Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar has captured audiences’ hearts and imaginations for over a decade, and several fascinating theories allow it to be viewed in a new light. The 2014 film is known for its complex exploration of vast and imaginative ideas, from scientific concepts of space and time to internal questions about human nature. Nolan structures his plot with definitive meaning, but the sprawling nature of the film’s ideas still leaves plenty of room for theory crafting. After all, there’s never a right or wrong way to view a movie.

The beloved space epic is one of Christopher Nolan’s best movies. Though it has some of his most mixed critical reviews, the $758 million box office run for a non-franchise film in 2014 is enormously impressive, speaking to Nolan’s cultural appeal. Love it or hate it, Interstellar is an undeniably evocative piece and one of Nolan’s most emotionally contrived cinematic experiences. Characters like Cooper, Murph, and Dr. Brand are powerfully resonant, allowing audiences to connect to a film that covers such overwhelming and expansive material.

10

“They” Caused Earth’s Blight

Interstellar’s “They” Could’ve Caused More Problems Than The Film Explores

A dark Interstellar theory examines why humanity left Earth, suggesting that “they” caused the blight to establish the chain of events. The idea of “they” is questioned several times in the film, with Cooper eventually concluding that some fifth-dimensional beings manipulating events must be some future-evolved humans that transcend time and space. It’s difficult to wrap one’s head around, especially given its implications for the film’s overarching narrative. If human beings from the future have been interfering with events from the past, it’s possible they caused Earth’s blight.

Furthermore, if future humans have the power Cooper thinks they do, then they may have been orchestrating events to guide Cooper to them. Their necessity for Cooper to help humankind leave Earth for their creation in the future means that a time loop is created at some point, but there’s no indicator of where their influence begins. The idea that future beings would cause blight to expedite humanity’s departure from Earth is dark, but that sort of utilitarian idea is analyzed in Interstellar by characters like Dr. Brand (Michael Caine) and Dr. Mann (Matt Damon).

9

Christopher Nolan’s Films Are Connected

A Theory Connects Interstellar To Tenet And Inception

In a media climate where everything is a shared universe, it’s no surprise that audiences have explored the connections between Nolan’s works. A since-deleted theory from X user FILMDILFS connects Interstellar with Inception and Tenet, all of which explore different dystopian societies and sci-fi concepts. The theory’s primary connection is between Interstellar and Tenet, suggesting that Interstellar takes place in the future and that the Time Bomb was created to prevent Earth from reaching its barren, uninhabitable state.

Auteur filmmakers have long managed to connect their movies in different ways. Clues in Quentin Tarantino’s films have pointed to a shared Tarantino universe, as they constantly reference one another. Lars von Trier and Edgar Wright both have film trilogies that only share a thematic connection rather than an overarching narrative. It’s a stretch to ᴀssume Nolan went into any of his solo films with plans to overlap his stories, but it’s still fun to consider.

8

“They” Are Actually A Super-Powered AI Given Instructions To Save Humanity

While Most Think “They” Are Future Humans, It Could Be Something More

Given how the events play out in Interstellar and all the context given to who “they” possibly are, most think of them as some form of future human beings that evolved into beings able to manipulate time as a physical dimension. A certain Reddit user had a different idea — what if “they” weren’t human beings at all, but rather an AI system that was given only one directive, to “save us.” This could fundamentally change the entire movie.

Sustained by solar power and smart enough to repair itself, this super AI kept working, thinking, and exploring the universe long after humanity went extinct. Given that saving humanity was its only instruction, no matter how long it took, the AI was eventually able to figure out how to manipulate gravity in the past to create the black hole in the first place, even if it took millions of years to figure it out.

7

Cooper’s Fall Caused More Anomalies

Cooper Stumbling Through The Tesseract May Have Had Bigger Implications

Cooper’s fall into the Tesseract in Interstellar‘s act three climax has enormous implications for the film, and while it seems like he figured things out, it’s fair to say he didn’t exactly know what he was doing. A theory about Cooper’s Tesseract fall from Reddit user marsmedia connected his fall with another critical event from the film that was never explained — the drone from India. The idea suggests that as Cooper stumbled his way through the Tesseract, each of his bounces caused some anomaly back on Earth.

6

“They” Are From Edmunds’ Planet

Edmunds’ Planet Could Have Thrived And Evolved

The ones who placed the wormhole as well as the Tesseract are only speculated on, with the likely idea that “they” are human beings from the distant future that placed the wormhole to help humanity discover a new place to live. While that might very well be the case, it isn’t ever speculated exactly who “they” actually are or where they came from, with the idea that the artificial Earth that Murph’s breakthrough helped build is who would eventually evolve into them.

