A visually stunning sci-fi epic, Interstellar follows a team of astronauts on a daring mission beyond our galaxy to find a new home for humanity. As they navigate wormholes and time distortions, the film explores themes of love, sacrifice, and the survival of the human race. With breathtaking visuals, a powerful score, and deep emotional resonance, Interstellar is a thought-provoking journey through space and time.
INTERSTELLAR
written by
Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
Transferred to PDF from: "Interstellar - The Complete Screenplay with Selected Storyboards"
Published November 2014 by Faber & Faber Ltd. (UK)
FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
BLACK. THE GENTLE SOUND OF WIND IN CORN
A row of books. From spaces between them, dust falls.
I N T E R S T E L L A R
ELDERLY FEMALE VOICE (V.O.)
Sure. Dad was a farmer.
BRIGHT CORN STALKS FILL THE FRAME, SWAYING IN THE BREEZE
ELDERLY FEMALE VOICE (V.O.)
Like everybody else back then.
The wind is RISING, shaking the plants more FORCEFULLY ...
Insert cut: a WOMAN in her eighties against a dark background.
ELDERLY WOMAN
Course, he didn’t start that way...
The WIND IS HOWLING, SHRIEKING and we RIP INTO -
EXT. THE STRATOSPHERE - DAY
BURNING through the fringes of space -
INT. COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
A young PILOT fights his BUFFETING craft -
RADIO (O.S.)
Computer says you’re too tight -
PILOT
I got this -
The Pilot grabs a panicked glance at his instruments -
RADIO (O.S.)
Crossing the Straights ... shutting it down, Cooper. Shutting it all down ...
PILOT
NO! I need the power up -
EXT. THE STRATOSPHERE - CONTINUOUS
The BLACK and RED SKY starts SPINNING HORRIFYINGLY -
INT. COCKPIT - DAY
As the controls RIP themselves free, the pilot SHOUTS and we
-
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM, FARMHOUSE - NIGHT
A man WAKES, nightmare SWEATY. This is COOPER.
YOUNG GIRL’S VOICE (O.S.)
Dad? Dad?
Cooper turns: in the doorway - his sleepy ten-year-old daughter. This is MURPH.
COOPER
Sorry. Go back to sleep.
MURPH
I thought you were the ghost.
COOPER
There’s no ghost, Murph.
MURPH
Grandpa says you can get ghosts.
COOPER
Maybe Grandpa’s a little too close to being one himself. Back to sleep.
MURPH
Were you dreaming about the crash?
COOPER
Back to sleep, Murph.
Murph shuffles back out the door. Cooper moves to the window. DAWN breaks over an ENDLESS SEA OF CORN ...
ELDERLY FEMALE VOICE (V.O.)
Corn, sure. But dust. In your ears, your mouth...
INSERT CUT: AN OLD-TIMER IN CLOSE UP, WATERY-EYED, DESCRIBES DUST BOWL CONDITIONS.
OLD-TIMER (V.O.)
Dust just everywhere. Everywhere.
EXT. COOPER’S FARM - MORNING
An old man, handkerchief across his face, sweeps dust out of the door onto the porch. This is Grandpa (DONALD).
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - MORNING
Cooper pours himself coffee as Donald puts grits on the table. TOM, Cooper’s fifteen-year-old son, stuffs his face.
Murph, wet hair, towel around neck, plays with pieces of a MODEL (a lunar lander).
DONALD
Not at the table, Murph.
MURPH
Dad, can you fix this?
COOPER
(takes pieces, frowning) What’d you do to my lander?
MURPH
Wasn’t me.
TOM
Lemme guess - your ghost?
MURPH
It knocked it off my shelf. It keeps knocking books off.
TOM
There’s no such things as ghosts, dumb-ass -
Hey -
COOPER
(to Tom)
MURPH
I looked it up, it’s called a poltergeist.
TOM
Dad, tell her.
COOPER
Murph, you know that’s not scientific.
MURPH
You say science is about admitting what we don’t know.
DONALD
She’s got you there.
COOPER
(hands her pieces)
Start looking after our stuff.
Donald looks at Cooper, admonishing. Cooper shrugs.
COOPER
Fine. Murph, you wanna talk science, don’t just tell me you’re scared of some ghost - record the facts, analyze, present your conclusions.
MURPH
Sure.
Cooper gets up, grabs his keys.
DONALD
Hold up.
(Off look.)
Parent-teacher conferences. ’Parent’ - not ’grandparent’.
EXT. FARMHOUSE - MOMENTS LATER
The kids pile into an old pickup truck, scraping DUST off the seats. Cooper, coffee in hand, peers at a black cloud.
COOPER
Dust storm?
DONALD
(shakes his head)
Nelson’s torching his whole crop.
COOPER
Blight?
DONALD
They’re saying it’s the last harvest for okra. Ever.
Cooper stares at the smoke. Uneasy. Gets into the truck.
COOPER
Shoulda planted corn like the rest of us.
DONALD
Be nice to Miss Hanley. She’s single.
COOPER
What’s that supposed to mean?
DONALD
Repopulating the Earth - start pulling your weight.
COOPER
Start minding your business.
INT./EXT. PICKUP TRUCK ON DIRT ROAD - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper sips his coffee, steering while Murph shifts -
COOPER
Okay, gimme second -
Murph wrestles the long gear stick into second. Cooper sips.
COOPER
Now third -
Murph struggles to find third - GRIND.
TOM
Find a gear, dumb-ass.
MURPH
Shut up, Tom!
BANG - A TIRE BLOWS OUT. Cooper stops the truck.
TOM
What’d you do, Murph?
COOPER
She didn’t do anything. We lost a tire is all.
TOM
Murphy’s Law.
MURPH
Shut up, Tom.
Cooper gets out of the truck, checks the flat, turns to Tom.
COOPER
Grab the spare.
TOM
That is the spare.
COOPER
Okay, patch kit.
TOM
How’m I supposed to patch it out here?
COOPER
Figure it out. I’m not always going to be here to help you.
Tom moves to the back of the truck. Murph is there.
MURPH
Why’d you and Mom name me after something bad?
COOPER
We didn’t.
MURPH
Murphy’s Law?
COOPER
Murphy’s Law doesn’t mean bad stuff will happen. It means ’whatever can happen, will happen’. And that sounded just fine to us.
Murph frowns, hearing something ...
COOPER
What?
Then Cooper hears it, too. A LOW RUMBLE. Cooper GRABS Murph as a DRONE SOARS low overhead -
COOPER
Come on!
Cooper jumps into the truck - he pulls out a laptop and antenna hands them to Murph - shouts at Tom -
COOPER
Get in!
TOM
(jack in hand) What about the tire?
INT./EXT. PICKUP TRUCK THROUGH FIELDS - MOMENTS LATER
Close on the SHREDDING TIRE as the truck BARRELS through cornfields. Murph fires up the laptop. Cooper strains to see through the cornstalks, scanning the horizon -
TOM
There!
To the right, the dark shape of the drone, cruising low over the fields. Cooper JERKS the wheel - the drone has long, thin wings like a U-2, but no cockpit.
COOPER
Indian air force surveillance drone. Solar cells could power an entire farm.
(To Tom.) Take the wheel -
Tom takes the wheel - Cooper hands Murph the antenna.
COOPER
Keep it pointed right at it -
Cooper works the laptop - the screen fills with Hindi.
Faster, Tom. I’m losing it.
Tom WEAVES through the corn - they round a corner, almost HIT a HARVESTER - BANG - the truck loses a wing mirror -
Ahead the drone SOARS, banking, pulling away -
The truck BURSTS out of the corn, Cooper’s nose is in the laptop.
Dad?
TOM
COOPER
Almost got it. Don’t stop.
In front of them, the drone plummets from view into the next valley - the path ahead leads to a three-hundred-foot drop.
TOM
DAD ...
Cooper looks up.
Tom!
COOPER
Tom locks up the brakes. Cooper looks at him - he shrugs.
TOM
You told me to keep going.
Cooper grabs the laptop and opens the door.
COOPER
Guess that answers the ’if I told you to drive off a cliff’ scenario.
Murph is still pointing the antenna.
MURPH
We lost it.
COOPER
(smiles) No, we didn’t.
The DRONE SOARS BACK OVER THEM - Cooper is moving his fingers across the track pad, PILOTING THE DRONE.
As the kids watch, Cooper sends the drone soaring over them, banking above the valley. Cooper crouches next to Murph.
COOPER
Want to give it a whirl?
Murph, guided by Cooper, moves her fingers across the track pad - the massive drone BANKS in response. Murph is in heaven.
COOPER
Let’s set her down next to the river.
EXT. RIVERBANK - MOMENTS LATER
The truck limps up to the drone. Cooper and the kids climb down. Cooper runs a hand along the smooth carbon flank of the aircraft.
TOM
How long you think it’s been up there?
COOPER
Delhi mission control went down same as ours, ten years ago.
TOM
It’s been up there ten years? Why’d it come down so low?
COOPER
Sun finally cooked its brain. Or it came down looking for something.
MURPH
What?
COOPER
Some kind of signal. Who knows?
Cooper finds an access hatch. Pries it open. Examines the black-box brain of the machine.
MURPH
What are you going to do with it?
COOPER
Give it something socially responsible to do, like drive a combine.
MURPH
Couldn’t we just let it go? It’s not hurting anyone.
Cooper looks down at his daughter. Good kid.
COOPER
This thing has to adapt, just like the rest of us.
EXT. COUNTY SCHOOL - DAY
The truck pulls up to school, drone fuselage hanging out.
COOPER
How’s this work? You guys come with?
TOM
I’ve got class. But she ...
Pats Murph on shoulder.
Needs to wait.
Murph glares at Tom as he hops out.
COOPER
Why? What?
MURPH
Dad, I had a thing ... well, they’ll tell you about it. Just try and ...
COOPER
Am I gonna be mad?
MURPH
Not with me. Just try not to -
COOPER
Relax, I got this.
Murph pulls out a notebook. Starts drawing a BARCODE.
INT. PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE - LATER (MORNING)
Cooper enters, awkward. The PRINCIPAL (male, fifties) turns from the window.
PRINCIPAL
Little late, Coop. (Indicates chair.)
Guess you had to stop off at the Asian fighter plane store.
COOPER
(sits, smiles)
Actually, sir, it’s a surveillance drone. With outstanding solar cells.
Cooper nods at Murph’s teacher, Ms Hanley, thirties, attractive.
PRINCIPAL
We got Tom’s scores back. He’s going to make an excellent farmer. Congratulations.
The Principal slides a paper across the desk.
COOPER
(taken aback) What about college?
PRINCIPAL
The university only takes a handful. They don’t have resources
-
COOPER
I’m still paying taxes - where’s that go? There’s no more armies.
PRINCIPAL
Not to the university. Coop, you have to be realistic.
COOPER
You’re ruling him out for college now? He’s fifteen.
PRINCIPAL
Tom’s score simply isn’t high enough.
COOPER
What’re you? About a thirty-six-inch waist?
(Beat.) Thirty-inch inseam?
PRINCIPAL
I’m not sure I see what -
COOPER
You’re telling me you need two numbers to measure your own ass, but just one to measure my son’s future?
Ms Hanley stifles a laugh. The Principal shoots her a look.
PRINCIPAL
You’re a well educated man, Coop. A trained pilot -
COOPER
And an engineer.
PRINCIPAL
Okay. Well, right now the world doesn’t need more engineers. We didn’t run out of planes, or television sets. We ran out of food.
Cooper leans back. He’s not going to win this one.
PRINCIPAL
The world needs farmers. Good farmers, like you. And Tom.
(Smiles benignly.)
We’re a caretaker generation. And things are getting better. Maybe your grandchildren -
COOPER
Are we done, sir?
PRINCIPAL
No. Ms Hanley is here to talk about Murph.
Cooper shifts his gaze to Ms Hanley.
MS HANLEY
Murph’s a bright kid. A wonderful kid, Mr Cooper. But she’s been having a little trouble ...
Ms Hanley places a textbook on the desk.
She brought this to school, to show the other kids the section on the lunar landings ...
COOPER
Yeah, it’s one of my old textbooks, she likes the pictures.
MS HANLEY
This is an old federal textbook. We’ve replaced them with corrected versions.
COOPER
Corrected?
MS HANLEY
Explaining how the Apollo missions were faked to bankrupt the Soviet Union.
COOPER
You don’t believe we went to the moon?
MS HANLEY
(tolerant smile)
I believe it was a brilliant piece of propaganda. The Soviets bankrupted themselves pouring resources into rockets and other useless machines.
COOPER
’Useless machines’?
MS HANLEY
Yes, Mr Cooper. And if we don’t want a repeat of the wastefulness and excess of the twentieth century, our children need to learn about this planet, not tales of leaving it.
Cooper considers this in silence. Looks at Ms Hanley.
COOPER
One of those useless machines they used to make was called an MRI. And if we had any of them left, the doctors might have been able to find the cyst in my wife’s brain before she died, rather than afterwards. Then she could be sitting here listening to this, which’d be good, cos she was always the calmer one ...
Ms Hanley looks at Cooper, embarrassed. Then -
MS HANLEY
I’m sorry about your wife, Mr Cooper. But Murph got into a fist fight with several of her classmates over this Apollo nonsense and we thought it best to
(MORE)
MS HANLEY (cont’d)
bring you in and see what ideas you might have for dealing with her behavior on the home front.
COOPER
Sure. Well, there’s a ball game tomorrow night, and Murph’s going through a bit of a baseball phase. There’ll be candy and soda ...
Ms Hanley looks at him, expectant.
COOPER
I think I’ll take her to that.
Ms Hanley turns to the Principal, not happy.
EXT. PICKUP TRUCK OUTSIDE SCHOOL - MOMENTS LATER
Murph looks up from her notebook at her dad, expectantly.
MURPH
How’d it go?
COOPER
I, uh ... got you suspended.
MURPH
What?! Sorry.
COOPER MURPH
Dad! I told you not to - The CB radio CRACKLES to life.
CB OPERATOR
Cooper? Boots for Cooper.
COOPER
Cooper.
BOOTS
(over radio)
Coop, those combines you rebuilt went haywire.
COOPER
Power the controllers down for a couple minutes.
BOOTS
(over radio)
Did that. You should come take a look, it’s kinda weird.
EXT. FARMHOUSE - DAY
Cooper and Murph pass a slow-moving harvester pulling up to the house, which is surrounded by AUTOMATED FARM MACHINES. They’ve nosed up to the house like animals at a Nativity.
Boots, the farm hand, approaches -
BOOTS
One by one they been peeling off from the fields and heading over.
Cooper pops open the cabin to a harvester. Checks the auto pilot hooked up to the controls.
BOOTS
Something’s interfering with their compass ...
Cooper jumps down and heads to the front door. Enters.
BOOTS (O.S.)
Magnetism or some such ...
INT. FARMHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks at the kitchen. Nothing. Murph comes in.
MURPH
What is it, Dad?
A small BANG from upstairs. Cooper heads up.
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
Murph’s bedroom clearly used to be her mother’s. Cooper, in the doorway, looks at the wall of BOOKS opposite - several GAPS. He looks down at some books on the floor.
MURPH
Nothing special about which books. (Off look.)
(MORE)
MURPH (cont’d)
Been working on it, like you said.
Murph holds up her notebook with its barcode.
MURPH
I counted the spaces.
COOPER
Why?
MURPH
In case the ghost’s trying to say something. I’m trying Morse.
COOPER
Morse?
MURPH
Yeah. Dots and dashes, used for -
COOPER
Murph, I know what Morse code is. I just don’t think your bookshelf’s trying to talk to you.
He leaves. Murph, embarrassed, turns back to the shelf.
INT. FRONT PORCH, FARMHOUSE - NIGHT
Donald hands Cooper a beer.
COOPER
Had to reset every compass clock and GPS to offset for the anomaly.
DONALD
Which is?
COOPER
No idea. If the house was built on magnetic ore, we’d’ve seen this the first time we switched on a tractor.
Donald nods. Sips.
DONALD
Sounds like your meeting at school didn’t go so well.
COOPER
(sighs)
We’ve forgotten who we are, Donald. Explorers, pioneers. Not caretakers.
Donald nods, thoughtful. Weighs up his words.
DONALD
When I was a kid it felt like they made something new every day. Some gadget or idea. Like every day was Christmas. But six billion people
... just try to imagine that. And every last one of them trying to have it all.
He turns to Cooper.
This world isn’t so bad. And Tom’ll do just fine - you’re the one who doesn’t belong. Born forty years too late, or forty years too early. My daughter knew it, God bless her. And your kids know it. ’Specially Murph.
COOPER
We used to look up and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.
DONALD
Cooper, you were good at something and you never got a chance to do anything with it. I’m sorry. But that’s not your kids’ fault.
Cooper looks up at the stars above.
OLD-TIMER (V.O.)
May 14th. Never forget. Clear as a bell. You’d never think ...
INSERT CUT: THE OLD-TIMER REMEMBERS. CUT TO A SECOND OLD-TIMER ...
SECOND OLD-TIMER
When the first of the real big ones rolled in ... I thought it was the end of the world.
EXT. BASEBALL FIELD - LATE AFTERNOON
The CRACK of ball off bat - a pop-fly caught to a trickle of applause. Half-filled stands at what looks like a minor league game.
DONALD
In my day we had real ball players. Who’re these bums?
As the team runs in from the field we see: NEW YORK YANKEES.
COOPER
Well, in my day people were too busy fighting over food for baseball, so consider this progress.
Murph offers Donald some popcorn.
DONALD
Fine. But popcorn at a ball game is unnatural. I want a hot dog.
MURPH
(confused) What’s a hot dog?
Cooper sits with Tom a row in front.
COOPER
The school says you’re gonna follow in my footsteps. I think that’s great.
TOM
You think that’s great?
MURPH
You hate farming, Dad. Grandpa said.
Cooper looks at Donald, who shrugs ’sorry’.
COOPER
What’s important is how you feel about it, Tom.
TOM
I like what you do. I like our farm.
On the field: the batter hits one along the ground - it rolls to an infielder’s foot - but the infielder IGNORES it, STARING up at the sky. The crowd starts to look up ...
OLD-TIMER (V.O.)
You’ve never seen the like. Black. Just black ...
INSERT CUT: THE OLD-TIMER CHOKES BACK FEAR AS HE REMEMBERS.
Cooper stares at the horizon, where an ENORMOUS BLACK DUST STORM IS MASSING. People start leaving, tying handkerchiefs across their faces.
COOPER
Come on, guys.
INT./EXT. PICKUP TRUCK - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper speeds along as Donald and the kids stuff RAGS into cracks and vents ... behind them the WALL OF BLACK DUST ADVANCES, SWALLOWING UP ROADS, BUILDINGS. A nasty SOUND is
developing - the truck ROCKING with GUSTS of wind ...
