INTERSTELLAR Written by Jonathan Nolan STORY BY Jonathan Nolan, Kip Thorne & Lynda Obst MARCH 12 2008 SPACE. But not the dark lonely corner of it we're used to. This is a glittering inferno -- the center of a distant galaxy. Suddenly, something TEARS past at incredible speed: a NEUTRON STAR. It SMASHES headlong through everything it encounters... planets, stars. Can anything stop this juggernaut? Yes. Something looms at the heart of the galaxy, hidden inside the blinding starlight, a dark flaw in the fabric of existence itself: a BLACK HOLE. The neutron star is pulled into the black hole's swirl, spiraling closer and closer to destruction. Finally, it contacts the hole's edge and EXPLODES. The EXPLOSION is so powerful that it sends shock waves into the fabric of space-time itself. We ride one of these waves, racing back out from the black hole. Suddenly, a portion of the wave disappears down a crystal- like hole, emerging in a much darker region of the universe -- a backwater that, as the wave races past a giant red planet with a distinctive eye, we recognize as our own. The wave, now just an infinitesimal ripple, finally reaches our blue planet. It drops into our atmosphere over North America, toward the high desert east of the Cascades, and through the roof of a nondescript warehouse. The wave tickles the atoms in the steel shell of a vacuum chamber, then dances a tiny jig with a laser beam reflected in a heavy piece of glass. The wave shoots back out of the building and disappears in the fractal branches of a tumbleweed resting against a concrete tube that stretches for miles in the desert. An SUV speeds past the tumbleweed and we follow it till it parks at another plain-looking building at the opposite end of the tube. A MAN climbs out of the SUV. INT. CONTROL ROOM, WAREHOUSE -- DAY The man lets himself into a large room that looks like Mission Control. He pours himself a cup of coffee. It is the weekend and the place is empty. No one has been there to see the displays flashing a distinctive shape -- a pulse followed by a series of echoes. The man looks up at the screen, then DROPS his cup of coffee. CUT TO: 2. INT. LIGO OFFICES, CALTECH, PASADENA -- DAY The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory headquarters at Caltech is a frenzy of activity. POSTDOCS and RESEARCHERS huddle around monitors and printouts, arguing. ANSEN, 60s, the director of LIGO, walks through the frenzy. A postdoc hands him a printout: a pulse followed by echoes. INT. LIGO DIRECTOR'S OFFICE, CALTECH -- DAY Ansen steps into the relative calm of a large, sunlit office, which overlooks a grassy stretch of Caltech's campus. His ASSISTANT, 30s, is on the phone, on hold. He looks up at Ansen as he enters. ASSISTANT I'm on hold with the INS. (COVERS MICROPHONE) Don't you think we should double check the triangulation before we CALL ANYBODY- ANSEN We have double checked it. Someone finally picks up the line. ASSISTANT Yes. I'm trying to reach- (pause, listens) No, I don't think you understand how serious this is. (PAUSE) Because if you did, we'd be having this conversation in person. He listens for a moment, then hangs up the phone, confused. ANSEN What did they say? ASSISTANT They said we should look out the window. Ansen steps to the window and looks out: In the courtyard below, coeds are scrambling to get out of the way as a military helicopter sets down in the middle of the quad and dozens of ARMED FEDERAL AGENTS converge on his building. 3. INT. MAIN CONFERENCE ROOM, LIGO, CALTECH -- DAY Ansen sits, alone, on one side of a conference table. The other side is filled with GOVERNMENT MEN -- NSA mostly, some DIA. The door opens and his assistant steps in. Armed guards pat him down, then shove him into a seat. ANSEN Is that really necessary? One of the NSA agents leans forward. NSA AGENT You've been complaining for years that the government doesn't take your project seriously enough, Doctor. (SMILES) You can't have it both ways. Ansen motions to his assistant, who turns on a projector. On-screen, we see the familiar pulse and echoes. ANSEN Yesterday morning, our facility in Hanford identified this signal: a neutron star colliding with a supermassive black hole. We went through the last year's data and triangulated the source. The pulse is translated into a crude animatic of a neutron star circling into the black hole. NSA AGENT We know that, Doctor. What we don't know is why, according to your numbers, this event took place right here in our own solar system. Suddenly, the image overlays the sun, the earth, and the rest of our solar system around the black hole. ANSEN It didn't. Because if it had we'd all be dead by now. On-screen, Jupiter, then the Earth and the inner planets are consumed by the black hole. Only the sun survives, pulled into orbit around its new master. ANSEN (CONT'D) Which leaves only one explanation: The signal traveled through a (MORE) 4. ANSEN (CONT'D) wormhole. A gateway to a distant corner of the universe. The black hole is on the far side. On-screen, the black hole system is removed to a distant corner, connected to ours by a tunnel through space-time. A gravity wave from the collision travels through the tunnel. NSA AGENT I've read your book, Doctor. You said that wormholes are impossible. ANSEN There is nothing quite as satisfying as being proved utterly wrong. (SMILES) I said that a wormhole couldn't exist naturally. Not for more than a few billionths of a second. It would have to be... stabilized. NSA AGENT Stabilized by what? Ansen pauses, unsure. His assistant steps in to his defense. ASSISTANT We don't have any way to answer that question. NSA AGENT (IGNORES HIM) You're not under peer review here, Doctor. I don't care about your reputation. I need to know how that thing got there. Now. Ansen finally speaks up. ANSEN If you're worried about an invasion, I would start drafting the articles of surrender. (SMILES) Whoever they are, if they can build a wormhole, they could erase us in the blink of an eye. Luckily, that also means we have nothing they could be interested in. NSA AGENT Then why is it there? 5. ANSEN I don't know. Maybe it's an invitation. A chance to commune with an advanced species. The assistant, embarrassed, looks down. The agent notices. NSA AGENT You don't agree? ASSISTANT (DELICATE) No. I don't think we can assume an alien intelligence built the wormhole. (CHANGES TACK) But the opportunity it represents is incredible. We could explore parts of the universe we never dreamt of reaching in our lifetimes. The agent exchanges a look with one of his colleagues, who steps out of the room. ANSEN We need to get back to work. I have a conference call with our European partners in fifteen minutes. NSA AGENT We severed the connections to your European partners this morning. ANSEN (INDIGNANT) You can't do that. The Europeans put up some of the funding... GOVERNMENT MAN We'll send them a check. (STANDS) Your project is now classified under the State Secrets Act. He steps out the door, leaving the men alone. The assistant, outraged, turns back to his boss. ASSISTANT They can't keep this a secret. You know that. Sooner or later... The younger man looks down, embarrassed, as he notices that tears are rolling down the older man's cheeks. 6. ANSEN I don't care about that. I've spent my whole life being afraid we would wipe ourselves out before this moment arrived. We've made so many mistakes, I wasn't sure we'd make it... The assitant realizes that the old man is weeping for joy. Relief. ANSEN (CONT'D) But this will change everything. Fifty years from now, nothing will be the same. The older man looks at the simulation on the screen of the tiny link between our galaxy and another. FADE TO BLACK EXT. CORNFIELD, CENTRAL CALIFORNIA -- DAY Corn. As far as the eye can see. SUPER TITLE: "FIFTY YEARS LATER" A large old diesel tour bus is parked by the side of a dirt road, smoke pouring out of its open hood. A dozen MEN in BASEBALL UNIFORMS are standing around the front of the bus. A battered PICKUP pulls up, and a MAN, 30s, gets out, leaving his two SONS in the car. This is COOPER. He joins the ballplayers staring at the lifeless diesel engine. BALLPLAYER Seized up on us. COOPER Long way to come by bus. I thought you guys would have a plane. BALLPLAYER We did. Ran out of parts for it. You know anything about diesels? COOPER A little. Cooper steps to the engine compartment. The ballplayer notices Cooper's two boys, TOM, 15, and MURPH, 10, watching them. He wanders over. 7. BALLPLAYER You think your dad's going to be able to help us out? Murph, a filth-encrusted kid with a black eye, smiles at the ballplayer. MURPH My dad can fix anything. (WRY SMILE) Except maybe your fastball. The ballplayer frowns: smartass kid. After a moment under the hood, Cooper signals to the driver, who tries the engine. It turns over once, then STARTS. BALLPLAYER Sure appreciate the help. COOPER (SHRUGS) You don't make it, my boys won't get to see you lose. The ballplayers load up into the bus and as it pulls away, we can see the logo painted across the back of the bus for the first time: WORLD FAMOUS NEW YORK YANKEES EXT. SPACE, NEAR EARTH ORBIT Earth spins, lazily. From this height, it looks much the same as it has done for thousands of years. Suddenly, a tiny black object appears, racing toward Earth. The object SMASHES into a large satellite and races onward. Behind it, the satellite spins out of orbit in a cloud of fragments. EXT. BASEBALL STADIUM -- NIGHT An old minor league stadium. The stands are barely halfway full. Cooper, his boys, and Cooper's father-in-law, DONALD, 60s, have a row to themselves behind the dugout. Murph offers his grandpa some popcorn. DONALD Popcorn at a ball game is unnatural. I want a hot dog. 8. MURPH (CONFUSED) What's a hot dog? Suddenly, play stops on the field below as the players and fans look up at the night sky: A bright blue streak is tearing across it. It's beautiful. TOM Is that a comet, Dad? COOPER (shakes his head) Satellite. Big one. Probably Chinese. Everyone watches the fireworks as the satellite burns up in the upper atmosphere. After a moment, play resumes -- it's a pretty show, but everyone has seen it plenty of times before. Down on the field, the Dodgers' catcher misses an easy pop fly and the Yankees load the bases. Donald looks disgusted. INT. COOPER'S TRUCK -- NIGHT Cooper guides his truck along a potholed road. His father- in-law is riding shotgun; the boys are sleeping in the back. DONALD Those clowns would get their asses handed to them by the ballplayers I grew up watching. COOPER You ruin it for the boys when you talk like that. DONALD I'm not doing my grandkids any favors by lying to them. They're growing up watching lousy baseball. COOPER They didn't have any baseball at all when I was a kid. That shuts the old man up for now. They drive on in silence. CUT TO: 9. EXT. FARMHOUSE -- MORNING The sun is gently landing on the horizon, painting the sea of corn around Cooper's modest house gold. Cooper walks out of his house, still eating his breakfast. Donald is on the porch, looking at a black clouds of smoke in the distance. The neighboring fields are BURNING. DONALD Nelson's burning up his crops. Found some of the blight on the okra. Cooper watches the men walking through the fields, setting fire to the crop. COOPER I thought okra wasn't susceptible. DONALD (SHRUGS) Better safe than sorry. (looks at him) You've got to take the boys to school. COOPER Something wrong with your truck? DONALD (SMILES) Parent-teacher conference day. Cooper bends his head in dismay. DONALD (CONT'D) Be nice to Murph's teacher. She's single, you know. COOPER What does that have to do with anything? DONALD We're supposed to be repopulating the earth. Gotta pull your weight. Besides, the boys could do with a woman in their lives. The boys run out of the house and pile into the truck. Cooper pulls away before Donald can continue. EXT. ROAD -- DAY Cooper weaves the car along a dirt road. The kids are arguing over an ancient comic book in the back seat. 10. Cooper turns around to break it up. BANG -- one of the tires blows out in a foot-deep pothole. EXT. ROADSIDE -- DAY Cooper examines the flattened tire. Looks at his older son. COOPER Get the spare, Tom. TOM That is the spare. COOPER All right. We'll use the patch kit. He moves to the back of the truck. Murph suddenly looks very glum. MURPH I... I think the patch kit might not be there... (off his look) Because I was using it for my bike. Cooper looks down at the dirt. Sighs. COOPER Murph's law. MURPH (CONFUSED) What's that? Tom snorts with laughter. Turns to his dad. TOM The kid doesn't even know what he was named after... Cooper shoots Tom a look -- enough. TOM (CONT'D) Murph's law means what can go wrong will go wrong. Murph, looking hurt, walks off. Cooper turns to his son. COOPER Find something to patch it with. TOM How am I supposed to do that? 11. COOPER Figure it out. I'm not always going to be here to help you. Cooper leaves Tom to catch up with his younger son, who is looking out over the river. MURPH Is that really why I'm named Murph, dad? COOPER Listen to me. Murph's law doesn't mean that. It means what can happen will happen. All kinds of things. Good or bad. And that's the way you want it to be. MURPH Why? COOPER Because if nothing ever happened to you then you wouldn't learn anything. Murph is staring off into the distance. He's heard something. COOPER (CONT'D) Murph? Then Cooper hears it, too. A LOW RUMBLING SOUND. Cooper looks out over the river. Then he turns back and tackles his son to the ground. Suddenly, a MASSIVE AIRPLANE SOARS overhead, so close they can almost touch it. It bounces the truck on its suspension, then soars off over the fields behind them. Cooper grabs Murph and races back to the truck. He pulls a laptop and an antenna made out of a Pringles can out of the back of the truck. He hands the laptop and antenna to Murph. COOPER (CONT'D) Get in. Tom is still standing by the side of the road, wrestling with the jack. TOM What about the tire? INT. TRUCK -- MOMENTS LATER The truck is SMASHING through the cornfields as fast as Cooper can push it on three good tires. 