10 best quotes from Interstellar
Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014) tells a grand tale of time, space, and hope for the future. Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former NASA pilot who lives in a dystopian future with his two children, Tom and Murph. When he is tasked with finding a more habitable planet through a wormhole near Saturn, he must leave them behind to embark on a journey that can change everything.
This Christopher Nolan film weaves philosophy and science seamlessly, leaving viewers with questions about humanity's existence. Interstellar exists in duality, between emotion and logic, as a tale of sci-fi nestled inside a parent's love for their child.
Here are 10 unforgettable quotes from the movie!
Iconic quotes from Interstellar that fans love
1) "Love is the one thing that transcends time and space."- Dr. Amelia Brand
Dr. Amelia Brand says,
"Love isn't something we invented. It is obervable, powerful... Love is the one thing that transcends time and space."
In Interstellar, the crew searches for more than an inhabitable planet. It searches for a future where families can not just live, but thrive. Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), reminds Cooper to look at love differently, not simply as a means to social bonding or child-rearing.
Her words resonate through the film's themes. Everyone's motivations in the film might be different, but they are united in their ability to love fiercely, however insurmountable the distance, time, or space.
2) "We didn't run out of planes and television sets. We ran out of food."- Principal
Murph's school principal says,
"The world doesn't need any more engineers. We didn't run out of planes and television sets. We ran out of food."
In Interstellar's dystopian future, human beings turned to jobs that ensured their basic survival- growing food, schools, and the like. Cooper's past as an engineer does not impress his daughter Murph's school principal, who delivers the haunting line in the movie.
This reminds viewers that when we strip the world of consumerism, the things that matter are very different from our wants. It is a brilliant line that reminds the protagonist of reality, especially in a sci-fi movie.
3) "Murphy's law doesn't mean that something bad will happen. It means that whatever can happen will happen."- Joseph Cooper
Interstellar puts a positive spin on Murphy's law, wherein everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. When Cooper's daughter Murph demands to know why she was named after a law like that, Cooper gently reminds her,
"Murphy's law doesn't mean that something bad will happen. It means that whatever can happen will happen. And we were just fine with that."
Her name is a hope for the future in a bleak reality plagued by blight and famine. It defines the infinite possibilities human beings can look forward to. With a slight change in perspective, the film created one of the most memorable quotes of the decade.
4) "I am not afraid of death. I am an old physicist, I am afraid of time."- Professor Brand
Professor Brand says,
"I am not afraid of death. I am an old physicist, I am afraid of time."
His poetic quote about the fragile mortality of the human coil reminds viewers why time might be scarier than death. For physicists studying its warped complexities and possibilities, death is a much more straightforward journey.
Throughout Interstellar, time is of the essence. It is the key theme that stretches between Cooper and his life back on earth, making his return farther from reach.
5) "This little maneuver is gonna cost us 51 years."- Joseph Cooper
Cooper says,
"This little maneuver is gonna cost us 51 years."
Dr. Amelia Brand, Joseph Cooper, and the crew have to take dire measures to escape the gravitational pull of Gargantua when they leave Miller's planet. The only way out is around, and the astronauts have to slingshot Endurance around the black hole to continue.
But a black hole's gravity has a different effect on time, and that small change in plans puts the crew 51 years ahead. As the weight of this statement hits Brand, she shrugs it off with a joke. "You don't sound too bad for a guy pushing a 120!"
6) “We have attachments. But even without a family, I can promise you that, that yearning to be with other people is powerful."- Dr. Mann
Dr. Mann (played by Matt Damon), says,
“We have attachments. But even without a family, I can promise you that, that yearning to be with other people is powerful. That emotion is the foundation of what makes us human.”
At its core, Interstellar is a movie about connection. It is the one thing human beings constantly seek out, whether it is through family, friends, or even strangers. That yearning is what drives the movie's scientific premise. The new NASA crew wants humanity to survive so they can feel connected and safe again.
7) "I'm thinking about my family and millions of other families."- Joseph Cooper
Cooper says,
"I'm thinking about my family and millions of other families."
In response to Doyle reminding him that there are bigger things at stake than just his kids. This response shows Cooper's personality- He is doing this mission for a human cause so that no family has to worry about their or their children's futures.
Interstellar's writing is a great example of how no matter how flashy, grand, or scientifically complicated the premise is, it all comes down to what humans can do for each other.
8) "Nobody believed me, but I knew you'd come back."- Murph.
When Cooper returns to earth at the end of the film, decades have passed. His daughter is now on her deathbed after dedicating her whole life to solving the gravitational equation needed to help her father's mission. In the heartbreaking reunion, Murph says,
"Nobody believed me, but I knew you'd come back. Because my dad promised me."
Murph's relationship with Cooper in Interstellar is summed up in this one quote. Her unshakeable trust and love for her father shines in this scene.
9) "Once you're a parent, you're a ghost of your children's future."- Joseph Cooper
Cooper says,
"Once you're a parent, you're a ghost of your children's future."
In the beginning of Interstellar, Murph finds a disturbance on her bedroom floor. Jokingly, she tells Cooper that it must be a ghost. When Cooper is on his mission in the warped world of time, he is ejected from his spacecraft and finds himself in a hi-tech tesseract that shows infinite scenes of Murph's room across time. He realizes that he is the ghost on the floor after all.
The quote sums up the role of a parent in a child's life. The parent becomes inexplicably intertwined in the child's life, past, present, and future. And in a movie like Interstellar, that phrase rings truer.
10) "Newton's third law."- Cooper
Cooper decides to detach from Endurance to reach Planet Miller. In a tense scene, he explains,
"Newton's third law. You need to leave something behind."
This quote is a painful reminder of what Cooper had to leave behind to pursue this mission, while also talking about the larger sacrifices the crew has to make to succeed in their mission. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and Cooper knows it.
Fans of Interstellar can relieve the movie's memorable moments by catching it on Amazon Prime Video!
