Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is one of the best sci-fi movies of the 2010s, and though others tried to repeat its success, there’s only one other space movie that truly feels like a spiritual successor to it. Christopher Nolan has done a bit of everything in his career as a filmmaker, with his works being best-known for the recurrent themes he addresses in them. Nolan’s movies often touch on the topics of time, personal identity, and memory, and in 2014, he took these and others a step further in Interstellar.
Set in 2067, with humanity facing extinction due to a global blight, former NASA test pilot Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is recruited by NASA physicist John Brand (Michael Caine) to go through a wormhole and cross the galaxy to find out which of three planets could be a new home for humanity. Interstellar was a massive critical and commercial success, and it’s widely considered one of Nolan’s best works. As mentioned above, many space movies have tried to do what Interstellar did, but only one truly feels like a spiritual successor: Ad Astra.
Ad Astra & Interstellar Are Both Visual Spectacles
Ad Astra is a psychological sci-fi movie co-written and directed by James Gray. Set in the early 22nd century, Ad Astra follows Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), a major in U.S. Space Command. When mysterious power surges threaten to destabilize human civilization, Roy is informed that the surges are linked to the Lima Project, a space station in orbit around Neptune sent 29 years earlier to search for intelligent life. The Lima Project was led by Roy’s father, Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), so Roy agrees to travel to Mars to see if the station’s crew are still alive.
Ad Astra got positive reivews, mostly praising its visuals and Pitt’s performance, though it didn’t perform as well at the box office. Although Ad Astra was released five years after Interstellar, it has many visual and thematic similarities that make the former the closest to a “sequel” there will be to Nolan’s film. Both movies went above and beyond with their visuals for Cooper and Roy’s travels across space, and in terms of story and themes, both characters were facing the destruction of Earth and tasked with finding a new home for mankind.
Ad Astra’s Family Story Is As Heartbreaking As Interstellar’s
Ad Astra Was A Father & Son Story
Amid the stunning visuals, the suspense and tension that arise during their missions, and the plot twists, Interstellar and As Astra have family stories that are their backbone. In Interstellar, Cooper’s daughter, Murph, tries to convince him to stay, but he promises her he will return – the problem is that he doesn’t know how long he will be away, and he ends up spending decades in space. Murph ends up helping Professor Brand with a gravity equation that could help them move humanity to other habitable worlds and thus, hopefully, bring Cooper back.
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Ad Astra’s family story is all about Roy and Clifford, but there’s also Roy’s marriage. As mentioned above, Clifford was sent to space with the Lima Project 29 years before the events of the movie, and though they reunite during Roy’s mission, it’s a pretty heartbreaking reunion. While on one of his solitary travels through space, Roy has a moment of reflection on the relationship with Clifford but also with his estranged wife, Eve.
It’s their family issues and stories that mainly motivate Cooper and Roy to go on their respective missions, despite the dangers and obstacles that come with them. Cooper wants a future for his kids while Roy looks to find his father and reconnect with him, and as a plus, they will be helping save humanity.
Both Are Great Space Movies Worth Watching
Both Interstellar and Ad Astra are some of the best sci-fi movies of the 2010s and are worth watching, but one stands out as the best space movie. Ad Astra spends more time with just its main character, allowing more development and for the audience to know Roy better than Interstellar’s Cooper, the loneliness in space is more evident and impactful in Ad Astra, and the family story has a bigger message than that of Interstellar – and still, Nolan’s movie is better.
Interstellar | $165 million | $730.8 million | 73% |
Ad Astra | $80-100 million | $135.4 million | 83% |
Ad Astra is a lot slower than Interstellar, which is something viewers pointed out as a flaw, and Roy’s mission lacks the action seen in Interstellar – surely, Ad Astra has feral lab baboons, but it doesn’t compare to the tension and uncertainty in Cooper’s mission in Interstellar, along with the twists in each visit to the potential new homes for humanity. Interstellar also has a much better balance between the stories on Earth and in space than Ad Astra, as the latter focuses more on Roy’s time in space. Both movies are both watching and are emotional and exciting space movies, and make a very entertaining double-feature.
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From Christopher Nolan, Interstellar imagines a future where the Earth is plagued by a life-threatening famine, and a small team of astronauts is sent out to find a new prospective home among the stars. Despite putting the mission first, Coop (Matthew McConaughey) races against time to return home to his family even as they work to save mankind back on Earth.
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Brad Pitt stars in Ad Astra as astronaut Roy McBride, who embarks on a mission to Neptune to find his missing father (Tommy Lee Jones) in the outer reaches of space. Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland appear in this 2019 sci-fi movie directed by James Gray.
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