Reddit user saladzerg had a different theory, that maybe the future beings are actually the humans that evolved from Dr. Brand’s efforts to repopulate Edmunds’ planet. If “they” actually turned out to be the humans that evolved from Edmunds’ planet and the new colony, that would open up a time loop paradox where, in order for the wormhole to appear, future beings needed to place it, but they only exist because the wormhole allowed Dr. Brand to eventually colonize Edmunds’ planet, something already explored in the film.

5

There Are No Animals On Earth

No Animals Are Seen Or Heard On Earth In Interstellar

Another theory from Redditor gstba noticed that there wasn’t a single animal in any of the Earth scenes in Interstellar. Given the dire situation humanity found itself in, it seems that many of the remaining animals on Earth were kept for later reproduction, as the ending scenes in Cooper Station have apparent bug and bird noises. This isn’t a first-time sci-fi idea, and it’s been used in another popular dystopian sci-fi movie, Blade Runner, where animals are so scarce that electric animals become the mainstream. This was likely intentional since Blade Runner is one of Christopher Nolan’s favorite movies.

4

Dr. Mann Is The Same Person As Matt Damon’s Character In The Martian

This Idea Would Connect The Two Films

Given the drastic shift in tone as well as the ideas explored in Interstellar and The Martian, this theory might seem a little far-fetched, but Reddit user smittyboyfloyd brings some interesting points to the discussion. In this theory, Dr. Mann is actually Mark Watney from The Martian, who went back into space on another mission after being rescued before. While it might be strange for Watney to go back to another mission, he is definitely a hero and would want to save humanity, but upon finding out that his planet isn’t able to sustain life, he could just lose it.

Dr. Mann is constantly revered in Interstellar long before Cooper actually meets him, and the movie plays coy with the idea that he is played by Matt Damon. This reverence for Dr. Mann could be the result of his actions in The Martian, as he is seen as a hero. The only problem is why he would change his name. A theory like this, though, suggests a more tragic character arc for Mark Watney/Dr. Mann than how The Martian ended.

3

Cooper Was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ The Whole Time

Cooper Never Survived The Crash Depicted In The Opening Dream Sequence.

“X character was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ the whole time” theories are generally so tiresome, but Redditor Fleshsuitpilot presented a captivating idea about Cooper. An essential piece of the film is its opening sequence, where Cooper wakes up from a dream of a flight crash accident. The dream establishes Cooper’s character, but it’s never really touched upon again, begging the question of whether it has a grander purpose in the narrative. The idea of death is touched upon frequently in Interstellar, and Dr. Mann even shares a thought about how a parent sees their children just before they pᴀss away.

With these ideas in mind, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine the events of Interstellar as Cooper’s final images before death, imagining a reality where he’s given a random opportunity to go on a space voyage and save humanity and, by extent, his children. Other clues, like the name of the Lazarus space expedition and Murph referring to Cooper as her “ghost,” indicate a thematic undertone about the afterlife. The emotional core of Interstellar is Cooper and Murph’s relationship, and Cooper’s final wish being a mind-bending space odyssey to return to her totally checks out.

2

Cooper And TARS Were Actually “They”

A Mᴀssive Change To The Understanding Of How The Tesseract Came To Be

All this speculation about who “they” were could very well be solved by the possibility that Cooper and TARS were actually the beings that created the Tesseract. Reddit user regulated_chaos_ speculates that this could be the case, and in doing so, it would completely change the idea of how the Tesseract came to be as well as explore multiple timelines in the process, but time eventually becomes inconsequential to them.

After both Cooper and TARS fall into the black hole, they remain there for a millennium due to the extreme time dilation. If this was the case, they would eventually evolve into higher beings in some capacity, discover how to manipulate higher dimensions, and build the Tesseract to help them finally escape the black hole. The TARS-1 and Cooper-1 from the new timeline interact with their past selves and guide them out, ensuring the time loop stays constant.

1

The Planets Were Never The Intended Destination

It Never Mattered To “Them” Where Humanity Settled

In Interstellar, Cooper and the crew set out to check the possibility of inhabiting three planets explored in the Lazarus expedition. To access them, they enter a black hole near Saturn. There are many ideas regarding that black hole’s purpose, and the film only suggests it was placed by “them,” meaning future fifth-dimensional humans planted it to help humanity survive. A Redditor examined the possibility that “they” never wanted humanity to reach those planets but rather to use the black hole to discover the solution to Dr. Brand’s gravity problem.

It’s an interesting theory, seeing as it contradicts Dr. Brand’s idea that the planets and the eggs were the endgame solution rather than saving the humanity left on Earth. By choosing Cooper to helm the mission, Brand inadvertently picks the right person, as Cooper is adventurous and intuitive enough to find his way to the Tesseract and help send the equation’s solution back to Murph. To the fifth-dimensional beings in Interstellar, it doesn’t matter how humanity survives; it matters that humanity survives in some capacity and is set on a path to become “them.”