A long while back, my cousins recommended Interstellar as a great watch.

I finally did watch it. Initially, I thought the movie would disappoint. It surely did not! It’s the kind of film that sits with you long after the credits.

It is a 2014 film which stars Matthew McConaughey as Cooper, a father who leaves Earth to find humanity a new home. Time relativity means his “few years” away become decades for the family he left behind.

Here’s what stayed with me from the movie.

Fatherhood was at its best and worst:

Cooper crosses galaxies to get back to his daughter. That’s every parent, in every ordinary version of the same choice — showing up, even when the cost is steep. Then there’s the other father in the film. He keeps his family home out of fear, and it slowly kills them. It is the same love. Yet one would end up killing the family whilst another would save his.

Fear makes people do the unforgivable:

Dr. Mann fakes his data to get rescued. He was a celebrated scientist, until death got close enough to make him human. The lesson isn’t subtle: fear rewrites what people call the truth.

Love makes us rationalize what isn’t true:

Dr. Brand argues for one planet over another. She argues not based on evidence, but on love. Fortunately the team overrules her. And yet the film doesn’t let you dismiss her instinct either.

But the theme that hit hardest was the promise. Cooper tells his daughter he’ll come back. He does come back; even though it is when his daughter is old.

The Lesson
The most potent lesson from the movie, is the promise the father made. A promise is a debt you carry across any distance, any amount of time. For if you don’t keep your promises, then your word lets its power and significance.

Thus to end it, keep your promises.