interstellar time travel meme

Fourteen 'Interstellar' Memes That Star Matthew McConaughey

It seems like just yesterday that the film Interstellar came out, but can you believe it was actually all the way back in 2014? Yeah, neither can we. If you were a fan of the film (or even if you weren't), we think you'll enjoy these memes, in which Matthew McConaughey's character Cooper says, "This little maneuver's gonna cost us 51 years."

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I've been Traumatized!

Gta 5 fans in 2024 waiting for the sequel

interstellar

I mean, it's true is it not?

TIME TRAVEL & SPACE

Youtube Terminations be like:

Youtube Terminations be like: | ME TIME TRAVELLING TO WHEN I DIDN'T GET BANNED ON YOUTUBE AND WATCHING MYSELF SWEAR ON YOUTUBE | image tagged in gifs,interstellar,youtube,scumbag youtube,swear,useless tag that i will never add on another meme again | made w/ Imgflip video-to-gif maker

like man, why does Hans Zimmer have to give me chills

INTERSTELLAR

Job hunting sucks

Christopher Nolan

Interstellar Matthew McConaughey Yelling No Video Meme Template

Use this customizable video template to make your own meme of this popular scene from the movie Interstellar. In this scene, Matthew McConaughey's character Cooper is yelling at his past self, with this meme being used to express what people would do if they were able to travel back in time and warn someone or themselves about something.

1212: Interstellar Memes

A larger version of this picture can be found by clicking the comic on xkcd.

Explanation [ edit ]

Randall highlights various memes from popular culture. A meme is a phenomenon, often in this scenario in the form of a movie quote, a musical reference, a catchphrase or other notable saying that spreads quickly by word-of-mouth. Memes become popular because people hear about them and repeat them to others. Randall points out that if the assumed intelligent life from other star systems were listening to the things we said, then they would just now be hearing and popularizing memes started years ago on earth. The delay is due to the time that it takes for expressions of the meme to travel (presumably via radio waves) to distant star systems.

Our solar system, from where the electromagnetic waves are emitted, is located just left of the center of the picture. The other star systems are arranged roughly according to their distance from the sun, while their size corresponds to the size of the star compared with that of the sun.

The meme for Sirius is a pun; it refers to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which Bellatrix Lestrange kills Sirius Black.

Radio waves travel at the speed of light . The title text jokes that these memes are so annoying that it would give us further incentive to develop the technology to travel faster than light , just simply to be able to outrun the radio waves, reach a distant star system, and apologize in advance to the "residents" about the memes, before the memes arrive.

Table with memes [ edit ]

The table below lists all the memes described, and the star at which the comics states those memes should be heard by the time when the comic was released in 2013. The year of the meme plus the number of light years to the star should end up close to 2013.

Most end up within the range 2011-2013 which may indicate the meme became popular one or two years later (on Earth or at the distant star system.) Two memes reach the targets in 2014. Some of those errors may be caused by the inaccuracy of the distances.

The The Spanish Inquisition from Monty Python would have reached its destination in 2006. Because they're still watching Monty Python's Flying Circus in 2013 it must be very popular or maybe it took seven years to decipher that British humour .

Transcript [ edit ]

I'm surprised ponies didn't make the list given how massively and completely they took over the Internet in recent years. Then again, xkcd hasn't made any mention of the phenomenon, which is pretty nice, I guess. 76.106.251.87 04:35, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

It would be great to have the distances (in light years) of the stars as a fourth column. This would also provide a chronological order. -- 84.75.61.103 08:06, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

If I look at the page source, there is no transcript this time... Kaa-ching ( talk ) 08:41, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

anyone else notice Sirius is getting the Bellatrix one? Xseo ( talk ) 08:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

If any civilization have nothing better to do that repeating our memes, there is no need to apologize to them: they will obviously be glad they have at least something. How many people on our planet are repeating memes from other civilizations? None. (The circles in crop doesn't count, they are not send by radio.) -- Hkmaly ( talk ) 08:51, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Given that the Rick Astley one is on the same star as Portal, which came out in 2007, it's probably meant to refer to rickrolling (and thus the date should also be 2007 for that one). Zakator ( talk ) 10:55, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

All your base are belong to us didn't start as a meme in the 1970. I don't have precise data right now but I'm pretty sure it was 1997-99 when it first appeared on the internet. Also, what is the Sun doing? 195.32.50.126 11:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

In "Take me to your leader! - No, Steve", what is the "No, Steve" part referencing? The link currently is just for the "take me to your leader" part. 72.92.72.222 15:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

If you order the list by distance, further stars should get memes from earlier times, but this is not always the case. I think that some of the memes deserve more investigation, namely: "Internets!", "You're the man now, dog" and "All your base are belong to us!". Sort the list by distance and it becomes immediately apparent what I mean. 195.32.50.126 15:54, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Wouldn't "I'm on a boat!", as a popular and well-known meme known to the wider public, refer to the Old Spice commercial, rather than a song by the The Lonely Island? None of the few I spoke with had ever heard of the group, but all credited the quote to "the Old Spice guy". 67.51.59.66 17:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Title text: "The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance." Is this an error by Randall? Faster-than-light would work if that travel did start at the time of transmission of those memes. Actually all messages had arrive at their targets so only Time-Travel would help. Nevertheless both ideas are impossible.-- Dgbrt ( talk ) 18:51, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

