**SPOILERS AHEAD** No, we still don’t know what happened to the spinning top at the end of "Inception," and if you’re expecting Christopher Nolan to dish about what he believes lay ahead for Coop (Matthew McConaughey) and Brand (Anne Hathaway) at the end of "Interstellar"… well, he’s not telling you.
“No way, man!” he tells The Daily Beast. “You’re just going to have to go back and see it again. It’s there for you to make what you make of it. People do always have radically different interpretations of things I put in there, but I know what I think and I don’t like it to have any more validity than the experience you have watching it.”
And we certainly won’t argue with that —for all the complaints that Nolan’s films have too much exposition, it’s ironic that the director is asked continually to explain his movies. And so it goes for the film’s appearance of Matt Damon, playing the duplicitous Dr. Mann, who tries to leave Coop for dead and make a selfish escape back to a more habitable colony. But Nolan explains his motivations for this sequence.
“It’s very straightforward: selfishness and cowardice,” Nolan says. “It’s very human, and I love what Matt did with that; he found the reality of it. It’s the kind of sequence where you loathe the guy because he’s doing something that you feel you might wind up doing in a similar situation. It’s very logical, but the rationalization of it is extraordinary —the way he was able to rationalize his own cowardice into a positive thing. Loneliness and desperation will make us do crazy things.”
Pointing towards classics "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre" and Erich von Stroheim‘s "Greed" as inspirations of movies that highlight humanity operating at the most base possible level, Nolan sees Mann acting in the same manner as the characters in those films.
“He’s not exactly crazy,” the director says. “It’s weirdly logical, but appallingly selfish. The only outcome to the mission for him was [a colony]. I think, and it’s something we talked a lot about —and it’s something he says in the film— that there was no doubt in his mind that his was going to be the planet, his was going to be the mission. So whatever the risks, he felt very confident. And when he’s confronted by the bleak reality of just dying out there alone, it all starts to unravel.”
So, do you roll with Nolan’s explanation? Or does it still leave you with narrative issues? Weigh in below.
The thing I hated about the Dr Mann sequence was how TALKY it was. I liked the idea that he went nuts — but imagine how cool it would have been if he just didn\’t say ANYTHING — and then just broke Cooper\’s spacesuit and they started fighting. And of course, maybe a line or two could have helped to explain what needed to be explained — but all that mambo jumbo that Mann was saying… who needs it? Just try to kill off Cooper already, and make us wonder. Much more engaging that way. And what\’s up with intercutting the fight with the forced drama back on Earth? Each distracted from the other. Ugh… I\’m on a rant now. Sorry.
re: Charles
Damon was given many great scenes to work with and did a fantastic job: breaking into tears after realizing he had been saved, putting on a performance for the crew to convince them his planet was inhabitable, rationalizing his actions for Cooper–saying that while Cooper is dying he will get to see his family again… All of these worked for me.
INTERSTELLAR is a beautiful love story to humanity. Everything in this wonderful executed piece of art makes sense and I love how Nolan leaves room for interpretation at the end of his films. Dr. Manns section was perfectly clear and Damon performed it beautifully; from the moment he came out of "cryosleep", I know what was going to happen; the desperation in his face was all that was needed. I liked the directors vision of the black whole (we don\’t know what we don\’t know) and that is where the beauty of filmmaking comes in. And the choices regarding the sound was perfect, it helped to follow the story of each single character and discovering the meaning along with them. I appreciate that Nolan is continues to explain his choices, that only shows that he cares. Though for me there is no explanation necessary since all made perfect sense. Not everyone is going to like it but that is the beauty of art.
Charles, from my point of view he doesn\’t have to explain anything. The film is pretty clear. Maybe the failure isn\’t the movie?
May be unfair to apply logic considering Mann\’s state of mind, but I don\’t know why he didn\’t just say this planet isn\’t habitable and let me catch a ride with you folks. They\’d already lost two crew members, so there wasn\’t a supplies issue.
Mann wanted to escape to a viable colony planet, not Earth.
The way doctor mann is constantly -and verbosely – rationalizing his actions (while he commits cold-blooded murder) is such an indictment of human nature that it\’s almost painful to watch. This horrible thing to realize is that this is COMMON in humanity. It happens on a huge scale across the globe. Daily.
there would be no need for theses bullshit explanations if you made a movie that made sense. Also how\’s about turning Up the actors voices so we can understand the dribble they are spouting.
