feel free to comment, criticize of add your own questions.
