Interstellar (2014)

Content warning: This film contains explicit language.

Rated PG-13

Spoiler warning: This webpage provides mild plot spoilers.

Released by Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, directed by Christopher Nolan.

  • Interstellar is a science fiction epic released by Paramount Pictures in the United States, and Warner Bros. Pictures internationally in 2014. The film stars Matthew McConaughey as Joseph Cooper, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, alongside Anne Hathaway as Dr. Amelia Brand, a NASA scientist specializing in planet colonization. The ensemble cast includes Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, Sir Michael Caine, Matt Damon, and more. Interstellar was met with critical acclaim, winning one Oscar Academy Award and five nominations amongst many other accolades.
  • Set in the year 2067, Interstellar follows Joseph Cooper on his journey to protect the fate of humanity in light of global famine. In this version of the future, the majority of staple crops have been wiped out by blight, or plant rot, and extreme dust storms are becoming more prevalent. Cooper is enlisted to pilot the Endurance spacecraft by NASA scientist Dr. John Brand, played by Sir Michael Caine, on a space mission to identify habitable planets along with his daughter Dr. Amelia Brand. After some debate, Cooper decides to leave behind his children in order to save them and the human race. The Endurance mission proceeds to search for a new home for humanity in a far away galaxy by flying through a wormhole near Saturn (image below).
  • You can watch a trailer for the film here.

Image from the movie Interstellar of the spaceship Endurance traveling through a wormhole on a mission to find a planet that can support life after conditions on Earth are no longer liveable (from NBC News, 2014).

How is this related to climate?

  • In Interstellar, the Earth is becoming no longer inhabitable due to changes in climate and crop failures. Corn is the last remaining crop left after disease wiped out the world’s wheat supply. Dust storms are also prevalent, ripping through towns and interfering with everyday life. While the cause of this is not directly explained in the film, the movie shows the threat that unstable climate can pose on agriculture and health. Characters in Interstellar wear equipment like masks and goggles to protect themselves from the airborne dust. Inhaling dust over prolonged periods of time has adverse health effects, causing respiratory issues and even death. 
  • The weather conditions in Interstellar are not entirely based in fiction. Dust bowls are prolonged periods of dust storms, usually due to intense drought and poor agricultural practices. One of the most famous of these events was the American Dust Bowl that happened during the 1930s. This event impacted over 75% of the United States with strong winds and dust storms reminiscent of the ones portrayed in the film (images below). Overplowing fields and replacing native grasses with crops like wheat led to loose topsoil. Due to overproduction, farmers eventually stopped growing crops, leaving fields barren. Winds picked up the loose dirt, creating dust storms and drought conditions, making it difficult for any plants to grow in the abandoned fields. The conditions killed over 7,000 people, and inhaling particles caused a disease known as “dust pneumonia.”

Image of a truck driving away from a dust storm in the movie Interstellar (from Patton and Jackson, 2024).

Photograph of a farming truck fleeing a dust cloud during the Dust Bowl in Colorado, U.S. 1936 (from Trimarchi, 2023).

  • Dust bowls have also been occurring in China and North Africa since the 1990s. The Gobi in Asia and the Sahara Desert in Africa have been expanding due to the desertification of nearby grasslands, mostly caused by overgrazing. Livestock have consumed vegetation in the surrounding grasslands faster than vegetation can regrow. With no plants to secure the soil, wind can pick it up and nothing can take root, leaving desert behind (image below). Goats, in particular, are responsible for the loss of fertile land because they forage any plants they can find and have sharp hooves that cause soil damage. As a result of desertification, large dust and sandstorms have occurred affecting global air quality and human health. Degraded land is also threatening agriculture in China and North Africa.
    • In an effort to stop the Gobi and Sahara Desert from expanding, governments and private organizations have made efforts to build “greenbelts” by planting trees and other plants at the edges of the deserts. By restoring vegetation, healthy soil is able to regenerate and carbon is sequestered. Some, however, criticize this approach because it requires water, a scarce resource in those regions, and recommend more sustainable herding practices instead.

Photograph of expanding sand dunes in the Gobi Desert in China (from World Bank Group, 2021).

  • The blight that has wiped out most crops in Interstellar also has roots in reality. Anthropogenic climate change is hastening the spread of certain plant diseases, threatening crop yields and making blight more common (image below). Disease is already one of the biggest threats to modern agriculture. For example, pests and infections are responsible for 10 to 40% of wheat and rice losses. In the film, farming education is a big thing, with most of the youth being taught and trained to become farmers in order to support the world’s food demand. Similarly, in the real world, a lot more research is needed to control pests and diseases to combat the rise brought on by climate change.

Photograph of an ailing coffee plant in Costa Rica infected with the fungus Hemileia vastatrix. Climate change is making plant diseases, including blight, more common (from Kim, 2021).

References and additional resources

How to cite this page

Interstellar (2014). (2025, January 31). Climate in Global Cultures and Histories: Promoting Climate Literacy Across Disciplines. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from https://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/interstellar-2014/.