Welcome to the twelfth insertion of DEMUR®, a series where we will be highlighting some of the most interesting topics in all of art. This week we’ll propel ourselves into Christopher Nolan’s academy award winning sci-fi film, Interstellar - and the otherworldly science within.
Debuting on November 7th, 2014, Interstellar set a precedent for not only sci-fi films, but for every component in the world of cinema. Directed by Christopher Nolan and lead by Matthew McConaughey (aka Cooper), a former NASA pilot endures one of the greatest journeys through space as a last attempt to save Earth. Entering a wormhole in a desperate attempt to extract the willowing human race, time ticks and crops begin to perish on Earth while the ensemble lands atop ‘Miller’s Planet’. Here, each hour spent equates to 27 years, the mass of the blackhole distorting time itself. Catastrophically hit by a tsunami while on the oceanic planet, the ensemble expends 23 years and fails the mission while Cooper’s daughter, Murph, avenges her father and saves humanity.
Between the complex plot and scientifically accurate intricacies, Christopher Nolan was able to produce a visual masterpiece full of intrinsic values, alongside mind-bending visuals. The film accentuates a labyrinth of astrophysics in a captivating medium, using science as a melody to the soundtrack of Interstellar. Nolan recruited physicist Kip Thorne to dispute the minutiae of authenticity, resulting in one of the most plausible films in science fiction history. Thorne, as well as the special effects team and over 30 people worked tirelessly to calculate appealing visuals of something that light does not pertain to, posing a ridiculous feat.
The challenge demanded a new rendering software, which disobeyed the traditional laws of light, creating the most accurate representation of the entity. Each frame would render the blackhole to spin at just less than the speed of light, as well as the accretion disk surrounding such to remain scientifically accurate. Nolan’s request ensured 800 terabytes of data and multiple page long memos proving such a possibility. Interstellar questioned our reality and altered society as we know it.
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