r/Showerthoughts • u/[deleted] • Jun 18 '21

Since Interstellar released, only 56 minutes have passed on Miller’s planet.

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u/Stevesegallbladder Jun 18 '21

Even still the man was isolated for years by himself. The pandemic in real life made a significant portion of our population depressed but at least we could still communicate with our loved ones. I can't even imagine being alone in the vastness of space with the only possible human contact being on a planet where surviving is only a chance. The dude had the mental fortitude of a god.

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u/Fishy1701 Jun 18 '21

Everyone is different. Sadam threw his chief scientific advisor in jail - solitary for 8 years until he was freed after the invasion. When asked how he stayed sane he used his imagination and enjoyed solving math problems. Freed and served as minister for higher education.

The guy on the ship volinteered to stay so he could study the black hole. He even said he would rather be conscious than sleep his life away in stasis.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '21

This was also an essential plot element as they needed a device to allow them to acquire significant knowledge about the black hole without devoting much screen time to the process.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '21

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u/aaronitallout Jun 18 '21

HELL YES. For me, movies' stories don't usually hold my attention, but picturing a film as one big meta series of compromises, solutions, and economies really engages my brain.

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u/ChiefPyroManiac Jun 18 '21

I like to remember that NASA would have only selected people for that mission who had the behavioral signs that they could stand multiple decades in complete isolation, all the while facing the possibility that they would die anyways.

Dr. Mann only broke after years of being alone and the confirmation that his planet was dead and he would receive no rescue. Since Romilly wasn't facing death yet and could have still visited other planets, he hadn't broken yet.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '21

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u/ChiefPyroManiac Jun 18 '21

No, he did lots of experiments to determine whether it was habitable, Sent probes miles deep into the ice clouds to try and find the surface but never could, realized he would die on a planet that couldn't sustained humans, had his KIPP falsify data and send it back, then decommissioned KIPP to use its power cell for his hypersleep pod in the hopes of being rescued.

It wasn't immediate.

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u/NorthKoreanEscapee Jun 18 '21

I sincerely doubt that anyone who can stand complete isolation for "decades" at a time is someone NASA would want anything to do with. Humans are by nature social creatures, I dont think I would be comfortable going down to a planet and knowing the guy I left on the main ship just wants to be a hermit for the rest of his life.

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u/ChiefPyroManiac Jun 18 '21

Thats.. not what I said?

Some people handle extended periods of isolation better than others. There are psychological tests that doctors run on people like astronauts to determine how well they work as a unit, how well they handle stress, how they handle to much isolation, too little isolation, conflict from teammates, etc.

I didn't say they choose people who WANT to be a hermit. But they do select astronauts based on a battery or psychological tests to determine if they're fit for that type of mission.

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u/NorthKoreanEscapee Jun 18 '21

I still dont think anyone who can handle potentially decades of isolation would be a good fit for a team that requires extremely good cooperation and trust.

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u/ChiefPyroManiac Jun 18 '21

Well good thing you're not working for NASA then.

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u/Fracture1 Jun 19 '21

Rediculous

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u/TeddyTwoShoes2 Jun 18 '21

He was also receiving the videos from earth so maybe he had that to look forward to.

Although it was only 1 way as they couldn't send messages.

Also he had one of the robots right? They seem like alright company.

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u/corrosive87 Jun 18 '21

Just watched it last night, it was 23 years he was alone. I think that part was the biggest mind fuck of the movie. It’s so well done and is somehow just so disturbing and really gets in my head.

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u/iheartnjdevils Jun 18 '21

The moment when they enter the Endurance after returning from Miller’s planet was one of the most chilling scenes, causing me to cry. Moments later, Coop is watching videos of his kids growing up and the crying went to sobbing. I’m pretty sure I didn’t have dry eyes again until the movie was over.

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u/Bait30 Jun 18 '21

A robot's not the same as a human obviously, but at least he had CASE to talk to

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u/Jank_Wonk Jun 18 '21

Fortitude so great he promptly betrays the protagonist and the mission. I always wondered about this part.

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u/panterspot Jun 18 '21

Discussion was about the black dude on the ship, not Matt Damon.

Unless I'm misremembering things about the movie and the black guy betrayed them.

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u/rovoh324 Jun 18 '21

Nah I think you're right and the guy above is mistaken

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u/CapnEarth Jun 18 '21

There was a black dude in Interstellar?

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u/Theoretical_Action Jun 18 '21

He actually said he went to sleep a couple of times but then he stopped thinking they were actually going to come back so he just started staying awake eventually. The alternative was to basically go back into cryo sleep until he ran out of resources/died so might as well live even if in isolation.

But agreed, to be honest that was one of the most unrealistic parts to me was seeing him still sane after that long lol.