Interstellar (2014): Dr Mann Uses Nature to Justify Murder

The awful secret that comes to light while the crew visits Dr. Mann's planet has nothing to do with the planet

Photo by Taneli Lahtinen on Unsplash

Last time, we looked at Cooper and his crew landing on the first of three planets that might sustain human life. Humanity’s time on Earth is running out, and Cooper’s crew has been tasked with finding it a new home. The first planet they tried turned out not to be so ideal, and that one trip cost them decades of valuable time thanks to relativity. The planet was too close to a black hole, which meant that it had created a dramatic time shift. On Earth, over twenty years have passed since their mission began.

Now the crew is traveling on to the next planet. The extra time spent on the first planet has left them with just enough fuel to check out one more potential home before returning to Earth. This might be their last chance to save humanity.

They land on Dr. Mann’s planet and find him in his cryobed. The crew wakes him from his sleep, and he begins crying. After he tells his story, the crew asks him about his planet, and he says that, while the place is cold, it will sustain human life.

Then a message from Murphy appears on one of the robot’s computer screens. She informs Dr. Brand that her father, Professor Brand, has died.

The great lie revealed

Murphy then asks Dr. Brand if she knew about her father’s lie. Did she know, for example, that her father planned to leave everyone on Earth to die? She also asks if her own father, Cooper, knew as well.

Dr. Brand insists that she doesn’t know what Murphy is talking about. But Dr. Mann confirms the horrible truth. He says that Professor Brand had given up on the gravity equation before the first group of explorers had even left. The problem was that, in order to solve the equation, Professor Brand needed to see inside a black hole, which was obviously impossible. So he’d concluded that sending embryos to another planet was the only way to save humanity. But he didn’t tell his colleagues, so people would continue to work together.

Both Cooper and Dr. Brand reject Dr. Mann’s excuses for the professor, and Dr. Brand asks Cooper what he would like her to do now. Cooper asks to go home. Dr. Brand, Romilly, and Dr. Mann agree and are willing to stay behind to begin raising the embryos in the planet’s settlements.

As Cooper is preparing to leave, Romilly makes an interesting suggestion. He’s been studying the black hole for years and believes it’s possible to drop one of the robots into it to retrieve data about the singularity and send it back to Earth. If the data from the black hole was all Professor Brand was missing to finish his equation, then someone could read it and solve the problem.

Then things start to turn odd

Cooper agrees to this idea, then goes with Dr. Mann to find the best place to build the settlements for the embryos. But while they’re searching for these potential campsites, things begin to feel odd. Dr. Mann keeps talking about the need to survive. It’s as if he’s trying to justify something.

Then, while the two men are looking out at the picturesque landscape of the planet, Dr. Mann rips off Cooper’s radio and pushes him off a cliff. Cooper is able to grab onto the cliff, but Dr. Mann climbs down to try and finish him off. Cooper, however, manages to make Dr. Mann lose balance, and the two men fall several feet.

Neither of them is killed, and as the two struggle to their feet, Dr. Mann confesses to faking his data. It seems that his earlier monologue about instinct was just an excuse to justify what he’d done. It’s always interesting how bad guys use nature to negate the importance of morality.

The two men continue to fight, and Dr. Mann is able to escape by cracking Cooper’s helmet. But Cooper is able to find his radio and call Dr. Brand so she rescues him from suffocation.

Meanwhile, Romilly, who has been busy repairing Dr. Man’s robot, doesn’t realize that the planet’s real data is on the robot. Or that Dr. Mann has rigged the robot to self-destruct so he can cover his tracks. Thus when Romilly activates the robot, the entire campsite explodes and Romilly is killed.

Then Dr. Mann takes one of the shuttles left at the campsite and tries to dock on the ship. Cooper and Dr. Brand try to stop him. Thankfully, one of their robots has disabled the shuttle’s automated docking sequence, and Cooper and Dr. Brand try to warn Dr. Mann. But he doesn’t listen to them. He tries to dock the shuttle, but when he opens the airlock leading into the ship, it explodes. Dr. Mann is killed, and the ship is sent spinning through space as it begins to descend toward the planet. However, Cooper is able to save the ship and dock his own shuttle, using his expertise as a pilot.

Looking back on all the action…

I found this entire sequence annoying. All the problems stem from Cooper losing his fight with Dr. Mann. For one thing, it’s way too unlikely for Cooper to find his radio again after Dr. Mann tossed it. Earlier aggravating coincidences in this film were justified by the interventions of the mysterious figures known as “They.” But no justification is implied here. It’s just dumb luck.

Second, Dr. Mann was a pilot; he would’ve known better than to open an airlock when the connection to the shuttle wasn’t secure.

Third, while the stunt performed by Cooper is an impressive spectacle, it’s just too hard to believe. It involves the shuttle matching the spin of the ship perfectly while centering the shuttle with the airlock. The whole thing was just too far removed from reality.

At one point, the robot even screams that this stunt is impossible, and Cooper says it’s necessary. Those lines felt like a bit of meta-dialog from the writers, talking over the possibilities with each other.

This whole sequence wasn’t really necessary. The main thing the writers were trying to accomplish was killing off Romilly. All they needed to do to pull this off without so many contrivances was let Cooper win his fight with Dr. Mann. Perhaps Cooper could’ve knocked him off a cliff during the struggle. Cooper’s radio was gone, so it would’ve taken him a long time to return to Dr. Mann’s settlement. Dr. Brand could’ve stayed outside, messing with supplies, while Romilly tinkered with Dr. Mann’s robot. Then the explosion could’ve killed him, and the robot that was left with Romilly could’ve explained what happened and told Dr. Brand and Cooper that Dr. Mann’s data was fake. Romilly mentioned how the data didn’t make sense before the explosion. The robot likely heard the remark. The sequence wouldn’t be as climactic but it would accomplish the same plot point in half the time.

Anyway, once Cooper secures the ship, one of the robots informs them that they are now being sucked toward the black hole. We’ll cover what happens then next time.