Interstellar

Apr 17

Written By Jason Cekanski

Story Anatomy and Analysis Forms

(captions on photos best viewed on a desktop or tablet)

1. Act Structure Overview

1.1 Act Structure Details and Captions

Act 1 | Setting

Earth is suffering from a decline in Oxygen due to blight destroying crops, thus humanity will starve and then suffocate if nothing is done.

Act 1 | Protagonist - Donald

Father in-law of Coop who assists in familial responsibilities.

Want - To have Coop do the right thing for the right reasons. The “Why” of the thing.

Act 1 | Protagonist - Cooper

Previous pilot turned farmer, Cooper tends to his family and farm to continue providing food for the economy.

The Conscious Want and/or Unconscious Need happens at the inciting incident when their life gets thrown out of balance. For Coop, his balance was upset when he was relieved from being a pilot, and then again when the anomaly brought them to NASA.

Want - To serve as a pilot again and start a new colony of human race while gravity is solved so that he can return to his family.

Need - To sacrifice himself into the black hole to save New Earth, humanity, his children and himself. Physical/Extra-Personal/Personal/Inner Personal Levels of conflict satisfied. Brand saves Earth via Dr. Edmunds sacrifice and Coop.

Want - To serve as a pilot again and start a new colony of human race while gravity is solved so that he can return to his family.

Act 1 | Protagonist - Murph

Child of Cooper, Murph believes that her Dad left them to die while he carried on his life. She apprentices Professor Brand in assisting him to solve for Gravity.

Want - To solve gravity.

Need - To believe her father is out there to save them.

Act 1 | Protagonist - Dr. Brand

Only child of Professor Brand who has a love for Dr. Edmunds, who is one of the Astronauts to be part of the Lazarus mission.

Want - To follow her love

*Fun note, had they followed her love from the start, they would have found a viable planet to start a colony and Cooper could have returned home, but the path of heading into the blackhole would have never been taken and therefore gravity wouldn’t have been solve, nor the human race saved.

Act 1 | Protagonist/Antagonist - Professor Brand

Professor of NASA who believes that humanity will only put themself first over species so therefore uses others as a sacrificial being for his projected narrative via a lie and sends out a crew to fill his desire of starting a colony on a planet as sustainable as Earth. He knows they cannot return and lies to them to motivate them. (Danger of known hidden intentions)

Want - For humanity to leave the world.

Act 1 | Antagonist - Blight

A plant disease that is reducing the Oxygen in the atmosphere thus posing the threat to the extinction of the human race via starvation them suffocation.

Act 1 | Inciting Incident

Professor Brand offers the opportunity to Cooper to not only fulfill his purpose as a pilot over a farmer, but to save his children and humanity.

Reluctant to accept due to his feeling of obligation to his children, he accepts due to the possibility to save them and following generations.

Act 1 | Break

After a heart to heart with Donald, Coop confirms his “Why” and chooses to do what he believes is right.

Act 2 | Start

Cooper, Dr. Brand, Romilly, Smith, Doyle all head out to space to seek out a new Earth to save humanity, either through continuing the species or solving gravity.

Act 2 | Midpoint Reversal - Ordinary World

This is when Murph stumbles across the fact that Prof. Brand has been trying to solve gravity with a recursive equation…But Why? We wonder exactly what Prof. Brand has been up to. Payoff - Actually he had lied about the mission, it was never to save the people on Earth. Plan A was never an option.

Act 2 | Midpoint Reversal - Special World

The message makes it to the Special World and now Coop and Brand are aware of the motivating force and now the discordant believe/tension between Coop and Murph…Murph believing her Dad left her to suffocate (forsake her) and Coop believing he can come back to her, but the message cannot be communicated.

Act 2 | All is Lost - Ordinary World

Fields are burning

Lungs/health is compromised

Dust is increasing

Act 2 | All is Lost - Special World

Marooned by Dr. Mann, Coop and Dr. Brand have lost resources to return home, lost crew members and may need to leave something else behind.

Act 2 | Dark night of the Soul

The emotional reaction of the characters after finding out everything they have been working towards is at stake, if not momentarily gone. Hence Dark Night of the Soul.

Coop and Brand dont necessarily emote much at this point, rather they think, plan and act quickly as that is necessary in their situation.

Act 2 | Break

After assessing all their resources and opportunities, Coop and Brand make a plan to slingshot around Gargantua to get to Edmunds planet to continue the species.

Act 3 | Start

Plan of attaining gravitational data and slingshotting to Dr. Edmunds planet in order, they start acting it out.