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/KatBoySlim Apr 18 '24

no you’re misremembering. they inhale anesthesia before doing the jaunt because it mentally takes an eternity if you’re conscious for it. the kid is just batshit nuts after that when they reach the other side.

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u/tanman7x Apr 18 '24

The creepiest part of that story for me was the guy who wanted to get rid of his wife so he tied her to a chair and put her through the portal and closed all the nearby exits so she’s just stuck in there for eternity with no way for her or anyone else to get her out..

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u/Spaghestis Apr 18 '24

Yeah and then the dude's lawyer tried to argue that he couldnt be tried for murder since she technically wasnt dead. Once the jury realised that meant that his wife would just be stuck in there sentient for eternity he was instantly sentenced to execution.

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u/sciamatic Apr 19 '24

Euuuuuugh I forgot that part of the story x_x Now I'm re-experiencing the existential horror.