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• 1 media/InterstellarThemesBackground.jpg 2023-03-12T12:12:18-07:00 Interstellar: A Fight for Survival Caused by Denial 25 image_header 2023-03-17T12:27:48-07:00

  A Fight for Survival

  The first ecohorror theme we will discuss is humanity’s fight for survival that can be seen from several different angles in Interstellar. An example is the mission Cooper flies, in which the fight to survival is enveloped within flight from Earth. Ironically, it is later unraveled in the movie that the mission was never meant to save those on Earth, but rather repopulate a foreign planet using frozen embryos. This is particularly horrifying because it shows how easily the government and older generations can manipulate younger people into believing certain things. Similar to what is happening in the real world, Interstellar depicts the burden of the problems created by the older generations being placed upon the younger and future (considering the embryos) generations. 
  
  Another, more specific instance is when Dr. Mann lies to keep himself alive although it jeopardizes the mission and the future of humanity as a whole. Dr. Mann goes as far as trying to kill Cooper just to prevent him from learning about this lie, so he also was taking serious steps in the fight for the survival of his reputation. The betrayals shown throughout the film show the negative side of the human instinct to fight for survival, and, in particular, Dr. Mann's name symbolizes him as an embodiment of mankind's innate selfishness. This theme appears in almost all ecohorror works, as the premise of the genre is that nature strikes back in some way, forcing humanity to take measures to stay alive.

  Denial

  Another theme that appears in the film is denial. This is mostly seen at the beginning of the movie, when Cooper is still on Earth. The clearest example is when Cooper is talking with his father-in-law Donald about how the farmers tell themselves that the next year will bring a better harvest, even though they know that it will not. Specifically, Cooper says, "We farmers sit here every year when the rains fail and say ’next year’. Next year ain’t gonna save us. Nor the one after. This world’s a treasure, Donald. But she’s been telling us to leave for a while now (Interstellar)." At this point, things are looking so bad for the planet that those living on it have to repeatedly tell themselves lies just to prevent losing all hope. When Cooper says, "But she's been telling us to leave for a while now," he is implying that climate change is caused purely by nature. While climate change is a natural phenomenon, placing all of the blame on nature demonstrates denial as Cooper is not willing to admit that humanity's climate change problems were caused by humans themselves.
  
  Denial is an interesting theme that we see in ecohorror works, as it connects to real-life issues humanity faces, with both politicians and average citizens denying the existence of climate change despite there being concrete evidence for it. The appearance of denial in Interstellar delivers the underlying message to be applied to the real world that if this denial persists, it could lead to irreversible consequences, such as the state Earth finds itself in at the beginning of the film.
  
  A notable example that we can compare to is the business-minded mayor of Amity Island refusing to close the beaches in Jaws. The major distinction between the portrayal of denial in the two films is that in Jaws, the denial of the shark attack helps promote the greedy mayor’s interest in keeping the beaches open to keep the tourism income flowing, while in Interstellar, the denial is a result of there being no option other than false optimism due to the rapidly rising levels of desperation. Denial is likely also part of the reason why Earth was dying in the first place in Interstellar.
• 1 2023-03-01T08:46:34-08:00 Ecohorror Themes in Interstellar Bad 15 plain 2023-03-12T12:08:23-07:00

  The first ecohorror theme we will discuss is humanity’s fight for survival that can be seen from several different angles in Interstellar. An example is the mission Cooper flies, in which the fight to survival is enveloped within flight from Earth. This is ironic because it is later unraveled in the movie that the mission was never meant to save those on Earth, but rather repopulate a foreign planet using frozen embryos. Another, more specific instance is when Dr. Mann lies to keep himself alive although it jeopardizes the mission and the future of humanity as a whole. Dr. Mann goes as far as trying to kill Cooper just to prevent him from learning about this lie, so he also was taking serious steps in the fight for the survival of his reputation. These betrayals shown throughout the film show the negative side of the human instinct to fight for survival. This theme appears in almost all ecohorror works as the premise of the genre is that nature strikes back in some way, forcing humanity to take measures to stay alive.

  Another theme that appears in the film with relation to climate change is denial. This is mostly seen at the beginning of the movie, when Cooper is still on Earth. The clearest example is when Cooper is talking with his son Donald about how the farmers tell themselves that the next year will bring a better harvest, even though they know that it will not. At this point, things are looking so bad for the planet that those living on it have to repeatedly tell themselves lies just to prevent losing all hope. However, this false optimism does little to improve the situation, supporting a deeper message that we have to take action and cannot be passive towards climate change. A notable example that we can compare to is the business-minded mayor of Amity Island refusing to close the beaches in Jaws. The major distinction between the portrayal of denial in the two films is that in Jaws, the denial of the shark attack helps promote the greedy mayor’s interest in keeping the beaches open to keep the tourism income flowing, while in Interstellar, the denial is a result of there being no option other than to maintain a sliver of hope due to the rapidly rising levels of desperation.