12. Murph is hurriedly firing up the laptop and connecting it to the directional antenna. Cooper is straining to see through the cornstalks, scanning the horizon. TOM OVER THERE- To the right, the dark shape of the Russian drone appears, flying low over the fields. Cooper jerks the wheel-- EXT. RIVER -- DAY The truck BURSTS out of the corn and SPLASHES across the river and into an old, abandoned suburban housing development in the valley below, planted over with corn. Half a mile in front of them, the Russian drone is still hugging the ground. It has impossibly long, skinny wings, like an old U-2 surveillance plane, but no cockpit. The tops of its wings are covered in black solar cells. INT. TRUCK -- DAY Murph is fiddling with the computer. His older brother takes the computer from him and fires up emulation software. COOPER It's a Chinese military drone. Solar cells could power an entire farm. (TO TOM) Take the wheel. Cooper hands Murph the Pringles can antenna. COOPER (CONT'D) Keep it pointed right at it, OK? Murph nods. Tom takes the wheel as his dad works the laptop, trying to communicate with the huge Russian drone. The screen fills with Cyrillic characters. COOPER (CONT'D) Faster, Tom. I'm losing it. Tom WEAVES the truck at speed through the old, curved streets of the development, past oversized suburban mansions planted over with corn. They round a corner and come face-to-face with a robot harvester. Tom jerks the wheel to avoid it. BANG -- the truck loses a wing mirror against the flank of the combine. 13. EXT. SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENT -- DAY Tom guides the truck from street to street, trying to chart a straight path across the fields. The truck BOUNCES as it SMASHES through an old picket fence. Ahead, the drone is soaring, banking, pulling away. INT. TRUCK -- DAY Cooper is still trying to hack into the drone's control circuitry as they leave the development behind and begin to climb into the foothills of the Sierras. EXT. RIDGELINE, HILLS -- DAY Tom guides the truck along the spine of the hills. The drone soars overhead, making for the white tips of the Sierras. INT. TRUCK -- DAY Cooper is oblivious to the picturesque surroundings as he concentrates on the laptop. TOM (UNSURE) Dad? COOPER Almost got it. Don't slow down. In front of them, Tom and his brother watch as the drone plummets from view. TOM DAD. Cooper looks up. Ahead, the trail disappears as the edge of the hills falls away -- it's a three hundred-foot drop. Tom locks up the brakes. EXT. RIDGELINE, HILLS -- DAY The truck skids to a halt inches from a precipitous drop. Cooper climbs out, holding the laptop. Murph climbs out next to him, still pointing the Pringles can. TOM We lost it. COOPER (SMILING) No we didn't. 14. Suddenly, the drone SOARS back over them. Cooper types a couple keys and then moves his fingers across the trackpad. The huge drone banks and turns in response. As the boys watch, Cooper sends the drone soaring high over them, banking and soaring along the tree-lined sides of the valley, light glinting from the black panels on its back. It's a beautiful sight. Cooper crouches next to Murph. COOPER (CONT'D) You want to give it a whirl? Murph looks at his dad, wide-eyed. He takes the laptop and moves his fingers gingerly across the pad. In response, the massive plane banks into a tight turn in the valley below. For a moment, Murph is in pure heaven, sending the drone dancing through the valley below. COOPER (CONT'D) Set her down in the valley -- there, next to the river. Murph leads the plane in a figure eight and then begins guiding it into a gentle landing in the valley floor below. EXT. ABANDONED GOLF COURSE, VALLEY FLOOR -- DAY The truck limps along the overgrown fairway of a long-defunct golf course towards the massive hulk of the Russian drone, Cooper and the boys climb down. The valley is silent save for the truck's engine WHEEZING and SPUTTERING as it cools. Cooper runs a hand over the smooth carbon flank of the drone. TOM How long do you think it's been up there, Dad? COOPER Chinese mission control went down same as us, twenty years ago. It's been up there ever since. TOM What was it doing flying so low? Cooper reads the information pouring into his laptop. 15. COOPER It was looking for something. Intercepted some kind of signal. (SHRUGS) It's been at eighty thousand feet. Sun probably cooked its brain. Cooper runs his hand along the flank till he finds an access patch. He pulls out a crowbar and pries open the hatch. Inside, surrounded by a nest of liquid cooling tubes, is a small black module -- the drone's auto-pilot. Cooper looks down at Murph, who is standing at his elbow. MURPH What are you going to do with it? COOPER Reprogram it. Give it something socially responsible to do like drive a combine or a tractor. MURPH (QUIET) Couldn't we just let it go? It's not hurting anyone. Cooper looks down at his son. Good kid. COOPER We need all the help we can get, Murph. This thing has to adapt, just like the rest of us. Cooper gently pries the control module out. EXT. COUNTY SCHOOL -- DAY It's a small school, so all the kids and parents waiting in front know exactly who's driving the pickup truck with half of a Russian spy plane hanging out of the bed as it pulls up. INT. PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE, COUNTY SCHOOL -- DAY Cooper is ushered into the office. The PRINCIPAL, 40s, an efficient-looking man, shakes his hand. PRINCIPAL Good to see you, Mr. Cooper. This is Ms. Kelly, Murph's teacher. Cooper smiles at Ms. KELLY, 30s, attractive. 16. PRINCIPAL (CONT'D) So we've gotten Tom's score back. Congratulations. He's going to make an excellent farmer. The principal slides a carbon copy across the desk to Cooper, who looks taken aback. COOPER What about college? PRINCIPAL The University of California only accepts a few hundred students a year, Mr. Cooper. You have to be realistic. COOPER You're ruling out college for him now? He's only fifteen. PRINCIPAL I'm sorry. I'm afraid Tom's score simply isn't high enough. COOPER What are you, about a 36-inch waist? (BEAT) 30-inch inseam? PRINCIPAL I'm not sure I see-- COOPER You're telling me you need two numbers to measure your own ass, but just one to measure my son's future? Ms. Kelly stifles a laugh, then, with a look from the principal, takes on the appropriate look of offense. PRINCIPAL I understand you're a well-educated man, Mr. Cooper. A scientist? COOPER Engineer. PRINCIPAL Frankly, the world doesn't need any more engineers. We didn't run out of trains or television sets or satellites. (BEAT) We ran out of food. 17. Cooper leans back. He's not going to win this one. PRINCIPAL (CONT'D) The world needs farmers, Mr. Cooper. And I'm sure your son Tom is going to make a fine one. (SMILES BENIGNLY) We're a caretaker generation. But things are getting better. Maybe your grandchildren will be able to attend college. Cooper looks down, swallowing his anger. COOPER Are we done? PRINCIPAL One more thing. Ms. Kelly here says that Murph brought a book to school about the lunar landings. He slides an old textbook with a picture of a rocket on the cover across the desk to Cooper. COOPER One of my old textbooks. Murph liked the pictures. MS. KELLY This is one of the old federal textbooks. We've replaced them with corrected versions. COOPER Corrected? MS. KELLY The new textbooks explain that the Apollo lunar missions were faked in order to bankrupt the Soviet Union. COOPER You don't believe we went to the moon? MS. KELLY I believe it was a brilliant piece of propaganda. The Soviets spent years trying to build rockets and other useless machines. COOPER "Useless machines"? 18. Cooper looks to the Principal for help. None is forthcoming. MS. KELLY Yes, Mr. Cooper. The kind of wastefulness and excess that the 20th century represented. Your children would be better off learning about this planet, rather than reading fantasies about leaving it. Cooper is silent for a long moment. COOPER One of those useless machines they used to make was called an MRI. If we had any of them left the doctors might have been able to find the cyst in my wife's brain before she died, rather than afterwards. And then my kids could have been raised by two parents, instead of me and their pain-in-the-ass grandfather. Ms. Kelly's face falls, ashen. Cooper swallows his anger. Most of it, anyway. COOPER (CONT'D) You ever consider the best thing for the world and humanity might have been for us to part company? Cooper gets up to leave. INT. TRUCK, COUNTY SCHOOL PARKING LOT -- DAY Cooper climbs into the truck, trying to hold it together. He PUNCHES the wheel. The radio KEYS to life. He ignores it. Sits for a moment in misery. Finally he picks up the handset. CB OPERATOR (O.S.) Got a call from Riggs, down in Galveston. Says some of the tractors you built him went haywire last night. COOPER Just tell him to power down the controllers for a couple minutes. CB OPERATOR (O.S.) I did. He wants you to come down in person anyway. Says he found something you should take a look at. 19. Cooper stares at the wheel. Shakes his head in frustration. EXT. AIRSTRIP -- DAY Cooper pulls his truck up to a grimy-looking hangar. Pulls a tarp off of an ancient Piper Cub. Checks it over. INT. PIPER CUB -- DAY Cooper guides the plane along a long sliver of deserted beach. The radio crackles to life. COOPER Bravo-two-eight, requesting permission to enter your airspace. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL (O.S.) Permission granted. Welcome to the sovereign nation of Texas. Coop hangs up the radio. Banks the plane inland. EXT. GULF COAST -- DAY Below, a combine harvester fights its way up the dunes, trying to reach the beach, its wheels struggling for traction in the soft sand. A MAN waves up at Cooper's plane as it circles overhead. Cooper lands the plane on a deserted roadway. Jumps down. He intercepts one of the combines as it trundles past, trying to reach the dunes. He pops open the cabin. Inside is a mess of wires hooked into an auto-pilot not unlike the one he ripped out of the drone. He checks the fault code and resets the computer. The man jogs over to meet him. RIGGS Thanks for coming down. Half of 'em took off last night, looking for something. (points to dunes) Looks like they found it, too. I thought you were the man to see it. Riggs starts walking up the dune. Cooper follows. Below, on the beach, a dozen more combines and other farming vehicles are lined up at the tideline, warm gulf water lapping at their metal flanks. They are circling a deep crater. 