Suddenly, BLACK DUST ENVELOPS the car, LIGHTNING CRACKLING.
DONALD
It’s a bad one ...
COOPER
Mask up, guys.
Murph and Tom take SURGICAL MASKS out of the glove box.
EXT. FARMHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
VISIBILITY MERE FEET as the dust storm BRUTALIZES the farm. The truck CRAWLS up to the house. Cooper leans in to try and see better ... CRACK - a panel of sheet metal SMASHES into the windshield - Cooper turns - wrestles Murph out of the truck as Donald blindly stumbles towards the front door with Tom ...
INT. FARMHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
The SHUTTERS BANG as the wind WHIPS around the house, FORCING JETS OF DUST up through cracks in the window frames, floorboards ... Donald SLAMS the door. Murph is COUGHING ... Cooper looks around. Sees dust coming from upstairs.
COOPER
Did you both shut your windows?
Tom nods. Murph looks at Cooper. Runs for the stairs.
COOPER
Wait -
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
Cooper gets to the doorway. Murph stands in the middle of the room, STARING. Cooper SHUTS the window. The dust hangs in the relative quiet. Murph is staring, TRANSFIXED, at LINES where dust is FALLING UNNATURALLY FAST, STREAMING DOWN
through the air, collecting on the floor in a PATTERN -
MURPH
The Ghost.
Cooper STARES at dust collecting like snow on power lines...
COOPER
Grab your pillow, sleep in with Tom.
EXT. FARMHOUSE - DAWN - MORNING
Calm. Dust settled.
INT. TOM’S ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Murph slips out of bed, wrapped in her blanket. Pads down the hall, peeks in her bedroom door at -
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
Cooper sits, staring at the PATTERN of dust: thick radial lines, like a CIRCULAR BARCODE. Murph sits down next to her dad. They STARE at it together. He holds up a coin ...
COOPER
It’s not a ghost ...
Cooper tosses the coin across a line. It SHOOTS at the floor
-
It’s gravity.
INT. SAME - LATER
Donald pokes his head in.
DONALD
I’m dropping Tom, then heading to town ...
(Looks at dust pattern.)
You wanna clean that up when you’ve finished praying to it?
Cooper reaches for Murph’s notebook. Starts writing ...
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - LATER
Murph fills a glass of water. Picks up a plate of sandwiches.
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
Follow Murph into the room, to find Cooper standing there.
COOPER
I got something.
Cooper is pointing to the thick and thin radial lines - Binary. Thick is one, thin is zero
- it’s numbers ... number pairs...
He holds up the notebook to show Murph the number pairs.
Coordinates.
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper and Murph pore over MAPS. Cooper TOSSES one aside, lays it out on the table. Finds a spot. Looks up at Murph
...
EXT. FARMHOUSE - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper packing his truck - sleeping bag, flashlight ...
MURPH
You can’t leave me behind!
COOPER
Grandpa’s back in two hours.
MURPH
You don’t know what you’re going to find -
COOPER
That’s why I can’t take you.
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper grabs the maps and a bottle of water. He calls up -
COOPER
Nothing.
Murph?
Murph, just wait here for Grandpa. Tell him I’ll call him on the radio.
INT./EXT. PICKUP TRUCK ON ROAD - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper drives, map spread on the wheel, looks for a pen - reaches over to the passenger wheel well - lifts a BLANKET - Murph is there -
JESUS!
COOPER
The truck WOBBLES as Cooper regains control.
Murph, what are you doing?!
Murph is LAUGHING as she climbs into the passenger seat -
COOPER
It’s not funny -
But Murph’s laugh is infectious.
MURPH
You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me.
Cooper hands Murph the map.
COOPER
Fair enough. Make yourself useful...
The pickup cruises down the road, heading for the MOUNTAINS.
EXT. PLAINS APPROACHING MOUNTAINS - DUSK
The tiny pickup is dwarfed by the darkening foothills.
EXT. DIRT ROAD OFF MOUNTAIN PASS - NIGHT
Cooper pulls up to a gate in chain-link fence. Murph is asleep next to him.
COOPER
Murph. Murph.
Murph wakes.
I think this is as far as we get.
Murph glances out at the fence. Closes her eyes again.
MURPH
Why? You didn’t bring the bolt-cutters?
COOPER
I like your spirit, young lady.
Cooper gets out of the truck, retrieves his bolt-cutters and comes up to the fence. He looks up and down the road.
Nothing. He reaches out and puts the jaws of the cutters -
WHAM! SPOTLIGHTS IN COOPER’S EYES - A HARSH ELECTRIC VOICE -
VOICE
STEP AWAY FROM THE FENCE.
Cooper drops the cutters, puts his hands in the air -
COOPER
Don’t shoot! My child is in the car! I’m unarmed! My daughter is -
Murph watches, terrified as, with a ZAP, Cooper DROPS. Murph SCRAMBLES back along the seat as MASSIVE FOOTSTEPS APPROACH. The door is WRENCHED open - a BLINDING LIGHT
VOICE DON’T BE AFRAID.
Murph SCREAMS.
INT. BRIGHT, INDUSTRIAL ROOM - LATER
Cooper comes to, sitting in a chair. Opposite him is an ARTICULATED MACHINE. A VOICE emanates from its side.
MACHINE
How did you find this place?
COOPER
Where’s my daughter?
MACHINE
You had the coordinates for this facility marked on your map. Where did you get them?
Cooper leans in to the machine.
COOPER WHERE’S MY DAUGHTER?!
Cooper’s scream REVERBERATES. Cooper sizes up the machine.
You might think you’re still in the Marines, but the Marines don’t exist anymore, pal. I’ve got grunts like you mowing my grass ...
The Machine RISES to its full height.
MACHINE
How did you find us?
COOPER
But you don’t look like a lawnmower to me ... you, I’m gonna turn into an overqualified vacuum cleaner -
FEMALE VOICE (O.S.)
No, you’re not.
Cooper turns to see a businesslike woman in her thirties.
WOMAN
Tars, back down, please.
The machine, TARS, sinks back down.
COOPER
You’re taking a risk using
ex-military for security. They’re old, their control units are unpredictable ...
WOMAN
Well, that’s what the government could spare.
COOPER
Who are you?
WOMAN
Dr Brand.
COOPER
I knew a Dr Brand once. But he was a professor -
WOMAN (BRAND)
What makes you think I’m not?
COOPER
And nowhere near as cute.
BRAND
You think you can flirt your way out of this mess?
COOPER
(honest, scared)
Dr Brand, I have no idea what this mess is. I’m scared for my little girl and I want her by my side.
Then I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Okay?
Brand considers this. Turns to Tars.
BRAND
Get the principals and the girl into the conference room.
(To Cooper.)
Your daughter’s fine. Bright kid. (Rises.)
Must have a very smart mother.
INT. UNDERGROUND FACILITY - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper follows Brand into a corridor. Tars LURCHES behind.
COOPER
It’s pretty clear you don’t want visitors - why not let us back up from your fence and be on our way?
BRAND
It’s not that simple.
COOPER
Sure it is. I don’t know anything about you or this place.
BRAND
Yes, you do.
Brand ushers Cooper through a door into a conference room -
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Where an OLD MAN is crouched down, talking to Murph.
MURPH
Dad!
Murph runs into Cooper’s arms. The Old Man SMILES at Cooper.
OLD MAN
Hello, Cooper.
COOPER
(stunned) Professor Brand?
MAN AT TABLE (DOYLE)
Just take a seat, Mr Cooper.
Cooper and Murph sit at a table where five people are waiting - a bespectacled man, WILLIAMS, leans forward to address Cooper.
WILLIAMS
Explain how you found this facility.
COOPER
Stumbled across it. Looking for salvage and I saw the fence -
WILLIAMS
You’re sitting in the world’s best kept secret - you don’t stumble in. And you certainly don’t stumble out.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Cooper, please. Cooperate with these people.
Cooper looks nervously around the room.
COOPER
It’s hard to explain, but we learned these coordinates from an anomaly ...
DOYLE
What sort of anomaly?
COOPER
I don’t want to term it ’supernatural’ ... but ...
Cooper is losing them. Williams leans forward. Serious.
WILLIAMS
You’re going to have to, Mr Cooper. Real quick.
COOPER
After that last storm, it was a pattern ... in dust ...
MURPH
It was gravity.
All eyes turn to Murph. She’s said the magic word. Doyle looks at Professor Brand, excited. Turns to Cooper -
DOYLE
Where was this gravitational anomaly?
COOPER
Look, I’m happy you’re excited about gravity, but if you want more answers from us I’m gonna need assurances -
WILLIAMS
Assurances?
Cooper looks at Murph. Then covers Murph’s ears.
COOPER
That we’re getting out of here ... and not in the trunk of some car.
Brand laughs. Williams smiles. Cooper looks confused.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Don’t you know who we are, Coop?
COOPER
No. No, I don’t.
BRAND
(points around table) Williams, Doyle, Jenkins, Smith, you already know my father, Professor Brand. We’re NASA.
COOPER
NASA?
PROFESSOR BRAND
NASA. Same NASA you flew for.
Now Cooper is laughing, too. Murph looks around, confused.
INT. UNDERGROUND FACILITY - MOMENTS LATER
Professor Brand shows Cooper the facility.
COOPER
I heard you got shut down for refusing to drop bombs from the stratosphere onto starving people.
PROFESSOR BRAND
When they realized killing other people wasn’t a long term solution they needed us back. Set us up in the old NORAD facility. In secret.
COOPER
Why secret?
PROFESSOR BRAND
Public opinion won’t allow spending on space exploration. Not when we’re struggling to put food on the table.
Professor Brand ushers Cooper through a large door -
INT. GREENHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
Professor Brand gestures to large PLANTATIONS under glass.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Blight. Wheat seven years ago, okra this year. Now there’s just corn.
COOPER
But we’re growing more than ever -
PROFESSOR BRAND
Like the potatoes in Ireland, like the wheat in the dust bowl, the corn will die. Soon.
Brand enters with Murph. She shows her the greenhouses.
COOPER
We’ll find a way, we always have.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Driven by the unshakable faith that the Earth is ours.
COOPER
Not just ours, but it is our home.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Earth’s atmosphere is 80 percent nitrogen. We don’t even breathe nitrogen.
Professor Brand shows him a blighted stalk. Blight does. And as it thrives our air contains less and less oxygen
...
Professor Brand gestures over at Murph ... The last people to starve will be the first to suffocate. Your daughter’s generation will be the last to survive on Earth.
Cooper looks over at Murph. Then back to Professor Brand.
COOPER
Tell me this is where you explain how you’re going to save the world.
INT. VAST CIRCULAR CHAMBER (LAUNCH FACILITY) - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper and Professor Brand enter like ants in a grain silo. A ROCKET is on a pad, DWARFED by the circular chamber. Far above, a ring of mirrors reflects the dawn down into the facility.
PROFESSOR BRAND
We’re not meant to save the world
... we’re meant to leave it.
Cooper stares up at the rocket. He recognizes the arrangement of two CRAFT at the top.
COOPER
Rangers.
PROFESSOR BRAND
The last components of our one versatile ship in orbit, the Endurance. Our final expedition.
COOPER
What happened to the other vehicles?
PROFESSOR BRAND
The Lazarus missions.
COOPER
Sounds cheerful.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Lazarus came back from the dead -
COOPER
He had to die in the first place. You sent people out there looking for a new home ...
Professor Brand nods.
There’s no planet in our solar system that can support life ... and it’d take them a thousand years to reach the nearest star - that doesn’t even qualify as futile ... Where did you send them, Professor?
PROFESSOR BRAND
Cooper, I can’t tell you any more unless you agree to pilot this craft. You’re the best we ever had.
COOPER
I barely left the stratosphere.
PROFESSOR BRAND
This crew’s never left the simulator. We can’t program this mission from Earth, we don’t know what’s out there. We need a pilot. And this is the mission you were trained for.
COOPER
Without ever knowing. An hour ago, you didn’t even know I was still alive. And you were going anyway.
PROFESSOR BRAND
We had no choice. But something brought you here. They chose you.
COOPER
Who’s ’they’?
Professor Brand is silent. Cooper wrestles.
How long would I be gone?
PROFESSOR BRAND
Hard to know. Years.
COOPER
I’ve got my kids, Professor.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Get out there and save them.
Cooper considers this. Decides.
COOPER
Who’s ’they’?
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER
A man in his forties has the solar system up on the screen. This is ROMILLY.
ROMILLY
We started detecting gravitational anomalies almost fifty years ago. Mostly small distortions to our instruments in the upper atmosphere
- I believe you encountered one yourself ...
COOPER
(realizing)
Over the Straights - my crash - something tripped my fly-by wire -
ROMILLY
Exactly. But the most significant anomaly was this ...
Cooper stares at an image of Saturn and its moons. Romilly zooms in on some stars DISTORTED like ripples in a pond.
ROMILLY
A disturbance of spacetime out near Saturn.
COOPER
A wormhole?
ROMILLY
It appeared forty-eight years ago.
COOPER
Where does it lead?
PROFESSOR BRAND
Another galaxy.
COOPER
A wormhole isn’t a naturally occurring phenomenon.
BRAND
Someone placed it there.
COOPER
’They’.
BRAND
And whoever ’They’ are, they appear to be looking out for us - that wormhole lets us travel to other stars. It came along right as we needed it.
DOYLE
They’ve put potentially habitable worlds within our reach. Twelve, in fact from our initial probes.
COOPER
You sent probes into it?
PROFESSOR BRAND
We sent people into it. Ten years ago.
COOPER
The Lazarus missions.
Professor Brand rises and moves to a MEMORIAL, pointing -
PROFESSOR BRAND
Twelve possible worlds. Twelve Ranger launches carrying the bravest humans ever to live, led by the remarkable Dr Mann.
DOYLE
Each person’s landing pod had life support for two years - but they could use hibernation to stretch that, making observations on organics over a decade or more.
Their mission was to assess their world, and if it showed promise, send a signal, bed down for the long nap, and wait to be rescued.
COOPER
And if their world didn’t show promise?
DOYLE
Hence the bravery.
COOPER
Because you don’t have resources to visit all twelve.
DOYLE
No. Data transmission back through the wormhole is rudimentary, simple binary ’pings’ on an annual basis to give some clue as to which worlds have potential. One system shows promise.
COOPER
One? Kind of a long shot.
BRAND
One system with three potential worlds ... no long shot.
COOPER
So if we find a new home, what then?
PROFESSOR BRAND
That’s the long shot. There’s Plan A and there’s Plan B. Did you notice anything strange about the launch chamber ...
INT. LAUNCH FACILITY - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper cocks his head, puzzling at the VAST chamber ... there are structures built SIDEWAYS around the CURVED walls...
COOPER
This whole facility ... it’s a vehicle? A space station?
PROFESSOR BRAND
Both. We’ve been working on it, and others like it for twenty-five years. Plan A.
COOPER
How does it get off the Earth?
PROFESSOR BRAND
Those first gravitational anomalies changed everything - suddenly we knew that harnessing gravity was real. So I started working on the theory - and we start building this station.
COOPER
But you haven’t solved it, yet.
PROFESSOR BRAND
That’s why there’s a Plan B.
INT. LABORATORY - MOMENTS LATER
TECHNICIANS work the complex, high-tech lab. Professor Brand and Cooper follow Brand to a large glass and steel apparatus.
BRAND
The problem is gravity. How to get a viable amount of human life off
(MORE)
BRAND (cont’d)
this planet. This is one way - Plan
B. A population bomb. Almost five thousand fertilized eggs, weighing in at under 900 kilos.
COOPER
How could you raise them?
BRAND
With equipment on board we incubate the first ten. After that, with surrogacy, the growth becomes exponential - within thirty years we might have a colony of hundreds. The real difficulty of colonization is genetic diversity,
(Indicates vials.) This takes care of that.
Cooper looks at the equipment. Unenthusiastic.
COOPER
We just give up on the people here?
PROFESSOR BRAND
That’s why Plan A’s a lot more fun.
INT. PROFESSOR BRAND’S OFFICE
Professor Brand watches Cooper as he gazes over the vast tracts of ALGEBRA covering every available surface.
COOPER
Where have you got to?
PROFESSOR BRAND
Almost there.
COOPER
Almost? You’re asking me to hang everything on an ’almost’?
Professor Brand moves close to Cooper.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I’m asking you to trust me.
Cooper looks at the passion in Professor Brand’s eyes.
COOPER
All those years of training - you never told me.
PROFESSOR BRAND
We can’t always be open about everything, Coop, even if we want to be. What can you tell your children about this mission?
Cooper considers this. Uneasy.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Find us a new home. When you return, I’ll have solved the problem of gravity. You have my word.
EXT. FARMHOUSE - LATE DAY
Donald, on the porch, gets to his feet as he sees Cooper’s pickup approaching. The truck pulls up. Murph TEARS past Grandpa into the house - Donald looks at Cooper, questioning.
INT. HALL OUTSIDE MURPH’S ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Cooper tries to open the door, but Murph has stacked a desk and chair against it -
COOPER
Murph?
MURPH
Go! If you’re leaving, just go!
EXT. PORCH - NIGHT
Donald looks out at the night, taking it all in.
DONALD
This world never was enough for you, was it, Coop?
COOPER
I’m not gonna lie to you, Donald - heading out there is what I feel born to do and it excites me. That doesn’t make it wrong.
Donald considers this. Turns to Cooper.
DONALD
It might. Don’t trust the right thing done for the wrong reason. The ’why’ of a thing? That’s the foundation.
COOPER
(sadly)
Well, the foundation’s solid. (Gestures at landscape.)
We farmers sit here every year when the rains fail and say ’next year’. Next year ain’t gonna save us. Nor the one after. This world’s a treasure, Donald. But she’s been telling us to leave for a while now.
(Stares at the horizon.) Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.
Donald considers this. Scoops the dust off the rail.
DONALD
Tom’ll be okay. But you have to make it right with Murph.
COOPER
I will.
DONALD
Without making any promises you don’t know you can keep.
Cooper meets Donald’s gaze. Looks away, nodding.
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - MORNING
Cooper’s hand, reaching in, removes the chair from the desk, barricading the door. Murph is lying on the bed, turned away. Cooper pushes the desk back gently. Enters, quietly.
COOPER
You have to talk to me.
Nothing.
I have to fix this before I go.
Murph turns, tear-stained, angry cheeks blazing -
MURPH
Then I’ll keep it broken so you have to stay.
Cooper sits down on the bed next to Murph.
COOPER
After you kids came along, your mother said something I didn’t really understand - she said, ’I look at the babies and I see myself as they’ll remember me.’ She said, ’It’s as if we don’t exist anymore, like we’re ghosts, like now we’re just there to be memories for our kids.’ Now I realize - once we’re parents, we’re just the ghosts of our childrens’ futures.