I guess I'm not too surprised that residents circling Beta Virginis are still doing the Spanish Inquisition schtick 7+ years later. But they got Holy Grail over two years ago. So I assume they're also pretending to be Knights Who Say Ni by now. Opusthepenguin ( talk ) 16:34, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

It's worth mentioning that Randall debunks this idea of an interstellar audience in http://what-if.xkcd.com/47/ . 108.162.219.7 23:53, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

The problem, though, with the older memes here, i.e. Gone With the Wind, Casablanca and Bugs Bunny, is that they were released to the public in film. They would have to wait until television broadcast in the '50s and '60s to be exported interstellarly. Most the other movies too, only they wouldn't have to wait so long. But we certainly wouldn't have stars 70 light-years away imitating us because that content hasn't gotten there yet. 108.162.250.223 ( talk ) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

http://abstrusegoose.com/163 is a similar concept -- 199.27.133.106 09:55, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Fixed the transcript. This is my first time editing. Please help my fixing any mistakes I made. Thanks. Dontknow ( talk ) 05:20, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

The first public radio broadcast in 1910 would have reached 109 Piscium not too long ago. 162.158.186.42 02:54, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Hi aliens from Barnard’s Star! (It’s like Hi Youtube)! 162.158.214.82 13:40, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

I didn't expect the spanish inquisition [ citation needed ] 07:08, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

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'interstellar' ending & space travel explained.

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5 Small Interstellar Details That You Only Notice On Rewatch

6 interstellar theories that change christopher nolan's $731 million sci-fi movie, interstellar: 15 powerful quotes that make you think.

• Interstellar presents complex story ideas that may be confusing for certain viewers, requiring further explanation to fully understand the ending.
• The film revolves around humanity's effort to find a new habitable planet, with big sci-fi concepts and betrayals adding to the complexity.
• The ending reveals that Plan A was a farce and Plan B, involving genetic diversity through embryos, becomes the only hope for humanity's survival.

The Interstellar ending is still debated by fans years later. Interstellar follows humanity's effort to find a new habitable planet after Earth is ravaged by environmental catastrophe. Former NASA pilot-turned-corn farmer Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is brought on board the mission to save humanity, but it means he will have to leave his children behind on Earth while he is gone for years. As it turns out, the mission is far more complex than initially thought with betrayals and mistakes made. Meanwhile, the answer to humanity's salvation is not what they expected.

Like many Christopher Nolan movies , Interstellar presents a number of complicated story ideas that may be confusing for certain moviegoers - especially after a first viewing. There are big sci-fi concepts at play, from the environments of the different planets to the way Nolan plays with time. It all builds to an ending that ties everything together but is not always easy to follow how it is all done. In order for some viewers to truly understand the Interstellar ending, there is some further explanation needed.

Interstellar, known for its intricate details, is filled with subtle nuances that enhance the film's depth and complexity upon rewatch.

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Why Humans Need To Leave Earth

Interstellar sets up the final generation of humans who can survive on earth.

Early on in the film, it's revealed that the US government has secretly been funding a NASA project to find humankind a new home - since Earth in Interstellar 's version of the future is being ravaged by blight and can no longer sustain agriculture. Cooper questions how NASA intends to find a planet capable of sustaining human life since humanity is already living on borrowed time, and transport to the nearest galaxy alone would take decades.

Professor Brand (Michael Caine) then reveals that an unknown civilization, which he refers to as "They," has strategically created a wormhole near Saturn - a wormhole that can serve as a shortcut to a distant region of space . As explained by Romilly (David Gyasi) in his impromptu paper hole example, humanity's understanding of distance is based on three dimensions - whereas theoretical physics suggests that space is a place of multi-dimensional interplay.

For that reason, the wormhole essentially functions as a bridge connecting two points in space by taking advantage of imperceptible fourth-dimensional space. By the time that Cooper reunites with Prof. Brand, NASA has already sent thirteen humans through the wormhole - each one on a mission to determine whether nearby planets (on the other side of the wormhole) can sustain human life.

Upon arrival at their planet, each of the astronauts was to set up a beacon - indicating that their planet was a candidate for human colonization. NASA cannot communicate directly with the astronauts but has been able to track their beacons for nearly a decade - of which only three remain active. As a result, it is up to Cooper and the rest of the Endurance crew to uncover the fate of the other three astronauts - and collect any subsequent data that can be used to make an informed decision regarding which planet provides the best hope for humanity.

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is a beloved film. For the past decade, audiences have theorized over the endless possibilities of its meaning.

