“Interstellar“ is one of the best for us at FILMSTARTS best science fiction movies of all time. Not only the story, but also the images, the sound, the atmosphere, the equipment and the actors are galactic in the true sense of the word. Most science fiction fans can agree that Christopher Nolan has done a great job. But the Brit almost didn’t get the chance. Because a completely different master director actually wanted to stage the future epic: Steven Spielberg.
In ‘Interstellar’, Earth is confronted with the apocalypse in the year 2067. Dust storms have devastated the planet and billions of people have already starved to death as a result. NASA boss Prof. John Brand (Michael Caine) contacts his ex-employee Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) to embark on what is likely the most important mission in history: he and his crew (including Anne Hathaway) would have to go into a wormhole, fly near Saturn and search for a new, habitable planet for humanity…
Warning: The following paragraphs contain some massive spoilers for “Interstellar.” If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you might want to read on after you enjoy it.
“Indy 4” instead of “Interstellar”
In 2006, Steven Spielberg began developing the original idea for “Interstellar” into a film from producer Lynda Obst (“Contact”) and respected theoretical physicist Kip Thorne. In 2007 he commissioned Jonathan Nolan, who had previously written the scripts for his directorial works “Memento” and “Prestige” together with his brother Christopher, to write a screenplay.
At that time, Spielberg planned to direct the film himself. However, when his production company switched from Paramount to Disney shortly afterwards, a new director had to be found for legal reasons. Meanwhile, Spielberg began work on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Jonathan Nolan recommended his brother to the studio for the now vacant job. Shortly after Christopher Nolan was awarded the contract, he began revising Jonathan’s script and supplementing it with segments from his own script, initially intended for another film. This created an exciting and moving character drama combined with a visually and intellectually fascinating exploration of space, the time-space continuum and various scientific theories.
The end result of his efforts, presented to cinema fans in 2014, differs significantly in many places from Spielberg’s original concept. This affects not only the plot and the characters moving within it, but also the mood, pacing, and emotional direction. Like many Western filmmakers today, the mastermind behind ‘Jaws’, ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ was already looking to the world’s largest film market, China, and also planned to include much more classic action.
China would have been faster
The script Spielberg is said to have used called for China to initially outpace the United States in the race to save humanity in space. This should be evident from the fact that the drone that Cooper and his children (Mackenzie Foy, Timothée Chalamet) encounter at the beginning is not an Indian manufacturer, but a Chinese one. Later, Cooper and his colleague Amelia Brand (Hathaway) arrive on the ice planet and discover that Chinese astronauts have been there decades earlier. The duo also find an underground bunker with Chinese robots and a mysterious chest that generates artificial gravity. While trying to return this box to their spaceship, they are attacked by the robots and engage in a battle.
In Spielberg’s ‘Interstellar’, the Chinese are said to have discovered all the answers to saving our species long before the NASA crew, but then tragically died on their return to Earth. As the story progresses, a small black hole sucks in Brand and Cooper. Another wormhole then opens, sending them into a hyperdimension. Here the two find out that the Chinese have built a gigantic space station…
Romance and sex on board the “Endurance”?
In Nolan’s version, there is no forced romantic relationship between Cooper and Brand. Their interaction is limited solely to professional cooperation and ultimately to friendship. By not making her the main character’s love interest, Nolan gave Hathaway’s character much more weight.
However, in Spielberg’s version, Cooper and Brand were intended to enter into a romantic relationship during their mission with the “Endurance”, which would be the focus of the film’s conclusion. After watching their family members’ video logs, in which they believe they are among the last generation of humans on this planet, Cooper and Brand fall into each other’s arms for comfort and become intimate with each other.
When Cooper finally leaves Brand alone on the new planet, he tries to save his mission partner, not only out of collegial loyalty and scientific reasons, but also because he is in love with her. The romantic relationship would likely have taken some of the narrative power away from Cooper’s primary goal: ensuring the survival of his children.
The ending: Different and yet the same
Cooper doesn’t come back to Earth with Nolan. Instead, he wakes up on the other side of the wormhole and discovers that his now adult daughter Murph (Jessica Chastain) has become a brilliant physicist and solved the problem of gravity – which guarantees the survival of humanity.
Under Spielberg’s auspices, the film’s finale – or the road to it – would have been very different. In the original script, Cooper returns to Earth in the year 2230, only to find a wasteland plagued by ice storms. Desperate and convinced that man is extinct, he simply lies down on the ground and prepares for his own death in the inhospitable weather.
However, Cooper is saved. Because in the next scene – and here Spielberg’s vision and Nolan’s ultimately realized “Interstellar” coincide again – he ends up in the medical area of a huge space station named after Murph.
Would you have liked to see Spielberg’s version of the film? Do you think it would have been not only different, but perhaps even better? Or do you, like the author of these lines, think Nolan was the perfect director (and co-writer!) for “Interstellar”?
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