Interstellar: Matthew McConaughey Meets His Destiny In This Clip, Plus Much More
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There is a lot to love and gawk at in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, and while there are also numerous elements that don’t work particularly well, it’s a movie that you absolutely need to see in the theater. It’s like Gravity in that way, it’ll still be fine on you TV, but this is a big, spectacle level movie in the grandest tradition, and you’re missing out not witnessing it on the largest screen you can find. Despite some middling overall reviews (mine included), we know many, if not most of you are planning to see this if you haven’t already, but just in case you missed the memo, Paramount has unleashed a last minute flurry to entice you to the theaters. This includes a new clip, more TV spots, and a bunch of behind-the-scenes featurettes.
This latest clip comes from fairly early in the movie, before a team of astronauts, led by Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper, blast off from Earth on a secret mission to find a new home to replace our dying planet. It’s actually where he meets one of his fellow crewmembers for the first time (don’t worry, that doesn’t ruin anything that every TV ad hasn’t already revealed a dozen times). This footage ties into a larger theme of destiny that plays throughout the movie, where the past comes back to impact the present and even the future.
And speaking of those TV spots, here they are, both stitched together for your viewing convenience. They do a solid job of laying out the plot and highlighting the spectacular space travel visuals that are truly stunning. It also hints at some of the sentimentality of the film, which is purportedly Nolan’s most personal to date—it’s kind of like a love letter to his young daughter. You get that in the line about love transcending time and space.
This last video is by far the coolest. Editing together five short featurettes, it digs into various aspects of the production. Nolan is renowned for eschewing digital effects whenever possible, and the most interesting of these deal with that aspect of production. Actors and key behind-the-camera people talk about everything from production design and constructing massive sets, to creating this futuristic world and alien planets. John Lithgow discusses how when you see a dust storm, Nolan does his best to create and actual dust storm and captures it in camera. CGI has its place, but it can’t wholly replace practical elements, and Nolan uses that to great effect in Interstellar, making these fantastic scenarios real and concrete.
You also dig into the origins of the story and the film, the science behind the black holes and space travel, and using IMAX. The finished film, which runs 169-minutes-long, contains more than an hour of the large-scale format, which is a damn good time.
Interstellar opens everywhere tomorrow, or really at late shows tonight.