The Plan For Survival

Nasa develops two plans to save humanity.

Should the Endurance team find a habitable planet, Brand claims that NASA has two plans for humanity's survival:

• Plan A) While the Endurance team is away, Brand will continue to work on an advanced equation that, if solved, will allow humans to harness fifth-dimensional physics - specifically gravity. Should Brand succeed, NASA will be able to defy the traditional understanding of physics and launch an enormous space station (carrying the remainder of Earth's surviving population) into space . The very facility that Cooper and Murph stumble upon at the beginning of the film isn't just a NASA research station - it's a construction site for humankind's space-traveling ark.
• Plan B) Should Brand fail and/or the Endurance take too long investigating potential homeworlds, NASA harvested a bank of fertilized human embryos to be used to ensure humanity's survival - after everyone on Earth is wiped out. To ensure genetic diversity, NASA procured DNA from a wide range of sources - so that future generations would not be limited to reproduction between Endurance members. In this scenario, the team settles down on the most habitable planet and raises the first generation of embryos - with each subsequent generation helping to raise a new set of embryos (as well as reproduce naturally).

Later it is revealed that Professor Brand never believed that Plan A was possible - stating that he solved the equation years back, but it would not save them. He only championed the idea in order to rally Earth leaders into working together - and building the necessary infrastructure to ensure that, unknown to anyone but him, Plan B would be a success. Brand reasoned that people would not have cooperated just to save humanity - they needed to believe that working together could lead to their own personal salvation.

Committing To Plan B

Cooper's sacrifice saves humanity.

Upon learning that Plan A was a farce, Cooper and Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway) commit to Plan B on their third (and final) planetary option - where Amelia's astronaut lover, Wolf Edmonds, was still reporting a positive beacon. Yet, Cooper remains unconvinced that Plan A is impossible and, as they use a nearby black hole (dubbed Gargantua) to slingshot Endurance toward Edmonds' planet, Cooper sends TARS (the crew's robot helper) into the center of the black hole - in the hopes that it can translate data that might help NASA refine any missteps in Professor Brand's calculations.

Cooper also sacrifices himself to reduce weight on the Endurance, ensuring that Amelia can make it to Edmonds' planet and enact Plan B should TARS fail . However, instead of dying alone in space, Cooper is pulled inside The Tesseract - the gravitational singularity that is maintaining the wormhole - created by the aforementioned "They".

"They" Explained

The helpful advanced beings are not aliens at all.

Cooper and the other Interstellar characters assume "They" are an advanced extraterrestrial (or supernatural) race who have unlocked the mysteries of dimensional manipulation. For some unknown reason, they decided to use this to help mankind escape their doomed planet. The NASA team believes the beings may be unable (or unwilling) to communicate directly with humans - specifically that "They" are fifth-dimensional, having transcended the three-dimensional ways of understanding the universe. Brand thinks "They" have laid out a series of rudimentary breadcrumbs (binary messages) and advanced technology (the wormhole) for humans to follow to save themselves from annihilation.

However, as revealed in Interstellar 's final act, what NASA postulated was a single alien race is actually two separate but related entities:

• Future humans who have mastered the laws of the universe - allowing them to manipulate time and space.
• Cooper attempting to communicate with his daughter inside the "Tesseract" - which was built for him by the future humans.

As a result, most of the unexplained phenomena that NASA attributes to the beings are actually actions that Cooper takes in the future . When Cooper sacrifices himself to ensure Plan B, he is caught in the black hole's gravitational pull but, instead of dying, ejects from his ship - landing, as previously mentioned, inside The Tesseract (aka the wormhole's gravitational singularity). A place where the laws of space and time become infinite.

Knowing their own past - specifically, the events that led to their salvation (and exodus from Earth) - it was humans who built the Tesseract at some point far in the future and then, using their advanced knowledge of fifth-dimensional physics, manipulated spacetime to place the machine into the past (where NASA finds it orbiting Saturn).

Since Cooper and Murph are remembered as the saviors of humanity, the fifth-dimensional humans - who can observe past, present, and future - custom-build The Tesseract for Cooper, so that he can communicate with his daughter in the past and relay the data that TARS had collected inside the singularity. To that end, the Tesseract is a filter that translates the fifth dimension into three-dimensional visibility (tuned to Murph's room) - allowing Cooper to visit his daughter at any point in time (and "shake" Amelia's hand during the initial launch).

As with most time-travel movies , people will debate whether the plot results in an unexplained paradox (how did future humans first survive to make a Tesseract - given that there would have been no Tesseract to save them), but Nolan leaves that particular detail up for post-viewing debate.

Time And Space Used Against The Mission

The first interstellar planet presents the perils of the time dilation concept.

Interstellar is based on the ideas of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne - specifically the notion that while people observe the universe in three dimensions, there could be at least five dimensions. In certain theories, it is posited that certain forces (in this case gravity) bleed through dimensions - meaning that, based on Newton's Laws, what people perceive as a finite calculation could actually have infinite implications. Christopher Nolan movies often focus on time but Interstellar is the greatest example of this. Interstellar 's time distillation concept is outright exemplified in the first planet that the Endurance team visits.

