New Verticality in Film: How Interstellar (2014) Reflects Themes of Human Sustainability and Endurance Anonymous College

Interstellar (2014) follows an earth’s society plagued with various forms of famine, drought and global disasters. It is set in the American Midwest, where a team of scientists - including Joseph Cooper (referred to in the film as Cooper and played by Matthew McConaughey), an ex NASA engineer, now a farmer, leave behind planet Earth in search for a new habitable planet for humanity to colonise and restart their lives on. In Interstellar, the concept of ‘New Verticality’ can be seen in the way different digital technologies allow for two contrasting forces and ideas to be communicated in the plot as well as on screen.

One of these forces is the idea of Murphy’s law (the idea that ‘Anything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong’), which in Interstellar can be seen by the harrowing state of the earth which has over time “gone wrong” but is best exemplified by the character of Murphy (Cooper’s daughter played by Mackenzie Foy) who he must leave behind (as well as the rest of his family) in search for a chance at humanity's endurance . This takes us to the second force which is the idea of humanity’s endurance itself - the ship that the explorers travel upon is given the name of “the Endurance” which communicates the survival of...