The Hero’s Journey Breakdown: ‘Interstellar’

How does Interstellar (2014) follow Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey breakdown? Welcome to a continuation of The Hero’s Journey Breakdown where I explore Joseph Campbell’s mythological storytelling structure and how iconic films fit into that mold.

The late Hollywood creative executive Christopher Vogler’s approach to Campbell’s structure broke the mythical story structure into twelve stages that were more applicable to the cinematic storytelling structure. For this series, we define the stages in simplified interpretations.

The 12 Stages of the Hero’s Journey

1. The Ordinary World: We see the hero’s normal life at the start of the story before the adventure begins.
2. Call to Adventure: The hero is faced with an event, conflict, problem, or challenge that makes them begin their adventure.
3. Refusal of the Call: The hero initially refuses the adventure because of hesitation, fear, insecurity, or any other number of issues.
4. Meeting the Mentor: The hero encounters a mentor who can give them advice, wisdom, information, or items that ready them for the journey ahead.
5. Crossing the Threshold: The hero leaves their ordinary world for the first time and crosses the threshold into adventure.
6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies: The hero learns the rules of the new world and endures tests, meets friends, and comes face-to-face with enemies.
7. The Approach: The initial plan to take on the central conflict begins, but setbacks occur that cause the hero to try a new approach or adopt new ideas.
8. The Ordeal: Things go wrong and added conflict is introduced. The hero experiences more difficult hurdles and obstacles, some of which may lead to a life crisis.
9. The Reward: After surviving the ordeal, the hero seizes the sword—a reward that they’ve earned that allows them to take on the biggest conflict. It may be a physical item or piece of knowledge or wisdom that will help them persevere.
10. The Road Back: The hero sees the light at the end of the tunnel, but they are about to face even more tests and challenges.
11. The Resurrection: The climax. The hero faces a final test, using everything they have learned to take on the conflict once and for all.
12. The Return: The hero brings their knowledge or the “elixir” back to the ordinary world.

Here, we turn to the Christopher Nolan classic Interstellar, co-written by Jonathan Nolan.

Read More: How Christopher Nolan Develops Movie Concepts

‘Interstellar’ (2014)

The Hero’s Journey Breakdown: Interstellar

As with any application of story structure or formula, this is just a hindsight interpretation and implementation of The Hero’s Journey to this cinematic tale. There can and will be variances.

Scripts from this Article

Interstellar

The Ordinary World

Interstellar introduces the audience to Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), who lives a quiet, mundane life on a struggling farm with his children, Murphy (Mackenzie Foy) and Tom (Timothée Chalamet), in a future Earth ravaged by environmental collapse.

The world is plagued by dust storms and crop failures, and humanity’s survival is at stake. Cooper’s life revolves around maintaining his farm and raising his children, but remnants of his past as a NASA pilot hint at unfulfilled ambitions.

We see that Cooper has a deep love for his family. He also is grasping onto the past.

Call to Adventure

The call to adventure comes when Cooper finds a downed drone.

This leads to his discovery of mysterious gravitational anomalies that help Cooper and Murph discover NASA’s hidden facility.

There, Cooper learns about a plan to find a habitable planet for humanity. Professor Brand (Michael Caine) explains that a wormhole near Saturn offers a chance to explore distant galaxies and find a new home.

Cooper is asked to pilot the mission, reigniting his passion for exploration but presenting a heart-wrenching dilemma—leaving his family behind.

Refusal of the Call

Cooper is initially reluctant to accept the mission, knowing the pain it will cause his children. His refusal is brief, but it’s there.

Read More: When Nature Calls: Survival Movies on the Big Screen

Meeting the Mentor

Professor Brand initially serves as Cooper’s primary mentor in Interstellar, providing the scientific knowledge and emotional encouragement needed for the mission. Brand’s belief in the mission’s importance bolsters Cooper’s resolve.

Crossing the Threshold

Cooper crosses the threshold when he and his crew leave Earth aboard the Endurance. This marks his entry into the unknown—a journey through the wormhole into a new galaxy.

The transition in Interstellar is both literal and symbolic, as Cooper leaves behind the familiar world of unimaginable possibilities and dangers.

Tests, Allies, and Enemies

In the cosmos, Cooper meets his allies, makes a surprising enemy, and faces a series of tests.

Amelia (Anne Hathaway), as well as robots TARS and CASE, provide essential support and guidance, becoming steadfast allies. The crew encounters a planet with extreme time dilation, costing them precious years.

A supposed ally turns into an enemy when his desperation leads him to betray the crew.

The Approach

Cooper and the crew going to Miller’s planet is the initial approach. The crew lands on Miller’s planet, a world dominated by knee-high water and the crushing reality of extreme time dilation—every hour there equals years back on Earth.

What starts as a cautious investigation of the wreckage left by Miller’s ill-fated expedition quickly turns into a fight for survival. A towering tidal wave looms on the horizon, claiming a crew member’s life and leaving the lander’s engines waterlogged, stranding the team in a literal race against time.

The Ordeal

When they leave the planet, Cooper and Amelia discover that 23 years have elapsed during their mission.

They only have enough fuel to go to one of the two remaining planets.

The ordeal starts during Cooper’s confrontation with Dr. Mann (Matt Damon) on an ice planet. Mann’s betrayal results in catastrophic damage to the Endurance and nearly costs Cooper his life. This sequence tests Cooper’s physical and emotional endurance.

The escape from Mann’s planet and the subsequent docking maneuver exemplify Cooper’s resilience and ingenuity.

Cooper realizes that he must take a leap of faith into Gargantua, the black hole, to secure data that could save humanity.

The Reward

The reward comes during the road back, and later when an older Murph (Jessica Chastain) gets Cooper’s message. Cooper communicates with Murph across time using Morse Code, giving her the information needed to solve the gravity equation and save humanity.

The Road Back

The road back occurs after Cooper enters the Tesseract, a higher-dimensional space where time is a tangible dimension. Cooper manages to go back to the moment when he said goodbye to Murph when she was a child. The reward of Cooper’s mission throughout Interstellar comes on the road back.

The Resurrection

The resurrection occurs when Cooper emerges from the black hole and is rescued near Saturn. He is reunited with humanity, now thriving on Cooper Station, which is an orbiting habitat.

This stage represents his rebirth as a hero who has fulfilled his destiny.

Cooper is reunited with an elderly Murph (Ellen Burstyn), giving them both closure.

The Return

The return can be seen as coming during Cooper’s resurrection but comes as Cooper embarks on a new journey at the end of the film. With humanity’s survival secured, he steals a ship and sets out to find Amelia, who is establishing a colony on a distant planet.

This return to adventure underscores Cooper’s enduring spirit and his role as an explorer throughout Interstellar. He’s finally able to pursue something beyond his family.

If you want to dive in deeper, check out our other Hero’s Journey Breakdowns!

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed, and many Lifetime thrillers. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies and Instagram @KenMovies76.