Christopher Nolan has worked in science fiction for much of his career, but 2014's "Interstellar" is his most conventionally sci-fi movie. Set in a not-so-distant future where humanity is running out of time to find a suitable replacement for Earth, "Interstellar" combines the drama of love and family with real science.
For lovers of both sci-fi and heartfelt storytelling, it may seem difficult to find movies that fit into both categories. Luckily, we've found some others that feel a little similar. Here are some of the movies like "Interstellar" that are definitely worth watching.
For lovers of both sci-fi and heartfelt storytelling, it may seem difficult to find movies that fit into both categories. Luckily, we've found some others that feel a little similar. Here are some of the movies like "Interstellar" that are definitely worth watching.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 Interstellar was an instant hit for sci-fi and drama fans alike.
00:04 But what should you do if you want more like Christopher Nolan's bare-hearted blockbuster?
00:09 If you haven't experienced Disney's cult classic take on secretive science vessels yet, stay
00:13 tuned.
00:14 Christopher Nolan screened the right stuff for his production crew before filming Interstellar,
00:20 and he considers it a nearly perfect film.
00:22 It's also an excellent touchstone for fans looking to understand the emotional drive
00:26 behind Interstellar. Clocking in at over three hours, the 1983 adaptation of Tom Wolfe's
00:32 non-fiction exploration of the astronaut program asks for a lot from its audience, but rewards
00:37 them with some of the finest aerial footage in film history.
00:40 While Tom Wolfe's thick, journalistic work balanced the real-life characters with the
00:45 danger they faced, the movie focuses on those risks. It's a movie that bends the truth and
00:50 helped make a celebrity out of Chuck Yeager while underselling the achievements of John
00:54 Glenn and the crew of the Mercury Seven. Still, the combination of humanity and unmatched
00:59 technological drive makes The Right Stuff a must-watch for science fiction fans.
01:03 Between the unbridled machismo is the story of our species itself. As both The Right Stuff
01:09 and Interstellar prove, when faced with a dangerous riddle, humanity will not only find
01:13 the answer, we'll do it with style.
01:15 "What are you talking about, Hal?"
01:18 "This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it."
01:23 It's hard to add Stanley Kubrick's science fiction masterpiece to this list without feeling
01:27 like it's too obvious. Most people have seen this movie. It's a go-to reference for homage
01:32 and cheap parody, but 2001 A Space Odyssey earned its place in history for a reason.
01:38 The film treats space with the beauty and the terror it deserves, and its oddly hopeful
01:42 ending pairs well with the optimism intrinsic to Interstellar.
01:46 Kubrick worked with science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke to create a story that uses
01:50 silence to bring clarity, carried by the riddle of the monolith and stunning visual effects
01:54 and sets. Recreating our galaxy in mysterious and familiar ways, Kubrick frames Jupiter's
02:00 moons like isolated gods, bringing with them wonder and despair. The shots of Frank Pool
02:05 jogging in a centrifuge-powered loop within the Discovery spacecraft are understated,
02:11 while an earlier shot makes a stewardess' mundane behavior into magic.
02:15 In 2001, life in space feels natural, not action-packed, building a contrast that gives
02:21 the movie its acid-trip reputation. The trippy climax plays on Clarke's specialties, raising
02:26 a wordless but profound series of questions about what's next for our species. The ending
02:31 may be confusing, but its hopeful notes regarding our rebirth and space are clear.
02:38 Stanislaw Lem's novel can be as hard to describe as the sentient ocean it depicts. Solaris
02:43 depends on who's interacting with it. The Polish novel lost some of its themes when
02:48 translated to English, and all three film adaptations further water down its message.
02:53 Although both Steven Soderbergh and Andrzej Tarkowski's adaptations converge on the same
02:58 point Nolan rediscovers in Interstellar, space is humanity's darkest mirror, and the last
03:03 and most perilous place we can go to find ourselves.