In general, time on humanity's side of the wormhole moves faster than time on the uncharted side. Due to proximity to gravitational anomalies from a nearby black hole (Gargantua), time on the other side is exponentially slower - relative to the distance between an object and the black hole's gravitational pull. As a result, time on Miller's planet moves significantly slower: for every hour that the team spends on the water planet, seven years pass back home - a primary reason that Cooper is motivated to get off the planet as soon as possible (even before they realize it's a death trap).

Cooper knows that three hours on the planet's surface will cost him decades with his family. As Amelia suggests, the effect of gravity from the black hole on time was to blame for the Endurance team's unfortunate visit to Miller's planet in the first place - since what they perceived as years of positive beacon readings were actually mere minutes for Miller (who was killed by a wave moments after she landed).

The concept is further hammered home when, following the mission, Amelia and Cooper reunite with Romilly, who stayed behind on the Endurance to gather data (far from Gargantua) - and, in the three hours his team was gone, has lived twenty-three full years alone without them. Similarly, the crew receives video messages from back home and Cooper's children, Tom and Murph have also aged from the beginning of Interstellar 's timeline - now full-grown adults (played by Casey Affleck and Jessica Chastain, respectively).

the best Interstellar quotes offer deep insights into the minds of the main characters and delve into some fascinating ideas.

Time And Space As Humanity's Salvation

How cooper communicates with murph.

A tangible effect of gravity on spacetime is also responsible for Cooper's ability to communicate with young Murph when inside the Tesseract. Inside the machine, gravity bleeds through to other dimensions in time and space, allowing Cooper to spell out a message ("S-T-A-Y") by pushing books off of Murph's shelf - or communicate map coordinates to the past version of himself by spreading dust across the floor (in binary language).

Most importantly, the fifth-dimensional communication through gravity (made visible by three-dimensional objects back on Earth) enables Cooper to gently manipulate the hands on Murph's watch - transferring the data that TARS acquired with morse-coded watch ticks. Subsequently, translating that coded data gives Murph all the information she needs to drastically advance humanity's understanding of space and time - as well as complete Plan A.

How Did Coop Survive & What Happens To Amelia

Cooper's bittersweet reunion with murph.

When it comes to how Cooper survives and reunites with Murph, Nolan simply reapplies the same theory that has been present the entire film. Given that time moves slower near the gravity pull of the black hole, Cooper's ejection from the Tesseract is only seconds for him, but over half a century for the rest of humanity .

If the ratio of time on Miller's planet was 1 hour for every 7 years on Earth, the proportion would be skewed exponentially at the absolute center of the Tesseract singularity. As a result, while it appears to Earthbound humans that TARS and Cooper have been floating out in space for nearly ninety years, they were actually only out there for mere seconds as they perceived it. The disproportionate relativity allows Cooper to survive and reunite with Murph - who, living on the faster-moving side of the wormhole, is now over 100 years old.

Knowing that Cooper has nothing left to live for in a post-Earth existence (since his son Tom is presumed dead and Murph will soon join him), Murph reminds her father that, through the wormhole, Amelia is just beginning to set up Plan B on Edmonds' planet. At the same time, it is revealed that even though Edmonds' planet is actually habitable, the astronaut himself did not survive the landing - leaving Amelia alone at the colonization site.

Using a reversal of the film's primary relativity theory, Cooper hops into a ship, with the knowledge that even though nearly one hundred years have passed since the Endurance first set out, time on the other side of the wormhole is moving much slower - meaning that a second trip should allow him to reunite with Amelia on Edmonds' planet only a short time after Cooper first sacrificed himself and dropped into the singularity. The ending to Interstellar doesn't reveal if Cooper and Amelia reunite, but it certainly hints at a happy ending.

The Meaning Of Interstellar

The repeated quote from prof. brand sums up the movie.

Interstellar is a film about venturing into the unknown. Much like Nolan's mind-bending sci-fi drama Inception the main takeaway from the end of Interstellar is not that Cooper and Amelia will be reunited (though it's possible that they will). Rather the ending, and Cooper's departure to find Amelia illustrates what Prof. Brand regularly suggested by way of poet Dylan Thomas:

" Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rage at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

The movie seems to posit that humanity is at its best when people throw themselves passionately into the unknown - in search of love and discovery. In the end, that is what Cooper intends to do.

Here's a chart that explains what happened in visual terms (CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZED VERSION):

Interstellar

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How do 'Interstellar' Characters age?

(Warning: The following contains major spoilers regarding plot points in Interstellar .) While Interstellar is perfectly enjoyable on its own accord, a bit of homework might be necessary to fully understand and appreciate all the tenets of science fiction woven throughout. Questions amount as we watch Matthew McConaughey blast through a wormhole to the other side of the universe, spend an hour on an alien planet that amounts to seven years on Earth time, and take one fateful journey inside the most mysterious of constructs in known science: the black hole.

Since the Nolan brothers’ dry-as-store-brand-Matzo exposition can be tough to permeate at times, it doesn’t hurt to brave some extracurricular research into the aforementioned concepts. Just in case David’s index card diagram, Wes Bentley mathematical estimates, and a trippy montage of dark blurs and white specks didn’t clear things up for you, here are some broad strokes explanations of each of the sci-fi concepts entertained in Interstellar and how and why they had the effect that they did on the characters.

(Note: In the spirit of Interstellar , I wholly endorse eschewing all scientific explanation of light, time, space travel, gravity, wormholes, black holes, et al in lieu of the simple, “It’s all about love.”)

Though wormholes are probably the easiest of Interstellar ’s sci-fi concepts to grasp. You find a wormhole in outer space — in the case of the film, right outside the rings of Saturn. You enter. You come out the other side in a different place entirely — another point in space, one that may have taken you years, centuries, eons to reach via traditional travel.

Simple enough to imagine, but it’s the physical illustration of the wormhole that is a little more complicated. If you take a step outside of the universe (just for a second, I’ll save your seat) and view the whole thing head-on as a tangible substance — for the purposes of this explanation, a thick fabric might be most conducive to easy visualization. Identify one point in/on the fabricverse. Now find another one, with miles and miles of sweet velour separating the pair.

Now, there are two ways to get from point A to point B — one: you can hoof it, but the universe is less permitting to this style of travel than a textile scale model might be. So go for option two: pick up the felt surrounding A, ditto that around B, and bring the two points together so that they touch. To the tiny denizens of your makeshift universe, nothing will have seemed to change… until you poke a hole straight through the unified points, connecting them via quick leap through this veritable tear in the universal material.

A personal favorite analogy: Mario Kart 64. Everybody knows that there’s a secret shortcut in the Wario Stadium level of Mario 64 that allows you to jump directly from one part of the course to another. Well, a wormhole is kind of like that. (Hey, it helps me.)

RELATIVE TIME

There are two mentions in Interstellar of specific conditions that render time “slower.” The first, as described by McConaughey to his weeping daughter in a misguided effort to comfort her, involves an observer traveling near the speed of light. First off, this doesn’t mean that time feels or appears any slower to the traveler in question — to him or her, the minutes, hours, or days would pass normally during travel; once the traveler slows down, however, he or she will notice that far more time has passed for those of us ambling about slowly. In short, the hot rod in question might have only felt a few days pass (and will have aged only as such), but would recognize years to have gone by for friends and family members, all of whom would be accordingly older.

Here’s why: Light is essentially our gateway into all comprehension of the universe and everything that happens therein. All conceivable information — everything we see and experience — is dictated to us by light. As such, imagine that light is an impossibly chatty friend explaining the details of a movie about your life to you over the phone: “Okay, so, right now, you’re sitting in your office. You’re reading a long-winded article about Interstellar . You’re blinking. You’re wondering how long you can go without blinking.” Every inconsequential detail is reported to you by this friend of yours, so you can only experience the movie as fast as your friend will recite its story. Furthermore (and this is an important detail), you are so enrapt in the description of this film that it seems like nothing else exists outside of your conversation.

And light is a dutiful friend — one who speaks quickly and constantly. In fact, since your entire understanding of everything and anything that might be happening in the universe/your incredibly boring biopic relies entirely on light’s narration, and there are no windows to the world outside of your own experiences under the regime of light/your endless phone call that it seems like light is always moving at a speed with a consistent distance from your own.

Light is also a bit of a showboat, never letting you think you’re closing in on its verbal illustrations in any way. In other words, no matter how fast you travel, light always seems to be traveling the same amount faster than you are. So, you can begin jogging, or sprinting, or piloting jets, or flying rockets at impossible speeds, but light will always seem to be zooming by as it always has. You can never “catch up” to light, or even gain on it. (Or so it seems.)

But give it a try and you’ll notice an oddity upon your return to normal speed. When traveling near the speed of light, you’ll feel yourself covering so much ground in so little time, blasting almost instantaneously from one point to an incredibly distant destination. But the casual observer won’t be able to see you reach your goal until light permits.

This is when that phone call metaphor comes back into play. No matter what some may deem “objective reality,” the only gateway of the whats and whens and wheres of the universe that your have is your chatty narrator, light. You can only see yourself reaching the finish line when light tells you such as happened; on the same token, your friends can only see you crossing the finish line when their respective narrators clue them into the happening.

But while you were traveling so fast as to, again, cover so much ground in so little time, your friends were patiently waiting for their perceptions of light to catch up. As you were traveling so much closer to the speed of light than any of them were, all light got a chance to show you was a quick race from one point to another. But back at normal speeds, far away from that of light, your friends got to see plenty more: light showed them all sorts of things in the interim period; it had more time to do so, since they weren’t riding its tail and pressuring it to stay on point. Time managed to show your friends a few hours worth of their lives; yours only showed you a few seconds.

