However, viewers catching it once more have observed something that alters the entire perception of the film.
If you haven’t seen the film yet, it’s arguably one of the finest cinematic creations.
This is no exaggeration.
Besides its stunning visual effects, the movie’s scientific accuracy and star-studded cast make it stand out from anything else you’ve experienced.
Featuring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Timothée Chalamet, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon, and Michael Caine, the movie narrates the poignant tale of a man sacrificing himself to save humanity.
Originally released in 2014, as audiences revisit it in 2024, new realizations are emerging.
In particular, the movie’s exploration of time theory.
The story follows Joseph Cooper (McConaughey), a farmer and former NASA pilot, who leads a spacecraft with a team of researchers.
They aim to discover a new habitable planet as Earth becomes uninhabitable, landing on Miller’s planet.
However, Miller’s planet experiences ‘time dilation’.
Time dilation refers to the slowing down of time under a strong gravitational field. Being adjacent to the massive black hole Gargantua, the planet has enough gravitational pull to affect its time significantly.
Since Miller’s planet is close to a black hole, time there progresses much slower compared to Earth.
Viewers have realized that something is amiss with this time distortion.
The planet is heavily influenced by gravity and motion, relating to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which states that the faster an object moves, the slower it experiences time.
This is represented in the film by a recurring ticking sound during the researchers’ time on the planet.
Each tick equates to one day on Earth.
Fans have deduced that while the characters believed they spent only three hours and 17 minutes on the planet, it was actually 23 years on Earth.
After watching Interstellar again, fans have calculated the duration on Miller’s planet for the 10 years since the film’s release.
They estimate it to be an hour and a half.
“That’s so insane,” one fan remarked on Reddit. “The entire story of Miller’s planet is just so horrific and terrifying.”
They continued: “The sky-high waves. The time dilation. That planet was never meant for humans.”
Indeed.
Reflecting on how audiences continue to engage with the movie’s storyline a decade later, Nolan expressed to The Associated Press: “I was just so gratified by the response. It’s really thrilling when people respond to your work at any point.
“But 10 years later, to have new audiences coming and experiencing it in the way that we’d originally intended it on the big IMAX screens and in particular on those IMAX film prints? It’s really rewarding to see that it continues to have a life.”