Less than two months until Interstellar launches, and every breadcrumb of information to be discovered has become major news. Such is the nature of a blockbuster by Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight and Inception. Interstellar is Nolan's first film since completing his Batman trilogy back in 2012.
Nolan is known for his lengthy films, usually clocking in at around 2.5 hours. Interstellar will top his longest film to-date -- The Dark Knight Rises -- with a runtime of nearly 3 hours. It's 2 hours and 49 minutes, to be exact.
Why is it so long?
The story is largely under wraps, but Paramount Pictures describes it as "the adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage."
Makes it sound very 2001, doesn't it? Well, it's a little misleading, because there's much more to it than that.
See for yourself.
Details we can glean from the trailers, posters and cast member statements suggest that the film is set in the very near future, when Earth's natural resources are dwindling and society is on the verge of collapse. Hope is rekindled when a wormhole is discovered that leads to a distant part of the galaxy (or maybe the universe, or possibly even another dimension), where the group hopes to find the means to save humanity.
We surmise that a ragtag group of explorers is assembled from the ashes of NASA, including Matthew McConaughey's character, an engineer named Cooper, who has to leave behind his two young children to go on the voyage even though it means more time will pass on Earth than in spaceflight. And that means that he'll miss watching his kids grow up. Trailers have shown Cooper agonizing over this decision but feeling he must go to give his children and all of mankind a future.
This 169-minute runtime suggests that there's much more to the story than Paramount has revealed. That's not unusual for a Christopher Nolan film; he covets secrecy in his filmmaking, guarding against spoilers and swearing his cast members to utmost secrecy. But this "space travelers go through a wormhole to explore" logline is hiding any hints at whatever happens to the explorers on the other side of that wormhole.
So, what will the crew of the Endurance find? A habitable world for humanity to colonize? An advanced alien race willing to share its technology and resources to save the Earth? Something that can revitalize Earth's natural resources? The secrets of life itself?!? Whatever they encounter, you can bet it's going to be epic.
We also know that Interstellar was originally written by Nolan's brother, Jonathan, for Steven Spielberg about seven years ago. Christopher Nolan picked it up when Spielberg passed, and combined its premise with a story idea of his own.
One other thing we know: Nolan is famous for his insistence on using practical effects and massive sets instead of green screens and loads of digital effects. So just imagine what his take on space travel -- a traditionally visual effects-heavy genre -- will look like.
Did your anticipation level just jump? It should have.
Interstellar will be in theaters on November 7, 2014.