MURPH
You said ghosts don’t exist.
COOPER
That’s right. I can’t be your ghost right now - I need to exist.
Because they chose me. They chose me, Murph. You saw it. Murph sits up.
Points at the shelves. The gaps.
MURPH
I figured out the message ... (Opens her notebook.)
It was Morse code ...
COOPER
Murph -
MURPH
One word. You know what it is?
Cooper shakes his head sadly. Murph holds out her notebook - ’STAY’. It says ’STAY’, Dad.
COOPER
Oh, Murph.
MURPH
You don’t believe me?! Look the books! Look at -
Cooper takes his daughter in his arms ...
COOPER
It’s okay, it’s okay ...
Murph buries her head on Cooper’s shoulder, sobbing.
Murph, a father looks in his child’s eyes and thinks - maybe it’s them ... maybe my child will save the world. And everyone, once a child, wants to look into their own dad’s eyes and know he saw how they saved some little corner of their world. But, usually, by then, the father is gone.
MURPH
Like you will be.
Cooper looks at his daughter. Lies with head, not heart:
COOPER
No. I’m coming back.
MURPH
When?
Cooper reaches into his pocket. Pulls out two WATCHES.
COOPER
One for you. One for me.
Murph takes the watch, curious. Cooper holds up his watch.
When I’m in hyper-sleep, or travel near the speed of light, or near a black hole, time will change for me. It’ll run more slowly. When I get back we’ll compare.
MURPH
Time will run differently for us?
COOPER
Yup. By the time I get back we might even be the same age. You and me. Imagine that ...
Murph takes this in. Cooper sees he’s made a mistake.
Wait, Murph -
MURPH
You have no idea when you’re coming back.
Cooper looks at his daughter.
MURPH
No idea at all!
Murph THROWS the watch - TURNS HER BACK.
COOPER
Don’t make me leave like this.
Nothing.
Please. I have to go now.
Murph will not turn around. Cooper tries to rest his hand on the back of her head, but she shakes it off.
COOPER
I love you, Murph. Forever. And I’m coming back.
Cooper walks slowly out. A BOOK DROPS FROM THE SHELF. Cooper turns to look at it. Then leaves.
EXT. FARMHOUSE - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper, mechanical, puts his small bag in the truck.
DONALD
How’d it go?
COOPER
Fine. It was fine.
Cooper turns to Tom. Hugs him. Tight enough for both kids.
I love you, Tom.
TOM
Travel safe, Dad.
COOPER
(indicates farm)
Look after our place, you hear?
TOM
Can I use your truck while you’re gone?
COOPER
(smiles)
I’ll make sure they bring it back for you.
Cooper gets in. Starts the engine.
Mind my kids for me, Donald.
Donald nods. Cooper pulls out.
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
Murph jumps off the bed, GRABS the watch, RUNS downstairs.
INT. PICKUP TRUCK - CONTINUOUS
As Cooper drives he lifts the blanket in the wheel-well where Murph hid last time. Nothing. And we hear a COUNTDOWN...
VOICE (O.S.)
TEN ... NINE ...
EXT. FARMHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
Murph RACES out of the house, watch in hand - MURPH
Dad?! DAD?!
VOICE (V.O.)
EIGHT ... SEVEN ...
But Cooper is a dust trail far down the road.
VOICE (O.S.)
SIX ... FIVE ...
Murph SOBS as her grandpa puts his arms around her ...
INT./EXT. PICKUP TRUCK ON DUSTY PLAIN - CONTINUOUS
As Cooper drives away tears roll down his cheeks
VOICE (O.S.)
FOUR ... THREE ... TWO ... ONE ...
INT. LAUNCH FACILITY - DAY
VOICE (O.S.)
IGNITION.
FIRE SHOOTS FROM THE BASE OF THE ROCKET ... The rocket RISES
slowly from the pad, up into the sky ...
INT. RANGER COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper, in his space helmet, lets the FORCE of the rocket vibrate through him ...
VOICE (O.S.)
Stage one ... SEPARATION.
Cooper starts to see the Earth’s curve through the window...
VOICE (O.S.)
Stage two ... SEPARATION.
And Cooper shakes loose the bonds of Earth.
EXT. UPPER ATMOSPHERE - CONTINUOUS
The rocket RIPS upwards into the sky. INT. RANGER COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper glances around the vibrating, cramped cockpit - Brand, Doyle, Romilly, Tars. Tars spots Cooper’s glance -
TARS
All here, Mr Cooper. Plenty of slaves for my robot colony.
Cooper looks at him, confused.
DOYLE
They gave him a humor setting so he’d fit in with his unit better. He thinks it relaxes us.
COOPER
A massive, sarcastic robot. What a great idea.
TARS
I have a cue light I can turn on when I’m joking, if you like.
COOPER
Probably help.
TARS
You can use it to find your way back to the ship after I blow you out the airlock.
Tars looks at Cooper. A beat. An LED turns on. Cooper shakes his head.
COOPER
What’s your humor setting, Tars?
TARS
One hundred percent.
Cooper turns to the instruments -
COOPER
Take it to seventy-five, please.
EARTH ORBIT - CONTINUOUS
The Rangers streak across the Earth, settle into a low orbit.
INT. RANGER COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
Quiet. Cooper stares down at the continents sliding by. He looks over at Brand who is doing the same, abstracted.
COOPER
We’ll get back.
She stares at the land. The oceans.
It’s hard. Leaving everything. My kids ... your father ...
BRAND
We’re going to spend a lot of time together ...
COOPER
(nods)
We should learn to talk.
BRAND
And when not to.
(Off look.)
Just trying to be honest.
COOPER
Maybe you don’t need to be that honest.
(Turns to Tars.) Tars, what’s your honesty parameter?
Tars DISENGAGES from the floor and MOVES to the rear airlock
-
TARS
Ninety percent.
COOPER
Ninety? What kind of robot are you?
TARS
Absolute honesty isn’t always the most diplomatic, or safe form of communication with emotional beings.
Cooper turns to Brand. Shrugs.
COOPER
Ninety percent honesty it is, then.
Brand looks at Cooper. Can’t help smiling.
VOICE
(over radio) Sixty seconds out...
EXT. EARTH ORBIT - CONTINUOUS
The Rangers approach a RING MODULE, fire retro-thrusters and slide gracefully into the center of the ring - the last piece of a large modular craft: the U.S.S. ENDURANCE. Four LANDERS (including the Rangers) are nestled inside the ring module.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - MOMENTS LATER
Brand, Doyle and Romilly, following Tars, FLOAT through the cramped cabins, powering up. Tars powers up a second articulated machine, CASE.
DOYLE
Cooper, you should have control.
INT. COCKPIT, ENDURANCE (RANGER) - CONTINUOUS
Cooper checks instruments -
COOPER
Talking fine. Ready to spin?
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Doyle and Romilly are strapped in - Brand grabs a handhold -
INT. COCKPIT, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
BRAND
(over radio) All set.
Cooper hits a switch ...
EXT. EARTH ORBIT - CONTINUOUS
Thrusters silently fire on the Endurance. It starts ROTATING.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The crew members settle in as gravity is established. Romilly is clearly struggling to find his sea legs in the rotating ship.
BRAND
You okay there?
ROMILLY
Yup. Just need a little time -
BRAND
There should be Dramamine in the hab pod.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - LATER
The crew listen to Professor Brand over the video link - PROFESSOR BRAND
(on screen)
I miss you already. Amelia, be safe. Give my regards to Dr Mann.
BRAND
I will, Dad.
PROFESSOR BRAND
(on screen)
Things look good for your trajectory. We’re calculating two years to Saturn.
ROMILLY
That’s a lot of Dramamine ...
Cooper thinks about two years. What it means to his kids.
COOPER
(on screen)
Keep an eye on my family, sir. Specially Murph. She’s a smart one.
PROFESSOR BRAND
(on screen)
We’ll be waiting when you get back
...
INT. COCKPIT, ENDURANCE - LATER
Cooper and Doyle flick switches and check instruments - PROFESSOR BRAND
(V.O.)
... A little older. A little wiser. But happy to see you ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand, Romilly, Tars and Case strap in.
PROFESSOR BRAND (V.O.)
’Do not go gentle into that good night ...’
INT. COCKPIT, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Cooper turns to Doyle. HITS the thrusters.
EXT. EARTH ORBIT - CONTINUOUS
Endurance’s main engines FIRE. The craft PUSHES out of orbit
-
PROFESSOR BRAND (V.O.)
’Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ God speed, Endurance.
The craft accelerates away from Earth.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - DAY
The crew sets up their CRYO-BEDS. Cooper looks out at the diminishing Earth floating in the void. Brand joins him.
COOPER
So alone.
BRAND
We’ve got each other - Dr Mann had it worse.
COOPER
(points at Earth)
I meant them. Look at that perfect planet. We’re not gonna find another one like her.
BRAND
No. This isn’t like looking for a new condo - the human race is going to be adrift ... desperate for a rock to cling to while they catch their breaths. We have to find that rock. Our three prospects are at the edge of what might sustain human life.
Brand shows him a blurry image of a dark blue planet.
Laura Miller’s first. She started our biology program.
She shows him a red world, just a tiny dot.
And Wolf Edmunds is here.
Cooper hears something in her voice.
COOPER
Who’s Edmunds?
BRAND
(fondly)
Wolf’s a particle physicist.
COOPER
None of them had family?
BRAND
No attachments. My father insisted. They knew the odds against ever seeing another human being. I’m hoping we surprise at least three of them.
COOPER
Tell me about Dr Mann.
Brand replaces the screen image for a grainy, white orb.
BRAND
Remarkable. The best of us. My father’s protégé. He inspired eleven people to follow him on the loneliest journey in human history. Scientists, explorers ... That’s what I love - out there we face great odds. Death. But not evil.
COOPER
Nature can’t be evil?
BRAND
Formidable, frightening - not evil. Is a tiger evil because it rips a gazelle to pieces?
COOPER
Just what we bring with us, then.
BRAND
This crew represents the best aspects of humanity.
COOPER
Even me?
Brand looks at him. Smiles.
BRAND
Hey, we agreed, ninety percent.
Brand moves to her cryo-bed. Cooper looks out at space.
BRAND
Don’t stay up too late. We can’t spare the resources.
COOPER
Hey, I’ve been waiting a long time to be up here -
BRAND
You are literally wasting your breath.
Cooper nods at her. Joins Tars.
COOPER
Show me the trajectory again.
TARS
Eight months to Mars, then
counter-orbital slingshot around -
Brand’s cryo-bed darkens.
COOPER
(whisper) Tars? Was Dr Brand -
TARS
Why are you whispering? You can’t wake them.
COOPER
Were Dr Brand and Edmunds ... close?
TARS
I wouldn’t know.
COOPER
Is that ninety percent, or ten percent ’wouldn’t know’?
TARS
I also have a discretion setting.
COOPER
So I gather ...
(Rises.)
(MORE)
COOPER (cont’d) But not a poker face.
Tars watches Cooper head for the comm. station. He sits down to record a message. Awkward. Stuck. He dives in -
Hey, guys. I’m about settle down for the long nap, so I figured I’d send you an update ...
EXT. OUTER SPACE - CONTINUOUS
The Endurance slips away from the small blue planet ...
COOPER (V.O.)
The Earth looks amazing from here
... you can’t see any of the dust -
EXT. CORNFIELDS - DAY
A line of dust slides across the shimmering horizon.
COOPER (V.O.)
Hope you guys are doing great. This should get to you okay ...
EXT. FRONT PORCH, FARMHOUSE - DAY
Donald watches two approaching vehicles kick up dust.
COOPER (V.O.)
Professor Brand said he’d make sure of it. Guess I’ll say good night.
Donald recognizes Cooper’s truck ... Murph BURSTS out of the house -
MURPH
(quiet) Is it him?
DONALD
I don’t think so, Murph.
Donald rises to meet the truck. Professor Brand gets out.
PROFESSOR BRAND
You must be Donald. Hello, Murph.
MURPH
Why’re you in my dad’s truck?
PROFESSOR BRAND
He wanted me to bring it for your brother.
Silence. Professor Brand reaches into his briefcase.
He sent you a message -
Murph TURNS and goes back into the house. Donald takes a disc from Professor Brand.
DONALD
Pretty upset with him for leaving.
PROFESSOR BRAND
If you record messages, I’ll transmit them to Cooper.
Donald nods. Professor Brand looks up at the house.
Murph’s a bright spark. Maybe I could fan the flame.
DONALD
She’s already making fools of her teachers. She should come make a fool out of you.
Professor Brand smiles. Donald looks up into the blue.
Where are they?
PROFESSOR BRAND
Heading towards Mars ...
EXT. MARS - DAY
The Endurance streaks away from Mars ...
PROFESSOR BRAND (V.O.)
Next time we hear from Cooper, they’ll be coming up on Saturn.
EXT. SATURN - DAY
The Endurance settles into an orbit around the ringed giant.
TOM (O.S.)
But they said I can start advanced agriculture a year early ...
INT. COMMUNICATIONS BOOTH, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Cooper, blanket around his shoulders, watches a highly compressed video of Tom -
TOM
Got to go, Dad. Hope you’re safe up there.
Tom makes way for Donald:
DONALD
I’m sorry, Coop, I asked Murph to say hi, but she’s stubborn as her old man. I’ll try again next time, stay safe.
The video cuts out. Cooper gets up, puts a pair of EAR BUDS in his ears and heads into -
OMITTED
INT. HAB POD, RING MODULE - LATER
Cooper enters. Romilly is staring out the window.
COOPER
You good, Rom?
Romilly looks at Cooper.
ROMILLY
It gets to me, Coop. This tin can. Radiation, vacuum outside - everything wants us dead. We’re just not supposed to be here.
Cooper looks at him, sympathetic.
COOPER
We’re explorers, Rom, on the greatest ocean of all.
Romilly bangs on the side of the ship.
ROMILLY
Millimeters of aluminium. That’s it. And nothing within millions of miles that won’t kill us in seconds.
COOPER
A lot of the finest solo yachtsmen couldn’t swim. They knew if they went overboard that was it, anyway. This is no different.
Romilly considers this. Cooper passes him his ear buds -
COOPER
Here -
And the sounds of a THUNDERSTORM wash over Romilly, sounds that take us to ...
EXT. SPACE - CONTINUOUS
The Endurance is a tiny speck before the ringed gassy giant.
INT. NAVIGATION, RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks over Doyle’s shoulder - he’s flicking through images of star fields, distorted as if through a fish-eye lens.
COOPER
From the relay probe?
DOYLE
It was in orbit around the wormhole
- each time it swung around we got images of the other side of the foreign galaxy.
COOPER
Like swinging a periscope around?
DOYLE
Exactly.
COOPER
So we’ve got a pretty good idea what we’re gonna find on the other side?
DOYLE
Navigationally.
Brand approaches.
BRAND
We’ll be coming up on the wormhole in less than forty-five. Suit up.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - LATER
Cooper straps in, peering out at the inky blackness past Saturn. Romilly joins him there, excited.
COOPER
(over radio)
Strap in - I’m killing the spin ...
EXT. SATURN - CONTINUOUS
As the Endurance streaks past Saturn, it stops rotating, headed for a DISTORTED BLUR of stars.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
ROMILLY
There!
He points at the SPHERICAL blur of stars.
ROMILLY
That’s it! That’s the wormhole!
COOPER
Say it, don’t spray it, Rom.
ROMILLY
Cooper, this is a portal, cutting through spacetime -
(Points.)
We’re seeing into the heart of a galaxy so far away we don’t even know where it is in the universe.
Cooper stares at the wormhole as they approach: a massive spherical lens into another galaxy.
COOPER
It’s a sphere.
ROMILLY
Of course it is. You thought it would be just a hole?
COOPER
No ... well, in all the illustrations -
Romilly grabs a piece of paper, draws two points, far apart
-
ROMILLY
In the illustrations they’re trying to show you how it works -
He pokes a hole in one point with his pen ... So they say ’You wanna go from here to there but it’s too far? A wormhole bends space like this ...’
He folds the paper over and jams the pen through the second point, connecting them.
ROMILLY
’So you can take a shortcut across a higher dimension.’ But to show that, they’ve turned
three-dimensional space ... (Gestures around.)
Into two dimensions. (Hold up paper.)
Which turns the wormhole into two dimensions ... a circle.
(Indicates hole in paper.) But what’s a circle in three dimensions?
COOPER
A sphere.
ROMILLY
Exactly.
(Points out window.) It’s a spherical hole ...
Cooper marvels at the concept. And at the looming sphere ...
And who put it here? Who do we thank?
COOPER
I’m not thanking anyone till we get through it in one piece.
OMITTED
EXT. WORMHOLE - CONTINUOUS
As the Endurance SWINGS around the wormhole, the view of the foreign galaxy SWINGS in opposition, like an ENORMOUS SHAVING MIRROR ... it’s extremely disorienting.
The Endurance fires retro-thrusters to slow, descending towards the wormhole ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper is at the controls. Doyle is next to him.
COOPER
Any trick to this?
DOYLE
No one knows.
COOPER
(glances at Doyle)
But the others made it, right?
DOYLE
At least some of them.
COOPER
Thanks for the confidence boost.
Cooper stares down into the vast lens of the wormhole.
Everybody ready to say goodbye to our solar system?
ROMILLY
(over radio) To our galaxy ...
Cooper pushes the sticks forward, nosing down and letting gravity PULL them towards the center of the wormhole ...
EXT. WORMHOLE - CONTINUOUS
The Endurance reaches the surface of the wormhole. As it crosses the threshold it becomes apparent that THERE IS NO SURFACE ... the craft simply passes into the space of the distortion, its own warped reflection flickering towards it as if the ship were leaning into a giant shaving mirror ...
INT. COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper and Doyle stare at the distortion of space ahead ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand and Romilly look out at reflections bordering the bulk
- a space beyond our three dimensions ...
EXT. WORMHOLE - CONTINUOUS
The Endurance moves through a TUNNEL OF DISTORTED REFLECTIONS, seeming to gather more and more dizzying speed, but getting no closer to the far mouth, as if on an accelerating treadmill -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper, awestruck, checks his instruments -
DOYLE
They won’t help you in here. We’re cutting through the bulk - space beyond our three dimensions ...
(Checks his equipment.) All we can do is record and observe.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand JUMPS - a shape in the air in front of her is BENDING, warping to form ripples in spacetime inside the cabin - Romilly STARES at the distortion -
ROMILLY
What is that?!
Brand watches the distortion move towards her -
BRAND
I think - I think it’s them.
ROMILLY
Distorting spacetime? Don’t -!
Brand is reaching out towards the warped space - it MOVES towards her, DISTORTING her hand - but Brand is not in pain
...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper and Doyle watch the tunnel mouth STREAK towards them, a mass of stars and nebulae GROWING ...
