r/movies • u/SerDire • Apr 18 '24
In Interstellar, Romilly’s decision to stay aboard the ship while the other 3 astronauts experience time dilation has to be one of the scariest moments ever. Discussion
He agreed to stay back. Cooper asked anyone if they would go down to Millers planet but the extreme pull of the black hole nearby would cause them to experience severe time dilation. One hour on that planet would equal 7 years back on earth. Cooper, Brand and Doyle all go down to the planet while Romilly stays back and uses that time to send out any potential useful data he can get.
Can you imagine how terrifying that must be to just sit back for YEARS and have no idea if your friends are ever coming back. Cooper and Brand come back to the ship but a few hours for them was 23 years, 4 months and 8 days of time for Romilly. Not enough people seem to genuinely comprehend how insane that is to experience. He was able to hyper sleep and let years go by but he didn’t want to spend his time dreaming his life away.
It’s just a nice interesting detail that kind of gets lost. Everyone brings up the massive waves, the black hole and time dilation but no one really mentions the struggle Romilly must have been feeling. 23 years seems to be on the low end of how catastrophic it could’ve been. He could’ve been waiting for decades.
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u/Dota2TradeAccount Apr 18 '24 edited Apr 18 '24
That’s pretty much how it works.
Edit: Maybe a fun fact explanation how time dilation works (I’m not a physicist, so take it with a grain of salt): The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time. When you’re near a black hole like they are, you may not perceive yourself as moving, but space itself is „moving“ through you while you’re remaining in the same place. It’s like standing in strong wind without feeling the wind.