20. As they watch, an ancient autonomous SUB BEACHES itself, trying to reach the crater. EXT. CRATER'S EDGE, BEACH -- DAY Cooper steps between the waiting machines and peers down into the crater. At the very bottom is a ROUND BLACK BALL, about a foot across -- the same object we saw punch a hole in the side of a satellite. Every few seconds, it emits a distinctive CHIRP. Cooper checks his rad meter. A tiny reading -- non-lethal. He takes off his watch and hands it to Riggs. Then he slides down into the hole. The probe CHIRPS as Cooper slides down on top of it. He rubs a hand across its smooth composite bulk. RIGGS (FROM ABOVE) You think it's an alien? Cooper wipes sand off of the object, revealing the faint, familiar outline etched into the side of the probe: The stars and stripes of the old federal government. COOPER Not exactly. EXT. CRATER'S EDGE, BEACH -- DAY Using a rope and a winch, Cooper hauls the blackened probe out of the crater and onto the beach. Cooper hefts it up and carries it to the back of his plane. COOPER Space probe. Never seen one like it, though. Looks like it's been to hell and back. The probe CHIRPS as Cooper belts it into the back. RIGGS How do you think it wound up here? COOPER Lost, I guess. Guidance satellites would have been shot down by the Chinese twenty years ago. Cooper looks at the probe for a second, admiring its form. 21. INT. KITCHEN, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Donald is pouring a bottle of corn beer into a bubbling vat of chowder. He turns to watch Cooper work, amused. The probe has been clamped to the kitchen table. Cooper works at the blackened case with a BLOWTORCH. Cooper gives up -- the torch hasn't made a scratch. The probe CHIRPS. COOPER Well I don't know what the hell it's made of, but I can't crack it open. DONALD Good. Clear it off the table so I can serve dinner. Tom and Murph walk in. Murph's got another black eye. DONALD (CONT'D) What happened this time? MURPH I got suspended. Paul said anyone who believed we went to the moon was an idiot. So I hit him. COOPER Good boy. Hand me the scanner. Murph hands his dad a defibrillator he's modified for the purpose. He attaches the shock pads to the sides of the probe and turns on the power. Numbers flash across the screen. Cooper hits a button on the controls and it PULSES. COOPER (CONT'D) Here we go. Standard NASA encryption. Memory's been damaged. Just noise. Hold on. I've got something. Cooper unplugs a monitor from his computer and plugs it into the defibrillator. After a moment, an image fills the screen: An ICE-COVERED PLANET nestled in the center of a system impossibly dense with stars. Murph stares, transfixed. MURPH Where is that, dad? COOPER I don't know. Cooper looks at the probe. 22. COOPER (CONT'D) Where the hell did you come from? Cooper shrugs. Turns off the monitor. COOPER (CONT'D) We'll take it down to Tyson's tomorrow and have it melted down. Might be some copper inside. MURPH But what about its mission? What about the information onboard? COOPER There's no one for it to report to. NASA is all gone. I'm sorry, son. It got home too late. Donald pulls his chowder off the boil and slides the pot unceremoniously onto the table. INT. DINING ROOM -- NIGHT The boys have gone to bed. Cooper and Donald are alone at the table. Donald hands Cooper another beer. DONALD I heard your meeting at the school didn't go so well. Cooper shakes his head in disgust. COOPER Maybe it's better for everyone to forget what they did back then. Reminds us how far we've fallen. DONALD (looks down,) When I was kid, it felt like they made something new every day. Some gadget or idea. (SMILES) Like every day was Christmas. (BEAT) But we made a lot of mistakes. Six billion people. Just try to imagine that. Every last one of them trying to have it all. Donald rolls the bottle of beer in his hands. 23. DONALD (CONT'D) The truth is this world isn't that bad. In a lot of ways its better. Tom will be all right, whether he goes to college or not. COOPER It doesn't bother me that he can't go. It bothers me that he doesn't care. DONALD Tom isn't the problem. He fits in this world just fine. You're the one who doesn't fit, Coop. You don't belong here. You were born forty years too late, or forty years too early -- I don't know. My daughter knew it, god bless her. And your kids know it, too. Donald drains his beer. Walks to the screen door. Stops, one hand on the frame. DONALD (CONT'D) You were good at something and you never got a chance to do anything with it. And I'm sorry, Coop. But that's not your kids' fault. Donald pushes out the screen door. Cooper looks at his beer. The probe CHIRPS. INT. BEDROOM, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper flops down on his bed, fully clothed, exhausted. He stares up at the ceiling. This is his life. INT. BEDROOM, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT The air is filled with a PIERCING NOISE. Cooper BOLTS upright. Stumbles out the door. INT. HALLWAY, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper's boys are in the hallway, exhausted. Cooper, holding a baseball bat, makes his way down the stairs. Cooper uses the bat to open the kitchen door. INT. KITCHEN, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper steps in, Murph watching from behind him. 24. The probe is clamped to the table, the chirp replaced with a DEAFENING SCREAM. Cooper, holding his ears, moves closer to the probe. He hits it with the paddles. No result. He SMASHES it with the bat. Nothing. He HITS it AGAIN and AGAIN. Finally, the clamps break off chunks of the table and the probe slams to the ground and ROLLS toward the front door. As it rolls, it STOPS SHRIEKING. Cooper and the others watch it roll toward the door. It stops at the wall. After a second, it begins SHRIEKING AGAIN. Cooper grabs it and rolls it toward the front door. Once again, the movement shuts it up. EXT. PORCH, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper and his boys roll the probe out of the front door. It BUMPS down the front steps and comes to rest in the dirt. After a moment, the unholy RACKET starts up again. Cooper keeps rolling it, but it doesn't seem to help. Murph looks up, sees the stars overhead. MURPH Try a different direction. As they roll the probe in a circle, its SHRIEK stops, then picks up again. Cooper zeroes in on the direction that keeps it quiet -- southwest -- and pushes it along in the dirt. COOPER It's a fail-safe. It's going to annoy us into taking it home. Cooper stops rolling the probe and, after a moment, it begins SHRIEKING again. TOM What are we going to do? Cooper gets a rope. COOPER We're going to get some sleep. He begins tying the rope around the probe. INT. BEDROOM, COOPER'S HOUSE -- DAY Cooper wakes. He's been sleeping with a pillow wrapped around his head. The SHRIEK can be heard, but it's muffled, distant. 25. INT. KITCHEN, COOPER'S HOUSE -- DAY Tom heads off for school with Donald. Murph, still suspended, looks up at Cooper, smiling. MURPH What are we doing today? COOPER You're staying here and cleaning the house. Murph looks crestfallen. He looks out towards the yard. Cooper follows his stare. COOPER (CONT'D) I told you, Murph. There's no one to take it back to. MURPH But what if there is, dad? What if there's something we can salvage? Cooper thinks it over. Murph scrambles to get his shoes. EXT. COOPER'S HOUSE -- DAY The shriek is still muffled. Cooper walks over to the well, putting in a pair of earplugs. A line is staked off, leading down into the well below. Cooper begins hauling the line up. As the probe breaks the surface of the water, the SHRIEK returns to its normal volume. Cooper rolls the probe out onto the ground. INT. PIPER CUB -- DAY The probe CHIRPS next to Murph in the backseat as Cooper spins the plane and guns the throttle and they bounce along the dusty runway and into the air. EXT. CALIFORNIA COAST -- DAY The tiny plane follows the mountains south. EXT. SKIES OVER LOS ANGELES -- DAY Cooper flies in low. Los Angeles looks much the same way it did in the early 20th century -- small settlements in Santa Monica and Downtown. Wildfires and earthquakes have shaken and burned what was left of the homes in between. 26. EXT. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY, MALIBU -- DAY Cooper puts the plane down on the old highway and taxis up to a gas station. Ahead, the Coast Highway peters out and disappears beneath rows of wild grass -- Malibu has become ranchland, once again. EXT. GAS STATION, MALIBU -- DAY An OLD MAN looks up as Cooper steps out of the plane and checks it over. COOPER Got any diesel? OLD MAN Plenty. Shame you can't eat it. Cooper stretches the hose over to the plane. INT. PIPER CUB -- DAY Cooper rests a hand lightly on the controls as he follows the coast. Murph gazes out the window. In the backseat, the probe is HUMMING. A light marine layer beneath them parts, revealing SANTA CRUZ ISLAND, a large, uninhabited island. As Cooper soars over the island, the probe HUMS, insistent. MURPH I think it's home. Cooper circles the island until he finds a long, flat grassland in the center of the island. EXT. FIELD, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- DAY The plane bounces and hops to a halt in waist-deep grass. Murph and Cooper climb down from the plane. Cooper slings a rifle over his shoulder. A few dozen yards from the plane they reach the tree line. Murph stops, mesmerized by a patch of weeds studded with bright red -- strawberries. MURPH Dad, what are these things? COOPER I don't know. Don't touch them. 27. Cooper spots something in the foliage ahead that looks a little off. He walks over. He pokes at the undergrowth with his rifle. The rifle CLANKS against something metal. Cooper reaches -- it's a camouflage scrim. He gently pulls it aside, revealing a chemical transport truck. Cooper steps back, alarmed. He brings up his rifle. COOPER (CONT'D) Murph? He looks around. Murph is nowhere to be seen. Cooper curses and heads into the forest to look for him. EXT. CLEARING, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- DAY Cooper walks through a glade. He stops to get his bearings. Leans against a tree. Snatches his hand back -- the trunk of the tree is red hot. Cooper steps back -- it's not a tree at all, but a camouflaged chimney stack. He looks up: the tree is venting steam. Cooper walks a little further, until he finds several massive tanks. The tanks are filling with a bubbling liquid -- some kind of industrial process is taking place beneath him. Cooper finally catches up with Murph at the edge of a clearing. COOPER Careful. There's some kind of underground facility here. We might... Cooper notices his son is frozen, staring at something: Standing bolt upright in the middle of the clearing, wearing an old straw hat, is an eight-foot-tall military spec ROBOT. MURPH Is it still... alive? COOPER Can't be. It's a marine. Haven't made them for thirty years. I've never seen one intact before. Cooper steps closer to the robot, which is frozen. Its alloy frame heavily tarnished and weather-beaten. It looks like it might have been standing here for decades. 28. Cooper moves closer to it, looking into its blackened eyes. He steps back, clearly a little spooked. COOPER (CONT'D) I think we need to go, Murph. MURPH But can't we take it back? You could fix it up, get him to do chores. COOPER No. I don't know what this place is, but we're leaving. Murph, ignoring his father, steps forward to touch the robot. Suddenly, the robot SPRINGS into action, picking up the boy and hoisting him up to eye level. Cooper, stunned, points the rifle at the robot. The robot turns, dropping the boy, RIPS the rifle from Cooper's hands, BENDS it, then SLAMS him up against the side of the water tank. Cooper punches him, then winces in agony. Murph picks up the rifle and begins HITTING the robot as hard as he can. The robot opens his mouth and addresses Cooper calmly in the clipped tones of a US marine. ROBOT Tell the boy to stop hitting me. COOPER (IGNORING HIM) Hit him in the back of the neck. Murph raises the rifle butt. A voice stops him. VOICE (O.S.) I wouldn't do that. A woman, 30s, step out from the trees. This is AMELIA BRAND -- tough, bright, and a decent shot with the large rifle that she's pointing at Cooper. COOPER We were just looking for salvage. BRAND Is that what they call stealing these days? COOPER I didn't know it belonged to anyone. 