In 2014, Christopher Nolan graced audiences with his 9th feature film, Interstellar. Let’s take a look back on what made this now cult film so great.
Nolan’s previous film, The Dark Knight Rises, was a huge success. This marked the finale of – what was at the time – cinema’s most beloved superhero franchise. It was a slam dunk for Nolan – an epic conclusion to beloved, pre-existing characters. After this victory lap success, Nolan presents audiences with Interstellar – a dense sci-fi epic based on abstract scientific concepts that explores the futility of humanity, broken relationships and inter-dimensional space travel.
This was far from a left turn for Nolan – his innovative sci-fi action classic Inception had already left audiences reeling with mind-bending physics interlaced with thrilling action. However, Interstellar was met with a more polarised reaction, due to its commitment to a more scientifically and thematically dense plot. Since its more mixed reaction on release, I feel like the film has gained cult-classic status. Has Interstellar aged like fine wine, and is it a contender for one of Nolan’s greatest works?
For me, Interstellar is a pinnacle of event cinema and emotional storytelling. All of the aspects bringing the film together are produced with such confidence that I can’t help but feel so connected to the film’s events, whether that be inter-family drama, global ecological disaster or intergalactic wormhole travel.
For starters, the film is carried by some of the best performances in a Nolan flick. Matthew McConaughey plays the role of Joseph Cooper, a former NASA pilot turned farmer, and father to Murph (Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain) and Tom Cooper (Timothee Chalamet, Casey Affleck). Cooper is tasked with a last-ditch effort to help save a rapidly dying Earth by finding another habitable planet. Along with a small crew of astronauts, (Anne Hathaway, David Gyasi, Wes Bentley and a surprise Matt Damon performance) Cooper travels through space and time to attempt to save the planet and return home to his family.
McConaughey’s performance as the widowed space captain is so layered – he’s often inscrutable, putting up a stubborn professional front when leading the team of astronauts in a very calculated, selfish manner. However, the script also gives him plenty of moments to unravel emotionally, where we see him battle with the weight and consequences of his decision to leave on this Earth-saving mission. There’s a lot to love other than that one infamous ‘messages from home’ scene, as he sells the gravity of the mission during intense encounters with hostile alien environments. Anne Hathaway’s performance as Dr Brand is deeply underrated in comparison. Brand is presented as wise but more sympathetic than Cooper, so she is often a vessel for empathy throughout the story. The whole cast is honestly perfect – the casting and performances of Cooper’s kids with the adult versions deserve a shout-out too.
Nolan is known for his cinematography – as someone who works in AV and Hi-Fi, it often feels like his works are a huge contribution to why people want to delve into exceptional home cinema. Hoyte van Hoytema was brought on as cinematographer, and utilised more IMAX cameras than had previously been used on Nolan’s other films. The combination of Panavision 35mm film and IMAX 70mm allowed for huge, organic images that envelop their viewers. This also contributes to one of my other favourite aspects of the film – its tactile look. The sleek sci-fi design of the spacecraft and TARS robots feels so real and fluid, thanks to the practical miniature models filmed in the spirit of NASA footage.
In November 2025, my girlfriend and I had the pleasure of seeing Hans Zimmer live. Before he opened his Interstellar suite, Zimmer recalled the brief he had from Nolan for the score. According to Zimmer, the director asked him to create a piece of music based on a vague fable about a father who had to leave his child for an important job. The now-iconic Interstellar theme was created and handed back to Nolan, who apparently returned to it during the script-writing process. Hearing this story confirmed how I already considered Interstellar – that it was Nolan’s most emotionally focused film so far, due to the central father-daughter relationship that is the true core of the sci-fi epic.
Zimmer’s score is definitely the driving force in selling this emotional through-line. On a rewatch, I was slightly shocked at how little Cooper and Murph actually share scenes, compared to how present their relationship is in my mind when I consider the film. I think this is due to the score – Zimmer incorporates that original theme throughout, so that the audience is brought back to this dynamic. His use of instrumentation is fantastic. The organ is the main character here, where it reinvents itself as not the sound of a church, but the sound of space, loneliness and longing. Traditionally strings do heavy lifting in Western film scores for conveying emotion, but I find the organ takes that role here, with strings playing a supporting role for the most part. Percussion is used sparingly, but boy when it’s used it is used to great effect. Ticking sounds help slowly increase tension, and remind the audience that time is a valuable currency, of which the crew are in debt. Huge clacking percussion and timpani help the film’s most intense moments reach mountainous heights – film and sound rarely sound or look this big.
It is for the above, and plenty more, that I consider Interstellar to be a crowning achievement of not just Nolan’s work but cinema at large. It packs a double-barreled punch of pure spectacle and emotional resonance. The plot can be dense, the characters hard to emotionally penetrate, and it does feature some of that infamous Nolan suffocating sound mix. I’d completely understand if people didn’t click with this one, but for me it’s my personal favourite of his work. If you’ve found this film doesn’t click for you, I’d encourage you to watch again on a nice display, but more importantly, on a good-quality sound system. Whether it’s a soundbar to enhance your TV sound, or a full Dolby Atmos speaker setup, this film is best enjoyed when you’re more fully immersed. Your local Richer Sounds most definitely has this film on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray – book in a demo in one of our experience rooms to see how to transform your home into a home cinema!
Author: Elliot, Holborn Store