Now, apply this on a grander scale: years to days, decades to weeks. We see this phenomenon take place in Interstellar when McConaughey and co approach the vicinity of a black hole — the second means by which relative time comes into discussion in the movie. Considering everything mentioned above about light’s dictation of all time and space, this one should be a quick explanation.

Heavy things are a pain in the ass to deal with. Picture the fabricverse from the wormhole passage again: light has to travel along this fabric to bring you the lot of your informational intake. But when there’s a tremendously heavy object sitting on the colossal fabric, light has to slink down into the resultant grooves and then skulk back up again just to reach you on the other side. A black hole is basically the biggest, heaviest, most obnoxiously intrusive object that can delay light’s progress. For all of the reasons explained prior, this delay of light results in a slowed passage of time in relation to those experiencing light and life outside of the black hole’s immediate neighborhood. As such, McConaughey’s trip to the outer banks of the dark nightmare costs him a whole lot of Earth years for just a few precious black hole hours.

BLACK HOLES

So what is a black hole? A theoretical doozy, for one. Basically, a black hole is the utmost pull of gravity in the universe: nothing can escape a black hole’s grasp, not even light (imagine light being too heavy for something, go figure). While this might not seem like a significant entity in a vacuum, the implications of a plane with no perceivable light — or a perception of light that we, as a race that cannot see inside a black hole, have never observed — are vast. As mentioned, light dictates time, life, everything. So what can exist inside a field where time, life, and everything are not dictated?

That is the question.

Images: Paramount Pictures (5)

Interstellar Ending Explained: Time Travel and the Real Science

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Evil Dead Fans Can Now Get Their Hands On (and Into) Ash Williams' Iconic Chainsaw

Jake gyllenhaal says it can be ‘advantageous’ being legally blind, tmnt: the last ronin writer wants original april o’neil star for the r-rated adaptation.

Whether you love him or hate him, filmmaker Christopher Nolan has continued to find new ways to challenge his audience, and paradigms of filmmaking as a whole, throughout his remarkable career. His breakout hit Memento shattered audiences' expectations of a traditional narrative story, while The Dark Knight trilogy redefined the superhero genre in ways nobody even knew they wanted, until they saw it with their very eyes. Inception proved that one does not need to induce hallucinogenic drugs to get the head trip of a lifetime, and even his more straight-forward films like Insomnia and The Prestige are exceptionally bold. Regardless of what you might think of his latest offering Interstellar , most will likely agree that Christopher Nolan has outdone himself, offering truly outstanding visuals coupled with a mind-shattering narrative that still has filmgoers talking weeks after opening day.

With all that being said, Interstellar , all 169 minutes of it, isn't exactly the easiest cinematic pill to swallow, with several questions still lingering about different aspects of this incredibly complex story, which we'll try to answer for you right here. But first, let's go through the basic plot of Interstellar .

Be warned , there will be SPOILERS after this point, so read on at your own risk.

The story centers on Matthew McConaughey 's Cooper, a former NASA pilot turned farmer, who discovers mysterious coordinates to a top-secret government project. He is recruited by his old colleague Professor Brand ( Michael Caine ) to lead a journey into the nether regions of space to, essentially, find a new home for humanity. While it's somewhat glossed over in the film, the reason for this mission is because the Earth's resources are dwindling rapidly, with the "blight" rendering the planet incapable of yielding any crops except for corn, although that will be over soon as well.

At any rate, despite the protests of his young daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy), Cooper joins this all-important mission aboard the Endurance spacecraft alongside Brand's daughter and biologist Amelia ( Anne Hathaway ), physicist Romily ( David Gyasi ), geographer Doyle ( Wes Bentley ) and two androids known as TARS (voiced by Bill Irwin ) and CASE (voiced by Josh Stewart ). Their mission is to enter a wormhole and explore the three planets orbiting the black hole Gargantua, which are named Miller, Mann and Edmunds, after the astronauts who explored them in the previous Lazarus missions.

With the fundamentals all laid out, let's explore some of the more puzzling and intriguing aspects of Interstellar 's ingeniously complex story.

[1]Plan A vs. Plan B - The Classic Misdirect

As complicated as Interstellar 's plot is, Christopher Nolan and his co-writer/brother Jonathan Nolan employ a classic trope, where the government or the powers that be essentially "trick" the protagonist into participating in a mission, by either not telling said protagonist the entire truth, or offering empty promises that cannot be fulfilled. The one example of this trope that immediately comes to mind is Predator , where Arnold Schwarzenegger 's Dutch isn't told the whole truth about his supposedly simple "rescue mission" by his old friend Dillon ( Carl Weathers ).

