Interstellar

Work Title: Interstellar
Medium: Film
Episode Title:
Year: 2014
Writer(s): Christopher Nolan
"Original" Writer: Yes Writer(s): Jonathan Nolan
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: No
Summary:

In Earth's future, a global crop blight and second Dust Bowl are slowly rendering the planet uninhabitable. Professor Brand (Michael Caine), a brilliant NASA physicist, is working on plans to save mankind by transporting Earth's population to a new home via a wormhole. But first, Brand must send former NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and a team of researchers through the wormhole and across the galaxy to find out which of three planets could be mankind's new home. (Eventful, Inc.)

Era/Year of Portrayal: near_future
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

Dry, dusty terrain. Earth's survivors after cataclysm live mainly through available agricultural products, e.g., corn. Unmanned drones occasionally fly about. Ultimately, astronauts, spaceships, and wormhole travel to relocate Earth's people. In space, there is a wormhole, black hole, gravity changes, highly contrasting light changes, kaleidoscope-like color montages, gravitational shifts, and multi-dimensional/multisensory immersive indoor and outdoor experiences.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: Drone
  • Description of the technology: General description: Unmanned ships once used by scientists now fly aimlessly about till expiration.

    Mobile: yes

    How user interacts: Protagonist /former NASA physicist, Cooper, responds by chasing the drone, but it is otherwise disconnected with people.

    Quality: Still functional but serving no useful purpose.

    Behavior: Some life-like qualities as it flies bird-like through the air, almost taunting the people below and drawing Cooper to call out to it and chase it with his children furiously.
  • Nature of task or activity: Once a scientific surveillance drone, now just a reminder of a world largely devoid of science.
  • Performance of the Technology: Once flew for scientific surveillance, now flies aimlessly.
  • Description of creator(s): Scientists of another era.
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): To acquire information about the earth.
  • Description of users of technology: No one is using the technology in the current, but the protagonist, Cooper, a man in his 40s, and his teenage children chase it.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: spatial_presence
  • Description of presence experience: It serves as a powerful tool to connect the past and present and two vastly different worlds. It in essence transports Cooper back in time to a scientific era seemingly long gone.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: Cooper sees the drone but seems to forget where and when he is as he chases it back to the past.
  • Valence of experience: High level of enjoyment.
  • Specific responses: Elation, optimism, hope, wonder, curiosity, satisfaction, longing.
  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: Spaceship
  • Description of the technology: General description: A rocket called Endurance that resembles NASA's SLS. It is part of a mission to relocate Earth's survivors to a habitable planet.

    Mobile: yes

    How user interacts: Astronauts interact with it as they pilot the ship

    Quality: Highly realistic in visual, aural and tactile characteristics.

    Behavior: Responsive to human and robotic commands.
  • Nature of task or activity: Cooper and other astronauts use the ship for interplanetary travel, making their way through a wormhole in Earth's solar system to save civilization. On their voyage, they enter hypersleep pods for two years as they approach a wormhole near Saturn. They then cross the wormhole, carrying the crew ten-billion light-years across space to the Gargantua planetary system.
  • Performance of the Technology: The ship travels well across the universe to a strange planetary system, Gargantua, orbiting a black hole.
  • Description of creator(s): The scientists who created the spaceship are both men and women, but mostly men. The chief scientist in charge of the spaceship Expedition is Amelia, the daughter of the NASA director and creator of all the missions, Dr. Brand.
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): The creators, led by NASA director Dr. Brand, have two plans to save the human population: Plan A involves creating a formula to allow the transport of all surviving people on earth to a habitable planet. Plan B involves starting a new world with harvested embryos. The first missions 10 years before called Lazarus left at least one astronaut, Amelia's lover, Edmunds, stranded on a planet . The second mission, Expedition, was launched to find, rescue and resupply any surviving scientists from the previous missions and to establish a permanent home on a planet that could sustain human life. The Expedition transports the astronauts through space and time on their quest.
  • Description of users of technology: Aboard the Expedition, astronauts Cooper, Doyle and Romilly are male and the lead scientist, Amelia, is female. One man, Romilly, is African American. The others are seemingly Caucasian. There are also two robots, TARS and CASE.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: spatial_presence
  • Description of presence experience: The Expedition ship is immersive as it transports the astronauts into hypersleep mode and a wormhole to transport them into the future. They are generally unfazed by the passage of time in the hypersleep pods because the technology is elusive as they drift into sleep. They are more aware of travel in the wormhole, which evokes a roller coaster-like experience.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: The astronauts are mindful of the hypersleep pods initially but are lost in them through hypersleep mode. They are more aware of the wormhole, which evokes roller coaster-like responses.
  • Valence of experience: There is some discomfort but also relief from discomfort in hypersleep. There is motion sickness and aging because of time lapse in wormhole travel.
  • Specific responses: The crew suffers a bout of motion sickness as they spin up before regaining artificial gravity. They feel a roller coaster-like ride as they zip through the wormhole. They experience fear and euphoria as they travel in a slingshot near a black hole.
Long-term consequences:

The journey takes several paths, drawing a range of emotions but ultimately satisfaction and success. After Amelia is thrust into Edmunds' planet, Cooper finds himself in a "tesseract," where he is is able to communicate with the past through gravity waves. Cooper realizes the tesseract and wormhole were created by future humans to allow communication with his daughter, Murphy. Cooper, with TARS' help, solves the formula needed to realize Plan A and is able to save the population of the earth. Cooper reunites with his daughter, who is now elderly and convinces him to rejoin Amelia on Edmunds' planet, which was found habitable.

Other:

Coder name: Melissa Selverian
Coder email: melissaselverian@comcast.net
Coder affiliation: Temple University