Page - 58 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/01

people presented in the film that things are only bound to get worse and that Earth, or at least its human population, is headed for catastrophe that will spell the end for civilization (see fig. 2). Joseph Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey) is a widower raising his two children, 15-year-old Tom and 10-year-old Murphy (“Murph”), with the help of his father-in-law, Donald. Cooper used to be an engineer and test pilot for NASA, but at the beginning of the film he is a farmer living on a farm. The overall atmosphere created at the film’s outset is the apocalyptic feeling of looming disaster that could put an end to humanity – the sandstorm alarm (00:18:08), the drive through the storm (00:18:30), and so forth. The film represents a general sense of a fast-approaching and unavoidable end. Nev- ertheless, it also shows a team of scientists working to save humanity and make a fresh start, rather similar to the apocalyptic vision of the end as a new beginning. The film’s through line – its depiction of impending doom alongside the hope of renewal – fits with the biblical timeline that leads from Creation to the End of Days.14 The biblical time- line presents event after event in a chronological sequence leading up to the present time; from there the timeline continues directly towards its terminal point – the Apoca- lypse, the End of Days, or perhaps salvation.15 In the Old Testament, the apocalypse is mainly the purview of the Hebrew Proph- ets, who depict the end of days as dependent on the conduct of the community and the Israelite nation as a whole. This belief in the End of Days made its way into Christianity via the Book of Revelation – the Revelation of John. This book had in turn been influenced by the apocalyptic visions of the Old Testament prophet Daniel, 14 Dan 2000, 19. 15 Zeligman 1992, 102–103. Fig. 2: Humanity in the grip of catastrophe, Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, US 2014), 02:19:33. Biblical Narratives in Interstellar | 57www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/1, 53–69