EXT. FAR SIDE OF THE WORMHOLE - CONTINUOUS
The Endurance slides out of the wormhole.
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Suddenly, the instruments are chirping -
DOYLE
We’re ... here.
Cooper and Doyle look out at the new galaxy ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand’s hand is back to normal. She stares at her fingers.
ROMILLY
What was that?
Brand flexes her fingers, delighted.
BRAND
The first handshake.
EXT. FAR SIDE OF THE WORMHOLE - CONTINUOUS
The cosmos is more CROWDED here - STAR upon STAR, NEBULAE
...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - LATER
Doyle calls up data on a workstation -
DOYLE
The lost communications came through -
How?
BRAND
DOYLE
The relay on this side cached them.
Doyle flicks through data -
Years of basic data - no real surprises. Miller’s site has kept pinging thumbs up, as has Mann ... but Edmunds went down, three years ago.
BRAND
Transmitter failure?
DOYLE
Maybe. He was sending the thumbs up right till it went dark.
ROMILLY
Miller still looks good?
Doyle nods. Romilly is drawing on a whiteboard - She’s coming up fast ... with one complication - the planet is much closer to Gargantua than we
thought.
COOPER
Gargantua?
DOYLE
A very large black hole. Miller’s and Dr Mann’s planets orbit it.
BRAND
And Miller’s is on the horizon?
ROMILLY
A basketball around the hoop. Landing there takes us dangerously close. A black hole that big has a huge gravitational pull.
Cooper glances around the concerned faces -
COOPER
Look, I can swing around that neutron star to decelerate -
BRAND
It’s not that, it’s time. That gravity will slow our clock compared to Earth’s. Drastically.
COOPER
How bad?
ROMILLY
Every hour we spend on that planet will be maybe ... seven years back on Earth.
COOPER
Jesus -
ROMILLY
That’s relativity, folks.
COOPER
We can’t drop down there without considering the consequences.
DOYLE
Cooper, we have a mission - COOPER That’s easy for you to say - you don’t have anyone back on Earth waiting for you, do you?
DOYLE
You have no idea what’s easy for me.
BRAND
Cooper’s right. We have to think of time as a resource, just like oxygen and food. Going down there is going to cost us.
Doyle steps up to the screen, points out three planets.
DOYLE
Look, Dr Mann’s data is promising, but we won’t get there for months. Edmunds is even further. Miller hasn’t sent much, but what she has sent is promising - water, organics
...
BRAND
You don’t find that every day. DOYLE No, you do not. So think about the resources it would take to come back here ...
They look at each other, considering. Cooper turns to Romilly -
COOPER
How far off the planet do we have to stay to be out of the time shift?
Romilly indicates a spot on his white board.
ROMILLY
Just back from the cusp.
COOPER
So we track a wider orbit of Gargantua, parallel with Miller’s planet but a little further out ... take a Ranger down, grab Miller and her samples, debrief and analyze back here
BRAND
That’ll work.
COOPER
No time for monkey business down there - Tars, you’d better wait up here. Who else?
ROMILLY
If we’re talking about a couple years - I’d use that time to work on gravity - observations from the wormhole. That’s gold to Professor Brand.
COOPER
Okay. Tars, factor an orbit of Gargantua - minimal thrusting - conserve fuel - but stay in range.
TARS
Don’t worry, I wouldn’t leave you behind ...
(Swivels around.) Dr Brand.
She smiles at him.
EXT. BLACK HOLE, GARGANTUA - DAY
A black sphere sucking light from the cosmos, visible by its distorting effect on the light of stars behind it - squeezed into a GLOWING, CURVED HORIZON. The Endurance approaches.
INT. RANGER COCKPIT - DAY
Cooper looks out at Gargantua. Doyle peers over his shoulder
DOYLE
A literal heart of darkness ...
Brand points to a small glowing planet nearer the blackness.
BRAND
There’s Miller’s planet.
Cooper turns to Case, the machine riding shotgun.
COOPER
Ready? Yup.
CASE COOPER
Don’t say much, do you?
CASE
Tars talks plenty for both of us.
Cooper chuckles as he throws a final switch - COOPER
Detach -
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger DETACHES from the ring module, like an X-1 from a B-29, FIRES retro-thrusters to slow and ... DROPS -
EXT. THE BLACK HOLE, GARGANTUA - DAY
The Ranger SHOOTS down towards Gargantua -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper is in awe at their acceleration -
COOPER
(into radio)
Romilly, you reading these forces?
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Romilly studies data, marveling.
ROMILLY
Unbelievable.
(Looks out at Gargantua.)
If we could see the collapsed star inside, the singularity, we’d solve gravity.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks down at the eerie blackness sliding beneath -
COOPER
No way to get anything from it?
ROMILLY
(over radio)
Nothing escapes that horizon. Not even light. The answer’s there, just no way to see it.
EXT. GARGANTUA - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger looks tiny as it STREAKS over the blackness, high above the GLOWING HORIZON. It is approaching Miller’s planet, a gleaming dark-blue world ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper studies his trajectory.
CASE
This is fast for atmospheric entry. Should we use the thrusters to slow?
COOPER
We’re gonna use the Ranger’s aerodynamics to save the fuel.
CASE
Air brake?
COOPER
Wanna get in fast, don’t we?
CASE
Brand, Doyle, get ready.
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger STREAKS down towards the planet. It starts to encounter the STRATOSPHERE -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
The craft starts to HOWL and SHAKE. Cooper studies the curving horizon, concentrating -
CASE
We should ease -
COOPER
Hands where I can see them, Case! Only time I ever went down was a machine easing at the wrong moment
-
CASE
A little caution -
COOPER
Can get you killed, same as reckless.
DOYLE
Cooper! Too damn fast!
COOPER
I got this.
Cooper squeezes the shaking controls with white knuckles -
CASE
Should I disable the feedback?
COOPER
No! No, I need to feel the air ...
EXT. STRATOSPHERE, MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger glows WHITE HOT, slicing through FLAT CLOUDS -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper peers out at the razor-like layers of cloud -
COOPER
Do we have a fix on the beacon?
CASE
Got it. Can you maneuver?
COOPER
Gotta shave more speed. I’ll try and spiral down on it -
Doyle looks at Brand, nervous. She takes a breath.
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger CUTS through cloud formations, BURSTING out into CLEARER AIR, HIGH ABOVE AN ENDLESS OCEAN -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
The crew peer at SPARKLING WATER, streaking below them -
DOYLE
Just water.
BRAND
The stuff of life ...
CASE
Twelve hundred meters out.
Cooper BANKS sharply, eases down.
BRAND
It’s shallow. Feet deep ...
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger is low now, kicking up backwash -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
CASE
Seven hundred meters ...
Cooper peers ahead -
COOPER
Wait for it ...
CASE
Five hundred meters ...
Cooper YANKS the stick -
COOPER
Fire!
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger’s retro-rockets FIRE - killing the craft’s speed just feet from the surface. Water SPRAYS UP as the Ranger SLEWS diagonally, gear is lowered, the Ranger drops, its landing gear holding it just above the shallow water.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Everyone BOUNCES with the impact. Then BREATHES.
BRAND
Very graceful.
COOPER
No. But it was very efficient. (Looks at them.)
What’re you waiting for? Go!
Brand and Doyle hurry out of their harnesses, helmets on. Case moves to the hatch. With a CRACK, the hatch opens and LIGHT and SPRAY whip inside ...
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - MOMENTS LATER (DAY)
Case climbs quickly from the craft, knee deep in the water. Brand and Doyle follow. Case TRACKS the beacon.
CASE
This way, about two hundred meters.
Brand and Doyle peer into the distance. Smooth, ankle-deep water to the horizon, where a distant MOUNTAIN RANGE LOOMS. They start splashing towards it in their heavy spacesuits
...
DOYLE
(panting)
The gravity’s punishing ...
BRAND
Floating through space too long?
CASE
One hundred and thirty percent Earth gravity.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper listens to their chatter, IMPATIENT.
COOPER
(under his breath) Come on ...
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Doyle falls behind. Brand pushes on. Ahead, Case stops.
CASE
Should be here.
Brand joins him, searching the shallows for some sign of Miller’s mission. She looks up, confused.
BRAND
If the signal’s coming from here -
Case DROPS to his knees THRASHING under the water, like a bear fishing. Doyle arrives -
DOYLE
What’s he doing?
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper notices something. In the distance. The mountains -
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Case WRENCHES a piece of DAMAGED EQUIPMENT from the sea bed.
BRAND
Her beacon ...
Case starts lugging the beacon to the Ranger.
DOYLE
Wreckage. Where’s the rest ...?
BRAND
Towards the mountains!
She starts moving fast towards some FLOATING OBJECTS.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper is staring out at the horizon -
COOPER
Those aren’t mountains ...
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Brand pauses -
COOPER
(over radio) They’re waves -
Brand looks closer - the ’mountains’ are moving, tiny lines of white sea spray are blowing from the tops ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks the other direction ... there is a MOUNTAIN WAVE BEARING DOWN ON THE SHIP ...
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Brand is searching the wreckage -.
COOPER
(over radio) Brand, get back here!
BRAND
We need the recorder -
Doyle looks from Brand to Case, who is loading the beacon. Beyond him Doyle sees the mountain wave approaching -
DOYLE
Case, go get her!
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper hits the dash, frustrated.
COOPER
Dammit! Brand, get back here!
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Brand sloshes along, checking DEBRIS -
BRAND
We can’t leave without her data -
COOPER
(over radio) You don’t have time!
Case is back at Doyle.
DOYLE
Go, go!
Case takes off towards Brand, who is trying to lift a piece of equipment from the water. She drops it and moves on -
EXT. RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper swings open the hatch, stands in the doorway, peering out at the approaching mountain waves - turns back to Brand
-
COOPER
Get back here! Now!
Brand has pulled something heavy from the wreckage - she SLIPS, the wreckage PINNING her down ... She looks back at the Ranger - sees the mountain wave THOUSANDS OF FEET HIGH ALMOST UPON THEM -
BRAND
Cooper, go! Go! I can’t make it!
Cooper looks at Case RACING towards her -
COOPER
Get up, Brand!
BRAND
GO! GET OUT OF HERE!
Case THROWS her onto his back and starts running. Doyle stands, mesmerized by the sheer liquid mountain face ...
COOPER
Doyle! Come on! Case has her!
Doyle turns, starts sloshing back, the water RUNNING against his ankles now ... Two hundred yards behind, Case POUNDS through the shallows, Brand on his back -
Cooper looks up at the EVER CLOSER MOUNTAIN WAVE - jumps inside.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper powers up, as the wall of liquid fills his view.
COOPER
Come on, come on ...
He sees the water right upon them - RUNS back to the hatch. Doyle is at the foot of the ladder, Case RUNNING FAST.
DOYLE
Go!
Case JUMPS up the ladder, THROWS Brand inside - TURNS for Doyle. The Ranger TILTS, RISES - DOYLE IS RIPPED FROM CASE’S HAND - WATER RAGES ACROSS THE OPEN HATCH -
COOPER
Shut the hatch!
Case shuts the hatch. Cooper is throwing switches -
COOPER
Power down! Power down! We have to ride it out!
(To Brand, furious.)
We are not prepared for this!
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Doyle is DRAGGED under and away. The Ranger is SUCKED SIDEWAYS up the face of the mountain -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Brand and Cooper are thrown across the cockpit. Case GRABS Brand, pulls her into her seat - Cooper holds on as the craft ROLLS and ROLLS -
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger reaches the top of the wave, rocks upright -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper drops into his seat as the water pours off the canopy
-
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger tilts over the backside of the wave, SURFING for a second then PITCHING FORWARD - TUMBLING DOWN 8,000 FEET
...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
They hang on for dear life, THRASHED MERCILESSLY -
EXT. MILLER’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger comes AGROUND as the wave leaves it behind ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
The craft comes to rest. Cooper jumps to the controls, powers up the electrics. The engines won’t respond -
EXT. RANGER - CONTINUOUS
The gear LIFTS the Ranger. Water FLOODS out -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper tries the engines again. Nothing.
CASE
Too waterlogged. Let it drain.
COOPER
(hits console) GODDAMN!
BRAND
I told you to leave me.
COOPER
And I told you to get your ass back here! Difference is, only one of us was thinking about the mission -
BRAND
Cooper, you were thinking about getting home - I was trying to do the right thing!
COOPER
Tell that to Doyle.
Quiet. Cooper looks down at the clock. Bitter.
How long to drain, Case?
CASE
Forty-five to an hour.
Cooper shakes his head. Pulls his helmet off.
COOPER
The stuff of life, huh? What’s this gonna cost us, Brand?
BRAND
A lot. Decades.
Cooper rubs his face. Mind reeling. Trying to breathe.
COOPER
What happened to Miller?
BRAND
Judging by the wreckage, she was broken up by a wave soon after impact.
COOPER
How could the wreckage still be together after all these years?
BRAND
Because of the time slippage. On this planet’s time, she landed here just hours ago. She might’ve only died minutes ago.
Case indicates the beacon.
CASE
The data Doyle received was just the initial status, echoing endlessly.
Cooper takes this in. Breathes hard. Takes off his gloves.
COOPER
We’re not prepared for this, Brand. You’re a bunch of eggheads without the survival skills of a boy-scout troop.
BRAND
We got this far on our brains - farther than any humans in history
-
COOPER
Not far enough. And we’re stuck here till there won’t be anyone left on Earth to save -
BRAND
I’m counting every second, same as you, Cooper.
Cooper takes this in. They’re in the same boat.
COOPER
Don’t you have some clever way we jump into a black hole and get back the years?
She shakes her head, dismissive.
COOPER
Don’t just shake your head at me -!
BRAND
Time is relative - it can stretch and squeeze - but it can’t run backwards. The only thing that can move across dimensions like time is gravity.
COOPER
(thinks)
The beings who led us here ... they communicate through gravity ...
Brand nods.
Could they be talking to us from the future?
BRAND
(considers) Maybe ...
COOPER
Well, if they can -
BRAND
Look, Cooper, they’re creatures of at least five dimensions - to them time may be just another physical dimension. To them the past might be a canyon they can climb into and the future a mountain they can can climb up ... but to us it’s not, okay?
Brand pulls her helmet off. Looks Cooper in the eyes.
BRAND
I’m sorry, Cooper. I screwed up. But you knew about relativity.
COOPER
My daughter was ten. I couldn’t explain Einstein’s theories before I left.
BRAND
Could you tell her you were going to save the world?
COOPER
No. I wasn’t much of a parent, but I understood the most important thing - let your kids feel safe.
Which rules out telling a
ten-year-old that the world’s ending.
Cooper?
CASE
Case is pointing out at another MOUNTAIN RANGE. COOPER
How long for the engines?
CASE
A minute or two -
COOPER
We don’t have it!
The mountain wave is approaching. Cooper tries the engines -
EXT. RANGER - CONTINUOUS
The rockets COUGH and steam ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper tries the engines again. Close. But no ignition.
COOPER
Helmets on!
The wave is upon them ...
COOPER
Blow our cabin oxygen through the main thrusters. We’ll spark it -
Case hits a button - a HISS and SHRIEK of gas escaping ... Brand seals her helmet just as the cockpit DEPRESSURIZES -
COOPER
Come on, now ...
Cooper hits the engines - they BLAST TO LIFE -
EXT. RANGER - CONTINUOUS
A fiery BLAST sends the Ranger clear of the mountain wave.
Down below, Doyle’s body lies in the shallows, about to be swept up into the next rush of water ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - DAY
Romilly watches as Cooper and Brand enter the Endurance.
BRAND
Hello, Rom.
ROMILLY
I’ve waited years.
COOPER
How many years?
ROMILLY
By now ... it must be -
TARS
Twenty-three years ...
Cooper’s head lowers.
TARS
... four months, eight days.
Cooper turns away.
Doyle?
ROMILLY
Brand’s eyes flicker down. She shakes her head. She grasps Romilly’s hands, looks up into his eyes, vulnerable -
BRAND
I thought I was prepared. I knew all the theory. Reality’s different.
ROMILLY
And Miller?
BRAND
There’s nothing here for us.
Brand looks at Romilly’s wrinkles. His greying beard.
BRAND
Why didn’t you sleep?
ROMILLY
I did a couple of stretches. But I stopped believing you were coming back, and something seems wrong about dreaming your life away. I learned what I could from studying the black hole, but I couldn’t send anything to your father. We’ve been receiving, but nothing gets out.
She looks up at Romilly, not wanting to ask ...
BRAND
Is he still alive?
Romilly nods. Brand closes her eyes with relief.
ROMILLY
We’ve got years of messages stored
...
Brand opens her eyes, looks for Cooper. He is in the comm. booth. He SHUTS the privacy curtain. She looks down.
INT. COMMUNICATIONS BOOTH, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Cooper studies the machine like it might bite him.
COOPER
Cooper.
COMPUTER VOICE
Messages span twenty-three years -
COOPER
I know.
(Whispers.)
Just start at the beginning.
Cooper leans forward as the screen flickers to life: Tom, still seventeen, turns on the camera.
TOM
Hi, Dad -
Cooper pauses it. Prepares himself. Lets it run -
TOM
I met another girl, Dad. I really think this is the one -
Tom holds up a picture of himself and a teenage GIRL.
Murph stole Grandpa’s car. She crashed it - she’s okay, though. Your truck’s still running - Grandpa said she should steal that next time. I said if she did it’d be the last thing she did ...
Cooper leans back ...
INT. COMMUNICATIONS BOOTH, ENDURANCE - DAY
Cooper is holed up, still watching, unshaved. He’s been watching for days. On the screen, Tom is in his twenties -
TOM
I’ve got a surprise for you, Dad. You’re a grandpa ...
Tom holds up an infant wrapped tight in swaddling.
Congratulations. Meet Jesse.
Cooper smiles a tearful smile.
Grandpa said he already earned the ’great’ part so we just leave it at that.
The screen cuts out. Then comes back on. Tom in his thirties
-
Hi, Dad. I’m sorry it’s been awhile. What with Jesse and all ...
He stops, emotional.
Grandpa died last week. We buried him out in the back forty, next to Mom and Jesse.
(Looks down.)
Where we’d have buried you, if you’d ever come back.
(Looks up.)
Murph was there for the funeral. I don’t see her so much anymore.
(Sighs.)
You’re not listening to this. I know that. All these messages are just out there, drifting in the darkness ... I figured as long as they were willing to send them there was some hope, but ...
(Pauses.)
You’re gone. You’re never coming back. And I’ve known that for a long time. Lois says - that’s my wife, Dad - she says I have to let you go. So I am.
(Reaches up to turn off camera.)
Wherever you are, I hope you’re at peace. Goodbye, Dad.
