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'Interstellar' trailer is out of this world

Posted Friday, May 16, 2014 at 3:51 PM Central

by John Couture

You saw that headline coming, didn't you?

That's OK, I can see the reviews for the film six months from now.

"Interstellar is STELLAR"

"Nolan knocks it out of this world"

"Wooderson saves humanity"

"Interstellar's box office headed for the stars"

I guarantee you that at least one of those will make its way onto the poster or a TV ad. But as predictable as reviewers are, the only thing predictable about Christopher Nolan is his unpredictability.

This is all that I know about Interstellar (and this is after watching today's trailer).

  • Humanity's existence is put at risk as the result of some event (probably man-made) that prevents us from growing enough food.
  • There is going to be a lot of discussion about Murphy's Law. Matthew McConaughey is apparently going to take some personal liberties with the adage.
  • At some point, the film is going to look more like the The Grapes of Wrath than the latest Nolan film.
  • Matthew McConaughey has knocked it out of this world, literally.
  • There is Interstellar space travel naturally and stasis pods, so while McConaughey's kid Murph will grow up to be Jessica Chastain, there's a pretty good chance that if McConaughey makes good on his promise to return that he and Chastain will also share the screen as father and daughter.
  • The mention of "beyond our life span" in the Michael Caine rallying speech. So, that's either time travel or life extension. Either prospect is intriguing.

What we don't know about the film is astounding and the list would be massive. Just for starters, I'm pretty sure that everything in the trailer is from the first 30 minutes of the film. Here are the actors we did not see in the trailer: Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, Topher Grace, Wes Bentley and Matt Damon.

But it's not all foggy either. At the heart of the film, this appears to be a Father/Daughter story set against the backdrop of humanity's struggle to survive extinction. With the exception of the Dark Knight trilogy, the single Father story is Nolan's bread and butter. He's explored the dynamic in great detail in both Inception and The Prestige.

In both of these prior films, the Father was able to overcome both great distances and circumstances to reunite with his offspring. So, if I were a betting man, I would lay money that Matthew McConaughey makes good on his promise to Murph.

Interstellar hits theaters on November 7.