He's a widower and former NASA pilot who has been grounded and now lives as a farmer, raising crops in a world where the food supply is running out. Difficult times that we overcome is an exhortation to do likewise without losing hope even if all seems lost. Corn and okra are not related so its odd that they picked those two, Kleinhenz laughed. Oct 27, 2022 @ 4:35am Corn/Maize isn't a vegetable but a cereal. To be honest, it doesnt seem like THAT big of a risk. Although the science of biology in Interstellar may stretch the truth, the tale told has parallels with some of what humanity is experiencing today. But this also meant that the vegetable crops they usually harvest didnt get picked either. Professor Brand explains that wheat became extinct seven years before Cooper's arrival at NASA, and okra was due for extinction the present year. depicting a Dust Bowl-inspired future Earth in which corn is the last viable crop - is thrillingly grounded, making it all the more impactful when NASA pilot-turned . Throughout Interstellar, humanity receives help from "Them," mysterious beings that the scientists of NASA assume must be benevolent extraterrestrials. Despite Mann being a pivotal part of the film, audiences had no idea Damon was cast, nor how the character's selfish desperation would help deliver Interstellar's mind (and time)bending finale. Whelihan, Kyle. This creates a bootstrap paradox, in which the existence of the humans of the future depends on them existing to help the humans of the past, but that's easy enough to explain in the world of Interstellar, where time may not actually be linear at all. Hes been writing about music, movies, and celebrities for most of his adult life after realizing stocking shelves in a paper warehouse in college wasnt all it was cracked up to be. In 2067, crop blights and dust storms threaten humanity's survival. Back in 2014, he and the other producers chose to grow a corn field to serve as the farm for Matthew McConaugheys character, Joseph Cooper, in Interstellar. Advertisement. It also established his penitent for time-bending stories, like Inception. After a blight has decimated the food supply, civilization has turned back to the earth and clings to the only viable crop leftcorn. During the time it takes the Endurance crew to visit two of the three potential new worlds in the new system at the other end of the wormhole, and for Cooper to finally collect and transmit the quantum data from the black hole Gargantua back to his daughter, Murph, only a couple years have passed for Cooper and Brand (Anne Hathaway), but decades have gone by back on Earth. They added no sound as they want to make the scene more realistic as theres no sound in space(vacuum). But corn and okra are actually grown together all over the world, and part of the reason theyre grown together is theyre not related, so they dont support the same diseases.. On a day to day basis, he said, Ive always been impressed by the resilience and adaptability of that same community.. Please refresh the page and try again. They all knew that the chances of their world being able to support human life were slim, and that if their planet wasn't a good candidate for relocation, that they'd be on their own for the rest of their lives. Thats because most of the staple crops we grow are genetically dissimilar. And there are the dust storms. But a risk it was, as they were told the corn would fail by most experts. Was the huge undertaking worth it or would a CGI corn field had the same visual effect? Interstellar, the new movie from Christopher Nolan, comes out today, and as a lover of sci-fi epics, I've been looking forward to it for some time. He very nicely obliged my dystopic fascination and was, as you might expect, reassuring to a point. Still, I cant help but wonder how much money was lost when Cooper tore through the field chasing a drone, crushing thousands of stalks. He is blunt with Cooper, offering advice that Cooper often doesn't want to hear, and represents a generation that was alive before Earth's present desolate state, as when he references eating hot dogs at baseball games, or watching the world go crazy with consumerist greed. Meanwhile, Loopers hip young hitmen, sent their instructions by time-travel from crime syndicates in the future, are the ultimate US consumers. All our crop farms grow exactly these things every year. What will we be eating on our spaceships? Professor Brand (Michael Caine) mentions at one point that the blight seems particularly suited to thrive in Earth's largely nitrogen-based atmosphere much better suited than humans, surely, since we can't breathe nitrogen at all. As she grows older, Murph finds motivation through her anger toward her father and the desolate state of the planet. The film takes place during an unspecific point in our future where "The Blight" has decimated the world's crops and humanity is out of options. the emerging economies of our time but only under the guidance of George Clooneys yarn-spinning, country-music-listening, old-timer space cowboy, the literal touchstone amid the void who opens the film. But there is still something bugging me, that I haven't seen discussed somewhere else: what's with the dust? Even if they had other vegetables, they said it was hard to get enough water. We also begin to understand, in him, the . Via his character, we understand that making a choice can mean saving the lives of others and sacrificing one's own. Although we end the movie fully versed on what happened to Cooper, Brand, and humanity in general, there