The screen goes black. Tears are streaming down Cooper’s face. He stares at the black screen, wiping his face. He starts to get up - the screen flickers to life once more -
A beautiful WOMAN of about forty has turned on the camera - she looks at us, unsure about this. Makes a start -
WOMAN
Hello, Dad. You sonofabitch.
Cooper peers into the face, recognizing -
COOPER
(whispers) Murph?
WOMAN (MURPH)
I never made one of these when you were still responding cos I was so mad at you for leaving. When you went quiet, it seemed like I should just live with my decision. And I have ...
(Looks around.)
But today’s my birthday. And it’s a special one because you once told me -
She stops, unable to speak for a second.
MURPH
You once told me that when you came back we might be the same age ... and today I’m the age you were when you left ...
(Starts crying.)
So it’d be a real good time for you to come back.
Murph reaches up, switches off the camera and we stay with her in -
INT. COMMUNICATION ROOM, NASA - DAY
Murph brings her hand down from the camera. Wipes her tears.
PROFESSOR BRAND
(O.S., softly)
I didn’t mean to intrude.
Murph turns to see Professor Brand, now ELDERLY, in a WHEELCHAIR in the doorway.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I’ve never seen you in here before.
Murph rises -
MURPH
I’ve never been in here before.
Murph wheels Professor Brand out into the corridor.
INT. CURVING CORRIDOR, NASA - MOMENTS LATER
Murph pushes Professor Brand.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I talk to Amelia all the time. It helps. I’m glad you’ve started -
MURPH
I haven’t. I just had something I wanted to get out.
INT. PROFESSOR BRAND’S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER
Professor Brand wheels behind his desk.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I know they’re still out there.
MURPH
I know.
PROFESSOR BRAND
There are so many reasons their communications might not be getting through.
MURPH
(smiles gently) I know, Professor.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I’m not sure which I’m more afraid of ... they never come back, or they come back to find we’ve failed.
She watches his introspection. Brings him back with -
MURPH
Then let’s succeed.
PROFESSOR BRAND
(gestures at formula)
So, back from the fourth iteration, let’s run it with a finite set.
Murph has picked up a notebook. Pauses.
MURPH
With respect, Professor. We’ve tried that hundreds of times.
PROFESSOR BRAND
And it only has to work once, Murph.
She shrugs. Starts to work.
INT. LAUNCH FACILITY - LATER
Murph and Professor Brand sit, eating sandwiches on a walkway. WORKERS move about the CIRCULAR CHAMBER, building more SIDEWAYS INFRASTRUCTURE. Professor Brand looks down, proud.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Every rivet they drive in could have been a bullet. We’ve done well for the world, here. Whether or not we crack the equation before I kick
-
MURPH
Don’t be morbid, Professor.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I’m not afraid of death, Murph. I’m an old physicist - I’m afraid of time.
INT. PROFESSOR BRAND’S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER
Murph stands before the algebra. She REALIZES something.
MURPH
Time ... you’re afraid of time ...
CONVINCED, she TURNS -
Professor, the equation ...?
He looks up.
For years we’ve tried to solve it without changing the underlying assumptions about time -
PROFESSOR BRAND
And?
MURPH
And that means each iteration becomes an attempt to prove its own proof - it’s recursive. Nonsensical
-
PROFESSOR BRAND
(sharp)
Are you calling my life’s work ’nonsense’, Murph?
MURPH
No, I’m saying you’ve been trying to finish it with one arm - no, with both arms tied behind your back ...
Murph focuses on Professor Brand, suddenly WARY ...
... and I don’t understand why.
Professor Brand looks down. Starts wheeling his chair.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I’m an old man, Murph. Could we pick this up some other time? I’d like to go talk to my daughter.
Murph nods. Looking at the Professor. Confused.
PROFESSOR BRAND (V.O.)
Stepping out into the universe, we must first confront the reality that nothing in our solar system can help us ...
INT. COMMUNICATIONS BOOTH, ENDURANCE - NIGHT
Brand watches her father on screen.
PROFESSOR BRAND (V.O.)
... then we must confront the realities of interstellar travel. We must venture far beyond the reach of our own life spans. We must think not as individuals, but as a species ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - DAY
Romilly, Brand, Cooper, Tars and Case sit in discussion.
COOPER
Tars kept the Endurance right where we needed her, but it took years longer than we anticipated ...
Cooper puts both planets on screen - Dr Mann’s ice world, and Edmunds’ desert planet.
COOPER
We don’t have the fuel to visit both prospects. We have to choose.
ROMILLY
How? They’re both promising. Edmunds’ data was better, but Dr Mann is the one still transmitting.
BRAND
We’ve got no reason to suppose Edmunds’ results would have soured. His world has key elements to sustain human life -
COOPER
As does Dr Mann’s.
BRAND
Cooper, this is my field. And I really believe Edmunds’ is the better prospect.
COOPER
(challenging)
Why?
BRAND
Gargantua, that’s why. (Steps to board.)
Look at Miller’s world - hydrocarbons, organics, yes. But no life. Sterile. We’ll find the same thing on Dr Mann’s.
ROMILLY
Because of the black hole?
BRAND
(nods)
Murphy’s Law - whatever can happen will happen. Accident is the first building block of evolution - but when you’re orbiting a black hole not enough can happen - it sucks in asteroids and comets, random events that would otherwise reach you. We need to go to further afield.
COOPER
You once referred to Dr Mann as the ’best of us’.
BRAND
He’s remarkable. We’re only here because of him.
COOPER
And he’s there on the ground sending an unambiguous message that we should go to that planet.
Brand is silent. Romilly looks from Brand to Cooper.
ROMILLY
Should we vote?
COOPER
If we’re going to vote, there’s something you need to know. Brand?
She says nothing.
He has a right to know.
BRAND
That has nothing to do with it.
ROMILLY
What does?
COOPER
She’s in love with Wolf Edmunds.
ROMILLY
(to Brand) Is that true?
BRAND
Yes. And that makes me want to follow my heart. But maybe we’ve spent too long trying to figure all this with theory -
COOPER
You’re a scientist, Brand -
BRAND
I am. So listen to me when I tell you that love isn’t something we invented - it’s observable, powerful. Why shouldn’t it mean something?
COOPER
It means social utility - child rearing, social bonding -
BRAND
We love people who’ve died ... where’s the social utility in that? Maybe it means more - something we can’t understand, yet. Maybe it’s some evidence, some artifact of higher dimensions that we can’t consciously perceive. I’m drawn across the universe to someone I haven’t seen for a decade, who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can’t yet understand it.
Brand looks at Romilly, who can’t meet her eye.
BRAND
Cooper, yes - the tiniest possibility of seeing Wolf again excites me. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.
Cooper thinks back to his conversation with Donald.
COOPER
Honestly, Amelia ... it might.
Romilly looks at Brand. It’s clear she’s lost.
COOPER
Tars, set the course for Dr Mann.
Brand is starting to tear up. She turns away.
EXT. OUTER SPACE - MOMENTS LATER
The thrusters FIRE, pushing the Endurance out of its orbit of Gargantua.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - LATER
Brand is checking her POPULATION BOMB. Cooper enters.
COOPER
Brand, I’m sorry.
BRAND
Why? You’re just being objective. (Beat.)
Unless you’re punishing me for screwing up on Miller’s planet.
COOPER
This wasn’t a personal decision for me.
Brand turns from her equipment. Looks him in the eye.
BRAND
Well, if you’re wrong, you’ll have a very personal decision to make.
(Off look.)
Your fuel calculations are based on a return journey. Strike out on Dr Mann’s planet, and we’ll have to decide whether to return home, or push on to Edmunds’ planet with Plan B. Starting a colony could save us from extinction.
She closes the population bomb.
You might have to decide between seeing your children again ... and the future of the human race.
(Smiles bitterly.)
(MORE)
BRAND (cont’d)
I trust you’ll be as objective, then.
EXT. OUTER SPACE - CONTINUOUS
The Endurance sinks past a GLORIOUS NEBULA whose GOLDEN MISTS DISSOLVE TO ROILING BLACK CLOUDS and we are -
EXT. FARMHOUSE - DAY
Murph stands with Tom, now late forties. Watching a field BURN.
TOM
We’ll lose about a third this season. But next year ... I’m gonna start working Nelson’s fields.
Should make it up.
MURPH
What happened to Nelson?
Tom glances at her. Don’t ask. Heads for the house.
INT./EXT. FARMHOUSE - DUSK
Murph at family dinner with Tom, LOIS, and their six-year-old son COOP.
LOIS
Will you stay the night? We left your room like it was ...
Murph looks down, awkward ...
MURPH
No, I need to ...
Murph looks upstairs. At Lois.
Too many memories, Lois.
She nods. Coop helps Tom clear. As Coop takes Murph’s plate he starts COUGHING. Looks up at her, sees her concern, GRINS.
The dust.
COOP
He and Tom head into the kitchen.
MURPH
I have a friend who should look at his lungs, Lois.
She nods, is about to speak. Tom sits back down.
Pull back to reveal the glowing windows against the darkening plain, dust clouds rolling across the horizon ...
INT. CORRIDOR, NASA - NIGHT
Murph hurries down a corridor with a doctor, GETTY.
GETTY
He started asking for you after he came to, but we couldn’t raise you
-
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM, NASA - MOMENTS LATER
Murph is at Professor Brand’s bedside. He is hooked up to machines. Barely breathing.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Murph ... Murph ...
Murph takes his hand with gentle concern.
MURPH
I’m here, Professor.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I don’t have much life ... (Breathes.)
I have to tell you ...
MURPH
Try to take it easy.
PROFESSOR BRAND
All these ... years. All these people ... counted on me ...
MURPH
It’s okay, Professor.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I let you ... all you ... down.
MURPH
No. I’ll finish what you started.
Professor Brand looks up into Murph’s eyes, tears welling.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Murph. Good, good Murph. Such faith
... all these years, I told you to have faith ... to believe ...
MURPH
I do believe -
PROFESSOR BRAND
I needed you to believe your father was coming back ...
MURPH
I do, Professor -
PROFESSOR BRAND
Forgive me, Murph ...
MURPH
There’s nothing to forgive.
PROFESSOR BRAND
I lied, Murph. I lied to you ...
Murph looks at Professor Brand, confused.
PROFESSOR BRAND
There’s no reason to come back ... no way to help us ...
MURPH
But Plan A - all this - all these people ... the equation!
But Professor Brand slowly shakes his head, tears rolling down. As Murph tries to comprehend, he settles, DRIFTING.
MURPH
(whispers) Did he know?
Nothing. Nothing.
Did my dad know?! Did he abandon me?!
PROFESSOR BRAND
Do ... not ... go...
She leans in to hear.
PROFESSOR BRAND
Gentle ... into ... into ...
MURPH
NO! NO! Professor, stay! You can’t! You can’t leave ...
Getty is at her shoulder.
MURPH
You can’t, you can’t, you ...
Getty puts his hand on her shoulder. She sits there. Stuck. As Professor Brand goes still ...
MURPH (V.O.)
Dr Brand, I’m sorry to tell you that your father died today ...
INT. COMMUNICATION ROOM, NASA - DAY
Murph, controlled anger, sits in front of the camera. MURPH
He had no pain and was ... at peace. I’m sorry for your loss.
She reaches to switch off the camera. STOPS. Acid.
Did you know, Brand? Did he tell you ...?
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - DAY
Murph’s voice rings through the empty ship. Only Case there to register it.
MURPH (V.O.)
Did you know that Plan A was a sham
...?! You left us here. To die. Never coming back ...
Through the window we see the Ranger moving away, towards -
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - DAY
The Endurance orbits the silvery white globe as the Ranger heads towards the planet.
EXT. STRATOSPHERE - MOMENTS LATER
The Ranger drops through layers of large, MOUNTAINOUS CLOUD.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper and Tars, Brand and Romilly. Cooper peers out, concerned, studying a heads-up display of CLOUD DENSITY ...
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger cuts through one cloud, banks left and SCRAPES AGAINST THE NEXT ’CLOUD’, PANELS TEARING FROM THE WING - THE CLOUDS ARE ACTUALLY SOLID ICE FORMATIONS ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper banks away from the ICE, glancing out at the damage -
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger moves cautiously through the ’cloudscape’ like a ship through an ice field ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Romilly and Brand put their helmets on. Tars indicates the beacon’s position. Cooper looks, BANKS the Ranger.
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger’s gear lowers as it comes to rest, tentatively, at the base of what looks like a large CUMULUS CLOUD.
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - LATER
Cooper leads them up the ICE CLOUD. From a distance, they are walking on a cloud. Tars brings up the rear.
Cooper crests a ridge. SPOTS something. He starts down towards a dirty orange dot in the cloudscape.
EXT. DR MANN’S POD - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper is there. The others arrive at the large metal pod - WEATHERED and DAMAGED over the years, half buried in ice.
Nearby, various WIRE MARKERS stick out of the ice. Tars starts digging out the hatch.
INT. DR MANN’S POD - LATER
A CRACK of COLD LIGHT, as the outer hatch is wrenched open. Cooper steps through the airlock, into a CRYPT-LIKE SPACE -
Cooper’s hand sweeps ice from the nameplate of a cryo-chamber, ’DR MANN’.
Tars fires up the cryo-chamber. The ice starts to melt.
Cooper, helmet off, CRACKS the lid, pushes it back, revealing a figure in a plastic shroud. Cooper rips the seal
...
Dr Mann’s eyes flicker open. He watches Cooper, breathing, focusing - reaches up with TREMBLING hands - GRABS Cooper - PULLS himself up, CHEEK AGAINST CHEEK - SOBBING - hands desperately CARESSING Cooper’s face. Cooper holds him tight.
COOPER
(whispering) It’s okay. It’s okay.
INT. SAME - LATER
Dr Mann sits, blanket over his shoulders, sipping from a steaming cup. He looks at their faces, marveling.
DR MANN
(cracked, parched)
Pray you never learn just how good it can be to see another face.
(Shaky sip.)
I hadn’t much hope to begin with. After so much time, I had none. My supplies were exhausted. The last time I went to sleep, I set no waking date.
(Looks at them all.)
You have literally raised me from the dead.
COOPER
(smiles) Lazarus.
DR MANN
(nods) And the others?
ROMILLY
I’m afraid you’re it, sir.
DR MANN
So far, surely?
COOPER
With our situation, there’s not much hope of any other rescue.
This hits Dr Mann hard. He looks down at his tea.
BRAND
Dr Mann, tell us about your world.
DR MANN
(smiles gently)
My world. Yes. Our world, we hope. Our world is cold, stark ...
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - DAY
Dr Mann leads the others up to the summit of a cloud.
DR MANN (V.O.)
But undeniably beautiful ...
From the top, they watch the planet’s pale sun setting.
DR MANN
The days are sixty-seven cold hours, the nights are sixty-seven far colder hours ...
They make their way back into the shelter.
DR MANN (V.O.)
The gravity is a very pleasant 80 percent of Earth’s. Up here, where I landed, the ’water’ is alkali and the ’air’ has too much ammonia in it to breathe for more than a few minutes ...
Brand checks readings on Dr Mann’s instruments.
INT. DR MANN’S POD - NIGHT
The crew are captivated by Dr Mann ...
DR MANN
But down at the surface, and there is a surface ... the chlorine dissipates and the ammonia gives way to crystalline hydrocarbons and breathable air. To organics.
Possibly even to life. (Off looks.)
Yes. We may be sharing this world.
BRAND
(giddy)
These readings are from the surface?
Brand is reviewing Dr Mann’s piles of data.
DR MANN
Over the years I’ve dropped various probes.
COOPER
How far have you explored?
DR MANN
I’ve mounted several major expeditions, but with oxygen in limited supply, Kipp there had to do most of the legwork.
Dr Mann indicates a DEFUNCT ARTICULATED MACHINE.
TARS
What’s wrong with him?
DR MANN
Degeneration. He misidentified the first organics we found as ammonia crystals. We struggled on for a time, but ultimately, I decommissioned him and used his power source to keep the mission going.
(Remembers, sadly.)
I thought I was alone before I shut him down.
TARS
Would you like me to look at him?
DR MANN
No, I think he needs a human touch.
Tars turns to Brand.
She nods.
TARS
Dr Brand, Case is relaying a message for you from the comm. station.
MURPH (V.O.)
... He had no pain and was ... at peace.
INT. DR MANN’S POD - LATER
Brand watches Murph’s message on Tars’ data screen.
MURPH
I’m sorry for your loss.
Brand STARES. Cooper is there. Murph reaches up -
BRAND
(abstract) Is that Murph?
Cooper nods.
She’s become a -
MURPH
(acid)
Did you know, Brand? Did he tell you? That Plan A was a sham ...?!
Cooper looks at Brand, who is shocked.
You left us here to set up your colony. Never coming back ...
Murph does not want to ask, tears are running down her cheeks -
(Small.)
Did my father know? Dad ...?
Cooper stares. Murph’s eyes bore into his ...
Did you leave me here to die?
The screen goes dark. Cooper stands there, SHOCKED.
BRAND
Cooper, my father devoted his whole life to Plan A - I have no idea what she means -
DR MANN (O.S.)
I do.
They turn. Dr Mann looks at them with gentle calm.
COOPER
He never even hoped to get people off the Earth.
DR MANN
No.
BRAND
But he’s been trying to solve the gravity equation for forty years!
Dr Mann comes over, looks into Brand’s eyes.
DR MANN
Amelia, your father solved his equation before I even left.
BRAND
Then why wouldn’t he use it?!
DR MANN
The equation couldn’t reconcile relativity with quantum mechanics. You need more -
COOPER
More what?!
DR MANN
More data. You need to see inside a black hole. And the laws of nature prohibit a naked singularity.
COOPER
(to Romilly) Is that true?
ROMILLY
If a black hole is an oyster, the singularity is the pearl inside.
(MORE)
ROMILLY (cont’d)
Its gravity is so strong, it’s always hidden in darkness, behind the horizon. That’s why we call it a black hole.
COOPER
If we could look beyond the horizon
-
DR MANN
Some things aren’t meant to be known.
(To Brand.)
Your father had to find another way to save the human race from extinction. Plan B. A colony.
BRAND
Why not tell people? Why keep building that damn station?
DR MANN
He knew how much harder it would be for people to come together and save the species, instead of themselves ...
(To Cooper, sympathetic.) Or their children.
COOPER
Bullshit.
DR MANN
Would you have left if you hadn’t believed you were trying to save them? Evolution has yet to transcend that simple barrier - we can care deeply, selflessly for people we know, but our empathy rarely extends beyond our line of sight.
BRAND
But the lie. A monstrous lie ...
DR MANN
Unforgivable. And he knew it. Your father was prepared to destroy his own humanity to save our species. He made the ultimate sacrifice.
