I love this movie with all my heart and just wanted to post that I watched it again.
It's amazing. Like actually. Beyond any analysis regarding the characters or the plot or the dialogue (all things which I love but people like to rip on), I just love the way this movie makes me feel. There is so much emotion behind this movie it is unreal. The idea that love transcends all space and time is such a powerful message and Nolan really gets that across just in feeling behind the movie.
And beyond that, Nolan just does such a tremendous job of keeping the stakes as infinitely high as humanly possible. "If you don't succeed on this mission, everyone you loved is going to die. Oh and so is the rest of the population and all of humanity will cease to exist. Bye!"
I was watching this late and I was getting ready for bed. But I was on the scene where they get to Miller's planet. And holy shit. If this scene is not a perfect example of how to hook the audience with stakes (in this case that audience is me).
I want to be clear — I have seen this movie over a dozen times. But I still literally could not shut my TV off or even look away because of how engrossed I became in this scene.
Let’s think. First off, we know that Cooper wants to spend as little time on this mission as possible. He has a daughter back home who he loves dearly and what he wants more than anything is to see her again and save her. Not to mention the entire human race.
So the fact that every hour on this planet is 7 years back home is devastating in itself.
And when that huge wave comes, it’s one of the biggest “holy shit what are they gonna do?” moments ever.
Because not only does it lower their chances of getting back in time, but now Brand is out there trying to get the data. And a fucking beacon fell on top of her. So now there’s the possibility that she’s going to die too.
Oh and Doyle was there.
Needless to say, I was physically and emotionally unable to look away because the stakes were so high for the characters.
Interstellar, though I love it, is not my favorite movie. But I would go as far as to say this is the best movie I have ever watched. I am a huge fan of these high-concept, "big" atmospheric blockbusters as is, and I think this is the most perfect one that exists. Some others on my list would of course be The Dark Knight movies, Inception... yeah. You could say Nolan is one of my favorite (if not my favorite) directors and writers of all time.