Sad Interstellar Detail We All Missed For 9 Years Makes Nolan’s $715M Sci-Fi Movie Way Better

Interstellar features one grim detail about how bad life on Earth has become that many viewers miss. Following the success of The Dark Knight and Inception, the next Christopher Nolan movie was Interstellar. After his previous work, Nolan essentially had a blank check to make whatever kind of project he wanted, but while his sci-fi adventure has shades of Kubrick’s 2001 or Alien, it’s still recognizably his. Interstellar is set in the near future where Earth is slowly dying, and a desperate space mission is launched to find a new home for the human race.

As is the case with every Nolan movie, from Memento through to Oppenheimer, the film rewards repeat viewings. For instance, Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper says to his young daughter Murphy “Once you’re a parent, you are the ghost of your children’s future,” which of course pays off with the reveal that he was the “ghost” haunting Murph’s room, sending messages through morse code. The film is rich with that kind of texture, with one being particularly unsettling once it’s pointed out.

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There’s No Wildlife Seen In Interstellar

Reddit user pmw1981 once pointed out that there is absolutely no wildlife seen in Interstellar at any point. Former astronaut Cooper has a farm, but there’s no livestock of any kind, and nobody is seen eating eggs or consuming dairy products. None of the characters have pets, plus there are no flies or other insects seen or even heard. In short, this underlines how dire things have gotten on the planet. It’s a detail Nolan never underlines or draws attention to either, since he trusts audiences will subconsciously pick up on it.

How Interstellar’s Wildlife Detail Increases The Movie’s Stakes

It’s already clear that humanity is facing extinction, but the complete lack of animals or insects greatly increases the stakes of Interstellar’s mission. The Blight has seemingly wiped out Earth’s wildlife and left corn as the only viable crop, which will inevitably lead to the end of the human race too. By the time audiences join the story, the characters in Interstellar have gotten used to the bleakness of their situation, so there would be little point in drawing attention to it.

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Once food became scarce, there’s also the likelihood people began to eat the remaining animals – including pet cats, dogs and rats – out of desperation. Again, Nolan doesn’t need to point this out, as it’s just another element of the dark future Interstellar is set in. The movie finds humanity at its lowest ebb and almost accepting of its impending annihilation. That means the quest Cooper, Brand (Anne Hathway) and the others are on has no other choice but to succeed, as there’s quite literally no home for them to return to if they fail.