Interstellar is one of Christopher Nolan's best films. With its stunning visuals and emotionally charged plot, Interstellar is one of the best sci-fi movies of the 2010s. The movie is set in a dystopian future where blight and dust are consuming the Earth. A team of astronauts, including former NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), Dr. Brand (Anne Hathaway), and Professor Romilly (David Gyasi), are sent by Professor Brand (Michael Caine) to find a livable planet to be humanity's new home and retrieve the Lazarus astronauts who vanished years ago into a wormhole near Saturn.
The science behind the plot makes fans think, and it is pretty accurate, largely thanks to Nolan bringing an astrophysicist as a consultant. Ultimately, the beauty of this film is not just in its science but how it illustrates humanity's resilience in the face of great challenges. Christopher Nolan and his brother, Jonathan Nolan, wrote the script for Interstellar, putting thought and meaning behind every action and dialogue. There is weight behind each and every word said within the movie, and the best quotes from Interstellar spark conversations and make fans think.
10 “We are the ghosts of our children's future.”
Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey)
Image via Paramount Pictures Cooper is a widower raising his children, Tom (Tomothée Chalamet) and Murph (Mackenzie Foy), after his wife passed away from cancer. As Cooper is getting ready to leave for the mission, he goes to say goodbye to a distraught Murph. While he is trying his best to comfort Murph, he remembers something his wife once told him: parents serve as memories for their children, suddenly understanding what she meant.
This quote is a metaphor representing a child's relationship with their parents once they pass away. Children develop memories of their parents over time, and when they pass away, only the memories linger, which can be as powerful as any interaction. Those memories are carried with the children into the future. Time is a major theme in Interstellar, and memories are often associated with specific times in a person's life.
9 “I stopped believing you were coming back. Something seemed wrong about dreaming my life away.”
Professor Romilly (David Gyasi)
Image via Paramount Pictures Professor Romilly is a physicist who joins Cooper, Dr. Brand, and x on their mission to the wormhole. After they successfully pass through the wormhole, Cooper, Dr. Brand, and Doyle (Wes Bentley) leave the Endurance to explore Miller's planet, and Romilly stays behind to work on research related to the black hole they have discovered. Time moves differently on the planet, and by the time Cooper and Brand return, it has been 23 years, and Romilly has aged.
It is apparent from this quote that he had faith that they would return, but his faith disappeared as time passed. His isolation and worry caused him to give up his faith that his colleagues would return. Aboard the Endurance, Romilly had the technology to "sleep" and preserve his age, but he chose not to do it the entire time. To Romilly, it didn't feel normal to pause his life and just dream. This quote speaks to the human desire to contribute and belong, with Romilly choosing to spend his time on his research because it made him feel like he was helping out his crew, even though he didn't know what was going on with their mission away to Miller's planet.
8 "The world doesn't need any more engineers. We didn't run out of planes and television sets. We ran out of food."
Principal (David Oyelowo)
Image via Paramount Pictures Coop is a proud engineer and former pilot who loves science and data. While he had to become a farmer, Cooper is still proud to brag about his engineering skills. In a meeting with the school principal (David Oyelowo) and Murph's teacher, the principal dismisses Cooper's former job as an engineer. The blight caused a lot of people to pivot their skills to different jobs to keep society running. Based on this quote, it's obvious that the principal doesn't believe there is value in engineering anymore because the world's population is starving, and basic survival is the top priority.
The blight and dust storms are catastrophic events that cause Interstellar's plot. The need for survival outweighed the desire for technological advancements as consumerism collapsed and humanity turned to meet their basic needs. People became more concerned about putting food on the table, and due to the demand for food, jobs shifted. Innovation wasn't something humanity could afford to pursue anymore. It's an inspired approach for a sci-fi movie, strengthening Interstellar's themes of human endurance and perseverance.
7 "A machine doesn't improvise well because you cannot program a fear of death. Our survival instinct is our greatest source of inspiration."
Dr. Hugh Mann (Matt Damon)
Image via Paramount Pictures Dr. Mann (Matt Damon) and Cooper take a walk around the icy wasteland of the planet Mann has been living on for years. As they explore the terrain, Mann compares machines to humans. There is significant emotional weight behind this quote: Mann has been alone for a long time without human connection and doesn't think machines can survive because they lack the emotions to understand death. There is a longing and desperation that comes with survival, something Mann knows all too well. Ultimately, Mann's survival instinct causes him to lash out.
Survival is a major theme in Interstellar. People are trying to survive on Earth, and as the last of the Lazarus astronauts, Mann is trying to survive by himself. Adaptation is needed for survival. A fear of death drives people to push through challenging circumstances because their will to live is strong. Like other movies, Interstellar is concerned with humanity's relationship with technology. Humans in Interstellar all have different opinions about machines, and most people would probably agree with Mann's views. Cooper definitely doesn't, especially after befriending TARS and CASE, believing machines need to learn how to adapt.