03:07 While Soderbergh's film is worth watching, Tarkowski's 1972 version of Solaris remains
03:12 supreme. Although Tarkowski wasn't satisfied with his film, he came close to giving his
03:16 sci-fi lament the depth it needed. Solaris cannot be humanized, and it can't be understood
03:22 in any normal way. But it can be remembered, and the impact that has on a human mind can
03:27 rearrange a person down to their soul.
03:30 Tarkowski's Solaris is overwhelmingly contemplative, and its themes are blurry, but it does give
03:35 clues on how to follow its threads. Film School Rejects has a useful guide on how Solaris
03:40 frames memory, with all its loneliness, in contrast to the actual truth. Interstellar
03:45 draws from the same timeless ocean as Solaris, but injects hope into its story with warmer
03:50 cinematography and pure human emotion.
03:54 Released in 1972 in the shadow of both Solaris and 2001 A Space Odyssey, Silent Running is
04:00 often overlooked. It's easy to be driven away by its heavy-handed environmentalism, and
04:05 it's not as scientifically accurate as its predecessors. Where Silent Running thrives,
04:09 however, is in reminding the audience how to love the world around us. The emotional
04:13 toll the film takes on viewers willing to give it a chance is what makes it special.
04:18 Silent Running focuses on Freeman Lowell, a biologist played by Bruce Dern. After Earth
04:23 has been drained of nature, corporations have built small space arks to maintain some of
04:27 our forests and fauna. But the corporations cut funding for these refuges during the film,
04:33 driving Lowell to rebellion. His protests turn violent, and his victory is bittersweet.
04:38 It's on-the-nose stuff, but Dern's performance tugs at our souls to remember how the environment
04:43 nurtured us.
04:45 Silent Running also lays the foundation for one charming interstellar subplot. Nolan's
04:49 robots, Case and TARS, can trace their lineage back to the three service droids helping Lowell
04:55 maintain his forest. Just as TARS' dry loyalty and pre-programmed humor gradually make him
05:00 into something more than a mere appliance, the robots Huey, Dewey, and Louie's sacrifices
05:05 make them part of the film's human experience. By the end, it's impossible to not empathize
05:11 with their plight.
05:12 "I colonized Mars."
05:14 "In your face, Neil Armstrong."
05:21 Another easy pick, Ridley Scott's 2015 adaptation of Andy Weir's debut novel goes for the hardest
05:27 science it can without making the audience's eyes glaze over. The Martian thrives on the
05:32 same unstoppable hope that fuels the right stuff, yet somehow Mark Watney's plight feels
05:38 more realistic, despite being purely fiction. Ridley's cinematographer, Darius Wolski, with
05:43 the aid of both some stunning production design and NASA itself, turns a barren valley into
05:49 a more-than-passable vision of Mars, pulling the audience into the story of a stranded
05:53 astronaut. Watney's fight to survive and his dry, often absurdist humor make the audience
05:59 root and weep for him. It's a meme that rescuing Matt Damon gets more expensive in each subsequent
06:05 film, but Damon's warm and approachable take on Weir's good-humored botanist makes him
06:09 worth the cost. If The Martian had been released a few years earlier or later, it would have
06:14 become an even bigger science fiction touchstone. As it is, NASA's enduring love for the movie
06:19 will keep it alive alongside Interstellar for decades to come.
06:24 No one will ever claim that Michael Bay's Armageddon has any scientific accuracy. Even
06:29 the movie's star, Ben Affleck, has problems with the movie's logic, yet the film still
06:33 manages to show off the beauty and terror of space. Michael Bay received permission
06:38 to film at the Kennedy Space Center, making NASA's space shuttle as much of a star as
06:42 Bruce Willis and Steve Buscemi. That shuttle goes on to carry most of what we may liberally
06:47 call a plot, and the sight of its familiar silhouette, bright against the deep space
06:52 black, is guaranteed to stir the imagination.