The music in those scene was just horrible…something bad is going to happen, we get it, enough with that ominous sound!
I didn\’t find the IMAX sound mix off, just that it was more true to being in a cockpit with blaring shuttle noise that would drown out voices. It was not mixed like an episode of Star Trek for a reason. I like that Nolan\’s ideas and plot lines do not come with complete explanation or absolutes, but this does ultimately demonstrate how neurotic we/they are as characters go on and on about heady stuff when what they really just want is to hug their kids one more time. Maybe Interstellar is a space age Grimm Tale where we get what we deserve, when we already had what we needed. This combines with the challenge of meeting a classical Hollywood narrative where there is an ending that restores promise or hope for something more as long as we are alive, or others are alive to enjoy it.
It\’s clear that Anne Hathaway evokes the opportunity for Cooper to return to her where he was not quite able to do so for his daughter, as a young girl.
absolutes.
At first I thought the IMAX sound mix was a bit rough with dialogue being overshadowed by other noise elements, however that was intended as a point of realism. The intensity of the flight into space, or into the wormhole, and elsewhere would not be half as absorbing if the levels dropped to feature uber clear dialogue like an old episode of Star Trek. You become a real observer in that way. I don\’t mind that Nolan\’s ideas and plot lines don\’t tie up perfectly with absolutes.
It\’s incredible how the type of film we claim to want more of, is also the type we\’re gleefully trying to tear down down, any and everyway so we don\’t get anything quite as ambitious and ballsy again.
Interstellar is an epic in the true-est and most classic sense of the word, vast, visceral, incredible vistas, genuine awe and wonder, and at the same time, somehow intimate and heartfelt.
Yet all we want to do is punish Nolan for daring to go big and bold, and reward endeavours that are more safe and cautious. What a shame.
saw it twice in 5 days at IMAX in NYC. There is absolutely nothing wrong with sound mix. I could sense some Koyaanisqatsi influence going on score wise and also preparation of said score. This is a story, a film, with fictitious characters. It\’s isn\’t reality, it is an distortion and manipulation of reality. I am completely baffled by the blind criticism of this amazing picture. It\’s flawless storytelling and it leaves you with questions. Any great piece of art will do that, that\’s essentially arts job. Damon was terrific and that role was so important in telling a story about humanity. Ok my arms getting tired from stroking Nolan, but hey, I just loved it .
I\’m having a hard time wrapping my head around all of the criticism. I thought it was a brilliant film, never felt like 3 hours and was amazed by the imagery and the freshness. Never have we seen a post-apocalyptic earth in that sort of light…where humans aren\’t just all depressed and hum-drum, but just surviving where they can. Only complaint was I felt like the robots weren\’t established enough and yes, the IMAX sound mix is off…dialogue gets lost and score is way too hot.
But speaking of score, this is Zimmer\’s best work in years. His most original and exciting work in a long time. Kudos.
"tries to leave Coop for dead and make a selfish escape back to Earth"
pretty sure Mann wasnt heading back to earth but to the next planet to start a colony, no?
Was Mann going to take the Endurance back to Earth? For what purpose?
Damon is always great at playing conflicted characters, and Dr Mann must be the king of all conflicted characters. And weirdly, although his actions were horrible, they indirectly saved humanity. If Mann hadn\’t used up fuel and damaged the ship, Cooper never would have gone into the tesseract and saved earth. His speech as Cooper lies gasping reminds me of Turturro\’s soliloquy in Miller\’s Crossing. Except from the point of view of the "killer" vs the "kill-ee", which makes it even more poignant. Great stuff!
Liked the movie overall, but the Dr Mann section was very poorly executed. I felt a little sorry for Damon having to warble on and on about evolution and the essence of human nature, and so forth….he seemed to give up on trying to give a convincing performance, cause all he had to do past a certain point was spew out Nolan\’s cliff-notes.
Charles: No problem whatsoever with the sound-mix in non-IMAX screenings.
What doesn\’t add up, Charles?
It doesn\’t add up. Sorry, Nolan. If you have to keep explaining things in the press after the release of your movie (like the horrible sound mix), then you failed.