really? I thought he wanted to go home. Man I need to go back and watch it again.

Ha, so which is it? Was he trying to get back to Earth to be around people again, or get to Edmund's planet? I don't think he could have done both.

I got the distinct impression he was trying to get back to Earth. But like I said, he had some quick throw-away line about wanting to complete the mission. I've read a dozen explanations and they all say something different. This was something Nolan definitely needed to make more clear.

why didn't Cooper's hand freeze when he took his glove off? At the least, it would have fully eliminated any remaining oxygen from his suit, so he should have suffocated....

He wanted to go home. Back to earth. He said it at least once. He said he activated the beacon because he didn't want to die, and only wanted to return home.

I'm certain of it. That was his plan. To head back to earth and die out naturally with the dying planet.

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why didn't Cooper's hand freeze when he took his glove off? At the least, it would have fully eliminated any remaining oxygen from his suit, so he should have suffocated....

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I thought when Mann was running through the information on his planet he said the air was breathable, but high in ammonia so not for very long. As for his hand freezing, I guess the planet wasn't that cold.

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why didn't Cooper's hand freeze when he took his glove off? At the least, it would have fully eliminated any remaining oxygen from his suit, so he should have suffocated....

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Depends on how cold it was. And I think space suits are made so that if you take your glove off in a vacuum, it may do some damage to your hand and you may lose some pressure in the suit, but it won't necessarily kill you. I think there's some kind of seal around your wrist. The planet's atmosphere had pressure though so the gasses shouldn't have mixed assuming the inside & outside pressures were close enough.

One thing about ditching Earth for another planet...
I would think that no matter how bad and/or polluted the Earth's atmosphere gets, it's always going to be easier to terraform Earth than it would be to terraform another planet.

If the sun is about to turn into a red giant, then yeah... different story.

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I got the distinct impression he was trying to get back to Earth. But like I said, he had some quick throw-away line about wanting to complete the mission. I've read a dozen explanations and they all say something different. This was something Nolan definitely needed to make more clear.

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+1. My first question to my friend as we walked out was what Damon's objective was.

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One thing about ditching Earth for another planet...
I would think that no matter how bad and/or polluted the Earth's atmosphere gets, it's always going to be easier to terraform Earth than it would be to terraform another planet.

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I thought they were looking for a planet that was already suitable..

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Definitely thought about this more than once

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One thing about ditching Earth for another planet...
I would think that no matter how bad and/or polluted the Earth's atmosphere gets, it's always going to be easier to terraform Earth than it would be to terraform another planet.

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I thought they were looking for a planet that was already suitable..

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Well what did they consider suitable? Something with gravity around 1G. Water. Organic compounds would be good. Microbes would be great. Something not TOO hot or cold. It's ok if there's a bit of ammonia in the air if you can at least go to low elevations and breath the air.

Forget that... I'll take Earth with its 80% nitrogen over that any day.

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Ha, so which is it? Was he trying to get back to Earth to be around people again, or get to Edmund's planet? I don't think he could have done both.

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Hm, maybe my memory of when he says what is already fuzzy, but my impression was he wanted to get back to earth, and he was just BSing about completing the mission in hopes the others wouldn't realize what he was doing until it was too late.

There were bigger problems with the movie than Damon's vague goals, though...

At first the fiance and I were confused about Mann's overall motive and where he was going. I've spoke with numerous people and have concluded he was going to Edmunds planet.
Mann stated several times RE completing the mission. This mission that he revealed to Brand & Cooper was Plan B all along- colonizing a habitable planet. There was no reason (for Mann) to go back to earth. What confused me was that why Mann wasn't honest when he was woken out of sleep?
"Hey guys- I was lying about the data- we need to go to Edmunds planet together to colonize" Afterall- that was Brand's and Romilly's goal, correct?

Because Plan B was the only plan. If he would've revealed that there was no Plan A right then and there, the **** would have hit the fan.

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One thing about ditching Earth for another planet...
I would think that no matter how bad and/or polluted the Earth's atmosphere gets, it's always going to be easier to terraform Earth than it would be to terraform another planet.

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I thought they were looking for a planet that was already suitable..

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Well what did they consider suitable? Something with gravity around 1G. Water. Organic compounds would be good. Microbes would be great. Something not TOO hot or cold. It's ok if there's a bit of ammonia in the air if you can at least go to low elevations and breath the air.

Forget that... I'll take Earth with its 80% nitrogen over that any day.

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It wasn't Earth's atmosphere that was driving humanity off. It was the lack of food.