COOPER
No. That’s being made by the people of Earth who’ll die because, in his arrogance, he declared their case hopeless.
DR MANN
I’m sorry, Cooper. Their case is hopeless. We are the future.
Cooper REELS. Brand puts her hand on his shoulder -
BRAND
Cooper, what can I do?
He turns to her. Looks her in the eyes.
COOPER
Let me go home.
And the sound of WIND in DRY CORNSTALKS takes us -
INT./EXT. PICKUP TRUCK ON DUSTY PLAIN - DAWN
Murph drives. Getty next to her. In the distance, several fields BURN.
GETTY
Are you sure?
MURPH
His solution was correct. He’d had it for years.
GETTY
It’s worthless?
MURPH
It’s half the answer.
GETTY
How do you find the other half?
Murph points at the sky.
MURPH
Out there? A black hole. Stuck here on Earth? I’m not sure you can.
They pass vehicles PILED HIGH with belongings and people.
GETTY
They just pack up and leave. What are they hoping to find?
MURPH
Survival.
(Looks ahead.) Dammit!
A DUST STORM SWAMPS the truck, killing visibility. Murph pulls over. Kills the engine. The wind rocks the car.
GETTY
Don’t people have a right to know?
MURPH
Panic won’t help. We have to keep working, same as ever.
GETTY
Isn’t that just what Professor Brand ...?
MURPH
(sharp)
Brand gave up on us - I’m still trying to solve this.
GETTY
So you have an idea?
MURPH
No. I have a ... feeling.
Getty looks at her as she STARES out at the dust.
INSERT CUT: MURPH (TEN), wet hair, towel around neck, turns and STARES at a book on the floor -
MURPH (V.O.)
I told you about my ghost ...
She stoops to pick up the toy next to it - a broken LUNAR LANDER.
MURPH (FORTY) puts her hands on the glass, watching the sand scrape the car’s window ...
MURPH
My dad thought I called it a ghost because I was scared of it ...
INSERT CUT: MURPH (TEN) counts the books and gaps. MARVELING.
MURPH (V.O.)
But I was never scared of it ...
MURPH (TEN) takes out her notebook and starts drawing lines to represent the books.
MURPH (V.O.)
I called it a ghost because it felt like ...
MURPH (FORTY) turns to Getty.
MURPH
Like a person. Trying to tell me something ...
The storm is clearing. Murph starts the engine.
If there’s an answer here on Earth, it’s back there, somehow. No one’s coming to save us.
(Pulls out.)
I have to find it ...
Murph pulls past a pickup piled with worldly goods and people. She makes eye contact with two filthy kids in the back ...
And we’re running out of time.
EXT. RANGER, DR MANN’S PLANET - DAWN
Tars is up on the wing of the Ranger. Case pilots the LANDER in to land near the Ranger.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper is sitting with his feet on the console.
CASE
(over radio)
What about auxiliary oxygen scrubbers?
COOPER
They can stay. I’ll sleep most of the journey.
(Wry.)
(MORE)
COOPER (cont’d)
I saw it all on the way out here.
Romilly comes through the airlock. Removes his helmet.
ROMILLY
I have a suggestion for your return journey.
What?
COOPER
ROMILLY
Have one last crack at the black hole ...
Tars enters.
ROMILLY
Gargantua’s an older, spinning black hole - what we call a gentle singularity.
COOPER
Gentle?
ROMILLY
They’re hardly gentle, but their tidal gravity is quick enough that something crossing the horizon fast might survive ... a probe, say.
COOPER
What happens to it after it crosses?
ROMILLY
Beyond the horizon is a complete mystery - who’s to say there isn’t some way the probe can glimpse the singularity and relay the quantum data? If he’s equipped to transmit every form of energy that can pulse
- X-ray, visible light, radio -
TARS
Just when did this probe become a ’he’?
Romilly looks from Tars to Cooper, sheepish.
ROMILLY
Tars is the obvious candidate. I’ve already told him what to look for.
TARS
I’d need to take the old optical transmitter from Kipp.
COOPER
(to Tars)
You’d do this for us?
TARS
Before you get teary, try to remember that as a robot I have to do anything you say, anyway.
COOPER
Your cue light’s broken.
TARS
I’m not joking.
Bing. The light flashes on.
EXT. RANGER, DR MANN’S PLANET - DAY
Brand and Dr Mann approach Cooper and Romilly at the foot of the ladder. Cooper addresses Brand -
COOPER
Ranger’s almost ready. Case is on his way back down with another load.
BRAND
I’ll start a final inventory.
ROMILLY
Dr Mann, I need Tars to remove and adapt some components from Kipp.
Dr Mann considers this. Looks at Tars. At Romilly.
DR MANN
He musn’t disturb Kipp’s archival functions.
ROMILLY
I’ll supervise.
Dr Mann considers this. Nods.
COOPER
We need to pick out a site. You don’t wanna move the module once we land it.
DR MANN
I’ll show you the probe sites.
Cooper glances around at the winds picking up - COOPER
Will conditions hold?
DR MANN
These squalls usually blow over. You’ve got a long-range transmitter?
Cooper reaches up to check a box plugged in at his neck.
COOPER
Good to go.
Dr Mann points at a nozzle on his elbow -
DR MANN
Charged?
Cooper checks, thumbs up. Dr Mann sets off, Cooper follows.
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - LATER
As Cooper follows Dr Mann down a ridge, they see the lander fly over. Cooper waves, reaches up to his long-range transmitter -
COOPER
A little caution, Case?
CASE
(over radio) Safety first, Cooper.
Cooper follows Dr Mann down to the edge of the ice. They peer down a fifty-foot drop.
DR MANN
Just take it gently -
He steps off, DROPPING - his ELBOW JETS FIRE, slowing his descent in time for him to land with a THUD. Cooper follows.
They set out through a massive CANYON of ice ...
DR MANN
Brand told me why you feel you have to go back -
Cooper STOPS.
COOPER
If this excursion is about trying to change my mind, let’s turn around right now.
DR MANN
No. I understand your position.
He turns and starts walking. Cooper follows.
DR MANN
You have attachments. I’m not supposed to, but even without family, I can promise you that the yearning to be with other people is massively powerful. Our instincts, our emotions, are at the foundations of what makes us human. They’re not to be taken lightly.
The wind WHIPS ice crystals between them ...
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - DAY
Murph introduces Getty to Lois and Coop. Getty pulls out a STETHOSCOPE and starts examining Coop, Murph slips upstairs
...
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - DAY
Murph opens the door. Stands in her old bedroom. Feeling ...
COOP (O.S.)
Mama lets me play in here ...
Murph turns to see Coop. He points at a box on the shelf - I don’t touch your stuff.
EXT. LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Brand turns away as the lander touches down in a spray of ice.
INT. DR MANN’S POD - CONTINUOUS
Romilly watches Tars crouch down beside Kipp and connect Kipp to his own power. Kipp shows signs of life ...
EXT. ICE CANYON, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Dr Mann waits for Cooper catch up. The WIND is picking up -
DR MANN
You know why we couldn’t just send machines on these missions, Cooper?
COOPER
(breathless) Frankly, no.
DR MANN
(pressing on)
A trip into the unknown requires improvisation. Machines can’t improvise well because you can’t program a fear of death. The survival instinct is our single greatest source of inspiration.
Dr Mann pauses to take a breath. Turns to Cooper.
Take you - a father. With a survival instinct that extends to your kids ...
COOPER
That’s why I’m going home, hopeless or not.
DR MANN
And what does research tell us is the last thing you’ll see before you die?
(Off look.)
Your children. At the very moment of death, your mind pushes you a little harder to survive. For them.
Dr Mann turns and starts walking out onto a massive ice field.
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - DAY
Murph brings Coop downstairs. Getty is listening to Lois’ back. He looks up at Murph. GRAVE. Shakes his head ...
GETTY
They can’t stay here.
TOM (O.S.)
Murph?
Murph turns to see Tom in the doorway.
What is this ...?
EXT. LANDER, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Brand is counting flight cases when a WIND whips ice at her
...
INT. DR MANN’S POD - CONTINUOUS
Romilly takes his helmet off, PEERING over Tars’ shoulder at Kipp’s data screen. Confused.
ROMILLY
I don’t understand.
EXT. ICE FIELD, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Cooper and Dr Mann are like two ants on a sheet.
DR MANN
The first window’s up ahead -
Cooper peers ahead to an OPENING in the ice. Dr Mann stops at the edge. Looks around the wind-blasted ice plane.
When I left Earth I felt fully prepared to die. But I just never faced the possibility that my planet wouldn’t be the one. None of this turned out the way it was supposed to.
COOPER
Professor Brand would disagree.
Cooper peers over the edge at an enormous CREVASSE ...
Dr Mann RIPS COOPER’S LONG-RANGE TRANSMITTER FROM HIS NECK -
Cooper TURNS to Dr Mann - who BLASTS him with his ELBOW JET. He SLIPS backwards, but avoids going over the edge -
COOPER
What are you doing?!
Until Dr Mann KICKS him. Cooper hits his jets, pushing himself onto a lower ledge of ice -
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - DAY
Tom confronts Murph while Getty looks on -
MURPH
They can’t stay here, Tom!
GETTY
Not one more day -
Tom TURNS, PUNCHES Getty - who collapses.
LOIS
Tom?!
TOM
Coop, get your aunt’s things - she’s done here.
MURPH
Tom, Dad didn’t raise you this dumb
-
TOM
Dad didn’t raise us, Grandpa did, and he’s buried outside with Mom in our ground. I’m not leaving them -
MURPH
You have to, Tom -
TOM
I’m a farmer, Murph! You don’t give up on the Earth.
MURPH
No! But she gave up on you! And she’s poisoning your family.
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - DAY
Cooper SCRAMBLES to his knees. Dr Mann approaches -
DR MANN
I’m sorry - I can’t let you leave.
COOPER
Why?!
DR MANN
We’re going to need your ship to continue the mission ... once the others realize what this place isn’t.
Cooper’s mind races. He looks around.
COOPER
You faked all the data?
DR MANN
I had a lot of time.
COOPER
Is there even a surface?
DR MANN
I’m afraid not -
Dr Mann KICKS Cooper over the edge, Cooper CLINGS on -
DR MANN
I tried to do my duty, Cooper, but the day I arrived I could see this place had nothing. I resisted the temptation for years ... but I knew there was a way to get rescued.
COOPER
You fucking coward.
Cooper BLASTS Dr Mann off his feet with his jet - SCRAMBLES up onto the ice. Dr Mann TACKLES him, they go down, WRESTLING. WIDER shows us two TINY FIGURES in a VAST LANDSCAPE, deciding the future of humanity with a BRAWL ...
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - DAY
Murph begs Tom -
MURPH
Please, come with us.
TOM
To live underground, praying Dad comes back to save us all?
MURPH
He’s not coming back. He was never coming back. It’s up to us. To me.
TOM
You’re gonna save the human race, Murph? Really? How? Our dad couldn’t -
MURPH
HE DIDN’T EVEN TRY!
(Off look.)
He just abandoned us, Tom.
Murph looks around, frustrated. Coop hands Murph the box.
MURPH
Tom, if you won’t come, let them -
TOM
Murph.
(Points at box.)
Take your stuff, and go. Murph hands the box back to Coop.
MURPH
Keep it.
She leaves. Getty follows.
EXT. ICE FIELD, DR MANN’S PLANET - DAY
Dr Mann LUNGES at Cooper, who SIDESTEPS him and PINS him ...
COOPER
Stop this!
Dr Mann HEADBUTTS COOPER, FACEPLATE IMPACTS FACEPLATE.
COOPER
Mann! Don’t - you’ll kill us both -
CRACK. Dr Mann SMASHES his helmet into Cooper’s AGAIN AND AGAIN as he -
DR MANN
SOMEONE’S - GLASS - WILL - GIVE - WAY - FIRST -!
COOPER
FIFTY-FIFTY YOU KILL YOUR SELF! STOP!
Dr Mann STOPS. Looks up at Cooper, BREATHING. Both faceplates have TINY FRACTURES ...
DR MANN
Best odds I’ve had in years -
WHACK - He BUTTS Cooper’s faceplate, which CRACKS SICKENINGLY. AMMONIA HISSES INSIDE - COOPER ROLLS OFF, HANDS UP, DESPERATELY TRYING TO PLUG THE LARGE CRACK -
Dr Mann RISES. Checks the fractures in his own helmet. Bends down to look at Cooper, STRUGGLING, CHOKING -
DR MANN
Please don’t judge me, Cooper - you were never tested like I was. Few men have been ...
INT./EXT. PICKUP TRUCK ON DUSTY PLAIN - DAY
Murph drives. Getty looks over, sympathetic.
GETTY
You did your best, Murph.
She just stares ahead at the road ...
EXT. ICE FIELD, DR MANN’S PLANET - DAY
With curiosity and FEAR, Dr Mann watches Cooper CRAWL ...
DR MANN
You’re feeling it, aren’t you? That survival instinct - that’s what drove me. It’s always driven the human race, and it’s going to save it now. I’m going to save it. For all mankind. For you, Cooper.
Unable to watch any more, he RISES, walking away, continuing to talk to Cooper via the radio ...
DR MANN
I’m sorry, I can’t watch you go through this - I thought I could. But I’m still here. I’m here for you ...
Dr Mann, hurrying away, listens to Cooper RASPING -
DR MANN
Cooper. When you left, did Professor Brand read you that poem? How does it end ...?
Dr Mann hauls himself up a ledge. The wind WHIPS up ice.
DR MANN
(over radio)
’Do not go gentle ...’
Cooper FREEZES. REMEMBERS. TRANSMITTER ...
DR MANN
(over radio)
’... into that good night ...’
Cooper LOOKS around - on the ice ten feet away - the TRANSMITTER -
INT./EXT. PICKUP TRUCK ON DUSTY PLAIN - DAY
Murph and Getty drive past a long line of DESPERATE REFUGEES
- glimpsing FACES hardened against insurmountable odds ...
DR MANN
(over radio)
’... Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - DAY
Cooper CRAWLS - CRAWLS - CHOKING - CRAWLING ...
Dr Mann leap/jets up onto the higher ice - glances back at the floundering figure on the ice with pity and awe.
DR MANN
(whispers)
Cooper ...? Do you see your children, yet?
Dr Mann hears only CHOKING, GASPING, HACKING. He kills his radio. Scared. Watches Cooper’s silent thrashing. TURNS.
Cooper GRABS the transmitter - tries to calm his FRANTIC HANDS - can’t reconnect it with clumsy gloves - pulls glove off - FREEZING - BITING - WAKING - he gets the connector IN
-
COOPER BRAND! BRAND!
EXT. LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Brand is STARTLED by Cooper’s RASPING over her radio -
COOPER
(over radio)
HELP ... ME ... HELP ...
INT. /EXT. PICKUP TRUCK ON DUSTY PLAIN - CONTINUOUS
Murph DECIDES - she SPINS the truck around - floors it back in the direction they came ...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Brand JUMPS into the lander -
BRAND
Case?!
Case is already FIRING engines -
CASE
I have a fix.
BRAND
Cooper?! Cooper, we’re coming!
EXT. ICE PLAIN, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Cooper GASPS -
COOPER NO AIR - AMMONIA.
BRAND
(over radio)
Don’t talk - breathe as little as possible. We’re coming -!
EXT. CORNFIELDS - DAY
Murph PULLS off the road, CUTTING through the corn -
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The lander HURTLES through the cloudscape, RECKLESSLY, DANGEROUSLY FAST, PUNCHING through some clouds, DODGING others -.
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Brand watches Case fly, praying he’s not just guessing -
INT. DR MANN’S POD - CONTINUOUS
Romilly is crouched next to Tars, perturbed.
ROMILLY
This data makes no sense. Access the archive -
EXT. CORNFIELDS - DAY
Murph PULLS UP in a SCREECH of dust - jumps out - GRABS her spare gas can, THROWING FUEL over the nearby stalks ...
EXT. ICE PLAIN, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Cooper FLOPS back onto the ice, STARING SKYWARD ...
INSERT CUT: MURPH (TEN) examines the WATCH Cooper has given her ... She THROWS it - turns her tear-stained face to Cooper - Cooper’s eyes water, from poison or memory -
EXT. CORNFIELDS - DAY
Murph SETS FIRE to the corn ... JUMPS in the truck -
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The lander SWEEPS around a towering cumulus, SPIRALING in on the ICE PLAIN -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Brand POINTS -
BRAND
I see him -
EXT. FARMHOUSE - DAY
Tom RACES out of the house, JUMPS in Cooper’s old truck, heading out to the fire ... calling on the radio -
EXT. ICE PLAIN, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Through WATERING EYES and WIND-WHIPPED ICE, Cooper glimpses Brand LEAPING from the lander, elbow jets firing. Brand RIPS Cooper’s helmet off - THRUSTS an OXYGEN MASK over his nose and mouth. Cooper GASPS, SUCKING AIR HARD -
COOPER MANN - WAS - MANN -
BRAND
Dr Mann did this?!
Cooper nods. Brand takes this in - REALIZES - Romilly!
She keys her long-range transmitter - Romilly?! Romilly?!
INT. DR MANN’S POD - CONTINUOUS
Tars turns back from Kipp.
TARS
It needs a person to unlock its archival function.
Tars makes way for Romilly, who leans in to the screen. He glances at his helmet - the radio is SQUAWKING. As he reaches for his helmet, he places his hand on the screen - Kipp FLICKERS TO LIFE ... Romilly lifts his helmet -
ROMILLY
Brand -?
Kipp LOOKS UP -
KIPP
Please, don’t make -
And EXPLODES -
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Dr Mann hears the explosion - sees a BLACK CLOUD rising from up the hill. PANIC-STRICKEN -
DR MANN
Dammit, Romilly ...
He switches his radio back on -
BRAND
(over radio)
Come on, Cooper! Couple more steps
-
Dr Mann THINKS - makes for the Ranger.
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Brand pulls the mask off Cooper, who looks at Case -
COOPER
What happened to caution?
CASE
Safety first.
COOPER
Brand, I’m sorry. We should’ve followed your instincts. Mann lied about this place -
BRAND
(scared) Oh, no -
EXT. FARMHOUSE - DAY
Murph SCREECHES up - turns to Getty -
MURPH
Keep watch -
She runs towards the farmhouse.
Lois!
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - DAY
Case spots something on the console.
CASE
There’s been an explosion -
BRAND
Where?
CASE
Dr Mann’s compound.
Case puts the lander into the air.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Dr Mann straps in. Powers up.
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger RISES -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Dr Mann pushes the craft into the air -
EXT. DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The lander comes through the black smoke from Dr Mann’s pod.
