A blighted earth, a travel in time to find an alternate place to humankind

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2014)

The earth is dying due to blight. A group of NASA explorers (McConauughey as Cooper the pilot, Hathaway Anne as Dr. Brand, David Gyasi as Doyle and Wes Bentley as Romilly,) are sent to space to retrieve data from 12 probes established by previous space missions to help answer questions so humankind can live at other planets.
The old Prof. Brand (Michael Caine) has sent missions in space, with a particular interest in crossing the worm hole near Saturn so they can get to other galaxies to find suitable planet systems for the remaining humans to settle & thrive. The 4 NASA scientists fly into space in a circulating station to retrieve the probes for data to help answer the questions so humankind can live outside of the earth
Cooper's young daughter, Murph, intelligent, astute, is devastated that her father, whom she is close to, is leaving her. She has been aware of some "gravitational" things happening in their old farm house, particularly in her room with bookshelves, which she & her dad have somehow figured out what their message was through Morse code, binary messages. It brought them to the secret NASA place which is building the rocket to bring the 4 NASA explorers outer space; Murphy has figured out the message "Stay," all not making sense yet.
Cooper leaves Murphy a watch as a parting gift, telling her that time in space is much slower, that he will not age as much as her & her brother who has turned out to be a farmer like his dad, growing corn, the only crop that now thrives. They have lost their mother from cancer and have been raised by Cooper and his dad.
The NASA explorers of 4 go up in space, are able to pass through the worm hole & reach the 1st planet where they are able to retrieve 1 probe. Here, astronaut Doyle dies from the swell of tsunami waves as high as a mountain due to Dr. Brand's (Anne) determination to retrieve the probe. The NASA astronauts also have a robot sidekick, TARS, which facilitates things for them. They have been away for 23 years earth's time now.
The explorers are running out of fuel due to unforeseen circumstances!
Dr. Brand who has expressed that she is in love with Dr. Edmond, who may have perished by now, wanted to go to his planet. Cooper, in the interest of saving fuel, diverted their space ship to Dr. Mann's (Matt Damon) planet instead, a wasteland of ice.
They find Dr. Mann in a prolonged state of sleep, his other co explorers dead, & were able to wake him up from his sleep. This is where the notion of the missions being a sham was brought up, 12 of them already, a thought that came to Jessica Chastain (the older Murph). who is now a brilliant scientist who worked with Prof. Brand until his death from natural causes. She promised to keep his work going to find an alternate home for humankind.
A fight ensues between Cooper & Mann, who is trying to kill Cooper because he found out the Mann fudged his data. Cooper is so angry that he went on a supposedly sham mission, leaving his family whom he loves so much behind. Here we see the vast Icelandic wasteland, digitally enhanced per Iowa Public Radio interview with Christopher Nolan, the director.
The 3 NASA explorers (Cooper, Brand, & Romilly) try to escape Mann, who is also trying to get to the station which can bring him back to earth. Mann meets an unfortunate death in this attempt. Romilly dies in an explosion at the Icelandic wasteland planet.
The space station is now running out of fuel. Cooper thought to use the black hole as a sling shot to get them further closer to earth, and eventually dislodges TARS and his pods so Dr. Brand (Anne) can reach the earth, which Brand did not know Cooper will do. Romilly also explained that getting data from the passage to the black hole may give them the answer to the gravitational question that precludes them from establishing a home base outside the earth.
C. explains that because Cooper went through the 'singularity' of the black hole. he was able to transcend time, go into a 5th dimension, where he can be in any time frame. He is now behind the bookshelves, seeing Murph, but she cannot see him. Remember the mysterious gravitational anomalies in Murph's room, the binary signs, the Morse codes sent then? It is how Cooper communicated with the now grown scientist Murph, how he shared the data from the probes they gathered, so she can find the answer to humankind's ability to live in Saturn.
And indeed she does! Cooper crashes, wakes up in a hospital room, and behold, the hospital is in a space station in another suitable planet! There are kids playing baseball, the grass is green. They also tell him that they found TARS the robot, but he has been destroyed & is out of commission.
Murph who is now much older and close to dying, is honored by having the colony station in Saturn named after her. Cooper thought at first that he was the one being honored :-)
Cooper visits the now dying Murph, who is surrounded by her family. It is a happy but tearful reunion. Murph beseeches her dad to go & find Dr. Brand, who crashed into a planet, and who may be waiting for him. Murph has her own family now who will stay with her in her dying days.
Cooper reinvigorates, fixes the robot TARS who helps him go out to space to find Dr. Brand.