Ambition and Dilemma
Cooper’s sacrifice persists throughout the movie, and is not a one time experience, but a constant enduring challenge throughout the movie. From the time Cooper leaves his family to join the NASA mission to find a new habitable planet, the story points out the difficult balance between personal ambitions and duty that one can undergo. Against the responsibility of maintaining a family. This creates a universal tension that reflects a universal struggle felt by viewers. How can humans truly pursue the duty of something greater, while still advancing through the commitments we have for those we love? For Cooper, this is a rigorous question with no answer and consequential risks. With the lives of humans being at play, but the emotional cost being substantial, every second that passes, every step forward taken in this mission, is a step taken further away from his family. Creating a fragile bridge taking him further from their lives, yet not able to turn back.
In a 10th anniversary interview podcast, Matthew McConaughey reflects on the complexity of the decision portraying Cooper, saying, “It’s a complex choice with no answer” (McConaughey, Williamson). Leaving his children may seem as a selfish decision at first, especially given the uncertainty of the mission. But within the interview, McConaughey emphasizes the idea that the role is meant to challenge both sides of this character’s dilemma. Both sides of the decision represent Cooper as selfish and selfless because he puts humanity's survival above his own comfort. This choice is a central symbol to the understanding of Interstellar’s larger message, survival never comes out of suffering. This tension reflects a common human struggle. As pursuing a career, following a dream, making a life changing decision, or to just chase love, choices always come with sacrifices. In this case, in the film, Cooper embodies this struggle in its most dramatic form, but the core emotional truth is universal to everyone confronting it.
As a major part of the movie is the focus of Cooper’s decision, each decision taken in the film carries a consequence, not just for himself, but for his family as well. Murphy’s feelings of abandonment and anger, portrayed in scenes where she refused to forgive her father for leaving, “In the sequence where Cooper returns to the Endurance after the Miller-Planet mission, he watches decades of video messages from his children, one of them from Murphy. By then, she has grown resentful and feels abandoned. She is portrayed as angry and convinced her father probably won’t return” (Travis, Empire Magazine). Illustrates the physiological cost that physical absence can have on loved ones. A reminder that “right” decisions inflict pain. Interstellar becomes a meditation on personal cost of ambition, and personal relationships.