Below - a figure BURSTS out of the smoke: Tars, blackened, burned, but RUNNING ... towards the lander -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Case SWINGS the lander around and HITS the airlock open -
EXT. DR MANN’S POD - CONTINUOUS
Tars LEAPS UP into the airlock - the lander THRUSTS away -
INT. COCKPIT, THE LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks over at Case -
COOPER
Do you have a fix on the Ranger?
CASE
He’s pushing into orbit -
COOPER
If he takes control of the ship we’re dead -
BRAND
He’d maroon us?
COOPER
He is marooning us -
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - DAY
Lois and Coop head outside with a few essentials. Murph heads upstairs ...
EXT. FARMHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
Getty helps them into the truck, glances nervously at the distant fire -
GETTY
Come on, Murph!
EXT. STRATOSPHERE, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger ROCKETS upwards ...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper moves up next to Case. Hits the transmitter -
COOPER
Dr Mann? Dr Mann, please respond -
CASE
He doesn’t know the Endurance docking procedure.
COOPER
The autopilot does.
CASE
Not since Tars disabled it.
Cooper looks into the airlock -
COOPER
Nice. What’s your trust setting?
TARS
Lower than yours, apparently.
Cooper hits the transmitter -
COOPER
Dr Mann?
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Dr Mann hears Cooper. Ignores him - looking instead at the navigation computer.
COOPER
(over radio)
Dr Mann, if you attempt docking -
Dr Mann switches off the transmitter -
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - DAY
Murph looks at the bookshelves. Spots the box. Moves over to it and LOOKS INSIDE ...
EXT. FARMHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
Outside, Getty paces, Lois and Coop sit tight ...
EXT. ORBIT, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger approaches the Endurance ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Dr Mann pilots the lander alongside the ship. Hits the autopilot -
COMPUTER VOICE
Auto-docking sequence withheld.
Dr Mann looks at the screen, surprised.
DR MANN
Override.
COMPUTER VOICE
Unauthorized.
Dr Mann thinks. Looks over at the MANUAL DOCKING CONTROLS
...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper peers ahead as they SHOOT up into orbit. Brand looks
- the Ranger is in close to the Endurance -
COOPER
Dr Mann, do not attempt docking. Dr Mann?
Static.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Dr Mann SCRAMBLES from the controls to the airlock, FOCUSED
...
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The Ranger inches closer to an OUTER HATCH of Endurance - A ROW OF MECHANICAL GRAPPLES tries to connect with Endurance -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Dr Mann works the docking system, concentrating -
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The grapples PULL the Ranger into the Endurance hatch.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
A CLANG as the ships come together -
COMPUTER VOICE
Imperfect contact - hatch lockout.
DR MANN
Override.
COMPUTER VOICE
Hatch lockout disengaged.
Dr Mann moves to the airlock control ...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper stares out at the Ranger -
COOPER
Is he locked on?
CASE
Imperfectly.
Cooper grabs the transmitter -
COOPER
Dr Mann! Dr Mann! Do not, repeat do not attempt to open the hatch! If you -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
In SILENCE Dr Mann looks through the hatch window. Hits the button opening the outer door -
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The outer door of the Ranger SLIDES OPEN. Several grapples are OPENING AND CLOSING BLINDLY, trying to seal the join -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks at Case -
COOPER
What happens if he blows the hatch?
CASE
Nothing good.
COOPER
Pull us back!
Case hits the retro-thrusters.
BRAND
Case, relay my transmission to his onboard computer, and have it rebroadcast as emergency p.a. -
BRAND
(hits transmitter)
DR MANN, DO NOT OPEN THE IN--
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Silence. Dr Mann takes a breath, reaches for the inner lever
-
BRAND
(over radio)
--PEAT - DO NOT OPEN INNER HATCH!
Dr Mann is STARTLED by the voice. He hits the transmitter -
DR MANN
Brand, I don’t know what Cooper’s told you, but I’m taking control of the Endurance, then we’ll talk about continuing the mission. This is not my survival, or Cooper’s - this is mankind’s -
Turns back to the lever ... PULLS IT -
A DEVASTATING RUSH OF AIR YANKS HIM INTO THE AIRLOCK -
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The ESCAPING AIR AND DEBRIS push Endurance into a slow SPIN
...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER - CONTINUOUS
Dr Mann is HAMMERED by debris as the airlock starts to RIP APART -
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The ship SPINS FASTER AND FASTER - the Ranger is RIPPED AWAY, FRAGMENTING, SHREDDING THE CLOSEST MODULE OF THE RING.
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
They STARE in HORROR as their ship is sent SPINNING OFF ITS ORBIT TOWARDS THE PLANET -
BRAND
Oh, my God.
Cooper GRABS the sticks - HITS the thrusters -
EXT. ORBIT, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The CRIPPLED Endurance is in a FAST FLAT SPIN, heading down towards the stratosphere -
The lander FLIES after it, DODGING the Ranger debris -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper’s eyes are glued to the Endurance as he flies -
CASE
Cooper, there’s no point using our fuel to -
COOPER
Just analyze the Endurance’s spin -
BRAND
What’re you doing?!
Docking.
COOPER
EXT. ORBIT, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The DIZZYING SPIN of the Endurance as it PLUMMETS towards the ATMOSPHERE - The lander ROCKETS after it, CLOSING SLOWLY
-
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper pours on the power -
CASE
Endurance rotation is 67, 68 RPM -
COOPER
Get ready to match it on the retro-thrusters -
CASE
It’s not possible -
COOPER
No. It’s necessary.
EXT. ORBIT, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The SPINNING ENDURANCE starts to encounter the STRATOSPHERE
- heating up -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Brand looks ahead at the spinning ship -
CASE
Endurance is hitting stratosphere -
BRAND
She’s got no heat shield -!
Cooper checks the lander’s speed against Endurance - pulls back on thrust as they come in below it -
EXT. STRATOSPHERE, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The lander is PERILOUSLY CLOSE to the RED HOT UNDERSIDE of the SPINNING ENDURANCE. The lander BANKS sideways, bringing its airlock within FEET of the spinning Endurance -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks sideways at the spinning hull -
COOPER
Case, you ready?
CASE
Ready.
Cooper watches the spinning hull, suddenly UNCERTAIN -
CASE
Cooper?
(Off look.)
This is no time for caution.
COOPER
(grins)
If I black out, take the stick - Tars, get ready to engage the docking mechanism - Brand, hold tight -
CASE
Endurance is starting to heat -
COOPER
HIT IT!
Case hits the RETRO-THRUSTERS. The view SPINS -
EXT. STRATOSPHERE, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The lander goes into a FASTER AND FASTER SPIN as it, with Endurance, PLUMMETS towards the planet -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
LIGHT FLASHES across their faces as the G-force of the spin PULLS THEM AGAINST THEIR RESTRAINTS. Cooper STRUGGLES to
stay conscious - they BUFFET AGAINST THE ATMOSPHERE -
Tars opens the airlock - the Endurance hatch above him is now SLOWLY ROTATING relative to him ...
EXT. STRATOSPHERE, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The GLOWING HOT Endurance and the lander PLUMMET, SPINNING towards the ice planet, whose curvature is FAST DISAPPEARING
-
INT. AIRLOCK, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Tars peers up as THE SPIN SPEEDS MATCH. He waits as the BUFFETING moves the hatches ... THEY LINE UP - he FIRES the GRAPPLES - they don’t connect - the hatches moved -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Brand loses consciousness - Cooper watches the instruments, not the dizzying view, on the point of RED OUT -
COOPER
Come on, Tars ... come on ...
INT. AIRLOCK, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Tars sees the hatches roll back into ALIGNMENT. He FIRES AGAIN - this time THE GRAPPLES HOLD -
TARS
GOT IT!
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper registers this. Case fires the retro-rockets to slow the spin.
COOPER
Gen-- gentle, Case ...
EXT. STRATOSPHERE, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The two craft, NOW JOINED, start to spin more SLOWLY ...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper eases back into his seat as the G-force lessens -
COOPER
Get ready to pull us up -
The spin is slowing to almost nothing -
EXT. STRATOSPHERE, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
Parts are RIPPING off the Endurance in the HEAT -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper EASES into POWER on the main thrusters - COOPER
Come on. You can do it ...
EXT. STRATOSPHERE, DR MANN’S PLANET - CONTINUOUS
The THRUSTERS on the lander start to DRAG both ships back up away from the planet, the heat DIMINISHING -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Cooper pulls back on the sticks, RELIEF washing over him. Brand comes to ... Cooper turns to Case, grinning -
COOPER
Right? And for our next trick ...
CASE
It’ll have to be good. We’re heading into Gargantua’s pull -
Cooper’s smile fades. He UNBUCKLES -
COOPER
Take her -
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - MOMENTS LATER
HISSING STEAM - RUSHING AIR - WHIRLING DEBRIS as Tars and
Cooper (in suit and helmet) lock down different BULKHEADS -
Brand (in suit and helmet) FLOATS alongside the POPULATION BOMB, checking the equipment -
CASE
(over radio)
Cooper, we’re slipping towards Gargantua - shall I use main engines?
COOPER
No! Let her slide as long as we can
-
Cooper FLIES over to Tars, who is welding a bulkhead -
COOPER
Give it to me.
TARS
There’s good news and bad news -
COOPER
I’ve heard that one, Tars - just give it to me straight.
INT. SAME - MOMENTS LATER
Cooper SCRAMBLES to where Brand is checking her equipment.
COOPER
The navigation mainframe’s destroyed and we don’t have enough life support to make it back to Earth. But we might scrape to Edmunds’ planet.
BRAND
What about fuel?
COOPER
Not enough. But I’ve got a plan - let Gargantua suck us right to her horizon - then a powered slingshot around to launch us at Edmunds.
BRAND
Manually?
COOPER
That’s what I’m here for. I’ll take us just inside the critical orbit.
BRAND
And the time slippage?
COOPER
Neither of us can afford to worry about relativity right now.
BRAND
I’m sorry, Cooper.
They embrace, delicately touching faceplate to faceplate.
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The CRIPPLED Endurance FALLS towards the HEART OF DARKNESS among the stars ...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - DAY
Cooper looks ahead at Gargantua. Preparing for battle.
EXT. ENDURANCE - MOMENTS LATER
The lander DETACHES, shifting its orientation ...
COOPER
(over radio)
Once we’ve gathered enough speed around Gargantua - we use the lander 1 Ranger 2 as
rocket-boosters to push us out of the black hole’s gravity ...
The lander REATTACHES to the rear of the ring module.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper slides into Ranger 2 - checking the systems.
COOPER
The linkages between landers are destroyed ...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Tars sits at the controls, running similar checks ...
COOPER
(over radio)
So we’ll control manually. When Lander 1’s spent, Tars will detach
...
TARS
And get sucked into that black hole.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand and Case listen to Cooper and Tars over the radio.
BRAND
Why does he have to detach?
COOPER
(over radio)
We have to shed mass if we’re gonna escape that gravity.
TARS
(over radio)
Newton’s third law - the only way humans have ever figured out of getting somewhere is to leave something behind.
BRAND
Cooper, you can’t ask Tars to do this for us -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper puts his hands on the controls -
COOPER
He’s a robot, Amelia - I don’t have to ask him to do anything.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand is furious -
BRAND
Cooper, you asshole -
COOPER
(over radio)
Sorry, you broke up a little there.
TARS
(over radio)
It’s what we intended, Dr Brand ...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Tars sits at the controls, ready.
TARS
It’s our last chance to save people on Earth - if I can find some way to transmit the quantum data I’ll find in there, they might still make it.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand considers this.
BRAND
If there’s someone still there to receive it ...
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The Endurance ACCELERATES towards the darkness ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The black hole’s gravity makes the ship SHUDDER ... Brand, helmet on, tightens her harness ...
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The Endurance STREAKS above the glowing horizon, SKIRTING the BLACKNESS beneath ...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Tars looks out at the DARK OCEAN ...
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The ship orbits the black hole with BLINDING ACCELERATION -
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The ship is SHAKING with GRAVITATIONAL ENERGY ...
CASE
MAXIMUM VELOCITY ACHIEVED ... PREPARE TO FIRE ESCAPE THRUSTERS -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Tars checks his instruments -
TARS
Ready.
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper checks his instruments -
COOPER
Ready.
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand looks out at the glowing horizon. Glances fearfully at the darkness below ... Case puts his hand on the button -
CASE
Main engine ignition in three, two, one, mark -
Case hits the button -
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
The MAIN ENGINES FIRE - STRAINING AGAINST GARGANTUA ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand feels the thrusters STRAIN to lift the craft -
CASE
Lander 1 engines, on my mark, three, two, one, mark -
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER - CONTINUOUS
Tars hits the button -
TARS
Fire.
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Lander 1’s engines FIRE, adding to the thrust. The Endurance starts RISING away from the darkness ...
CASE
(over radio)
Ranger 2’s engines, on my mark - three, two, one, mark -
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper hits the button -
COOPER
Fire.
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Ranger 2’s engines add a fresh BLAST of fire, pushing the Endurance higher and higher ... back into the starlight ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper, shaking with the thrust, looks at his instruments -
COOPER
That little maneuver cost us fifty-one years ...!
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand holds on tight -
BRAND
You don’t sound so bad for a hundred and twenty!
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Lander 1’s engines DIE OUT ...
CASE
(over radio)
Lander 1, prepare to detach, on my mark ... three ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand looks over at the lander -
CASE
Two ...
INT. COCKPIT, LANDER 1 - CONTINUOUS
CASE
(over radio) One ... mark -
Tars hits a switch -
Detach.
TARS
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand sees Lander 1 DROP, revealing Cooper in Ranger 2 ...
BRAND
Goodbye, Tars ...
TARS
(over radio)
See you on the other side, Coop ...
Something in this makes Brand frown, PUZZLED ... EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Lander 1 FALLS behind as the Endurance continues to RISE ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper checks his dwindling fuel supply ...
COOPER
Hey, Case? Nice reckless flying.
CASE
(over radio) Learned from the master.
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
As Lander 1 FALLS back towards Gargantua, Ranger 2’s engines DIE OUT ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Case registers the burnout.
CASE
Ranger 2, prepare to detach -
Brand looks up, SHOCKED -
BRAND
NO!
She UNBUCKLES -
CASE
On my mark -
FLIES to the window looking onto Cooper -
BRAND
What are you doing!
CASE
Three ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks across at Brand.
COOPER
Newton’s third law - you have to leave something behind.
CASE
(over radio) Two ...
INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand pushes her helmet up against the window, BRAND
You told me we had enough power -
CASE
One ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks at her, fondly -
COOPER
Hey, we agreed - ninety percent.
CASE
(over radio) Mark ...
Cooper reaches for the button. Takes one last look at Brand
- inside her helmet, Brand is crying, zero-G tears catching in her eyelashes like melted snowflakes.
Cooper hits the button. But the word catches in his throat
-.
Detach -
COOPER
EXT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Ranger 2 DROPS AWAY from the Endurance ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper sees the Endurance ACCELERATE AWAY to a bright point as he FALLS AND FALLS ... Cooper starts to breathe FASTER -
EXT. GARGANTUA - CONTINUOUS
Ranger 2 PLUMMETS towards blackness as the horizon GLOWS BRIGHTER and BRIGHTER - distorted starlight, plasma jets ...
INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2 - CONTINUOUS
Cooper, trying to control his breathing, uses retro-rockets to TURN the lander down. He GASPS at the FLAMING HORIZON -
COOPER
(over radio) Tars? Are you there?
STATIC - Ranger 2 TILTS down - INKY BLACKNESS ahead -
INT. ENDURANCE - CONTINUOUS
Brand, crying, monitors Cooper’s lonely transmissions ...
EXT. GARGANTUA - CONTINUOUS
Ranger 2 PLUNGES towards the black hole. We hear Cooper’s panic breathing get LOUDER and LOUDER until -
Ranger 2 SHUDDERS with EXPONENTIALLY RISING GRAVITATIONAL ENERGY as it CROSSES THE HORIZON - PLUNGING TOWARDS THE SINGULARITY - ALL WAVELENGTHS OF LIGHT CASCADING WITH HIM -
AS WE -
PLUNGE INTO ABSOLUTE ... WHITE -
Not a whiteout - a SHIMMERING CAVALCADE OF ALL WAVELENGTHS: LIGHT, SOUND, EVERYTHING ... the SPHERICAL INSIDE OF THE BLACK HOLE, like a STAR turned INSIDE OUT. COOPER IS
SCREAMING and we CUT to -
BURNING CORN - men fighting a fire, Tom leading, GESTURING -
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) sits on the bed, looking into the BOX. She pulls out the LUNAR LANDER MODEL, looks up at the books ...
GETTY (O.S.)
Come on, Murph! We don’t have much time!
EXT. GARGANTUA - DAY
A BLACK DOT appears, RUSHING TOWARDS US to become - A DARK SPHERE - we PLUNGE through it into SILENT DARKNESS - a WHITE SPHERE races towards us -
Just as the wormhole was a spherical hole, THESE SPHERES ARE HOLES WITHIN HOLES ... we are dropping through A
FOUR-DIMENSIONAL RABBIT HOLE - LIGHT/DARK/LIGHT/DARK/LIGHT/DARK with BLINDING RAPIDITY -
the frequency almost SPEAKING. Cooper hangs on for dear life
-
COMPUTER VOICE (O.S.)
FUEL CELL OVERLOAD. DESTRUCTION IMMINENT. INITIATE EJECTION.
Cooper is LAUNCHED out of Ranger 2, which EXPLODES, and, PULLED to one side, MISSES A WHITE HOLE - PLUNGING INSTEAD TOWARDS A SMALLER GLASS-LIKE SPHERE -
Cooper slows as he falls towards this sphere, reminiscent of the wormhole, but the light within is not stars but an infinity of WORLD LINES - (paths of objects through spacetime) -
Cooper PLUNGES INTO THE WORLD SPHERE ... As he falls his SINGLE WORLD LINE stretches behind him - the INFINITE FUTURES OF HIS WORLD LINE splitting ahead to all the different possibilities in spacetime -
Cooper himself is now like a ring being pulled down a cone of fabric. He STARES at the ORDERED CHAOS of world lines ...
As he SLOWS his past and future world lines BREAK UP so they become like INFINITE REFLECTIONS IN PARALLEL MIRRORS ...
Cooper’s world line DROPS into a SMALL, SQUARE TUNNEL -
INT. THE TESSERACT - CONTINUOUS
Tight enough to feel BLINDINGLY FAST at first, but Cooper (and his INFINITE OTHERS) is actually SLOWING ... Cooper DESPERATELY reaches out, KNOCKING the sides of the tunnel, TRYING to slow himself - GRAPPLING - KICKING ’BRICKS’ out of
the ’walls’. He finally STOPS. Looks around in the SUDDEN CALM, FLOATING, catching his breath. He reaches out to the tunnel wall - CONFUSED -
Each ’brick’ is TIGHTLY PACKED PAPER ... PAGES ... BOOKS - AS SEEN FROM BEHIND A SHELF ...