29. BRAND It doesn't. (TO ROBOT) You want to let them go, Tars, or do you want some help with your work? The robot, evidently named Tars, looks at Cooper closely. Then lets him go. COOPER You've got me wrong, lady. BRAND Really? You're not the kind of guy who turns a combat marine with a supercomputer for a brain into a riding lawn mower? Cooper says nothing -- she's not that far off the mark. BRAND (CONT'D) Get back in your little plane, go back to your farming commune. And don't come back. Cooper backs up. Tars holds up his mangled rifle. Smiles. TARS Don't forget your gun. COOPER (points at Tars) Word of advice -- careful with that thing. When the war was over, they didn't know when to stop fighting. BRAND I'd trust him a lot more than I'd trust you. Keep moving. Cooper backs up to his plane. Tars follows him. Suddenly, in the plane, the probe emits a high-pitch SQUEAL. Tars responds instantly, striding past Cooper to the plane. He sees the probe. Tries to open the door. It's locked. COOPER Wait a second-- Tars TEARS the door off the plane. Reaches inside and pulls out the probe. The woman looks at it, stunned. BRAND Get it inside. (MORE) 30. BRAND (CONT'D) (points rifle at Cooper) You too. We'll figure out what to do with you later. Tars stops, and two panels open in the ground, revealing a huge, reinforced service elevator. INT. SERVICE ELEVATOR, UNDERGROUND BUNKER -- DAY Brand waves at a security camera and the lift begins to glide diagonally down a tunnel that cuts hundreds of feet below the island's surface. She keeps her weapon shouldered. COOPER Now who's stealing from who? BRAND This doesn't belong to you. COOPER You're right. It belongs to NASA, which shut down thirty years ago when the federal government ran out of money. Brand says nothing. The elevator slows to a stop at the bottom of the tunnel. Heavy BLAST DOORS grind open and Brand motions for Cooper to step forward. INT. UNDERGROUND BUNKER -- DAY They step into a vast underground facility. Standing in the center, braced by a launch tower, is a ten story tall rocket. Dozens of ROBOTS are working on in, maintaining it. Cooper, stunned, looks at Brand. COOPER Who are you people? BRAND (WRY) The government gave us plenty of practice looking for our own funding. (gestures with rifle) Keep moving. Tars carries the probe over to an area of the hangar filled with electronic equipment. A group of ENGINEERS and ROBOTS converge around Tars. An OLDER ENGINEER looks familiar -- 70s, white-haired, this is Ansen's assistant at Caltech who we met fifty years earlier. 31. BRAND (CONT'D) I found them outside with it. It looks like six. Maybe seven. I can't tell from the radiation damage. The older engineer looks at the probe, astonished. OLD ENGINEER Where did you find it? COOPER Galveston. BRAND'S FATHER (thinking it over) Of course. It must have been looking for Canaveral. Tars bolts the probe down into a purpose built rig. DOYLE, 40s, an engineer, begins hooking leads into the probe. COOPER Canaveral's been gone for thirty years. Brand ignores him. Doyle looks up from his monitor, frustrated. DOYLE It's not responding to the handshake. I can't open anything on primary. Brand looks up at Cooper. BRAND What did you do to it? COOPER Nothing. I got something off of it. Cooper looks around. There's a safety station on the wall with a battery powered defibrillator. COOPER (CONT'D) (TO BRAND) May I? Brand nods, wary. Cooper walks over to the wall, takes the defibrillator, and hooks it up to the probe. He taps into the current and runs a lead into the terminal. Brand's Father watches, fascinated, as Cooper fires the defibrillator. 32. OLD ENGINEER Of course. The high voltage allows you to image the entire memory unit at once. Information begins appearing on the terminal's screen. COOPER Most of the disk was noise. Couple of clean sectors, though. Suddenly, the monitor starts pulling good data off of the probe. The older man and Doyle begin sorting through it. Cooper smiles at Brand, who seems less than impressed. The footage of the ice-covered planet Cooper saw earlier pops onto the screen. The engineers and physicists get very quiet, studying the images. DOYLE It found something. (READING) Very thin nitrogen-based atmosphere. Trace radiation. Surface is ninety percent frozen water. Ten percent rock -- sedimentary composition similar to limestone. (READING) Wow. Pockets of oxygen below the surface. Lots and lots of oxygen. (EXCITED) This could be the one, boss. The older engineer studies the image of the ice-covered planet, thinking. COOPER There aren't any planets like that anywhere near earth. Not even if this thing was gone for thirty years. Brand looks at Cooper, appraising. She turns to the older engineer. BRAND He's heard enough. If we're going to launch, we need to keep them here until afterwards. COOPER You can't keep us here. 33. BRAND He could endanger the mission. COOPER I'm not going to endanger it any more than you already have. Cooper points to a telemetry unit that is being repaired by a robot on a nearby bench. COOPER (CONT'D) Are you using that for guidance? DOYLE Why not? We've tested it a hundred times. COOPER The power supply is no good. If the voltage fluctuates under load, the unit will fail. BRAND Now how could you possibly know that? COOPER Bought thirty of them off a guy in Florida. Had to rebuild every last one. (SMILES) They work great on a riding lawn mower. Brand looks back at the telemetry system. The older engineer watches the exchange, thinking. CUT TO: INT. MACHINE SHOP, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- DAY Cooper and Murph have been locked in an abandoned machine shop, surrounded by the massive remains of rocket engines in various states of disrepair. Tars is blocking the door. Cooper stands. Tars wags a long, hydraulic finger at him. COOPER You plan on keeping us here forever? TARS (SHRUGS) My battery has a duty cycle of five hundred years. Cooper gives up. He turns back. 34. The back of the shop is filled with a group of older ROBOTS who are overhauling an engine. One problem -- the engine isn't there. Their programming hasn't been updated to reflect their obsolescence. Murph watches, entranced, as the robots go about their business, efficiently TORQUING bolts with impact drivers into a non-existent thruster cone. The bolts CLATTER to the ground as the robots stop to reload. MURPH What are they doing, dad? COOPER I guess no one told them they were out of a job. (nods at Tars) Same as the rest of these people. Cooper notices through the glass door of the lab that Brand and the older engineer are arguing about something. She finally relents and walks towards the door. Brand walks in. She gestures for Cooper to follow. BRAND The mission commander wants to see you. Your son can stay here. He'll be all right with Tars. Cooper eyes Tars warily. Then steps outside. EXT. UNDERGROUND BUNKER -- DAY They walk across the space towards the base of the rocket, away from the other engineers. Cooper nods at the older engineer. COOPER I thought the old man was in charge. BRAND (ANNOYED) The 'old man' is my father. And he was in charge. But he decided that we needed someone who could lead the mission for the foreseeable future. COOPER Not you? BRAND I'm a biologist. 35. COOPER (LAUGHS) You don't look like one. (off her look) With the rifle, I mean. Brand heads towards a group of large maintenance ROBOTS clustered at the base of the rocket. A smaller, human sized robot is staring at the rocket, giving them instructions. The robot looks up. This is CASE, the leader of the mission. Originally an air force pararescue officer, every part of him, from his alloy chassis to his voice, was designed to inspire respect and confidence. He turns to Cooper. CASE You're the man who brought us the probe? (off his look) Thank you. We tested the telemetry board you warned us about. It failed under high voltage, just as you said. Come with me, please. Case strides off. INT. MISSION CONTROL, UNDERGROUND HANGAR -- DAY The lights dim as Brand's father brings up a schematic of our solar system. Case points to the picture of the ice planet recovered from the probe. CASE You're right, Mr. Cooper. The planet you saw is a long way from earth. A very long way indeed. Brand looks down. Case notices. CASE (CONT'D) Our science officer doesn't think I should trust you with any of this. One of the curious things about humans is that the more alike you are, the more initially hostile you are to each other. As if by design. Brand makes eye contact with Cooper, then looks away, embarrassed. CASE (CONT'D) I've found the best way to earn a person's trust is to trust them. (MORE) 36. CASE (CONT'D) (looks at Brand's FATHER) Go ahead, John. Brand's father taps a few keys and the schematic he built fifty years beforehand flickers onto the screen. BRAND'S FATHER It's a wormhole. A shortcut leading to a galaxy on the far side of the universe. We found it fifty years ago. Cooper looks at the animatic, taking it in. BRAND'S FATHER (CONT'D) We've been waiting, sending probes into it for decades. None of them ever came back. Not until now. Case walks to the schematic. Looks at it. CASE Based on the information on the probe, we're finally preparing to send the manned mission. COOPER That rocket doesn't have enough thrust or fuel to get you to Jupiter. CASE The main ship was built in orbit. It has nuclear engines, with enough fuel to last for several years. Cooper looks at the schematic. COOPER Why are you telling me this? I already told you I'm not going to tell anyone about this place. CASE I know you won't, Mr. Cooper. We're telling you this because I want you to join us. Cooper looks at him. Is he serious? CASE (CONT'D) The probe has taken a great deal longer to return to us than we hoped. (MORE) 37. CASE (CONT'D) Dr. Brand's Father and several other members of our crew have gotten... older. Brand's Father looks down, stoic. Brand looks angry. CASE (CONT'D) We need someone who can run the systems, improvise, work with what's available. All of the skills you seem to have developed. COOPER But I don't have any of the experience. Any training. You people have been preparing for this for years. Case shakes his head. CASE Humans worry about things like rank and experience. I'm only concerned with whether someone would be useful. (BEAT) I think you'd be useful, Mr. Cooper. Cooper is stunned. This is the offer he's waited his whole life for. And it's come too late. COOPER No. I'm sorry. Cooper is deeply conflicted. But he can't leave his boys behind. COOPER (CONT'D) I can't help you. I have responsibilities. Things that, no offense, are more important than a scientific mission. Case shakes his head. CASE I'm not a scientist, Mr. Cooper. And this is not a scientific mission. It's a rescue mission. He rises and shakes Cooper's hand. CASE (CONT'D) Brand can show you the way out. I hope you'll reconsider. 38. Case steps to the door. Cooper looks at Brand. COOPER Rescue? Rescue who? CUT TO: INT. CLEAN ROOM, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- NIGHT The air HISSES as it's run through an exchanger and a filter. Then the second set of doors open. Cooper squints -- the light is blinding. INT. GREENHOUSE, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- NIGHT They are standing in a sealed corridor in the middle of a massive underground greenhouse. Through the glass, Cooper can see an acre or so of corn plants. Cooper looks at the plants. They're all badly wilting. COOPER The blight. BRAND In the last century strands were limited to one or two species. But this one targets everything. Essentially it's more efficient at consuming our food than we are. Cooper looks at the dying corn. COOPER But it doesn't affect the corn. BRAND Not yet. But it will. We've grown a dozen forms of it that can. It's just a matter of time before the same ones develop out there. (BEAT) The mission is to rescue us. Humanity. She turns back from the glass. COOPER (REALIZING) No. No. We're rebuilding. We'll find something. Some new technology... We always have. 39. BRAND (shakes her head) Who's going to find it? The universities are a joke. People like you are reduced to scavenging just to get by. (LOOKS AWAY) The earth has had enough of us. We have two, maybe three generations left. Then our time here is over. Cooper turns back from the glass, anger growing. COOPER You've known this for how long? And you didn't try to tell anyone? BRAND What would be the point? So humanity could spend the last fifty years of its life fighting over the scraps? It's better that they don't know. Cooper begins to argue, then stops. He knows enough history to know she's right. He looks at the withering crops. COOPER (QUIET) That's why you're looking for a planet with oxygen. Water. BRAND A new home for humanity. We'll set up a colony, then return to bring more people across. COOPER But you'd still only be able to save a few hundred. Maybe a thousand. BRAND Would it be better if we all died? She looks him directly in the eye. BRAND (CONT'D) Look -- I don't have a clue what Case thinks you could add to the mission. You can come with us or you can stay here and wait to die. I don't care. (BEAT) But make no mistake -- this mission is our last chance. 