In Interstellar , Cooper wrestles with the decision to join the Endurance, since he knows he will be separated from his young daughter Murph ( Mackenzie Foy ) and son Tom ( Timothée Chalamet ) for an unknown amount of time. He doesn't know then that years upon years will pass, with Murph ( Jessica Chastain ) and Tom ( Casey Affleck ) growing up never knowing if and/or when their father will come back. It's Murph's undying faith that Coop will return that provides a heart-wrenching payoff, but we're getting sidetracked here.

It breaks down like this. Plan A centers on Coop's mission succeeding in obtaining data from the planets surrounding the black hole Gargantua, to find a suitable place for humanity to call home. However, this plan largely rests on Professor Brand's ability to solve a physics equation that would allow for humans to access the "fifth dimension" physics, enabling an enormous space station carrying all of humanity to travel through the wormhole and to their new home. Plan B would be enacted if Plan A fails, with the Endurance team settling on the most habitable planet and raising harvested human embryos that NASA has been secretly fertilizing, to ensure humanity's survival.

What Professor Brand didn't tell Coop before embarking on this mission is that Plan A was never expected to succeed. He had already solved the physics equation and deemed it impossible for humanity to be saved. Plan A was only championed to get world leaders to rally around this idea together to build the infrastructure for both plans, even though Brand was the only one who knew Plan A wouldn't work. Regardless, even after learning that Plan A was never expected to work, Coop still presses on with the mission at hand, which leads to the jaw-dropping and perplexing reveal of the "tesseract," the true nature of "they," while proving that Brand was wrong all along.

[2]Tesseract, Fifth Dimension and "They"

First off, the tesseract in Interstellar does not have any Marvel implications whatsoever, but it does play an integral part in the story. The Tesseract is where Cooper lands after ejecting himself from the ship into the black hole, a.k.a. Gargantua. While he meant to sacrifice himself to ensure the success of Plan B, Cooper doesn't die, but instead lands in this area where all of time is laid out in front of him. Coop uses the Tesseract to communicate with his young daughter Murph in her room, essentially becoming the "ghost" Murph thought she saw at the beginning of the film, as Coop relays the data collected by TARS to young Murph for her to use in the future, making "Plan A" a success and inevitably saving the human race.

The Tesseract was constructed by "they," which are initially thought to be some sort of alien race giving humanity little hints at how to survive before being annihilated. As it turns out, "they" are actually future humans, using their knowledge and mastery of "fifth dimension" physics to construct the Tesseract in the future, while leaving it in the past for Coop to communicate with Murph, who are both later seen as the saviors of humanity.

While it is never explicitly stated what this "fifth dimension" is in Interstellar , Christopher Nolan used another well-worn plot device in new and unique ways. The trope is known as a "bootstrap paradox," where objects or information are passed from the future to the past. The most notable example of this in film is The Terminator , where John Connor sends Kyle Reese ( Michael Biehn ) back in time to protect his mother Sarah Connor ( Linda Hamilton ). Since Kyle ends up becoming John's father, John essentially creates himself from the future, which also rings true for Skynet, since the Terminator's arm from the future that was discovered at Cyberdyne, essentially lead to Skynet's creation. A "bootstrap paradox" is also prevalent in 12 Monkeys and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure .

[3]Time Travel Relativity In a Nutshell

One of the most fascinating aspects of Interstellar is how the passage of time differentiates exponentially between Earth and the vast outer reaches of space. In the first planet visited by the Endurance, for every hour spent on the planet, seven years pass on Earth, which explains how Coop's children Murph and Tom become full-grown adults while their father is on this mission, and why Coop wants to get off this planet as quickly as possible.

The reason for this massive time discrepancy is due to the first planet's proximity to the black hole known as Gargantua, whose gravitational anomalies makes time pass exponentially slower. Ironically, it's this anomaly that makes this trip to the first planet, Miller's, a bust, since what was perceived as years of positive beacon readings were actually just minutes, since she was killed by a wave shortly after landing on the planet. This is also shown by Christopher Nolan 's decision to leave Romily on the Endurance, far from the black hole. In the three hours the rest of the team was gone, he had lived 23 years, and we also see video messages from back home of Coop's children as adults.

What's most interesting is Coop's ejection from the tesseract only takes a few seconds for him, but over 50 years have passed for the rest of humanity, and conversely, while Coop and TARS were believed to be floating in space for 90 years, that only spanned a few seconds as well for the astronaut and android.

The film ends with Coop, after seeing his now-elderly daughter Murph ( Ellen Burstyn ) on the enormous space station, setting off on a new journey to reunite with Amelia, who is on Edmonds planet setting up the aforementioned "Plan B." Even though nearly 100 years have passed on Earth since the first Endurance mission, Coop knows that time moves much slower on the other side of the wormhole, which means that he could reunite with Amelia shortly after he sacrificed himself and was dropped into the tesseract.

To wrap everything up, we have an incredibly comprehensive timeline by Dogan Can Gundogdu that explains what happens to the main characters in a thorough and visual manner. We also have a video with astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson offering his own explanation regarding the ending of Interstellar , which you can check out below.

Is there anything else that left you scratching your head after watching Interstellar ? Chime in with your thoughts below.

