In this blog post, we explore the message Christopher Nolan sought to convey through scenes in Interstellar.

Christopher Nolan: Films that make you think

The world holds diverse tastes and perspectives. I personally favor films that leave audiences with a heavy head as they exit the theater. Films packed with dazzling and destructive scenes may offer temporary excitement, but they often leave one feeling empty afterward.
Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” is the most satisfying work from this perspective. I believe this film transcends simple entertainment; it is a high-level work of art combining science, philosophy, and humanity.
The awe I felt after watching Interstellar soon led to an interest in director Christopher Nolan. To quote an acquaintance studying theater and film, “A director reigns as a king within a single work.” They create every moment and every scene from an absolute position to imbue their work with their own values and sense of purpose.
If you’ve watched movies merely to pass the time, or if you no longer find excitement in flashy action and blockbuster-level visual effects, why not change how you watch films? Consider the questions the director poses through the story, dialogue, and scenes. This process offers a unique experience, broadening your perspective on the world. Director Nolan’s works, in particular, contain many thought-provoking themes, making them ideal for taking the first step toward active appreciation. Therefore, let’s examine the common themes embedded in his films.

First, they intensely illuminate the human psyche

In the film Inception, Director Nolan constructs the vast expanse of the human unconscious. However, the world of the unconscious he portrays is far from solid. It is a flawed, vulnerable, and unstable realm. Through the character Mal, he demonstrates how easily human consciousness can crumble. Mal ultimately takes her own life, triggered by a simple thought planted within her own unconscious. Even the protagonist, Dr. Cobb, despite his exceptional intellect, is mentally unstable. During a mission, he succumbs to hallucinations and fails at a crucial moment.
While the director’s decision to kill off characters can be seen as a dramatic cinematic device, the perspective that ‘the human psyche is flawed’ is clearly evident. Characters in Nolan’s other works are also not free from this imperfection. Thus, the most philosophically troubled hero in cinematic history is born.
While other heroes perform dazzling action sequences using superpowers in films, Batman in the Dark Knight series faces numerous dilemmas and conflicts during his confrontations with villains. This is evident in his deep contemplation of what true justice for the city means—choosing between saving his beloved lover and saving the prosecutor who embodies the city’s justice—and in his process of confronting the deep-rooted fear embedded within him due to an event from his childhood. By depicting even physically powerful beings grappling with mental and psychological conflicts, it shows how difficult it is for humans to overcome such struggles.
Many films focus on conveying hope by showing humans, though flawed, overcoming or compensating for their shortcomings through effort. However, in Nolan’s work, few characters overcome their psychological flaws. They either fail to overcome them, or the outcome remains ambiguous. Nolan’s conception of ‘humanity’ is that even those who are physically strong or intellectually superior cannot be complete in their mental state.

Second, he is skeptical of reason

In his works, Nolan often questions things we believe to be rational, asking, “Is that really so?” This characteristic is an extension of the contemplation of the mind mentioned above. Leonard, the protagonist of the film Memento, suffers from anterograde amnesia, losing his memories every ten minutes. To overcome this memory loss, he relies on photographs and notes. Many people also believe photographs and notes show facts and base their rational judgments on them. However, Leonard confronts how ultimately flimsy this rational judgment, leaning on photographs and notes, truly is.
Even if photographs and notes show facts, those facts inevitably undergo an ‘interpretation’ process. Subjective elements can intervene during interpretation, allowing facts to be manipulated, altered, and repackaged. Furthermore, reason itself can become paralyzed, trapped within the ‘frame’ of preconceptions and emotions. Director Nolan demonstrates how foolish it is to believe oneself to be purely rational.
Following Memento, which depicted the flaws of reason, Transcendence explores how rationally driven beings, devoid of emotion, can cause dangerous problems. This film reveals an even more explicit skepticism toward reason. Conversely, Interstellar presents an alternative perspective as a counterpoint to reason.

Third, the only alternative to reason is ‘love’

If one views Interstellar merely as a sci-fi film about Earth’s destruction, relativity theory, and black holes, they will fail to grasp director Nolan’s message. In this film, the scientific settings are merely devices to emphasize humanity’s ‘love’ in overcoming a cosmic crisis. The film depicts the power of love through the father’s love for his family and through Dr. Brand’s love for her lover.
From the film’s opening, Nolan builds foreshadowing through supernatural phenomena like anomalous gravity and books falling for no reason. When we finally learn this is a message from the father trapped in another dimension behind the bookshelf, the meaning of ‘love’ for family leaves a deep tremor in the audience’s heart.
Furthermore, Dr. Brand insists they must go to the planet Edmund explored, stating:

“Love is the only thing we know that transcends space and time. We cannot understand it, but we must believe in it.”

Through this setup, Nolan underscores that ‘love,’ deemed irrational within the human dimension, is actually the sole ‘reason’ that encompasses all dimensions.
The genius architect Antoni Gaudí shared a similar perspective with Nolan.

“To do something well, you need first love, second skill.”
“Emotions never make mistakes. Because they are life itself.”
“It is the mind, merely a tool of control, that makes mistakes.”

We have examined the values revealed in director Nolan’s works thus far. The answer to what he sought to express is known only to the director himself. Yet, precisely because there is no definitive answer, active interpretation becomes possible. We grow through the process of each person finding their own answers to the questions the director poses, based on their own values. If the answers gained here can be applied in reality, they could become a catalyst for steering society in a better direction. This is why, when watching a film, the mind must work harder than the eyes.