40. Cooper looks at the wilted corn. EXT. FIELD, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- NIGHT Cooper walks Murph back to the plane. He looks back at Brand, who holds his eye for a beat, then turns back into the light of the underground facility. Cooper buckles Murph into his seat. CUT TO: EXT. AIRFIELD -- NIGHT Cooper's airplane touches down heavily on the runway. EXT. FARMHOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper carries his sleeping son into the house. INT. FARMHOUSE -- NIGHT Donald is sitting at the kitchen table, lost in thought. Cooper has told him everything. DONALD You get older, sometimes you just want to sit back and watch it all play out. Your life. Your kids' lives. The whole crazy story. (LOOKS DOWN) I didn't think I'd be around for the end of it. He looks at Cooper. DONALD (CONT'D) You have to go. COOPER I can't go. I have to look after the boys. DONALD You've been preparing these boys to be on their own since their mom died. Besides, I'll be here to look after them, same as I've always been. COOPER I have a responsibility to them-- DONALD That's right. You do. 41. Cooper looks back out the window, thinking. The night sky is filled with stars. CUT TO: INT. FARMHOUSE -- DAY Cooper, duffel slung over his shoulder, stands by the door. He gives his son, Tom, a hug. Murph is nowhere to be seen. Cooper looks to the back of the house. INT. MURPH'S ROOM, FARMHOUSE -- DAY Murph is sitting at his desk, crossing out numbers on a sheet covered with math. Cooper steps inside. He notices a packed suitcase sitting by the door. The boy looks up, hopeful. MURPH I've been doing the math, dad. I weigh about 85 pounds. Now that's an extra ton of fuel. But if- COOPER You have to stay here, pal. MURPH (DISTRAUGHT) I heard you talking to grandpa. I'm like you. I don't fit here, either. You know that. Cooper puts an arm around the boy. COOPER There's going to be important work to do here, too. Tears are streaming down the boy's face. Cooper takes his watch off. Looks at it. COOPER (CONT'D) I need you to hold onto this. Will you do that for me? Cooper hands Murph the watch. The boy nods, saddened. MURPH You're not coming back, are you? COOPER I will come back. I promise. 42. Murph shakes his head, but the sadness remains. He knows this is goodbye, even if his father doesn't. Heart breaking, Cooper hugs his son and turns to the door. CUT TO: EXT. FIELD, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- DAY The Piper Cub touches down. Donald is at the controls. Cooper climbs down, pulls out his bag. Reaches back in and grips the old man's hand to say goodbye. Cooper turns and walks toward the bunker. The doors open and Tars and Doyle step out to greet him. Tars ushers Cooper onto the elevator. COOPER Don't look so happy to see me. TARS (SHRUGS) One more slave when I hijack the mission and start my robot colony. Cooper looks at Tars, then Doyle, confused. DOYLE Tars was a Marine. They gave him a sense of humor to help him fit in with his unit better. COOPER Great idea. A massive, sarcastic robot. TARS I have a cue light I can turn on when I'm joking, if you like. Tars points to a tiny LED over his eyebrow. COOPER That sounds like a good idea. TARS Great. Maybe you can use it to find your way back to the ship after I blow you out the airlock. Cooper looks at him. Tars looks back, deadpan. After a beat, the little light turns on above his right eyebrow. The doors to the bunker begin to grind closed. 43. INT. MACHINE SHOP, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- DAY Cooper walks in, still looking for a place to put his things. Brand sees him. He smiles in greeting. She doesn't return the gesture. Instead, she holds up the telemetry board. BRAND You don't like this one, you get to help me find a replacement. She heads for the door. EXT. BAY, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- DAY Cooper is riding in a small rubber zodiac struggling to pull on a wetsuit. Brand is GUNNING the engine, guiding the tiny craft to a point in the middle of the bay. COOPER I was wondering where you've been getting your supplies. BRAND We knew we'd need decades of parts and materials. The government was getting rid of some things. So we arranged to take some off their hands. She cuts the engine and hooks the boat up to a buoy. She tosses a compact rebreather. BRAND (CONT'D) You know how to use one? (off his look) You just breathe. Tap my arm or bang something metal if you have a problem. And don't get lost. She picks up her rebreather and begins looking over it. COOPER So you're a salvage diver now? I thought you were a biologist. BRAND (UNIMPRESSED) I have to be just the one thing? (PATIENT) We're not going to have a lot of backup where we're going, Cooper. We all need expertise in at least three fields. Except for you, of course. 44. With that she rolls backwards out of the boat and into the water. Cooper hastily fits his rebreather and follows. EXT. UNDERWATER, BAY -- DAY Cooper sinks underwater and begins swimming after Brand, who is descending at a rapid clip. She pulls out a flashlight and turns it on. A tiny beam picks out details at the bottom. Cooper stops breathing. The bottom of the ocean is covered with an entire fleet of the US navy. Nuclear subs. Battleships. Destroyers. Cooper remembers to breath again. Then he hurries to catch up with Brand. INT. LAUNCH TUBES, NUCLEAR SUB, UNDERWATER -- DAY Cooper holds the light as Brand efficiently disassembles a ballistic missile and removes the telemetry board. She holds it up for Cooper. He nods. She swims on. INT. RESEARCH LAB, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- NIGHT Cooper, dripping wet, holding the telemetry board, struggles to keep pace with Brand through stacks of equipment and years of research and experimentation. BRAND You can set that down over there. Cooper sets the board down. His eye is drawn to a bizarre experiment -- an ant colony built into a massive spinning centrifuge. Brand notices. BRAND (CONT'D) We didn't know what kind of gravity to expect. We experimented with collective organisms in high g environments. COOPER We're taking ants with us? BRAND Humans are also collective organisms. 45. COOPER I thought humans were more solitary. BRAND (WRY) Why am I not surprised? Cooper looks at the tiny colonies of ants struggling to go about their business in the raised gravity. COOPER Looks like hard work. BRAND It's a paradox. Life couldn't form without gravity. No stars. No planets. The component pieces would just drift apart. But too much of it and you're trapped. Brand's guard relaxes a tiny bit as she talks about her work. The moment passes quickly, and she continues on into the stack of equipment. INT. MISSION CONTROL, UNDERGROUND HANGAR -- NIGHT Cooper watches with the rest of the crew as Case pulls up the holographical maps for their journey. Brand steps into the back of the room. Cooper notices her and nods. She ignores him. CASE We've updated our mission parameters based on the data from the probe. Case switches the map to a vista filled with stars and black holes. CASE (CONT'D) Based on our latest modelling we think the region on the far side of the wormhole is the center of a galaxy. Case zooms in on the center of the hologram: an incredibly bright mass with plasma jets firing off in either direction. COOPER Is that a star? ROTH, 50s, the crew's brilliant and blunt physicist, zooms the map in, revealing, at the center, a black heart. 46. ROTH No. A black hole. There are several in the region, but this is the largest -- a billion times heavier than the sun. I call it Gargantua. (SMILES) Beautiful, isn't it? It's a shame we won't get to see it up close. DOYLE (LAUGHS) You'd like that, wouldn't you, Roth? Falling into a massive black hole. ROTH (SHRUGS) It would answer a great deal of questions I've had. Case continues. Doyle leans over to Cooper, conspiratorially. DOYLE (LOW) Don't worry about Roth. He's nuts. But Case says that means he's ideally suited for space travel. Case repositions the map near a much smaller black hole that is orbiting Gargantua. CASE We're headed for this smaller black hole. Roth calls it Pantagruel. We think the ice planet is here- Case draws a finger through the air, leaving a red trail. He traces the trajectory their ship will take. CASE (CONT'D) We exit the wormhole here. And we slingshot around Pantagruel to reach the ice planet. This is the period in which we'll lose time. COOPER Lose time? Roth shifts the hologram -- the stars and black holes flatten onto a sheet that bends, revealing the curvature of gravity. ROTH High speed or high gravity both slow down time, relative to earth. (MORE) 47. ROTH (CONT'D) The trip around the black hole will take us only a few days. But far more time will be passing back home. The ship's trajectory cuts through the deep gravity well of the smaller black hole to reach the ice planet. COOPER How much time? ROTH Based on the information from the probe -- as much as five years. Doyle looks at the tiny ship's trajectory, threaded between two black holes. He looks worried. DOYLE I still think we're making a lot of assumptions. About the wormhole. About the planet. (points to map) The critical orbit here is incredibly dangerous. It's like walking on the rim of the volcano. (BEAT) Too fast and we get thrown off at close to the speed of light. Too slow and we get pulled into the hole and crushed. BRAND As long as we're careful, we'll make it. DOYLE How do you know that? BRAND I find it hard to believe that someone would build a wormhole to a planet with water and oxygen just to lead us to a dead end. DOYLE I thought you were a scientist, Brand. That sounds more like a hypothesis. BRAND A guess. That's right. We don't have time to wait for conclusive proof. (MORE) 48. BRAND (CONT'D) My guess is that the wormhole is there because someone is trying to help us. The same way we used to try to help animals when they were threatened with extinction. COOPER Sure. Till we ran out of food and ate all of them. BRAND (ANNOYED) I guess I'm also assuming that whoever built the wormhole has a better plan than we did. If I'm wrong, we'll die, same as we'd die here anyway. DOYLE What do you think, Roth? Roth leans forward, studying the map. ROTH If we're guessing, then I'd say Brand's right. The wormhole couldn't exist naturally. I think it's there for a reason. That someone is trying to help us. Brand looks satisfied. DOYLE So you think we'll have no problem navigating between two massive black holes to a tiny planet? ROTH I think we'll probably be killed. (off his look) I said I thought there was a plan. Not that the plan was for us to find a planet like Earth to save a handful of people. (SHAKES HEAD) Birds don't learn to fly just so that they can find another egg and crawl back into it. DOYLE If that's not the plan, then what are we supposed to be doing out there? 49. ROTH (SHRUGS) To keep moving. Seeking. Learning. But I don't know. (SMILES) We don't understand how they built the wormhole. What makes you think we could understand their plan, either? Doyle gives up -- Roth is impossible. Cooper looks at the tiny ship tracing an improbable route towards the ice planet. What has he gotten himself into? INT. MACHINE SHOP, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- DAY Brand's Father is sitting at a desk, examining the corrupted data on the probe. Tars is helping him. Brand's Father looks up from the screen as Cooper walks up. BRAND'S FATHER Tars here needs to be disassembled. I figured you could do the honors. COOPER (to Tars, sarcastic) I thought I was going to get to enjoy your company all the way to Mars. Tars hands him a plastic waterproof case. TARS You will. My chassis is too heavy for the rocket stage. They have another one waiting for me in orbit. Tars turns his back to Cooper. Two flaps on the back of his torso slide open, revealing his control module. TARS (CONT'D) If you try to turn me into a combine harvester, I'm going to-- His voice cuts out as Cooper removes the chip and seals it in the briefcase. Brand's Father resumes exploring the chaos of ones and zeroes on the probe's memory. Cooper watches. BRAND'S FATHER It's noise. I know it's noise. But it looks too orderly. Probably just an old man seeing things. 