NOLAN: When I was a kid, everybody wanted to be an astronaut.
You know, we all wanted to be astronauts.
It's one of the reasons I was really drawn to telling this story in this setting...
...because astronauts are extraordinary people...
...and they should be allowed to be extraordinary.
This idea of Interstellar, this idea of a film...
...that basically tries to explain...
...or imagine the next step in human evolution...
...which is that the Earth is the nest, and at some point, we're gonna have to leave the nest.
It's just a decision that has to be made...
...in terms of how you view the human race's place in the universe.
The collision of the human scale with the interstellar scale becomes very emotional.
And that's a big part of where the drama took us...
...was this question of the vastness of space and time...
...and our desire to explore it and our need to explore it.
But the human cost of that.
This film, it's very much an ode or a homage to the humans as a species and their abilities.
ZIMMER: The basis of our human spirit, our sense of adventure, our sense of science...
...our sense of the impossible, it captures it in such an emotional way.
It's a spiritual connection.
I do think the film shows how important individual intelligence is.
You look at someone like Cooper, and even though he wasn't able to be an engineer...
...even though he was required to become a farmer, he didn't let his mind rest.
He didn't ever stop believing, stop pushing himself, he didn't stop thinking.
And no matter what you do, that's something that you have available to you.
That's something that's open to you, is how you choose to use your mind.
I have a curious mind...
...and I'm never comfortable just sitting back and going:
"Oh, it's all right. I'm just happy here.'' I wanna learn.
And I hope this movie instills a curiosity in other people.
My dad would say:
"The new frontier is not necessarily the Army and the Navy. It's the Air Force.”
You know, "It's out there."
I think we'll have a much better idea of just who and where we are in this universe...
...and probably be a lot less subjective...
...as thinking we're the center of the universe, you know?
And then people can grab ahold of it and have just real discussions about it.
THORNE: This is the destiny of the human race.
And it is something that we should be working toward...
...as a civilization, as a culture, as a long, long-range goal.
It is really very important for us as humans.
CAINE: A lot of science fiction can terrify you or thrill you.
Once you've seen the movie, you'll say, "I think you gotta continue.
You gotta get to space."
I would love for kids to watch this film...
...and get excited about the possibilities of space travel and exploration.
I think that what's fantastic about the science behind the film...
...is that, you know, there are so many possibilities...
...and there's so much more to explore.
Maybe this movie can be the inspiration...
...until we start flying again, or the inspiration to start flying again.
So let's put an idea out there that gets young people interested...
...and wanting to say, “I want to do that."
Space travel has always been that ultimate challenge.
And l think we have a generation who's absorbed the idea...
...of technological process as entirely Earthbound...
...and to do with making our everyday lives more easy or whatever...
...as opposed to the specialness and the extraordinary nature...
...of a few select individuals pushing the boundaries...
...of where the hu man race, the human species, has ever been...
...or can possibly go to.
I think it would be really thrilling if people got some sense from this film...
...that these ideas are worth thinking about, you know...
...beyond the scope of just watching Interstellar.