When Fiction Inspires Non-fiction – The Case of Interstellar

By: Neha N., Grade 10

When most people think about genres of literature, there seems to be some that are inherently more closely related than others. For example, many regarde fantasy, science-fiction, and dystopia as triplets, while comedy and horror seem like polar opposites. Much like comedy and horror, the broad umbrella categories of fiction and non-fiction are categories that, at least historically speaking, saw little mixture. Until the early nineteenth century, fiction and non-fiction had no place togethr, but new authors began to venture outside these set norms in more modern ways than before. Marking the meeting of these two umbrella genres came science fiction, a newer genre that originated from classics such as Frankenstein or The New Time Machine. Books including these and many others have huge variety and diversity, with writing styles ranging from classic to contemporary and worldbuilding settings stretching from the depths of the ocean to outer space. Yet, despite this huge reach, the one grounding and identifying element of science fiction is that it is inspired by reality. Science fiction authors most likely go through more research in developmental stages of writing than any other genre of fiction, with entire plots being at least somewhat rooted in reality and scientific thinking. In today’s world, it is a given that fiction is inspired by non-fiction and science, but it is also true (and perhaps less appreciated) that the reverse is a reality as well–just as non-fiction can set the stage for fiction, fictitious works, often science fiction, has led to scientific discovery and non-fiction awareness as well. In particular, I will be focusing on the movie Interstellar. 

Interstellar, a critically acclaimed and well-known science fiction film, has dystopian elements in addition to classic science fiction. Set on a version of Earth where humankind is facing the looming threat of extinction from a combination of environmental catastrophes, a NASA scientist comes up with the idea to send astronauts through a wormhole in order to find a habitable planet that the human race can be successfully moved to. The team of astronauts must then explore options for humankind’s new home and make it back to Earth to save everyone. While producing this movie, it is well-known that experts such as Dr. Kip Thorne, who is a theoretical physicist, and Rob Owen, an assistant professor of physics, were heavily involved in order to ensure as much scientific accuracy as possible. When assistant professor Owens was asked about his reaction to seeing the completed movie after it was produced, he emphasized that the movie was as scientifically accurate as it could have possibly been, with precise calculations going into making sure that the black hole depicted in the movie had the correct spin for its size in addition to hundreds of other details. In this vein, the general public also considers this movie to be one of the most scientifically accurate science-fiction movies ever made, with countless people raving about it on sites such as Reddit. 

In addition to its accuracy based on existing knowledge, Interstellar has in fact paved the way for new scientific research. As obvious, a necessary component of a successful movie release is high quality graphics. During the production stages of Interstellar, precise and realistic graphic rendering was necessary to depict black holes. Graphics rendering refers to the process of transforming less detailed 2D or 3D models into a usable picture or video by adding texture, shadows, highlights, and more. During the process of rendering black hole graphics, with the guidance of Dr. Kip Thorne, the production team made sure to amend the common mistakes of many sci-fi films. While most science fiction leading up to this point had depicted black holes as vast spheres that sucked in light, Interstellar producers and scientists were adamant that their depiction of a black hole would portray the bending of light and space around the black hole as it spun almost as fast as the speed of light. This rendering technique coupled with the need for high-quality, detailed, and nuanced illustration fit for a large movie theater screen led to the creation of extremely precise modeling of black holes. The scientists working on the film set then realized that towards the edges of the black holes in the 3D rendered models, around the event horizon (a boundary where a black hole is considered inescapable), space would bend into more and more convoluted shapes at the boundary. This was a finding previously unknown due to the vast distance of 27,000 light years between Earth and our nearest black hole and our inability to photograph black holes at as high of a resolution as the model created for Interstellar. Because of Interstellar, two research papers were published, one about the space warping discovery and the second about the specific rendering techniques and process used to produce such a discovery. 

Ultimately, the intersections between fiction and non-fiction, especially through genres such as science fiction, demonstrate new directions for literature to expand to. While science is the foundation of every strong science-fiction story, these very tales can just as readily return the favor by demonstrating that if production teams are curious enough to explore, fiction can inspire non-fiction just as easily as the inverse is accepted as true. Interstellar is a clear example of this phenomenon, with fiction writers borrowing research and knowledge from scientists then granting them new knowledge as a result. This movie is not just an example of a fun fact, but of a world in which professionals from all disciplines collaborated to create a project, demonstrating creativity while learning more about our world.