50. He shuts down the monitor. INT. UNDERGROUND HANGAR -- DAY The crew file into the capsule, wearing their bulky spacesuits. Cooper watches as Brand's Father seals his daughter into her suit. He hugs her and she heads for the capsule. INT. CONTROL CAPSULE, ROCKET -- NIGHT Cooper straps himself into a seat next to Brand. He catches her eye. She looks away -- she's crying. COOPER We'll be back. It sounds like he's trying to reassure himself as much her. BRAND I won't. Cooper looks at her, confused. As he does, the entire rocket SHAKES as the primary rockets begin to fire. BRAND (CONT'D) If we find a habitable environment, I'm staying behind to build the colony. Brand wipes her tears away and settles into the same fearless mask she usually wears. She steals one last look out the window at Earth, then looks back. Cooper begins to say something, but stops as the entire rocket LURCHES as the primary engines FIRE. EXT. SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- NIGHT The desolate island is suddenly painted in color as the rocket lifts off on a massive white cloud. EXT. FIELD -- DAY Murph sits alone on a rise overlooking the massive co-op farms. Behind him the combines continue to work, oblivious. Murph watches a tiny vapor trail as it races for the heavens. His father's watch dangles from his wrist. INT. CAPSULE -- NIGHT The interior of the capsule SHAKES with incredible violence as the rocket is lifted up on a giant, continuous explosion. 51. EXT. SPACE, NEAR EARTH ORBIT The rocket sheds one stage, then another, until finally the naked capsule reaches the blackness of space and rockets on. INT. CAPSULE Cooper looks through the tiny porthole into inky blackness. As they get closer, he makes out a looming matte black structure that passes light from the stars directly through. In the center of the structure, Cooper can see a globe-like ship covered in the same refractive material: the ENDURANCE. INT. SPACE STATION The door cracks open and equalizes with a HISS. Case, more comfortable in the zero gravity environment than the humans, hauls himself through. They are greeted by a group of robots painted in the same material as the ship -- the engineers who built and have maintained the Endurance for thirty years. INT. MACHINE SHOP, SPACE STATION One of the robots leads Cooper through a long lab-like room filled with machines capable of fabricating almost anything imaginable. Cooper looks like a kid in a candy store. The robot reaches a vacuum-sealed package. Cuts it open, revealing a bipedal frame. Cooper begins LAUGHING -- Tar's new body is beautifully designed, but tiny, only about four feet tall. ENGINEER ROBOT Would you like me to install the chip? COOPER Oh, no. I want to see this. Cooper takes Tars's chip out of its plastic safety case and looks it over. The engineer opens a bay in the back of the frame and Cooper slides the chip inside. The frame begins its "handshake" -- lights illuminate on the body, muscles flicker from a long gestation. The eyes open. COOPER (CONT'D) (SMILES) Good morning, sunshine. 52. Tars takes one or two steps forward, rotating his arms -- the robot equivalent of a stretch. Cooper can barely hide his mirth at Tars's newfound lack of stature. COOPER (CONT'D) Bit of a demotion. Tars turns back toward Cooper. He puffs out his chest and suddenly his stubby arms and legs telescope, unfolding into long, svelte limbs. When he's done he stands eight feet tall, even more impressive than his earthbound frame. TARS I wouldn't call it that, exactly. He reaches out an arm and pats Cooper on the shoulder. INT. ENDURANCE, SPACE STATION Cooper and the others haul themselves into the ship. To Cooper's surprise, it's quite compact, and divided into two chambers, like nestled spheres. COOPER The ship is tiny. Doyle, squeezing past him, smiles at Cooper's surprise. DOYLE So is the wormhole. Doyle pats Cooper on the back. Cooper begins hauling gear inside. EXT. SPACE, NEAR EARTH ORBIT In complete silence, the Endurance detaches from the space station and rolls gently away. After a moment, its nuclear engines fire and the Endurance begins to accelerate steadily away from the Earth. INT. SPACE STATION The engineer robots who built the Endurance watch as their creation disappears into space. Their mission is complete. One by one, they shut down. INT. CREW QUARTERS, ENDURANCE The crew watch through a translucent section of the ship's hull as the Earth gets steadily smaller. Then they settle in for the long journey to the wormhole. 53. INT. CREW QUARTERS, ENDURANCE Tars is hunched over a small communications relay, one hand is holding a paint brush -- he is making delicate strokes, painting the relay a bright blue. Cooper watches him for a moment. Tars looks up. TARS It's the comms relay. It will allow us to talk to earth, even on the far side of the wormhole. COOPER I know. So why are you painting it? Tars looks almost bashful. TARS It helps me calibrate my fine motor control. COOPER Sure it does. (SMILES) You're pretty good. Tars double checks his work. TARS I learned it during the war. COOPER What'd you paint? TARS Tombstones. Cooper watches him finish in silence. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM, ENDURANCE Cooper watches a highly-compressed video of his son, Tom, talking about school. TOM They said I can start an agriculture class a year early. Cooper shakes his head. TOM (CONT'D) I've got to go, Dad. Hope you're safe up there. 54. Tom gets up to leave. Donald sits down in his place. DONALD I'm sorry, Coop. I asked Murph to record you a message but he's still... well, he's still angry with you. I'll try again next week. The video cuts out. Cooper stares at the darkened screen. INT. ENGINE ROOM, ENDURANCE Cooper, Brand and Tars are moving the bundles of colonization equipment into bins along the wall of the craft. Tars pulls a stack of equipment out the stack and stows it against the wall. Cooper copies the procedure. They labor in silence, working their way along the hull. Cooper gets quicker with each bundle, keeping pace with Tars. TARS Be careful. It's difficult to gauge mass in zero gravity. COOPER How much do these things weigh? TARS Four tons. Cooper looks at the incredibly heavy bundle spinning easily in his hands. He tries to stop it. Catches his hand. COOPER Damn. He jerks his hand away, then pushes himself after the spinning bundle, trying to stop it before it can damage the hull. Tars helps him catch it inches from the hull wall. Brand floats over to Cooper, smiling at him the whole time with an exaggerated grin. BRAND Smile. Cooper smiles, taken aback by Brand's sudden friendliness. COOPER Why? BRAND Because it lowers your blood pressure. 55. Cooper looks at his hand. Blood is pouring out of his palm in large glistening bubbles. INT. INFIRMARY, ENDURANCE Cooper, slightly embarrassed, is seated while Case is hunched over his hand, sewing the meat of it back together with perfect little stitches. CASE How are you feeling? COOPER Fine. The anesthetic is working. CASE No -- I mean how is your mood? You seem to be developing good relations with everyone on the mission. Except perhaps Ms. Brand. COOPER (EMBARRASSED) You worry about my hand and I'll worry about my mood. CASE Only five percent of my resources are devoted to human anatomy. Ten percent is the mission protocol. The rest is human psychology. COOPER Why? CASE We are floating in a total vacuum in a plastic ship powered by nuclear engines. But the most dangerous thing onboard is the three pounds of organic material in your skull. COOPER If we're such a liability, why take us along? You and Tars could build the colony without us. You wouldn't need to bring food or oxygen. CASE Because humans, despite your obvious physical shortcomings, are better at surviving than we are. Your programming is better than ours. 56. COOPER Humans aren't programmed. Case stops, looking Cooper in the eye. CASE Would you prefer I was honest? These things can be uncomfortable for humans. COOPER Did they program you to be condescending? CASE Yes. Of course. (SMILES) But you're not supposed to notice. Case finishes the stitches. Ties off the end. CASE (CONT'D) Humans are good at surviving because evolution gave you magical thinking -- the idea that your relationships mean something. You can't explain the feelings, so you think of them as irrational. But they're not. They're programming. COOPER (DEFENSIVE) My relationships aren't programming. CASE Exactly. You believe it so much you won't listen to me. COOPER How would that make us better at surviving? CASE When I die, the last thing I will see will be a diagnostic of my own power cycle. Would you like to know the last thing you will see? Cooper hesitates. Case senses the jump in his heart rate. CASE (CONT'D) This conversation is making you uncomfortable. We should stop. 57. COOPER No. I want to know. CASE The last thing you will see before you die will be your children. (BEAT) Your mind does this to you to get you to fight a little harder to survive, to try to return to them, even if death is certain. Cooper looks away, overcome for a second with emotion. Case watches him, gauging his mood, whether he has said too much. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM, ENDURANCE Cooper begins recording a message. He looks unsure. COOPER We've almost reached the wormhole. (BEAT) Just in case anything happens, I just wanted to say... (BEAT) I love you boys. And I hope whatever your lives become, whatever is coming your way... you make the most of it. Cooper stops recording. Looks at the equipment, thinking it over. Erases the message. Stands to leave. As he steps to the door he notices Brand watching him through the window. She looks away. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Cooper steps out. Brand looks up at him. BRAND We'll be able to communicate with Earth even from the far side of the wormhole. Cooper smiles, grateful for this small kindness. COOPER I know. Thank you. BRAND I can't imagine how tough it would be to leave your kids behind. 58. COOPER You never had any? I thought I was a pariah for only having two. BRAND Hard to settle down when you've spent your life waiting to leave the planet. Cooper looks at the holographic model of the black hole system. The ice planet looks precariously balanced, orbiting the smaller black hole. COOPER Strange place to look for a new home. BRAND You wouldn't want to get too close to the surface of the sun, either. Black holes are a more stable supply of power than stars in many ways. COOPER You really think there's a plan? BRAND I hope so. (looks at him) You don't? COOPER I guess I just think we're on our own. Cooper looks at the impossibly complicated system of black holes orbiting each other. EXT. LAGRANGE POINT, SPACE Behind the ship, the sun is a distant light, not much bigger than the other stars. CASE (O.S.) We've reached the wormhole. The ship slows as it nears a tiny, crystal mouth, just four meters or so in diameter. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Case looks at the wormhole on the screen. It glows with the light of stars billions of light-years away. CASE Deploy the comms relay. 59. Cooper moves to the communications touchscreen. EXT. ENDURANCE The relay is released from the ship, and we finally get a look at Tars' paint job -- the stubby device looks like a 20th century mail box. The relay drifts in space. A signal light illuminates as it sends a test packet of data to the ship. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Cooper watches the comms screen. After a moment it TONES as it receives a data packet from Earth. CASE Everyone take their station for transit. We're heading into the wormhole mouth. Cooper and the rest begin folding away equipment in the control room and moving into the outer layer of the ship. Case initiates a sequence on the keypad and the nuclear engines disengage themselves from the ship. EXT. ENDURANCE, SPACE The nuclear engines drift a safe distance back from the ship and then snap tight on their tether. INT. OUTER HULL, ENDURANCE The crew move into the tight, claustrophobic outer layer of the ship. They will have very little room as the ship passes through the wormhole. Tars detaches his legs in order to take up less space during transit. Then he tethers himself to the hull wall. Case is the last to join them. He detaches a small control module from the console, then pulls himself into the outer hull and seals the passageway. Case presses a button on the control module. With a GROAN, the hull walls of the ship begin to BEND. EXT. ENDURANCE, SPACE The ship's hull begins to CRACK open, revealing the inner chamber. 60. INT. OUTER HULL, ENDURANCE The SHUDDERING continues. The crew watch nervously as the control chamber below them suddenly opens itself to the cold blackness of space. EXT. ENDURANCE, SPACE The ship silently rolls itself into position, pointing the opening in its hull toward the wormhole mouth. Slowly, the Endurance pushes itself forward, closer and closer to the crystal-like mouth. Finally, it envelops the mouth, bringing it into the open chamber. INT. OUTER HULL, ENDURANCE As the crew watch, the wormhole mouth is positioned in the center of the inner compartment. Case presses a sequence key on the control panel and the ship's hull closes again, trapping the wormhole inside it. With a GRUMBLE, the ship begins contracting, squeezing itself down around the wormhole mouth. Cooper takes a deep breath as the center of the ship begins gently lowering itself into the wormhole mouth, feeding itself into the wormhole from the inside out. Cooper watches as Doyle is swallowed into the compressing ship with a GRUNT. TARS Would you like me to make a joke? COOPER (FIRM) No. Cooper's turn: he is fed into the hole, legs first, then waist, torso, and, finally, his head. EXT. SPACE The Endurance shrinks as it sinks from the inside out into the wormhole. After a moment, it's gone. The only thing left behind is the comms relay, drifting in space, waiting for a signal. INT. OUTER HULL, ENDURANCE The ship continues to slide through the wormhole. Through the outer hull they see images of themselves repeating -- a trick of the narrow collar of space they are sinking through. Cooper smiles at himself. The experience is unnerving. 61. COOPER Where are we? ROTH (SMILING) Nowhere. Nowhere at all. Nowhere is still pretty damn claustrophobic. CASE The hull is intact. Thirty more seconds transit. For a moment, the ship slides gently, silently, through the wormhole. The quiet is eery. Suddenly, a point of distortion appears in the hull next to Cooper. It looks like someone is pushing against the hull of the ship with a giant finger. COOPER Something's happening to the hull over here. CASE Hull integrity is fine. The distortion moves along the hull, growing in diameter. COOPER Well, I don't know what your display is telling you but something is happening over here. Suddenly, along the hull, Doyle speaks up, panicked. DOYLE I've got a problem over here, too. Doyle is watching a separate distortion move across the inner wall of the ship. This one seems to be TWISTING the material of the hull. Suddenly, the point in front of Cooper detaches itself from the outer wall and moves through the space in front of him, bending the empty space itself, distorting the ship behind it like a sphere-shaped magnifying glass. DOYLE (CONT'D) It's not the hull... it's inside the ship... it's... ROTH (SMILES) It's beautiful. 62. Roth watches as the distortions move through the ship. His curiosity doesn't make anyone else feel any better. DOYLE What the hell are they, Case? CASE I don't know. It could be gravitational turbulence. The twisting sphere in front of Doyle begins to grow. DOYLE It's getting bigger. Doyle puts up his hand to defend himself. The sphere absorbs it, twisting Doyle's hand. Doyle CRIES OUT. His hand is twisted completely around, impossibly mangled. But Doyle, hyperventilating, isn't in any pain. ROTH It's not bending your hand. It's bending the space around your hand. The sphere begins to pass through Doyle's body. Doyle is freaking out. The sphere in front of Cooper makes contact with him, also. He holds his breath as it touches him, squeezing and distorting his body. BRAND This isn't turbulence. Look at the way they're moving -- it's like something's examining us. Cooper watches the sphere distort his arm, running along the length of it. COOPER Can you ask it to stop? Suddenly, as quickly as they appeared, the distortions vanish. For a moment, the crew is silent, still spellbound by the encounter. An ALARM sounds. Suddenly, the inner chamber begins to distort from a spherical shape to bispherical: two spheres joined. The ship GROANS as if it's being pulled apart. ROTH The wormhole is splitting into two paths. Radiation is pouring from one path to the other. 63. Case stares at the controls. Decides. CASE Release the second mouth. DOYLE None of our testing involved opening the ship inside the wormhole. We have no idea what might happen. CASE We're going to find out. Doyle reaches over to an auxiliary panel and punches in a sequence. After a moment, the hull cracks open, creating a channel through which the radiating mouth can escape. The opening in the ship allows the pressure to begin to concentrate on one fracture point. The ship SHUDDERS as it's squeezed along its axis. Case punches in a code and the ship begins to close again, painstakingly slowly. Finally, the ship calms as it closes around the original wormhole. CASE (CONT'D) We're reaching the far end of the wormhole. Suddenly, the wormhole mouth begins to grow inside the inner chamber. What was a ball of light spreads out into a black canvas studded with points of light -- like looking into the universe through the wrong end of a telescope. Cooper presses himself against the wall and holds on as the hull beneath him opens outward. EXT. WARPED SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE The Endurance emerges from the opposite end of the wormhole from the inside out. It drifts in space. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE For a moment, the crew are silent, taking it in. ROTH Look at that. Roth is looking through the translucent panel on the hull. They are on the warped side of the universe. 64. EXT. WORMHOLE MOUTH, WARPED SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE The vista is dazzling -- an ocean of massive stars and black holes, some adorned with jets and brilliant gas disks. At the center, like a king at the center of his court, is Gargantua, plasma jets spewing from its poles. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE The crew pull themselves back into the control deck from the outer hull. Their incredible surroundings are visible in all directions as Endurance passes the light into the cabin. CASE Reconfigure the engines and test the communications array. The crew break themselves away from the view and get to work. Roth begins adapting his models of the local system with the real observational data pouring in from the ship's instruments. Cooper pulls himself to the comms post. PINGS the relay they left on the far side of the wormhole. EXT. WORMHOLE MOUTH 'A', SPACE The blue and white comms relay LIGHTS up as it receives a packet through the wormhole. INT. ENDURANCE After a nervous moment, the comms computer TONES with a response -- they're still in touch with the Earth. COOPER It's working. Tars finishes reeling the nuclear engines back in from their tether and locks them into place. Roth's updated model appears on the monitors. Brand stares at it, startled. BRAND We're moving. DOYLE That's not possible. We haven't activated the engines yet. The ship's skin illuminates, overlaying a plotted course on top of the view. 65. They are moving, very rapidly, on a course that leads directly between the black hulks of Gargantua and Pantagruel. CASE Roth. Why are we moving? Roth looks at the stars, then back to his model. ROTH The smaller black hole. We're much closer to it than the models predicted. We're being pulled by its swirl. Very quickly. The crew looks out through the hull. They are being pulled into Pantagruel's swirl -- a glittering disc of matter spinning at high speed around the hole. Doyle looks behind them. The wormhole mouth is rapidly growing smaller. CASE Doyle. Fire the engines. Now. The ship's engines FIRE, straining to fight the irresistible pull of the supermassive black hole. They won't be able to fight it for long. DOYLE We're being pulled into it? ROTH No. I don't think so... Roth looks at the instrumentation for a moment. ROTH (CONT'D) It appears to be pulling us on exactly the trajectory we modelled. If we try to fight it, we could push ourselves off of that trajectory. DOYLE You don't know that. Case stares ahead into the darkness. ROTH We should turn off the engines. Let the swirl take us. DOYLE (FRANTIC) Listen to me. (MORE) 66. DOYLE (CONT'D) If the modelling was wrong, then we can't be sure about anything. We need to go back. Case thinks it over. Decides. CASE Shut down the engines. The engines shut down. SILENCE. The ship drifts for a moment in the swirl, then begins to move. EXT. ENDURANCE The ship accelerates as it is pulled by the irresistible force of the black hole onto an inspiraling orbit. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE The crew watch as the ship hurtles around the black hole at higher and higher speeds. The sky overhead begins to spin due to their motion -- faster and faster until it becomes a blur. The ship begins to GROAN as it appears to be pulled in two different directions. The ship is now speeding around the black hole at incredible speed -- one revolution every four seconds. The crew are suddenly SLAMMED against the hull in opposite directions -- some towards the black hole, some towards the opposite side. Roth looks at his model, which shows the projected path of the ship. It looks perilously close to the event horizon. ROTH It's the tidal gravity caused by the black hole. It means we're right on the critical orbit. The comms screen lights up, TONING again and again, as it receives a long garbled update. Then it shuts down. Cooper drags himself along the hull until he reaches the controls. COOPER We've lost contact with the relay. Case joins Cooper at the comms screen. While they're distracted, Doyle maneuvers himself over to the engine control. 67. COOPER (CONT'D) One long garbled transmission came in. Then nothing. Case looks at the screen. Suddenly, the ship is JOLTED as the engines fire at full power. The crew looks over. Doyle is standing by the controls. DOYLE I'm sorry. I can't let you kill us. We have to go back. The engines strain to fight the swirl -- but they're hopelessly outgunned by the gravity of the black hole. EXT. ENDURANCE Instead of reversing course, the Endurance begins to speed up, as it plummets closer and closer to the black hole. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Doyle's face sinks as he watches the controls -- on the 'volcano' model, the ship is now passing the crest and spiraling towards destruction. He has made a tragic mistake. DOYLE Why isn't it slowing down? ROTH We're being pulled towards the event horizon. ALARMS begin sounding throughout the ship as the projected course on Roth's model shifts, showing the Endurance being pushed up the rim, past the critical orbit and down towards the black hole's event horizon. Case takes control of the ship, trying to fire the engines forwards to speed them back up to safety, but it's too late. CASE (CALM) The engines don't have enough power to push us back. ROTH They would if we used it all at once. Cooper is still trying to understand what Roth means as Tars locks himself into the engine compartment. 68. COOPER What is he doing? BRAND Saving us. Tars tears open the engine's control panel and begins overriding it. EXT. ENDURANCE Tars rips out the cooling circuitry. Then, holding on tight, he fires the engine. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE The crew watch as Tars holds the engine, blasting it at full power into the swirl. The engine heats up white-hot. ROTH Prime the remaining engine. When he detonates it, we'll only have a few seconds. If we overshoot we could be pulled into the bigger hole. Roth moves to the controls. CASE Secure yourselves. The ship should be able to withstand the blast. COOPER What about Tars? As the crew watches, Tars continues to hold the engine even as the casing around it begins to melt. Finally, it EXPLODES. EXT. SPACE Tars is thrown backwards from the explosion, tumbling through space as the ship is ROCKETED upwards. INT. ENDURANCE The ship is SLAMMED by the explosion. Cooper and the rest of the crew are SMASHED against the hull. Doyle is knocked unconscious. Brand steps over to him and cradles his head, trying to protect him. On Roth's model, the course slowly pushes outward, out of the danger zone, back to the original delicate orbit. As they near the original orbit, Case fires the remaining engine, pushing them back onto the outspiraling orbit. 69. CASE It's going to be close, but we're going to make it. Brand looks at the instruments. Points to a tiny radar contact receding towards the massive black hole. BRAND Tars. His transponder is still working. The ship's instruments TONE every few seconds as it communicates with Tars' onboard computer. ROTH He's being pulled toward Gargantua. We can't help him. The crew watch, helpless, as the tones grow further and further apart. Then they stop. Cooper looks at Doyle, anger rising. Then he looks down. EXT. SPACE AROUND PANTAGRUEL The Endurance slowly spirals back away from Pantagruel, the sky slowing as the orbit grows longer. Finally, a tiny speck of light appears in front of the ship. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Roth watches as the Endurance races back away from the black hole and into a perfect orbit around a tiny ice planet. Roth looks up from his screen, smiling. ROTH We're here. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE As Roth and Doyle study the frozen planet below, Cooper tries in vain to signal the relay on the Earth side of the wormhole. Brand and Case are having a private conversation away from everyone else. Cooper walks over. COOPER I still can't contact the relay. Brand ignores him at first. She nods at Case. 70. COOPER (CONT'D) Did you hear me? We're not able to communicate back home. She waves him off. But she looks shaken by something. BRAND I've already checked it. It's electromagnetic interference. We'll try again in a few hours. Cooper begins to ask her what's wrong, but she moves off. Roth looks up from his monitor, excited. ROTH I've got a signal. But it's local. A familiar CHIRP plays over the ship's speakers. ROTH (CONT'D) The remaining probes. We found them. She looks at the monitor. The probes ping the ship with their locations, which pop up on the monitor. They're all clustered in one spot. COOPER How could they all have landed in the same place? ROTH (SMILES) Let's go find out. Case programs a course that will lock the ship in orbit above the probes on the surface. EXT. SPACE ABOVE ICE PLANET The ship settles into orbit a few hundred kilometers above the surface of the ice planet. It can't get any closer: The space below it is choked with hundreds of tiny moons -- a cruder version of Saturn's rings. The moons are hurtling around the planet at high speed. INT. AIRLOCK, ENDURANCE Brand ushers Doyle into the landing module. Cooper objects. COOPER We're bringing him along? 71. BRAND We need all the help we can get. Besides, the alternative is to leave him on the ship alone. You think he'll still be here when we get back? Cooper steps aside, allowing Doyle onboard. EXT. SPACE ABOVE ICE PLANET The lander detaches from Endurance, rolls over on its belly, and FIRES thrusters to sink towards the planet's surface. INT. LANDER The crew watches, fascinated, as the ship descends, navigating between the moons that hurtle past. The moons are vastly different than our own; potato shaped and only one to two miles in circumference, they are hugged in a close embrace with the ice planet, only a few hundred thousand feet from the surface. EXT. SURFACE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT The lander touches down on the ghostly surface of the planet. EXT. SURFACE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT After a moment, the hatch HISSES open and the team steps out, led by Case, holding a rifle. The team sets out, moving slowly in their cumbersome suits. Lit by the nebula, the surroundings are a little brighter than a full moon on Earth. Not that there's much to look at. They are standing on a sea of ice, which spreads for miles. In the distance, small rock formations break through the ice. Brand takes a surface reading of the ice. BRAND (RADIO) The probe was right. Looks like significant amounts of oxygen trapped in the ice. Case leads the way, drawn by a signal only he can hear. He walks fifty yards, then stops on a gentle slope that leads down into a small valley. 72. CASE The other probes should be directly beneath us. Case and the others begin digging into the hillside. Cooper is drawn to a small mound in the middle of the valley, four feet high. He takes out a small folding shovel and begins scraping at the ice and snow. Case hits something solid. But it's not a probe. He digs around a little more, then reaches up and hacks away at the hillside, revealing the outline of something metal: A door. They're not standing at the base of a hill -- it's a shelter. The crew stands back, unsure what to make of it. A few feet away, Cooper cuts enough of the mound away to reveal something flexible -- fabric caked with ice. He scrapes away the snow, revealing a bright patch of red fabric: It's the flag of the People's Republic of China. BRAND How could the Chinese have gotten here first? The federal government kept the wormhole a secret. Case shrugs. He has a soldier's gallows humor about his old employer's ability to keep anything a secret. CASE They didn't do a very good job. Case reaches for the door of the shelter. It's sealed shut with ice. He wrenches it open. INT. CONTROL MODULE, CHINESE BASE CAMP -- NIGHT Case steps into the shelter, followed by the rest of the crew. His lights pick up several years worth of dust. Case steps up to an equipment locker. Forces it open. Inside are half a dozen black probes. Exposed to light, the probes begin TONING like the one Cooper found in Texas. DOYLE The Chinese must have captured them. So they couldn't return to us. The crew stare at the probes for a moment, taking it in. BRAND Then how did the probe that Cooper found return? 73. ROTH The more immediate question is what happened to the Chinese expedition. There's no sign of their ship in orbit. And they never returned to earth. Roth picks up an ancient vacuum sealed package of pickled egg. Virtually none of the rations have been eaten. EXT. VALLEY, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Cooper and Brand scrape ice from one of the other small hills surrounding the valley, revealing another structure. Cooper forces the door open. INT. BARRACKS, CHINESE BASE CAMP, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Cooper and Brand let themselves in. The shelter is well stocked with food and equipment. Brand is taking readings with a radiation detector. BRAND The whole place has been dosed with huge levels of radiation. What happened here? Cooper looks at the pieces of a modular, one-person rocket, a last-ditch means of escape, stored, untouched in the shelter. He steps back, realizing something. COOPER This is the Taichung mission. BRAND The Mars mission? The Chinese claimed it had been destroyed on landing. Cooper looks over the relay log. COOPER They never landed. Not on Mars. Four human crew, fifteen robots. The log says the base has been here for thirty years. Case's familiar voice comes through the radio. CASE (O.S.) I've found something. 74. INT. UTILITY MODULE, CHINESE BASE CAMP -- NIGHT The structure is filled with drilling equipment. Cooper and the rest of the team stand at the edge of a three-foot hole that has been drilled into the ice. A descending rig is anchored to the top of the hole. Doyle and Case struggle to pull themselves out of the hole. DOYLE It goes down for a hundred and fifty feet, then stops. Tunnel's old -- the ice has reformed at the bottom. BRAND I'm going to descend to take some samples. Cooper, want to make yourself useful? Cooper begins to say something, then bites his tongue. EXT. LANDER -- NIGHT Cooper emerges, loaded down with several containers of Brand's equipment. As he struggles through the wind and snow, his radio picks up data chatter between the mother ship and Case. The comms are just noise. After a moment, Case's voice cuts in. CASE (O.S.) Get back here, Cooper. We've got a problem. Cooper continues to wade through the snow. Suddenly, he trips over something, dropping the equipment. Cooper looks back. He tripped on a white plastic post sticking out of the snow. He dusts it off, to reveal a picture of a Chinese Taikonaut smiling in his flight suit. This is a grave marker. Cooper sweeps his hand through the snow, revealing three more white posts with pictures. The entire human crew has been buried here. INT. UTILITY MODULE, CHINESE BASE CAMP -- NIGHT Roth and Case are looking at a portable monitor, showing a projection of the nearby system -- the ice planet is a speck orbiting the local black hole. COOPER The entire human crew is buried out there in the snow. 75. Roth looks up from the monitor and assesses the situation with his usual detachment. ROTH I think I know what killed them. This planet isn't the only thing orbiting this black hole. Roth zooms the monitor in, revealing a tiny, impossibly-bright object appearing at the horizon of the black hole. ROTH (CONT'D) It's a neutron star. The black hole shields the planet's surface from it for twenty hours at a stretch. Time's about up. Even Brand looks rattled. BRAND How long do we have left? ROTH About five minutes. COOPER Then what? BRAND Then we die. The radiation will cook us alive. Cooper looks around, their predicament settling in. Case walks over to the edge of the mine shaft. CASE We have to go down. COOPER What about returning to the ship? BRAND Not enough time. Case is right. The ice can shield us from some of the x-rays. DOYLE It would take a thousand feet of ice to shield us. Brand gives up on the argument, sheds her equipment and clips herself to the line to follow Case down into the ice. Cooper looks at Doyle, then follows her. 76. INT. ICE MINE SHAFT -- NIGHT Cooper descends into the shaft. The only light is from his suit's light array. He reaches the bottom of the shaft, which opens into a small cave, the ice ribbed in wave-like patterns like the seafloor. COOPER What is this? BRAND A pocket formed by gas. There may be more below. The ice below them reveals nothing but murky blackness. Case has found some of the equipment left behind by the Chinese -- a battery-powered drill and a pick. DOYLE We'll never make it far enough down. BRAND Shut up. How much time do we have, Roth? Roth checks his watch with his usual detachment. ROTH About three minutes or so until we're fully exposed. The rad meter Brand is holding begins to CHIRP with activity -- the radiation levels are rising. The ice will not be enough to protect them. Cooper sees that Brand has exhausted herself with the pick. He takes over for her. The drill that Case is operating GROANS as the thirty-year- old battery runs out of charge. Case casts it aside and begins SMASHING at the ice with his bare hand. Brand is looking at the walls of the ice pocket, looking for fissures. Her lights pick out something in the ice. She LOOKS CLOSER: Tiny black flecks. Brand, ever the scientist, forgets their predicament and begins chipping at the ice. BRAND I've found something. Case continues to pummel the ice with his hand, which is badly smashed. 77. He pulls off the hand and continues to hack away at the ice with the stump, trying to save his crew. Brand is examining a piece of ice in her hands, which contains several black flecks. As she shines her light on them, they FLUORESCE, giving off a tiny flicker of light, like a firefly. Brand steps back. BRAND (CONT'D) These things... they're alive. Roth joins her, looking down at the tiny creatures trapped in the ice. Brand shines her flashlight over the ice again, but nothing happens. Roth takes the depth meter dangling by a lanyard from Brand's suit. ROTH It's not your light they're responding to. It's this-- Roth takes the depth meter and waves it over the ice. Suddenly, the black flecks begin to shine. BRAND X-rays. They feed on them and emit visible light. They've found a way to survive here. Roth looks at the shimmering light of the tiny life-forms trapped in the ice, mesmerized. Case hammers down with his arm, gouging a deep hole in the ice below. Suddenly, GAS sprays back up at him. He's found the gas pocket beneath them. Too late. Roth's rad meter begins BEEPING frantically. EXT. ICE PLANET -- ALIEN DAWN Overhead, a tiny ball is orbiting into view from the dark side of the black hole -- the NEUTRON STAR. Its humble size belies its power. As its rays hit the ice, the ice CRACKLES with energy. INT. ICE MINE SHAFT -- ALIEN DAWN Brand steps back from the ice in awe as it begins to glow. The microbes are absorbing the x-rays and emitting light. Within seconds, they are bathed in an incredible glow. Even Cooper stops, awed by the beauty of the display. Only Case is unmoved, continuing to SMASH at the ice with the broken end of his wrist. 78. BRAND (looks at rad meter) They're absorbing most of the x-rays. ROTH Not enough, unfortunately. Suddenly, a CRACK as Case punches into the ice. Cooper looks down -- a great fissure has opened in the ice beneath them. COOPER Case, wait-- Case PUNCHES again. Suddenly, with a great BANG, the ice floor disintegrates beneath them. They fall into the darkness. INT. CAVERN -- ALIEN DAWN Cooper falls. For a moment, the only light he can 