• interstellar (2014)
• Christopher Nolan

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Trump Has Been Convicted. Here’s What Happens Next.

Donald J. Trump has promised to appeal, but he may face limits on his ability to travel and to vote as he campaigns for the White House.

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By Jesse McKinley and Maggie Astor

• May 30, 2024

The conviction of former President Donald J. Trump on Thursday is just the latest step in his legal odyssey in New York’s court system. The judge, Juan M. Merchan, set Mr. Trump’s sentencing for July 11, at which point he could be sentenced to as much as four years behind bars, or to probation.

It won’t stop him from running for president, though: There is no legal prohibition on felons doing that . No constitutional provision would stop him even from serving as president from a prison cell, though in practice that would trigger a crisis that courts would almost certainly have to resolve.

His ability to vote — for himself, presumably — depends on whether he is sentenced to prison. Florida, where he is registered, requires felons convicted there to complete their full sentence, including parole or probation, before regaining voting rights. But when Floridians are convicted in another state, Florida defers to the laws of that state, and New York disenfranchises felons only while they are in prison.

The Trump Manhattan Criminal Verdict, Count By Count

Former President Donald J. Trump faced 34 felony charges of falsifying business records, related to the reimbursement of hush money paid to the porn star Stormy Daniels in order to cover up a sex scandal around the 2016 presidential election.

“Because Florida recognizes voting rights restoration in the state of conviction, and because New York’s law states that those with a felony conviction do not lose their right to vote unless they are incarcerated during the election, then Trump will not lose his right to vote in this case unless he is in prison on Election Day,” said Blair Bowie, a lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit watchdog group.

Mr. Trump will almost certainly appeal his conviction, after months of criticizing the case and attacking the Manhattan district attorney, who brought it, and Justice Merchan, who presided over his trial.

Long before that appeal is heard, however, Mr. Trump will be enmeshed in the gears of the criminal justice system.

A pre-sentencing report makes recommendations based on the defendant’s criminal record — Mr. Trump had none before this case — as well as his personal history and the crime itself. The former president was found guilty of falsifying business records in relation to a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who says she had a brief sexual tryst with Mr. Trump in 2006, in order to buy her silence.

At the pre-sentence interview, a psychologist or social worker working for the probation department may also talk to Mr. Trump, during which time the defendant can “try to make a good impression and explain why he or she deserves a lighter punishment,” according to the New York State Unified Court System.

The pre-sentencing report can also include submissions from the defense, and may describe whether “the defendant is in a counseling program or has a steady job.”

In Mr. Trump’s case, of course, he is applying — as it were — for a steady job as president of the United States, a campaign that may be complicated by his new status as a felon. Mr. Trump will likely be required to regularly report to a probation officer, and rules on travel could be imposed.

Mr. Trump was convicted of 34 Class E felonies, New York’s lowest level , each of which carry a potential penalty of up to four years in prison. Probation or home confinement are other possibilities that Justice Merchan can consider.

That said, Justice Merchan has indicated in the past that he takes white-collar crime seriously . If he did impose prison time, he would likely impose the punishment concurrently, meaning that Mr. Trump would serve time on each of the counts he was convicted of simultaneously.

If Mr. Trump were instead sentenced to probation, he could still be jailed if he were later found to have committed additional crimes. Mr. Trump, 77, currently faces three other criminal cases: two federal, dealing with his handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election , and a state case in Georgia that concerns election interference.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers can file a notice of appeal after sentencing, scheduled for July 11 at 10 a.m. And the judge could stay any punishment during an appeal, something that could delay punishment beyond Election Day.

The proceedings will continue even if he wins: Because it’s a state case, not federal, Mr. Trump would have no power as president to pardon himself .

Jesse McKinley is a Times reporter covering upstate New York, courts and politics. More about Jesse McKinley

Maggie Astor covers politics for The New York Times, focusing on breaking news, policies, campaigns and how underrepresented or marginalized groups are affected by political systems. More about Maggie Astor

Our Coverage of the Trump Hush-Money Trial

Guilty Verdict : Donald Trump was convicted on all 34 counts  of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his bid for the White House in 2016, making him the first American president to be declared a felon .

What Happens Next: Trump’s sentencing hearing on July 11 will trigger a long and winding appeals process , though he has few ways to overturn the decision .

Reactions: Trump’s conviction reverberated quickly across the country  and around the world . Here’s what voters , New Yorkers , Republicans , Trump supporters  and President Biden  had to say.

The Presidential Race : The political fallout of Trump’s conviction is far from certain , but the verdict will test America’s traditions, legal institutions and ability to hold an election under historic partisan tension .

Making the Case: Over six weeks and the testimony of 20 witnesses, the Manhattan district attorney’s office wove a sprawling story  of election interference and falsified business records.

Legal Luck Runs Out: The four criminal cases that threatened Trump’s freedom had been stumbling along, pleasing his advisers. Then his good fortune expired .