Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is a hugely popular sci-fi movie that plays with many complex ideas in order to tell its story of human courage and cosmic purpose. The film stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as two accomplished scientists who are tasked with piloting a high-tech spacecraft in search of a new planet to colonize in the face of Earth’s impending destruction. Interstellar is filled with powerful quotes and memorable moments that speak volumes about humanity’s place in the stars and what our future may look like.
Interestingly, Interstellar has been the subject of some online discussions regarding whether or not the film’s ending actually makes sense. It’s almost unavoidable with sci-fi movies of this caliber, but many audiences have noticed a glaring bootstrap paradox in Interstellar’s conclusion. That is, a logical impossibility that arises as a result of the film’s complex time travel mechanics. Interstellar is a great mind-bending movie that uses Christopher Nolan’s uniquely non-linear storytelling to dissect the nature of time, but this raises some major questions about the characters and their actions.
Cooper & TARS Saved Themselves In Interstellar – Theory Explained
Perhaps The Future Humans Were Cooper After All
The ending of Interstellar seemingly reveals that it was a future human civilization that had been guiding Cooper through the cosmos to reach the Tesseract, but this interesting theory from Reddit user regulated_chaos__ affirms that it was actually a future version of Cooper who pᴀssed down the knowledge. The theory posits that in the original timeline, Cooper and TARS became trapped in space and spent millennia constructing the Tesseract because of time dilation. This allowed them to reach into the past and influence a second timeline, which is the Cooper that we follow in the movie.
If this theory is correct, it would mean that Cooper is solely responsible for figuring out how to transport knowledge through time. There’s no future version of humanity guiding him along his adventure, but rather he’s benefitting from the scientific knowledge that a past version of himself spent years developing. This is a fascinating twist on the story that gives Interstellar a whole new meaning, giving Cooper much more agency in his own destiny. Importantly, this Reddit theory also solves one of the most frustrating aspects of Nolan’s sci-fi classic: the bootstrap paradox.
If Cooper & TARS Are Behind The Tesseract, Interstellar Doesn’t Have A Bootstrap Paradox
There’s FInally An Explanation For Where The Technology Came From
As mentioned, a bootstrap paradox is when something (or somebody) travels back in time and causes their own creation. This is obviously impossible, as there’s seemingly no origin point for the object or knowledge. This happens in Interstellar, as the future humans send back their knowledge of time travel that is later pᴀssed down through generations and then sent back in an endless loop. This theory removes this Interstellar plot hole, as there is a clear origin point for Cooper’s knowledge of time travel; he develops it himself in the original timeline.
When Cooper uses the Tesseract in the movie, that’s seemingly not the same version of Cooper that created it. He’s part of a second timeline, guided to the location by an alternate version of himself. While it may be difficult to wrap one’s head around, it certainly avoids the trouble of the bootstrap paradox.
In Nolan’s explanation, it could have been anybody that future humans chose to guide the species to salvation using the Tesseract.
Additionally, this theory answers the question of why Cooper is the one to find himself in the center of this time travel paradox. In Nolan’s explanation, it could have been anybody that future humans chose to guide the species to salvation using the Tesseract. However, in regulated_chaos_’s theory, it has to be Cooper because he’s the one who developed the technology in the first place – or at least, an alternate version of himself.
The Problems With Cooper & TARS Being The Ones Who Interfered With Time
This Theory Doesn’t Quite Fit With The Rest Of The Movie
While this popular Interstellar theory answers some important questions about the film’s timeline, it ultimately causes more uncertainty that it solves. For example, it fails to explain exactly how the original Cooper and TARS managed to develop the Tesseract while stuck inside a black hole, nor how they survived the encounter in the first place. This problem doesn’t exist in Nolan’s explanation, as the future version of humanity was never necessarily inside the black hole at all; that’s just where they left the Tesseract.
Additionally, the theory relies on a constant stream of alternate-reality Coopers to keep the timeline alive, otherwise there would end up being a version of reality where the Tesseract was never made. Every version of Cooper relies on a previous iteration to guide his hand. The theory doesn’t explain what happens after the movie, when our Cooper fails to pᴀss on the knowledge to the next generation of humanity; this seems like a paradox in itself.
Interstellar Works Better As A Bootstrap Paradox Movie
Audiences Should Be Able To Overlook This Apparent Plot Hole
Ultimately, nobody is going to be able to come up with a better explanation of Interstellar’s ending than its writer and director, Christopher Nolan. His understanding of events may rely on a bootstrap paradox to work, but this is something that time travel stories have done since the genre was invented. It may not make perfect sense logically, but the idea of future humans guiding Cooper to the Tesseract is a much more thematic and fulfilling conclusion to the story.
With Interstellar, Nolan offers a very optimistic and comforting vision of the future where humanity is in an infinite loop of saving itself time and time again. Even the most catastrophic atmospheric conditions and destructive astronomical events cannot wipe out the species whose desire to live is as strong as humanity’s. Making Cooper the epicenter of this story erases the hopefulness of Nolan’s message.
Even though Interstellar relies on a paradox, that’s the entire point of the film. We know so little about the universe and how it works, much less than whatever version of humanity exists in the future, so we cannot be expected to understand everything. Much like Cooper, we must rely on the knowledge that we have and trust that it’s true and valid to reach an end that we can’t quite comprehend.