06:55 The story may be a mess, but buried somewhere inside of Armageddon are themes similar to
07:00 those in Interstellar. In Armageddon, space is a mystery not easily tamed, while love
07:05 can shift almost any mortal odds. That makes Armageddon one of Michael Bay's oh-so-slightly-more-thoughtful
07:11 films, one that offers up almost touching moments of romance and familial love before
07:16 things explode. Armageddon may not be high art, and it may have all the accuracy of a
07:21 blindfolded archer after a six-pack of beer, but it remains a genuine joy to watch.
07:27 Moon is an intriguing take on the loneliness present in any number of science fiction films,
07:32 tying that sensation to a literal identity crisis. It's a little like Solaris, and has
07:36 many overt homages to Silent Running, a connection director Duncan Jones has discussed in interviews.
07:42 But while Moon resembles other deep space adventures and plays with the same emotions
07:46 those other ventures bring up, it also explores some real questions about how humanity could
07:51 live long-term on the lunar surface.
07:54 For science fiction junkies who love a little truth in their movies, the helium mining operation
07:58 that Sam Rockwell's character oversees is based out of a bunker made from Moon-produced
08:03 materials. That's a real-world concept that astrophysicists and geologists were already
08:08 discussing when Jones introduced his film to NASA. At the organization's request, Mooncrete
08:13 is a slice of grimy futurism that makes Moon feel all the more relevant. Sam Rockwell's
08:18 blue-collar stubbornness is an equally sturdy counterpart to McConaughey's trim farmer pretensions
08:24 in Interstellar.
08:25 "Vincent, were you programmed to bug me?"
08:27 "No, sir. To educate you."
08:30 Disney's bonkers cult classic is a pause in the evolutionary chain between Silent Running
08:34 and its silent trio of robots and the geometric buddies of Interstellar, Case and Tars. The
08:40 Black Hole introduces its cute robot, Vincent, along a crew of big-name 70 stars. The Roddy
08:45 McDowell-voiced bot quickly steals the movie with his smarts and empathy. After all, Vincent
08:51 figures out what's actually happening on the secretive science vessel at the edge of a
08:55 Black Hole by simply caring about his fellow robot, Bob.
08:58 Bob is barely hanging on, bullied by sentry machines and the terrifying robotic bodyguard,
09:04 Maximilian. But Bob also knows what Dr. Reinhardt did to the spaceship lab's original crew.
09:09 It's some grim stuff from Disney's most experimental era. The Black Hole brings its namesake space-time
09:15 object to life with some beautiful matte art and practical effects, although the results
09:20 can't compare to the realism of Nolan's Interstellar.
09:23 And the payoff is bizarre, bringing faith into the conversation about humanity's endurance.
09:28 But the Black Hole sticks in the mine for good reason, with Maximilian's silent, murderous
09:33 loyalty to Dr. Reinhardt making the movie's robots-gone-bad storyline powerful enough
09:38 to ensure that classic science fiction fans remain a little wary of robot sidekicks.
09:43 It's sheer coincidence that 1997's Contact also has Matthew McConaughey in it, but this
09:49 movie's method of blending science and faith makes it worth watching in addition to McConaughey's
09:53 later sci-fi blockbuster. The film holds up, in no small part due to some great camerawork.
10:00 A deceptively simple hallway sequence uses mirrors to visually portray the character's
10:04 fear of mortality and of loss, and the film's journey through space is a colorful showstopper
10:10 that's still incredible.
10:12 While some of the film feels as dated as Tom Skerritt's mustache, solid performances carry
10:16 an emotional impact that remains timeless. John Hurt as a joyously eccentric billionaire
10:21 S.R. Hatton lightens the movie's heavy emotional load, and a gentle performance by David Mors
10:27 provides a bedrock of love and acceptance that turns Jodie Foster's first Contact experience
10:32 into something full of earnest hope.
10:35 (music)