are a lot of smaller details that are left up to our imaginations. But is this it, or there's more to it. Brand explained that 80% of the Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen which humans don't breathe, yet the Blight is known to consume nitrogen for sustenance. Maybe they needed one familiar and one more unusual crop! This new wave of sci-fi Americana isnt quite retro-futurism as we know it (though Interstellars pseudo Dust Bowl-era talking-head interviews flirt with that, as do Loopers blunderbuss-armed hitmen and In Times noir fetish). With no trees to slow down the wind, dust storms blow fiercely, and are strong enough to demolish abandoned houses. Yet the film never provides much more detail on exactly what the blight is whether it is bacterial, fungal, or even something extraterrestrial or what caused it. Or it's possible that one or more of the astronauts is still slumbering away in cryosleep not really living, but not truly dead either. The idea is pretty unrealistic and would never happen in real life. Its not easy to take such a well-known story and create something completely original, but he did that beautifully. The blight affects every last person on and off of Earth, but how it came to be and why are left entirely up in the (unbreathable) air. Most meals are corn-based, but the Coopers eat a variety of dishes requiring other ingredients that they don't seem to grow on their farm, implying that at least a modest grocery supply chain is still intact. Blight could either be bacteria or fungi, however in both versions of the film, the origin and the exact nature of the blight is undetermined, although it could be speculated that it arose from climate change, or the widespread use of Monoculture farming practiced today, or simply a natural germ into an aggressive strain. It causes us to wonder exactly how long the list of viable professions is in the world of Interstellar, and why everyone talks like the vast majority of people are farmers when the world they live in tells a markedly different story. Corn is the last viable crop. Brand and the other researchers at NASA, Cooper and the team arrive to find Mann willing to sacrifice others' lives to save his own. Learn to cook millet: How To Cook Perfect Millet Every Time. Murph, meanwhile, throws herself into her work with Professor Brand and rarely visits home, but eventually returns to try to convince Tom to move his family out of their old farmhouse and underground with her. In a way, Nolan and Thomas' decision prevented an unintentional twist and possible viewer backlash by ensuring that the A-lister's name didn't somehow end up front and center in a film where his role is pivotal to the plot, but doesn't take up much screentime. 5 Reply [deleted] 8 yr. ago Hard to coordinate the reconstruction efforts when you wage war so desperately you ask NASA to join. More books than SparkNotes. The craft services were probably more than $100K. Well get to work on those millet recipes. According to Nolan in the Hollywood Reporter interview, the corn turned a profit. The blight is more a reversed Deus Ex Machina I think, so I wouldn't put too much credibility into it. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). So the filmmakers were taking a $100K gamble to grow corn in Western Canada, outside Calgary, where the film was shot. Hugh Scott doesnt believe aliens are hidden at Area 51 or that Elvis is alive, but he does believe birds are real and Meghan Markle isnt treated fairly by the tabloids. Interstellar was a film with a $165 million budget. For more information, please see our The blight attacks way more than just 3 cereal crops, and yes, the whole world was getting screwed over by dust bowls. He dies saving Brand's life, and his death is a catalyst for her to open up to the rest of the crew about her motivations. The Biggest Unanswered Questions In Interstellar. Yahoo Movies asked farmer Gregg Pulver, who grows about twelve hundred acres of corn every year in upstate New York, to comment on the cornfield scenes in Interstellar, Field of Dreams, North by Northwest, and six other starchy films. Perhaps America never needed to move forward to meet the future; it was there waiting for them all along. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. I just saw the movie yesterday and, even though some small things escaped me, I now read a lot of stuff and fully comprehend the plot. Perhaps, but in that case, why not build new ones? It established his style as a filmmaker that takes risks to make sure he gets the best possible shots, something that he would take to extremes in Interstellar. A reduction of oxygen in the atmosphere coupled with the extinction of plant life would make the Earth uninhabitable. Despite his undeniable bravery, he struggles with the spinning of the Endurance and the daunting awareness that only a thin metal wall separates him from the infinite vacuum of space. America can still do this, Nolan solemnly cheerleads throughout the film; his mouthpiece is McConaugheys character, Cooper, a maverick manqu who belongs among the envelope-pushing hotshots of The Right Stuff. godfrey family hawaii. Or some small leafy vegetable that helps people to remain healthy and can be grown anywhere by anybody.. Then again, it could take centuries or even millenia for humans to evolve to that point. Cookie Notice Not affiliated with Harvard College. During that time, Tom (Casey Affleck) marries and has two children, although his oldest dies a few years later of complications due to the dust-saturated atmosphere.