An Analysis of Interstellar and Gravity

Many space movies have been released in the last 20 years. The Martian, Apollo 13,

Alien, Aliens, ET, the list goes on. Before this, 2001: A Space Odyssey captured public attention,

as it was released a year before humans walked on the moon. Each movie uses different

techniques to hold its audience’s attention, but most have commonalities. Each one of these

movies uses music to enhance each scene’s impact on the audience, both for good and bad. Some

make the audience use their imagination to pretend that aliens exist or invite possibilities of new

intelligent lifeforms to come to the Earth. Men in Black takes this to another level, entertaining

the idea that aliens live among us, disguised as humans, and we don’t even know it. Then, there

are other movies, such as Gravity and Interstellar. These movies live in a place of potential fact.

Of course, this is Hollywood; neither of these movies are true stories, but they both incorporate

accurate information throughout the movie. In this analysis, I will discuss the different factual

accuracies of these movies and some of the physics behind them.

Gravity follows the story of two astronauts: Dr. Ryan Stone, a medical engineer on her

first Space Shuttle mission, and Mission Commander Matt Kowalski, a veteran astronaut on his

final mission. During a routine spacewalk, disaster struck. A Russian spacecraft exploded,

sending debris hurling toward Stone, Kowalski, and the Space Shuttle. Before they can take any

action, the debris damages their spacecraft, killing all personnel inside. Once this horrible event

happens, Kowalski tells Stone to set her watch for 90 minutes because the same debris will come

back around the Earth in 90 minutes. This is an interesting choice by the screenwriters: objects in

low Earth orbit travel at around 17000 mph, which means they orbit the Earth in about 90

minutes. However, orbit time is measured from some fixed point in space. If the debris were to

come back around in 90 minutes, it would mean that Stone and Kowalski were stationary in
space, which is impossible because we know they are not falling back to Earth. Because the

debris passes them, we know it is moving faster than Stone and Kowalski, so we assume they are

in a geostationary orbit, and the debris (or what used to be a Russian satellite) was in a low Earth

orbit. In this scheme, it would take more than 90 minutes for the debris to return to their position

simply because they have moved in space.

Following the first debris storm, Kowalski tethers himself to Stone and tells her to

breathe normally to save her oxygen. This is one fact that is true: space suits only have limited

amounts of oxygen, and hyperventilating will deplete oxygen levels faster. We then watch Stone

and Kowalski try to get to a different spacecraft to propel themselves home to Earth. Eventually,

Stone finds herself alone in a pod meant for reentry, but the controls are off. The directors do a

great job of making the audience understand that Stone is basically out of oxygen and is starting

to feel the effects of breathing too much carbon dioxide. After an incredibly well-crafted

emotional scene, Stone remembers that about three seconds before the capsule hits the ground

(hopefully the water), thrusters are set off to slow the capsule down so the landing is not as

jarring as it could be. This is another fact: even with a parachute deployed, astronauts returning

to Earth from space are traveling at fast speeds, and with the surface tension of water, those

landings can be jolting. Stone uses this fact to trick the spacecraft into thinking it is close to the

ground, which sets off the thrusters. This is just the push she needed to return to Earth. Because

there is very little drag force in the vacuum of space, a small kick, like the one the thrusters

provided, was all Stone needed.

Interstellar is one of my favorite movies because of all the action that happens in it. I was

hooked by the idea of space travel to find a habitable world, and the fact that it involved black

holes made it cooler. There are a lot of parts of Interstellar that are factually accurate, so only a
few will be discussed in this piece. To start, it should be noted that traveling this far, this fast, or

through wormholes, has yet to be proven. Thus, some of the ideas in this movie are Hollywood

creations. However, slingshotting around massive objects such as planets (or black holes) is a

common technique used to boost a spacecraft without using as much fuel. In the movie, Cooper

and Amelia, who are part of a NASA mission to determine if there are habitable worlds on the

other side of a wormhole by Saturn, end up slingshotting themselves around the black hole

Gargantua to get home. A big storyline in the movie is the time warping that this maneuver

caused. This concept comes from Einstein's theory of relativity, which states that objects with

enough mass bend the fabric of space-time and alter time itself. In debating the slingshot

maneuver, Cooper and Amelia discuss that, if completed, they will return to Earth 50 years later

than expected, even though their journey will only seem like a couple of hours. This means that

Cooper’s daughter will be older than him, and Amelia's father will most likely have passed away.

They decide to try it, but something goes wrong. Their craft does not have enough power to

escape the pull of Gargantua’s gravity. Cooper decides to release his part of the craft, allowing

Amelia to escape and go home. This idea is factual and comes from Newton's second and third

laws. A less massive object will experience a greater acceleration when a similar force is applied.

In addition, releasing his craft pushed Amelia’s craft (every action has an equal and opposite

reaction). In an attempt to refrain from all spoilers, the following events in the movie will not be

discussed, but the idea of higher dimensions is entirely theoretical.

Space movies capture the attention of audiences like no other movie type. The fact that

we know so little about space and our universe, in addition to theories such as wormholes,

time-warping, and habitable worlds leaves so much room for Hollywood screenwriters to swoop

in and create something spectacular. However far-stretched some of the main ideas might be in
these movies, there are principles of fact layered into the plot. Both Gravity and Interstellar

comment on deep human fears, like being trapped in space with no oxygen or living on a dying

planet. And yet, the writers and actors of these movies do a great job of inciting hope into the

minds of their viewers. I believe this is why movies about space have done so well and will

continue to perform well into the future.