A father flies into space to save the world — and loses years with his children. And the science is real.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is D" — then check.
1 = C (a planet) · 2 = D (a spaceship) · 3 = B (dust) · 4 = A (a farmer)
5 = G (a scientist) · 6 = F (to save) · 7 = E (a message) · 8 = H (a journey)
Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014). Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it.)
In the future, the Earth is sick. A plant disease is killing the food, and big storms of dust cover the land. Life is hard. Cooper is a farmer, but he was a pilot before. He lives with his two children, Tom and Murph. Murph is a clever young girl who loves science.
One day, Cooper and Murph find a secret place. It is NASA, the space company. The scientists tell him bad news: soon, people will not be able to live on Earth. But there is hope. There is a special "door" in space, near the planet Saturn. It can take a spaceship to new worlds.
The scientists ask Cooper to fly the spaceship. He must leave his children to try to save everyone. Murph is very sad and angry. She does not want him to go. Cooper promises, "I will come back." But he does not know how hard that will be.
1. Why is life on Earth so hard in the film?
2. What do the scientists ask Cooper to do?
1. A plant disease is killing the food, and there is a lot of dust. Soon people will not be able to live there.
2. They ask him to fly a spaceship through a "door" in space to find a new world for people to live on.
Cooper and the other astronauts travel very far. They find a planet with water. But there is a big problem. The planet is very near a black hole — a place in space with very strong gravity. Near a black hole, time is strange. On this planet, one hour is the same as seven years on Earth!
The astronauts want to be quick, but something goes wrong. They stay on the planet for only a few hours. But when they go back to their spaceship, many years have passed. One man who waited for them is now twenty-three years older.
Cooper watches videos from his children. In the videos, Tom and Murph get older and older. He was not there for their birthdays. His little girl is now a grown woman — the same age as him. Cooper cries. He did not die, but he lost many years with his children.
1. Why is time strange on the water planet?
2. What does Cooper see in the videos from home?
1. The planet is very close to a black hole. The strong gravity makes time go slowly. One hour there is seven years on Earth.
2. His children growing up without him. His daughter Murph is now a grown woman, the same age as Cooper.
At the end, Cooper goes into the black hole. He should die, but he does not. He finds a strange place where he can see Murph's bedroom from the past — from when she was a little girl. He understands something amazing: the "ghost" that Murph saw as a child was him!
Cooper cannot speak to Murph across time. So he sends her a message in a secret code, using the books and the dust in her room. Murph is now a scientist. She reads the code. It helps her save all the people of Earth.
Many years later, Cooper is still young. But Murph is now very old. They meet for a few minutes after all those years. Murph is happy, and she tells him to go and find his friend, who is waiting on another planet. The film says one thing is stronger than time and space: love.
1. Who was the "ghost" in Murph's room?
2. When Cooper and Murph meet at the end, why is it strange?
1. It was Cooper. From inside the black hole, he could reach back to her room in the past and send her a message in code.
2. Cooper is still young, but Murph is now very old. He lost so much time that his daughter became older than him.
This film is full of the future — promises, plans and what people think will happen. English has two easy ways to talk about the future.
Read the meaning in brackets and complete the sentence.
1. Cooper promises his daughter, "I come home." (a promise)
2. The scientists have a plan. Next month they send a spaceship into space. (a plan)
3. Look at the sky — that dust storm hit the farm. (you can see it coming)
1. will (a promise)
2. are going to (a plan they made before)
3. is going to (you can see it coming)
Put the verb in the correct form after will or going to. Then read it out loud.
1. I think people will (find) a new planet one day.
2. She is going to (study) science at university.
3. Don't worry — I will (help) you.
1. find (will + base verb)
2. study (going to + base verb)
3. help (will + base verb)
Fill each gap with will or going to. Read it aloud when you finish.
Cooper says goodbye. "I come back, I promise." The scientists have a plan: they fly to three new planets. Murph looks at the dust and says, "Everything change."
will (a promise) · are going to (a plan) · is going to / will (a prediction)
Use will for promises and predictions, and going to for plans and things you can see coming.
Here is the surprising part: a lot of the "crazy" science in this film is real. A famous scientist helped to make it.
A famous physicist called Kip Thorne helped to make the film. He later won the Nobel Prize — the biggest prize in science. He made sure the science in the film was real. The black hole in the film was made from real science, not just imagination.
The saddest idea in the film — one hour is seven years — is based on real science. It is called time dilation. Where gravity is very strong, like near a black hole, time really does go more slowly. This is real, and scientists have tested it many times.
It even happens on your phone! The GPS in your phone uses satellites high in space. Up there, time is a tiny bit faster than on the ground. Scientists must fix this small difference every day. If they did not, your maps would be wrong. So this strange idea is real science, not just a film.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of Interstellar in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a sick Earth with dust and dying food → a father leaves his children to fly into space → a planet where one hour is seven years → he loses many years with his family → love and a message across time.
Try to use some key words (planet, spaceship, dust, farmer, scientist, save, message, journey) and will / going to.
Cooper leaves his children to help all people. Was this right? What would you do — stay with your family, or go and try to save everyone? Say why.
Talk about the future. Use will and going to.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: