Alright, I read the first 80 pages or so last night. Didn’t want to read anymore as to not spoil the bulk of the space journey/discovery, but ultimately, it probably doesn’t matter since Christopher Nolan is obviously doing a rewrite and combining this draft with an original idea of his own. Still, you can tell parts of this draft will definitely remain intact, because McConaughey is
perfect for Cooper, the lead, as currently written, and it’s now completely obvious why Nolan cast him. Same goes for Hathaway, as the role of Brand is obviously hers. So yeah, I didn’t want to risk spoiling anything else in the second half they may also still be using/repurposing for the eventual film (draft is 154 pages total).
As for the story itself, I’ll post the first six pages in order to give you guys a taste of the set-up. I’d never be able to explain it otherwise, and then I’ll give another another few paragraphs or so explaining the basic premise of the movie. Again, this draft was written solely by Jonathan Nolan (with story credit by Nolan, Kip Thorne, and Lynda Obst), commissioned by Spielberg himself. At one point, Spielberg was going to direct, but ultimately put it on the back burner. Now Christopher Nolan has come aboard to direct, rewriting this draft and, again, adding to it an original idea of his own. So read this at your own discretion. I’m only summarizing the first half (in very general terms) of a script that is being re-imagined, though I’d be willing to bet the basic set-up/premise remains somewhat the same...
Basically, 50 years in the future, the world is now a mess. The population is running out of food, and we get the impression that most people are now farmers, trying to grow, sell and eat what they can, but even the crops are becoming contaminated due to some infectious “blight.” Whole aspects of government have shut down, the infrastructure has gone to hell, but things have finally kind of evened out now, and society may even be on an upswing. There are still schools, colleges, businesses, corporations, etc. Even baseball - as the team on the bus in that last page is actually the Yankees. Cooper & his two sons watch them play locally in the next scene, though it’s made apparent that Major League Baseball now pales in comparison to what it once was.
Overall, it’s never really explained
why the world is like this. I kept waiting for there to be some explanation tying it to the emergence of the wormhole, but at least in the first 80 pages, no hard reason is given. I guess we’re supposed to believe that this is just the natural progression of things, as overpopulation is hinted at as one causing agent. But Ansen’s “Fifty years from now, nothing will be the same” remark in the opening - combined with that edit - made me think the two situations are supposed to be connected somehow. Either way, this has the potential to be a
great story/setting - and there are flashes of greatness throughout - but ultimately, I was left more confused than anything about the future state of affairs.
Character-wise, Nolan does a pretty good job setting up and portraying Cooper as a struggling engineer-turned-farmer. His wife died from cancer years ago, and he’s now a single father raising his two sons, while also having to deal with his crotchety old father-in-law, who lives with them as well. And Cooper is given a couple of instances to show how brilliant an engineer he is. The problem is that there’s no real use for his skills in this world. He’s rigged all kinds of ingenious contraptions, and, in general, seems to be doing fairly well. Though, you really get the sense that he’s ultimately a man out-of-time, longs for more, etc. And this aspect has Spielberg written all over it. It’s almost
Close Encounters of the Third Kind in nature, at least as far as the family dynamics go (though Cooper, while somewhat space-obsessed, is seemingly a much better father than Roy Neary ever was).
Anyway, long story short, by way of some work Cooper once did in Galveston, he comes across a mysterious, downed NASA probe, which ultimately leads him to an island off the coast of California. It's on this island that he discovers a secret, underground facility where a team of specialists (lead by the assistant in the opening scene, now in his 70s) are building a rocket (the assistant’s daughter, Amelia Brand, is part of the team, and is likely the Hathaway role). The downed-probe is theirs, and it’s somewhat implied that certain members of this group are what’s left of NASA (though it’s never fully explained). Ultimately, the plan is for a small team to take the rocket and rendezvous with a nuclear-powered spaceship being built in-orbit, that will ultimately take them through the wormhole to a newly-discovered planet (discovered via the probe), where this group can start a new human colony. Scientist who are part of this covert operation have discovered that the “blight” affecting the crops is only getting worse, there’s no cure, and that, essentially, “the Earth has had enough of us.” So this is a mission to save humanity. A team will go through the wormhole - which has arguably been built/made by some unknown, higher intelligence, almost as an invitation - and they’ll establish a colony on the new planet, then make as many trips as they can, and bring back as many people as they can, before the world goes completely to hell. Before the launch, Cooper ultimately proves himself valuable, and is invited to join the crew making the initial trip. He refuses at first, but ultimately decides that by attempting to save humanity, he’s saving his sons, etc. and finally decides to leave his family behind.
This all happens by page 50 or so. And, in theory, makes for a
really cool story. It’s simultaneously super-technical, hard-core science fiction stuff (in the best way), with some great character-building, while at the same time feeling too rushed, in that Nolan is trying to get the team on their mission as fast as possible. Which is understandable, but ultimately ends up hurting the story. Cooper gets flung into this covert, underground group so fast, and is on the rocket in no-time, that there’s really no sense of awe to the whole thing. And like I mentioned, none of it is really explained well either. Case-in-point, the group has these sentient, life-like robots helping them out, who are actual characters in the story and members of the crew, but they kind of come out of no where in the grand scheme of things. Apparently similar robots are building the nuclear-powered ship in orbit, but it’s never explained how this group got them there or had the resources to even do such a thing. Going back to my issue of this future-world not being explained very well, it’s hinted that these robots were built years and years ago, and were a part of everyday society, before the world starting falling apart. But it’s not completely clear. Initially, we get the sense that this future-Earth kind of sucks and is not very technology-dependent. But then all of the sudden, this covert group Cooper discovers has all these holographic displays and sentient robots - which is apparently all “old” technology, but maybe not really. It
could end up being a really cool dichotomy, but as presented, it was just kind of confusing and felt somewhat inconsistent. Before being introduced to the underground facility, there was never any hint that the world reached a point of such advanced technology, before the problems began. If even given a hint, it would have made this section not so out-of-left-field.
After that point, I read maybe 15-20 pages of the actual space stuff that followed. The wormhole “entrance” is close to Jupiter, and the crew makes it there incredibly fast. Like, in a matter of a couple of pages, with no real sense of how long it
actually took them. It’s weird. Though, there are all kinds of cool, trippy things with the wormhole (which felt very director-Nolan-esque, and should look amazing on-screen). But again, I didn’t want to spoil the majority of the space journey/discovery aspect beyond that moment. The planet where they eventually arrive has a unique feature/aspect that could look amazing on screen, but who knows if Nolan is even keeping that part of the story. The destination - even the journey itself - could end up being something completely different.
Ultimately, the story has an insane amount of potential, and I have no doubt Nolan-the-writer/director will knock it out of the park. As is, certain beats of this 2008 draft feel a bit too similar to
Contact and
Prometheus, but I’m sure those issues will be addressed, along with the world-building issues I expressed (hopefully). Once more info starts coming in, and the first stills/trailer are released, it’ll be fun seeing how much of this draft is still being used. Like I said, the Cooper role screams McConaughey so much so that the whole farmer/blighted-crops aspect seems like it still has to be in play. Which makes me think the setting/problem being faced by the characters is much the same as well. Same goes for Hathaway as Brand, and also Michael Caine, who’s surely playing either Ansen in the opening, or the elderly version of his assistant. Time will tell...
[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 6/4/2013 3:11p).]
