The science fiction film Interstellar is an action packed, suspenseful movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. The plot follows the life of a widowed farmer, named Cooper, and his family as they struggle with daily life on Earth, which is becoming more and more uninhabitable.

Life on Earth worsens as crops are destroyed and dust storms are a common occurrence. The scarcity of food has led society to place a focus on agrarian occupations and education rather than engineering and mathematics. This is much to Cooper’s dismay, since he was a former NASA test pilot.

Cooper lives in a rural house with his father-in-law Donald, his son Tom and his young daughter Murphy, who goes by Murph.

Murph, portrayed in the beginning by Mackenzie Foy, is full of curiosity and is quite intelligent for her age. She believes there is a ghost in her room that is trying to communicate with her.  Murph and her father discover the “ghost” is in fact an unknown form of intelligence delivering messages through gravitational waves, altering the dust on the floor in a binary pattern. These codes direct them to the coordinates of a top-secret NASA institution led by a man known as Professor Brand, one of Cooper’s former professors.

This strange discovery of the codes is the first of many rather supernatural aspects of the film. Although it at first raises doubts towards how realistic the events may turn out to be, it does keep the viewer alert and waiting to see what happens next.

Cooper and Murph find out that the NASA site discovered a wormhole orbiting Saturn that may be inhabitable for the human race. The scientists at NASA believe there are extra-dimensional beings attempting to communicate with them and have created the wormhole in order for humans to explore outside of the galaxy.

Cooper is then recruited to lead the Endurance expedition with Professor Brand’s daughter Amelia, played by Anne Hathaway, to explore the potential planets known as Miller, Edmunds and Mann. He has an emotional goodbye with his family, especially Murph, who is infuriated with Cooper for leaving her and not knowing when or if he would ever return. It is easy for younger viewers with absentee parents to relate to Murph, and Foy does an exceptional job of depicting a heartbroken Murph’s agony during her father’s absence.

Physicist Romilly, geographer Doyle and robots known as CASE and TARS join Cooper and Amelia on the two-year journey to reach the wormhole. Unfortunately, after exploring planet Miller, where every hour that passes in the vicinity of the planet is equivalent to seven years in normal space, the crew was unable to retrieve information.  In the process, they lose Doyle and 23 years of life back on Earth.

This devastating turn reveals just how much time Cooper and Amelia lost with their families. Back on Earth, Murph and her brother Tom are now grown up and Donald has passed away. Brand is growing much older, and the world’s conditions have worsened. One cannot help but feel sorry for the explorers, and the question on whether they should remain in their expedition and never see their loved ones again or return to Earth and ruin the chances of saving mankind is raised.

Back on Earth, Murph, now a NASA scientist, attempts to solve a physics problem that may save the human population. The shock comes when Professor Brand confesses to Murph that he determined it was impossible to solve without additional information from the black hole.

The rest of the film is filled with more shockers and some sentimental moments that show the film also places a focus on love and what people are capable of doing for others.

Scott J. Davis from Flickering Myth praised the uniqueness of the film.

“Interstellar is not a perfect film, nor is it quite the masterpiece some have proclaimed it to be, but in terms of scale, scope and spectacle, [Christopher] Nolan has once again produced something the likes of which we have never seen before to this degree,” Davis wrote. “Thoughtful, engaging and epic, it is another example of a filmmaker at the height of his powers, fully embracing films as both an art form and a source of true entertainment.”

Although the movie was nearly three hours long, the action and suspense made it feel much shorter. The impressive special effects kept the viewer attentive, and the cast as a whole had a lot of chemistry. It has a Gravity feel to it, but so much more happens and it makes one question everything about life on Earth- and beyond.