They couldn't grow anything. Wheat had already died off. Okra had died off. Corn was the only thing that could grow, because of the blight, and it was slowly being eradicated.

The atmospheric problems where a by-product of the blight:

• huge dust storms because there was nothing growing in the soil to anchor it down
• the blight kills the plants, which take in CO2 and produce O2; more blight = less plants = eventually no oxygen

Basically, Earth's environmental degradation had already been snowballing for years and years. Maybe even decades. It was well beyond the point at which a small remnant of humanity with extremely limited resources could do anything about it.

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It wasn't Earth's atmosphere that was driving humanity off. It was the lack of food.

They couldn't grow anything. Wheat had already died off. Okra had died off. Corn was the only thing that could grow, because of the blight, and it was slowly being eradicated.

The atmospheric problems where a by-product of the blight:

• huge dust storms because there was nothing growing in the soil to anchor it down
• the blight kills the plants, which take in CO2 and produce O2; more blight = less plants = eventually no oxygen

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Plan A:
- Find a habitable planet which has a breathable atmosphere somehow generated by a small amount of microbes (which may or may not be tolerated by plants from Earth... i.e. new blight)
- Solve quantum gravity
- Turn knowledge of quantum gravity into a solution that can transport a gigantic space station full of people etc to Saturn and through a wormhole
- Transport colonists to new planet surface
- Grow crops, reproduce Earth ecosystem on new world

Plan B:
- Find a habitable planet which has a breathable atmosphere somehow generated by a small amount of
microbes (which may or may not be tolerated by plants from Earth... i.e.
new blight)
- Re-start human population with "population bomb"
- Grow crops, reproduce Earth ecosystem on new world

or...

Plan C:
- Bio-engineer blight predator, kill off blight

Plan D:
- Build a dome on the Earth
- Destroy crops, blight, etc within dome
- Once sterilized, regrow crops in dome
- Repeat until blight is eventually eradicated (many will die but you save more than are transported on the giant space station)
- Remove domes

Plan C&D seem easier and do not have risk of infections by alien life.

One vote here for Mann was gonna go complete Plan B and not head back to earth. I have no recollection of a specific scene or dialogue that proves this.

I think that was Mann's plan. Earth was doomed.

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It wasn't Earth's atmosphere that was driving humanity off. It was the lack of food.

They couldn't grow anything. Wheat had already died off. Okra had died off. Corn was the only thing that could grow, because of the blight, and it was slowly being eradicated.

The atmospheric problems where a by-product of the blight:

• huge dust storms because there was nothing growing in the soil to anchor it down
• the blight kills the plants, which take in CO2 and produce O2; more blight = less plants = eventually no oxygen

---

Plan A:
- Find a habitable planet which has a breathable atmosphere somehow generated by a small amount of microbes (which may or may not be tolerated by plants from Earth... i.e. new blight)
- Solve quantum gravity
- Turn knowledge of quantum gravity into a solution that can transport a gigantic space station full of people etc to Saturn and through a wormhole
- Transport colonists to new planet surface
- Grow crops, reproduce Earth ecosystem on new world

Plan B:
- Find a habitable planet which has a breathable atmosphere somehow generated by a small amount of
microbes (which may or may not be tolerated by plants from Earth... i.e.
new blight)
- Re-start human population with "population bomb"
- Grow crops, reproduce Earth ecosystem on new world

or...

Plan C:
- Bio-engineer blight predator, kill off blight

Plan D:
- Build a dome on the Earth
- Destroy crops, blight, etc within dome
- Once sterilized, regrow crops in dome
- Repeat until blight is eventually eradicated (many will die but you save more than are transported on the giant space station)
- Remove domes

Plan C&D seem easier and do not have risk of infections by alien life.

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This. So this.

I thought I remembered an entire scene (right after Murph breaks the news about the doctor dying) where Mann basically confirmed to them that Plan A was never an option.... and that he was going to Plan B all along.

Ha, this is hilarious. People absolutely convinced on both sides, re: Mann going to Earth vs. Mann going to Edmund's planet. This is exactly why so many people are *****ing about this section of the movie (other than it being blatantly obvious from the get-go Mann was up to no good). Nolan definitely needed to be more clear here.

That said, why would Mann need to kill Cooper/hijack the mission if Brand for sure, and probably Romilly as well, would have been ALL FOR going to Edmund's planet too? I feel like the three of them could have rationally convinced Cooper not to go back to Earth. But maybe not. If, as originally planned, Cooper was able to get the black hole data from TARS (without going into the black hole himself), and humanity then had even an inkling of hope of getting the colony into space, then it might have been a huge challenge convincing Cooper to stay.

