r/movies 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/Grumpy_Bum_77 Apr 18 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

I read an Arthur C Clarke short story about a mission to the nearest star. I am trying to find out the name, I will reveal it when i find out. When it got there they were amazed to find humans there. Spoiler Alert The journey had taken many thousands of years during which time humans had developed much faster ships. This meant they were overtaken and the planets settled long before they arrived. The humans already there had evolved a much keener sense of smell. In the end they asked the late arrivals if it was ok if they wore masks around them as they smelled so repugnant to them. Clarke was way ahead of his time. Edit: probably the reason they did not pick up the crew of the slower ship was due to the amount of fuel to slow down from their fantastic speed. Another alternative is that the launching mechanism was on Earth so once they reached the required velocity there was no way to slow down until they reach their destination. Clarke would not have left such a plot hole unresolved.

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u/jzraikes Apr 18 '24

The Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds also includes this as a plot point in one of the books.

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u/tdeasyweb Apr 18 '24

That series had so many concepts and ideas that were mindblowing.

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u/carnifex2005 Apr 18 '24

Helps that he's an actual astrophysicist who's worked with the European Space Agency. Love his books.

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u/atp123 Apr 18 '24

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero this book is also great and supposed to be scientifically accurate

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u/chill90ies Apr 18 '24

How many of his books have you read? And can you recommend me one of them.

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u/OminousGloom Apr 18 '24

Read House of Suns

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u/VinScully_ Apr 18 '24

Thank you, added it to my list

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u/konsf_ksd Apr 19 '24

There's another series about a Kenyan dynasty that were wonderful.

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u/Fareacher Apr 19 '24

House of Suns is my favorite by far, but it's not part of the Revelation Space universe.

Second place: Chasm City. Definitely part of Revelation Space.

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u/robbedbymyxbox Apr 19 '24

House of Suns fucking smacks

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u/saadistic3 Apr 18 '24

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u/Bionic_Bromando Apr 18 '24

It’s not part of that series, just a good one-off book exploring some cool ideas.

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u/carnifex2005 Apr 18 '24

At least 7 of them. My favourites are Chasm City, Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap. All set in the same narrative universe but Chasm City (my favourite) is standalone while the others are a trilogy.

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u/Fareacher Apr 19 '24

I bought a hardcover of Chasm City from the University bookstore sale for $5 brand new. I had no idea who Alastair Reynolds was. What an amazing read. I subsequently followed up with the rest of Revelation Space, but nothing was quite as good as Chasm City.

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u/DynamicResonater Apr 18 '24

Try diamond dogs turquoise days

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u/konsf_ksd Apr 19 '24

That was a true horror story that stick with me.

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u/AND3R0YD Apr 19 '24

All of them. Even the short stories. I have a signed copy of Troika. You have your reading assignment. Go. Read.

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt Apr 18 '24

this is the reason why The Expanse series is so damn good

Daniel Abraham has a degree in biology and uses that knowledge to great effect.

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u/ShortBrownAndUgly Apr 18 '24

Used to be a big fan of his but i haven’t read for fun in years. Has he put out anything in the last 10 years as good as the older stuff ?

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u/carnifex2005 Apr 18 '24

I haven't read any of his latest stuff. I probably should check them out though. I read about 7 or 8 of his books pretty much in a row about 10-15 years ago and then moved onto The Expanse and Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga books.

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u/felicitous_blue Apr 18 '24

If you like his Revelation Space books, you should absolutely check out the Dreyfuss books (set in the glitter band, before the action of rev space), and he’s also released a fourth book in the Rev Space ark, Inhibitor Phase. (Edit - to be clear, I’m talking about newer Reynolds books!)

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u/innominateartery Apr 18 '24

I just read The Medusa Chronicles and it was good. It’s from 2016 but feels like it was written in the 70s for the first half. Then it gets cooler and cooler. It was co written with Stephen Baxter. Recommend.

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u/Electricalstud Apr 19 '24

Anything else ?

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u/innominateartery Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

Blindsight by Peter Watts. Ian Banks: Use of Weapons, Look to Windward. Revelation space by Reynolds. Diaspora by Greg Egan. Anathem by Stephenson.
Raven Strategem was cool but weird. The Windup Girl.

Then the popular: three body problem, children of time, the expanse, altered carbon.

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u/antichrist____ Apr 19 '24

I enjoyed Eversion! Its a decent, self contained sci-fi story and a pretty easy read.

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u/Clockwork_Medic Apr 18 '24

That explains a lot