Understanding Love in Interstellar
Introduction
Christopher Nolan is often called a cold director. Someone that is detached with emotions and creates morally bleak films about the flaws of human emotions. And to an extent that is correct. Nolan’s characters are people who are flawed and their moral ambiguity is an inspection of the human mind and how complex it is. From Memento’s Leonard to Dom in Inception - Nolan explores the flawed nature of a human. But Chris Nolan isn’t cold nor is he a sinic. His world view of humans is a realistic interpretation. We are not all good nor are we bad. But we are complex. That is why Cooper from Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi is his greatest character because Coop is someone Nolan doesn’t really film about. Nolan films about other people and their flawed nature - while Coop isn’t exploring human emotions but the emotions of Chris Nolan.
Love
The biggest theme of Interstellar is ‘Love’. The idea that Love is something we don’t fully understand - yet we are dictated by its power is the true exploration. With Interstellar it presents itself as a sci-fi movie with space travel and real life science sprinkled in but that isn’t the point of the movie - the idea of Coop leaving Earth is the vehicle used to permeate the importance that love has on us. His love for Murph is a clear motivation for him and their bond is a very special one that only a father and daughter can have. And Nolan doesn’t sugar coat their relationship by making it fluffy her anger at Coop is raw and her decision to not speak with her father for twenty three years is a reminder that love isn’t the right answer all the time - to love someone is to make the difficult decisions and to live what that for life. If Coop really loved his kids would he really leave them behind? Yes because as he said to be a parent is to build for your children’s future. This line is there on purpose because Coop literally defines Murph’s future by giving her the location of the NASA base and giving her the answers to save mankind. The fifth dimension was created by love. It is a physical manifestation of what Coop’s love is.
When it comes down to the most important moments for Coop he chooses love to guide his thinking. Leave his children behind to save them and sacrifice himself so Doctor Brand can make it to Edmund’s planet. If love wasn’t an influence would he make those sacrifices? Would he think irrationally by thinking of others and not himself? Love conquers all emotions.
The movie decides to have Doctor Brand be influenced by love which is important for the idea that love is transcended because both Coop and Doctor Brand are in the field of facts, but yet they both are influenced to go by gut feelings because of the influence of love. The idea that love isn’t bound by anything tangible but science is is a core battle between the two and one which the characters have to deal with. Doctor Brand wants to go to Edmund’s planet because she is in love with him and even though Doctor Mann, someone she called the ‘best of us’ has actually sent a signal she chooses to go with her gut feeling. However the team decide to vito her choice and set course for Doctor Mann. With Cooper the one ultimately making the final choice - is it hypocritical that he opts to go with facts rather than emotions which has been his driving force. To answer that we need to look at Doctor Mann and what he represents in the movie.
Dr Mann
To balance out the idea of love being all powerful Chris Nolan introduces a character that isn’t defined by the people around him or influenced by their affection - Doctor Mann is someone that looks through that barrier and focuses on the goal at hand without any other compassion. He needs to find a planet that can sustain life. The movie tells us that Doctor Mann is alone - he has no one to go back to on Earth as Doctor Brand states that the people chosen for the exploration are the loneliest. So his goal is survival. Without the clouded judgment of what loving someone can do he can make a decision as bleak as to kill Coop in order to save humanity. From the very beginning Doctor Mann knew that Plan A was never an option and Plan B was always the target. The idea presented here is that without compassion and love we are capable of doing unthinkable actions. Doctor Mann is okay with the people of Earth suffocating to their death while Coop and Brand with people they care about constantly on their mind decide to fight against the odds and figure a way to help the people on Earth.
Doctor Mann describes to Coop why technology wasn’t used for the mission as he says when things go wrong and the plan is thrown out the window robots can’t adjust because who do they think about when they are about to die - with humans right before they die they see the people they love and begin to fight harder to figure a way out. It isn’t by randomness that the Nolan brothers let Doctor Mann say those lines - Doctor Mann has been through that commotion - he’s been there when the plan is thrown out the window and where life or death is on the line. And who did he see - no one because Doctor Mann was alone so what did he do? He sent a signal and waited for someone to save him. Put that scenario on Coop - what would have been his decision. To escape - To go home to his kids.
What Doctor Mann represents is what happens when being alone is the only factor. He couldn’t fight harder or think of a way out because there isn’t a reason. Without love why escape to no one?
Nolan and Cooper
In many interviews Nolan states the similarity of Coop and himself with them both having a daughter being a major connection. And with this we see that Nolan is viewing Coop through his own eyes. Interstellar isn't a movie for us - it’s a movie for himself. As a father Nolan is bound by love for his children but just like Coop - Nolan has to leave them to fulfill his own exploration and exploration of cinema. We can view Interstellar in our own eyes but for Nolan it is a discovery of himself told for his children.
We love people who die, we love people far away from different continents and time zones, we love our pets, our children and our parents. It doesn’t matter when or where or even why but we do. What Interstellar is telling us is that love transcends time and space.