On the flip side, Mann seemed absolutely hell bent on wanting to be around people again. If he didn't want to go back to Earth, he would almost assuredly be alone again on Edmund's planet - if not just him and Edmund. I guess maybe the potential of living with just one other person was enough (and on an actual habitable planet). And I guess he could have raised the embryos as well.

Yeah, even as I type this, I'm becoming more and more convinced Mann was trying to get to Edmund's planet and complete the mission.

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It wasn't Earth's atmosphere that was driving humanity off. It was the lack of food.

They couldn't grow anything. Wheat had already died off. Okra had died off. Corn was the only thing that could grow, because of the blight, and it was slowly being eradicated.

The atmospheric problems where a by-product of the blight:

• huge dust storms because there was nothing growing in the soil to anchor it down
• the blight kills the plants, which take in CO2 and produce O2; more blight = less plants = eventually no oxygen

---

Plan A:
- Find a habitable planet which has a breathable atmosphere somehow generated by a small amount of microbes (which may or may not be tolerated by plants from Earth... i.e. new blight)
- Solve quantum gravity
- Turn knowledge of quantum gravity into a solution that can transport a gigantic space station full of people etc to Saturn and through a wormhole
- Transport colonists to new planet surface
- Grow crops, reproduce Earth ecosystem on new world

Plan B:
- Find a habitable planet which has a breathable atmosphere somehow generated by a small amount of
microbes (which may or may not be tolerated by plants from Earth... i.e.
new blight)
- Re-start human population with "population bomb"
- Grow crops, reproduce Earth ecosystem on new world

or...

Plan C:
- Bio-engineer blight predator, kill off blight

Plan D:
- Build a dome on the Earth
- Destroy crops, blight, etc within dome
- Once sterilized, regrow crops in dome
- Repeat until blight is eventually eradicated (many will die but you save more than are transported on the giant space station)
- Remove domes

Plan C&D seem easier and do not have risk of infections by alien life.

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But if they didn't leave Earth, how could this have been a Firefly prequel???

Great post TexAgs91.

Really liked the movie except for the bookshelf 5th dimension scene.

Thanks KidDoc. Despite all that though, I really did love the movie.

Saw it today. Really liked it. Trying to think of a better true sci fi space film in last decade. Hard pressed to think of one. I think it will be seen as a classic given time. The more I think about it the more I like the film.

I agree with the poster who said the film is not perfect, but Nolan came close and addressed the complex subject matter better than anyone else could have.

To compare, what true sci fi space films were better than Interstellar in the last 10 years? 20? Hard to think of them. I agree with the poster that said this may eventually be seen as this generation's 2001.

Contact

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2001, Contact and now I would add Interstellar as the big 3 when it comes to films that capture what true science fiction is about. They all have many things in common such as focusing more on the science and less on the fiction and dividing both critics and viewers. I love Star Wars and Star Trek but there is very little science fiction involved in those types of movies and tv shows. I would go as far as saying Star Wars isn't science fiction at all. Its fantasy, Lord of the Rings in space. The Godfather could be set on Mars and that doesn't necessarily make it science fiction. I wish studios were a little more daring in making more movies like Interstellar. There are so many great hard scifi books out there that would make great movies.

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Well put

Saw this on 35mm. Now that was a welcome change of pace. On my phone so I'm not gonna say much. It was a great film with some truly heartbreaking scenes. The sci fi elements were awesome and the score made space travel tense and exciting as hell.

Mann explicitly stated he was completing the mission (plan B). He also went on and on about how great the professor was for not worrying about his own evolutionary desires to protect himself or his children.

Also, any time there is a role in a movie where the casting choice is kept quite... Just assume it's Matt Damon

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The scene right after Damon blows up the ship and it's spinning super fast: Cooper is trying to match his spin rate with that of the main ship, and one of the robots tells him that he can't do it (I read that as "you don't have enough fuel"), and Cooper responds with the cheesy "It's not required....it's necessary".....wtf? Your need to get back to the main ship won't somehow create extra fuel for you to use to spin your ship.

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CASE: Endurance rotation is 67...68 rpm.

Cooper: [...] get ready to match [our/their] spin with retro thrusters

CASE: That's not possible

Cooper: No... but it's necessary

The audio is in the first 30 seconds of this video, it's not really clear but that's the gist