6 “I'm not afraid of death. I'm an old physicist - I'm afraid of time.”
Professor John Brand (Michael Caine)
Image via Paramount Pictures Professor John Brand is the head of the "new" NASA, and eventually, he becomes a mentor to an adult Murph (Jessica Chastain). He has dedicated his life to studying science. Time might seem like a straightforward concept, but to physicists, it is more complex than that. There are many theories about how time works, and one of the most well-known is about how "time is relative" and changes depending on what a person's frame of reference is. Time can move slower or faster depending on speed and gravity.
Time becomes a fear for Cooper and his colleagues on the Endurance. Death is scary, but time is just as horrific. While Interstellar isn't a horror movie, it treats time like an unseen villain lurking in every corner and always one step ahead. It is hard to predict what the outcome of time might be, and that is what makes it so unsettling.
5 “We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”
Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey)
Image via Paramount Pictures Before the blight, humanity went through a time of discovery and exploration. In the past, people were interested in space, and resources were spent learning about the universe. Society's priorities changed eventually, and space travel became a relic of the past.
There is a stark contrast between the "wonder" of the stars and the "dirt" in this quote. The word choice shows how much Cooper values space exploration. People are looking down at the dirt because it is all that they can think about with the blight causing stress on the world's food supply. The dust represents humanity's humble beginnings, which might ironically represent their resting place. Ambition and a desire to grow were once humanity's driving force, and to see those sentiments all but gone is both sobering and terrifying.
4 “Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.”
Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway)
Image via Paramount Pictures After Dr. Brand and Cooper return from Miller's planet, Amelia expresses her desire to go to her partner, Dr. Wolf's planet. As Brand, Romilly, and Cooper discuss where to go next, Cooper makes a case against going to Wolf's planet, believing their time would be better spent on Mann's planet. Brand loves Wolf and really wants to see him, explaining that love is too strong a feeling to so easily discard.
Love is possibly the strongest emotion there is; humans don’t understand everything about it, but its power is undeniable. It drives people to do things they might not normally do because love makes them think differently about the world around them. Brand's desire to go to Wolf's planet might sound selfish, but she argues how love can be a guiding force, especially in such a massive and terrifying universe. Love goes beyond time and space because people can carry it with them, no matter what. Interstellarblends sci-fi and romance to create a thought-provoking story whose message is beautifully summarized in this quote.
3 "Do not go gentle into that good night. Old age should burn and rave at the close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Professor John Brand (Michael Caine)
Image via Paramount Pictures Professor John Brand loves to quote the beginning of a poem about death titled "Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. In Interstellar, many characters are confronted with their mortality; death is always around and has even inspired a popular theory about Cooper's ultimate fate. This quote is repeated throughout the film by Professor Brand, hinting at the poem's significance to him and the hope he attempts to inspire other people with.
The quote is ultimately a rallying cry to those around him who are listening, an encouragement to keep fighting against death and not to give up on finding a solution to the blight. Professor Brand wants humanity to fight against death with everything they have got. Although it's revealed that Professor Brand isn't an honest person on his deathbed, there is a strong desire within him to make sure humanity continues to fight for its survival, and he knows death, the ultimate enemy, might be a strong enough encouragement to keep the fight going.
2 “Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.”
Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey)
Image via Paramount Pictures Cooper and his father-in-law, Donald (John Lithgow), chat on the front porch of their farmhouse, and Cooper spends most of his time lamenting about the past. He wants more for humanity than just staying on Earth, longing for the age of space exploration. Cooper doesn't want his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to die on Earth without seeing what else is out there in the universe.
Cooper believes that humans are not meant to stay on the Earth forever, and there are other worlds out there to be discovered. He champions exploration, but it sounds more like the concept of manifest destiny. Cooper thinks Earth isn’t meant to be the only place where humans exist, and humans have the need and, arguably, the responsibility to keep searching for what's out there. This quote is one of Interstellar's most important, reducing the film's main themes into a few words. Moreover, this quote also sums up the sci-fi genre as a whole, capturing humanity's ambition to explore the universe's vast possibilities.
1 “Murphy's law doesn't mean that something bad will happen. It means that whatever *can* happen will happen. And that sounded just fine to us.”
Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey)
Image via Paramount Pictures This is one of the best quotes in Interstellar. Murph’s namesake is Murphy’s law, which is often associated with something bad happening. People tend to fixate on the bad things rather than the good, resulting in the law's infamous reputation. Because of the stigma, Murph's brother, Tom, likes to make fun of her name. However, there is a good reason why Murph's parents chose her name.
The name indicates her parents’ love of science and theory and reflects what they value: they embrace the unknown and want their kids to be able to adapt. Just as Coop says: people must learn how to adapt in order to survive. Cooper reassures Murph that her name isn't bad because it is a matter of perspective. Murph's parents thought the name sounded great because it meant something interesting could happen. After all, if everything can happen, then nothing is impossible, and humanity is only limited by itself.
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