Interstellar Analysis

Interstellar is a space epic directed by Christopher Nolan.Through stunning visual

effects, the film follows astronauts flying to the other end of the galaxy to find a new home to
replace Earth. In this movie, Earth is dying and the only job to do is to make enough food to
survive. In this form of Earth there is no advancement of any kind. Coop, the main character, is
pulled into a secret government mission to save the world. By using a wormhole that has
mysteriously appeared in the solar system, Coop and his team use it to travel across the galaxy in
search of a new home to save humanity.
The entirety of the plot of Interstellar is seemingly far fetched. The use of wormholes and
the existence of fifth dimensional beings leaves the audience perplexed at the end of the movie.
In one of the final scenes, Coop enters this magical infinite bookshelf that was created by a fifth
dimensional being. In this scene, Coop creates a closed time loop where in the beginning of the
movie, Coop communicates with himself in order to send himself on this mission.
Up until the end of the movie, I feel that Nolan did a pretty good job at keeping the plot
easy to follow. However, towards the end, if a viewer does not follow along with extreme focus,
they can get easily confused. I wouldn’t say that this movie is for everyone, like The Martian.
However, I believe that the overall message to the viewers of this movie is, seemingly, a call to
action. It tells humanity to explore the bounds outside of our atmosphere and seek adventure in
the stars. It also acts as warning to humanity. It shows us that our Earth does not have to come to
this end, an end where we are forced to find a new habitable planet in order to survive.

The Martian Analysis

The Martian is an amazing story that follows the hero’s journey throughout the storyline.
Watney is stuck on Mars, with no viable rescue mission. Watney must overcome the many
obstacles in his way in order to get home. From a strictly analytical perspective, the storyline is
simple, he first tasked with his call to adventure, which is when he is first hit by the debris in the
storm. This then leads to a series of more problems, with small wins for the main character,
eventually ending in the main character overcoming his biggest obstacle and becoming the hero
of the movie.
However, the screenwriters for this film really did an amazing job at transforming this
simple plot into one that is intriguing to all audiences. The use of scientific creativity, changed
this story from being complete science fiction, to being a possible problem in the near future;
with the sudden resurgence of interest in the exploration of the space surrounding us. From using
his own feces to fertilize his crops to using the old Pathfinder rover to communicate with Earth,
Watney’s resilience to stay alive is incredible. And from the blowing up of his HAB to the
disassembling of the MAV, Watney goes through these hardships alone; showing the
perseverance of the human psyche when tasked with nearly the impossible.
I believe that the main, ongoing theme expressed in this movie summed up in the last
scene when Mark Watney states, “At some point, everything's gonna go south on you and you're
going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work.
That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem and you solve the next
one, and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home” (The Martian
2:25:14-46). The Martian does an amazing job of showing the resilience of humanity to survive,
also seen in Interstellar. The ability for Watney to crack a joke while on a planet 177 Million
miles away from Earth and completely alone, places a hopeful tone on a movie that without it
would be seemingly depressing
 Works Cited

Nolan, Christopher, director. Interstellar. Paramount Pictures, 2014.

Scott, Ridley, director. The Martian. 20th Century Fox, 2015.