Cooper PUSHES against a book - it MOVES SLIGHTLY. Cooper PUSHES, HARDER AND HARDER AND HARDER -
The book drops out of sight, revealing -
Murph, aged ten, wet hair, towel around her neck, TURNS, STARTLED by THE BOOK FALLING FROM HER SHELF.
COOPER
Murph? Murph?
She can’t hear him ...
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - MORNING
Murph (ten) stands there, startled, STARING at the bookshelves. At the book on the floor, a broken toy beside it ...
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) looks at the bookshelves, REMEMBERING ...
INT. THE TESSERACT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper watches Murph (ten) cautiously approach - she CROUCHES. Picks something up -
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) turns the lunar lander in her hands. Thinking.
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - DAY
Murph (ten) stands up holding the broken LUNAR LANDER ...
INT. THE TESSERACT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper watches Murph (ten) examine the two pieces of the LUNAR LANDER MODEL -
COOPER MURPH! MURPH!
She turns ... leaves the room ... Cooper floats there, staring. He LOOKS around - each ’wall’ of the tesseract is a different view of Murph’s bedroom, so that by rotating he can effectively orbit her room ...
He claws his way down to the next book wall. PUNCHES out two books -
Murph’s bedroom, empty. The door opens, Cooper’s EARLIER SELF is standing there, staring at the room, perturbed. Murph (ten) joins Cooper, staring at the empty room ...
Cooper LASHES out at the books - kicks a book out - SPOTS -
Murph (ten) closes her door, crying, sliding the desk in front -
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) feels the desk. She puts her hand on the back of the chair, tilts it slightly, remembering -
INT. THE TESSERACT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper watches Murph (ten) put A CHAIR ON TOP OF THE DESK. The earlier Cooper nudges the door open -
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - EVENING
Murph (ten) sees the door NUDGING against the desk and chair
-
MURPH
Just go. If you’re leaving - just leave now.
INT. THE TESSERACT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper, the frustrated observer, spins around to see his EARLIER SELF nudging the door -
COOPER
(to his earlier self) Don’t go, you idiot!
His Earlier Self shuts the door ...
COOPER
Don’t leave your kids. You goddamn fool.
Cooper PUNCHES OUT books with all his strength -
COOPER S ... T ...
Murph (ten) is watching, no longer scared, fascinated -
COOPER A ... Y ...
Cooper STOPS. Catches his breath. Waits ...
Earlier Cooper lifts the chair off the table to enter. Cooper watches his earlier self, FRUSTRATED -
COOPER
Stay, you idiot! Tell him, Murph! Stay ...
As before, Cooper gives Murph the WATCH ... Murph THROWS THE WATCH and TURNS AWAY ...
COOPER
Murph, tell him again! Don’t let him leave ...!
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) picks up the notebook. Opens it. Finds the word ’STAY’ ... looks up at the books, REALIZING ...
INT. THE TESSERACT - DAY
Cooper is crying with frustration ...
COOPER
Murph, don’t let me leave ...
Cooper watches as his earlier self heads to the door -
COOPER
STAY!!
Cooper SMASHES a book from the shelf with all his might - His earlier self turns back. Looks at the book. Then leaves. Cooper rests his head against the books, SOBBING.
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) lowers her notebook, moves to the bookshelves, IN AWE ...
MURPH
Dad ... it was you. You were my ghost ...
She is crying. Joyful.
INT. THE TESSERACT - DAY
Cooper sobs at the back of the books. Lost ...
TARS
(over radio)
Cooper?
Cooper, STARTLED, turns. Tars is not there.
COOPER
You survived.
TARS
(over radio) Somewhere. In their fifth dimension. They saved us ...
COOPER
(frustrated)
Who’s ’They’? And why would they help us?
TARS
(over radio)
I don’t know, but they constructed this three-dimensional space inside their five-dimensional reality to allow you to understand it ...
COOPER
It isn’t working -!
TARS
(over radio)
Yes, it is. You’ve seen that time is represented here as a physical dimension - you even worked out that you can exert a force across spacetime -
COOPER
(realizing)
Gravity. To send a message ...
Cooper looks around the infinite tunnel, infinite Coopers.
COOPER
Gravity crosses the dimensions - including time -
Cooper THINKS ... He pulls himself up to a different wall, starts counting books ...
And you have the quantum data, now
-
TARS
(over radio)
I’m transmitting it on all wavelengths - but nothing’s getting out ...
COOPER
I can do it -
Cooper HITS a book’s world line, sending a WAVE ...
TARS
(over radio)
Such complicated data ... to a child ...
COOPER
Not just any child.
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) stands there, looking at her old notebook - the page that says ’STAY’ ...
GETTY (O.S.)
MURPH?! COME ON!
She looks around the room, SEARCHING for an answer ...
EXT. THE TESSERACT - DAY
Cooper watches Murph (ten) looking out the window ...
TARS
(over radio)
Even if you communicate it here, she wouldn’t understand its significance for years ...
Cooper is seized by a sudden anger -
COOPER
Then figure something out! Everybody on Earth is going to die!
TARS
Cooper, they didn’t bring us here to change the past.
Cooper hears something in this -
COOPER
We brought ourselves here ...
Cooper PUSHES off, looking through the gaps in the books. Murph’s bedroom, full of DUST in the DUST STORM -
COOPER
Tars, feed me the coordinates of NASA in binary ...
Cooper is in the room now, drawing a pattern in the dust ...
Cooper watches Murph (ten) burst into the room. Murph stops and stares at the dust as Cooper’s Earlier Self comes in past her, SLAMS the window shut - sees the PATTERN of dust
...
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) runs her finger along the DUST of the windowsill ... She turns to look around the room.
Frustrated.
MURPH
Come on, Dad. Is there something else here ...?
INT. TESSERACT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks up from the floor -
COOPER
Don’t you see, Tars? I brought myself here. We’re here to communicate with the
three-dimensional world. We’re the bridge ...
Cooper moves to another iteration of Murph’s room. Murph (ten) JUMPS up - GRABS the WATCH, RUNS out the door ...
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) looks at the watch, remembering. The second hand TWITCHES. She drops the watch back into the box ...
INT. TESSERACT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper pushes himself along the world line of the books ...
COOPER
I thought they chose me - they never chose me - they chose Murph.
TARS
(over radio)
For what?
COOPER
To save the world!
Murph (ten) comes back into her bedroom, SOBBING. She is holding the watch. She puts it on the shelf.
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) puts the box back on the shelf. SIGHS ...
INT. TESSERACT - CONTINUOUS
Cooper races FASTER and FASTER down the world lines.
COOPER
’They’ have access to infinite time, infinite space ...
Cooper gestures at the INFINITIES in all directions ...
COOPER
But no way to find what they need - but I can find Murph and find a way to tell her - like I found this moment -
How?
TARS
(over radio)
COOPER
Love, Tars. Love - just like Brand said - that’s how we find things here.
TARS
(over radio)
So what are we here to do?
Cooper looks around the tesseract. The watch sits there on the shelf for as long as he can see ...
COOPER
The watch. That’s it. She’ll come back for it -
TARS
How do you know?
COOPER
Because I gave it to her. We use the second hand. Translate the data into Morse and feed it to me -
Tars starts to transmit. Cooper GRABS the second-hand world line - starts to MANIPULATE it, sending waves down the world line ...
TARS
What if she never came back for it?
COOPER
She will. She will ... I feel it
...
The second hand is FLICKING back and forth ...
INT. MURPH’S BEDROOM - TWILIGHT
Murph (forty) turns to leave ...
GETTY (O.S.)
MURPH, HE’S COMING!
She pauses. Goes back to the box - reaches in. PULLS OUT THE WATCH ... staring at it ... wondering ...
GETTY (O.S.)
MURPH?! MURPH ...?!
EXT. FARMHOUSE - TWILIGHT
Getty is holding a tire iron, watching TOM’S TRUCK APPROACH. Lois and Coop STARE, FEARFUL, from the truck ...
Tom APPROACHES, BLACK from soot ...
Murph BURSTS out of the house ... right up to Tom ...
MURPH
Tom, he came back ... he came back
...
Who?
TOM
She holds up the watch ...
MURPH
Dad. It was him. All this time ... it was him. He’s going to save us
...
CLOSE ON the second hand of the watch, FLICKING back and forth -
INT. PROFESSOR BRAND’S OFFICE - DAY
Murph furiously TRANSCRIBES the movements of the second hand
-
INT. CORRIDOR, NASA - LATER
Murph, papers in hand, RUNS down the corridor, BUMPS into Getty - doesn’t stop ...
INT. LAUNCH FACILITY - CONTINUOUS
Murph runs to the railing of the catwalk above the enormous construction, looks down at the thousands of workers below. Getty comes out after her, curious. She looks at him, then SHOUTS OUT to the enormous space ...
MURPH
EU-RE-KA!
She turns to Getty - GRINNING.
Well, it’s traditional.
She THROWS her paper out over the railing - EUREKA!!
Workers look up to see her papers flitting down ...
EXT. THE TESSERACT - DAY
Cooper looks out at the world line of the watch, of Murph, as it leads out into infinite complexity ...
COOPER
Did it work?
TARS
(over radio)
I think it might have.
COOPER
(hopeful)
Why?
TARS
(over radio)
Because the bulk beings are closing the tesseract ...
Cooper looks out to the distance - it is RAPIDLY APPROACHING, WORLD LINES BECOMING WORLD SHEETS, BECOMING BULKS ...
COOPER
Don’t you get it, yet, Tars? ’They’ aren’t ’beings’ ... they’re us ... trying to help ... just like I tried to help Murph ...
TARS
(over radio)
People didn’t build this tesseract
-
COOPER
Not yet ... but one day. Not you and me but people, people who’ve evolved beyond the four dimensions we know ...
The tesseract EXPANSION BACK INTO FIVE DIMENSIONS IS ALMOST UPON THEM - Cooper BRACES HIMSELF -
COOPER
What happens now -?
BAM - he is swept up in the expansion like a tiny leaf on a CHURNING WAVE -
Cooper FLIES through the EXPANDING COSMOS, past PLANETS ORBITING STARS, WHICH BECOME ATOMIC PARTICLES, WHICH BECOME MATTER, BECOMING STARS ...
Cooper APPROACHES A GLASSY TUBE. Inside is the OLD, UNDAMAGED ENDURANCE. As Cooper looks in from the bulk he sees: Brand, strapped in, Doyle opposite, traversing the wormhole for the first time ...
Cooper REACHES for Brand ... She sees something, reaches up
- their hands would touch if they weren’t in different dimensions, her fingers distorting the space of his fingers
-
WHAM! She, and the Endurance, are SWEPT PAST - Cooper is SMASHED into the spacetime of the wormhole - he SCREAMS AND WE -
INT. OUTER SPACE - LATER
Cooper FLOATS, dead or unconscious, near Saturn. In the distance we see two Rangers approaching ...
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY
Cooper’s eyes flicker open. A bright room with an open window, net curtains obscuring the view. We hear the CRACK of a baseball off a bat. Children LAUGHING.
VOICE (O.S.)
Mr Cooper? Mr Cooper?
Cooper looks over to see a Nurse and a Doctor watching him. He tries to sit up.
DOCTOR
Take it slow, sir. Remember you’re no spring chicken any more.
(Amused.)
I gather you’re one hundred and twenty-four years old.
(Checks Cooper’s chart.) You were extremely lucky. The
Rangers found you with only minutes left in your oxygen supply -
COOPER
Where am I?
The Doctor, almost surprised, TURNS, moves to the window, opens the curtains. Where Cooper should see sky, he sees a CURVING UPSIDE-DOWN TOWN ...
DOCTOR
Cooper Station. Currently orbiting Saturn.
The Nurse helps Cooper to the window. He looks out at the VAST CYLINDRICAL STATION - cornfields and buildings. Outside his window, kids are playing baseball. The batter hits a POP FLY ... the kids watch it up and up, until it carries on, falling up towards the buildings above. The kids SHOUT a warning - the ball smashes a skylight. Cooper watches the kids laugh.
COOPER
Nice of you to name the place after me.
The Nurse giggles. The Doctor shoots her a look -
What?
DOCTOR
The station wasn’t named after you, sir ... It was named after your daughter.
Cooper smiles at this ...
DOCTOR
Although, she’s always maintained just how important you were -
COOPER
Is she ...
(Braces.) still alive?
DOCTOR
She’ll be here in a couple weeks. She’s really far too old for a transfer from another station, but when she heard you’d been found ... well, this is Murphy Cooper we’re talking about.
COOPER
(marveling) Yes, it is ...
The Doctor is wrapping up -
DOCTOR
We’ll have you checked out in a couple days.
Cooper turns back to the window, thinking ...
ADMINISTRATOR (V.O.)
I’m sure you’ll be excited to see what’s in store ...
INT. HANGAR, COOPER STATION - DAY
The ADMINISTRATOR, thirties, leads Cooper along a walkway -
ADMINISTRATOR
We’ve got a nice situation for you
...
Cooper looks down at a line of SLEEK NEXT-GENERATION RANGERS. Sees a PILOT climb into one. Mechanics work another
...
ADMINISTRATOR
I actually did a paper on you in high school, sir. I know all about your life on Earth ...
EXT. TOWN SQUARE, COOPER STATION - CONTINUOUS
Cooper looks at the strangely ordinary town the Administrator is walking him through ...
ADMINISTRATOR
So when I made my suggestion to Ms Cooper, I was delighted to hear that she thought it was perfect ...
EXT. FARMHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
The Adminstrator leads Cooper through a cornfield ... The old farmhouse is there, preserved. As Cooper approaches, a small monitor starts playing the footage of OLD-TIMERS from the start of the movie.
ADMINISTRATOR
Of course, I didn’t speak to her personally ...
As Cooper passes the monitor it changes to a FAMILIAR OLD LADY, but Cooper misses it ...
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
OLD-TIMERS play on video screens: a museum exhibit. The Administrator holds the door open for Cooper.
ADMINISTRATOR
But she confirmed just how much you loved farming.
COOPER
She did, huh?
Cooper looks over the kitchen. Cooper sees a familiar-looking articulated machine -
COOPER
Is that ...?
ADMINISTRATOR
The machine we found out near Saturn when we found you, yes. Its power source was shot, but we could get you another if you want to try and get it up and running again.
Cooper turns to the Administrator.
COOPER
Please.
INT. HANGAR, COOPER STATION - EVENING
Cooper, from the catwalk, watches the last of the Rangers come back from patrol. The PILOT jumps down as the ground crew wheels it into its place in the line of sleek ships.
INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE - NIGHT
Cooper has Tars’ head laid out on the kitchen table.
TARS
Settings: general settings, security setting -
COOPER
Honesty. New level setting. Ninety-five percent.
TARS
Confirmed. Additional customization?
COOPER
Yes. Humor, seventy-five percent. Wait.
(Thinks.) Sixty percent.
INT. HOSPITAL WAITING ROOM - DAY
Cooper enters, nervous. A nurse is there.
COOPER
Is she -?
NURSE
The family’s all in there.
COOPER
The family?
NURSE
They all came along to see her - she’s been in cryo-sleep for almost two years.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Cooper cautiously pushes open the door. The bed is surrounded by people, grown-up children, grandchildren, babies ... They turn to look at him: some SMILES, some CURIOUS looks, a small child HIDES behind a parent’s leg ...
Cooper approaches, and the family parts to let him see an ELDERLY WOMAN, lying in the bed, FRAIL.
She looks up at Cooper. Delighted. Tears of joy. She reaches up to him ... he takes her hands.
COOPER
Murph.
Dad.
MURPH
(To the others.) Please.
Her voice is a frail whisper. With authority. The family shuffles out. Cooper watches them go, turns back to Murph.
COOPER
You told them I like farming.
Murph smiles, still mischievous. Cooper marvels at her.
COOPER
Murph, it was me. I was your ghost.
MURPH
I know ...
She lifts her wrist - the WATCH is there ...
MURPH
People didn’t believe me, they thought I’d done it all myself ...
(Taps watch.)
(MORE)
MURPH (cont’d) But I knew who it was ...
COOPER
A father looks in his child’s eyes and thinks - maybe it’s them - maybe my child will save the world.
MURPH
And everyone, once a child, wants to looks into their own dad’s eyes and know he saw. But, usually, by then, the father is gone. Nobody believed me, but I knew you’d come back.
How?
COOPER
MURPH
Because my dad promised me.
Cooper is crying now.
COOPER
I’m here now. I’m here for you, Murph.
Murph is shaking her head.
MURPH
No parent should have to watch their child die. My kids are here for me now. Go.
COOPER
Where?
MURPH
(it’s so obvious) Brand.
And the family comes back in as Cooper releases Murph’s hand, stepping back to let Murph’s kids and grandkids swarm over her ... He watches them, their love, as if from another dimension. A man out of time. A ghost.
MURPH (V.O.)
She’s out there ...
EXT. EDMUNDS’ DESERT PLANET - DAY
Brand, in suit and helmet, stands watching Case excavate a pod, buried under a massive rock fall. She is crying.
MURPH (V.O.)
Setting up camp ...
EXT. HANGAR, COOPER STATION - NIGHT
MECHANIC finishes looking over one of the sleek new Rangers. He packs his tools and heads out.
A figure unfolds itself in the shadows - Tars. He picks his way through the shadows, unlocks the door. Cooper DARTS in
...
EXT. EDMUNDS’ DESERT PLANET - DAY
Brand kneels in front of a small CROSS. Edmunds’ nameplate hangs from it.
MURPH
... Alone in a strange galaxy ...
She unseals her helmet - PULLS IT OFF ...
INT. HANGAR, COOPER STATION - NIGHT
Cooper and Tars scurry down the line of sleek ships. Cooper points - Tars starts working the hatch mechanism, while Cooper KEEPS WATCH ...
EXT. EDMUNDS’ DESERT PLANET - DAY
Brand, helmet off, BREATHES. And breathes again.
MURPH (V.O.)
Maybe, right now, she’s settling in for the long nap ...
INT. RANGER IN HANGAR, COOPER STATION - NIGHT
Cooper STRAPS into the pilot’s chair, Tars beside him. The outer doors slide open. They look out at the inky blackness of space ...
EXT. EDMUNDS’ DESERT PLANET - DUSK
Brand looks at the setting sun ...
MURPH (V.O.)
By the light of our new sun ...
INT. HANGAR, COOPER STATION - MORNING
The Mechanic opening up, walks along the row of ships until
-
One is MISSING.
EXT. EDMUNDS’ DESERT PLANET - DUSK
Brand turns from the dwindling light ...
MURPH (V.O.)
In our new home.
She heads down through the twilight towards camp. And we - Fade out.
Credits.
End.