Page - 68 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/01

to his friend Chaerephon by the Oracle of Delphi: his mission (should he choose to ac- cept it) is to “awaken” the denizens of his city, Athens. Socrates tried to resist this fate, at least that is what he claimed in his defense at his trial, as described by Plato: “For know that the god commands me to do this, and I believe that no greater good ever came to pass in the city than my service to the god […] something divine and spiritual comes to me […] I have had this from my childhood; it is a sort of voice that comes to me and when it comes it always holds me back from what I am thinking of doing.”25 In the biblical text, God is the one who chooses the prophets for humanity and for the people of Israel. In the film, those who choose Cooper and his daughter Murph are called “they”. Not unlike the biblical idea of “I am that I am”, we do not really ever know who “they” are, but we imagine “them” as beings with superior intelligence and therefore super-human powers. “They” have the ability to control nature and open up an artificial wormhole in the universe, as well as to somehow generate the structure of the four-dimensional tesseract, an ability similar to divine creation. “They” are likened to God as described in the Bible – a superior being that is outside nature, a creator who is able to create and control nature at will. God can stop the celestial bodies in their tracks: “He said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon” (Joshua 10:12). He can stop the seas from overflowing: “will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it” (Jeremiah 5:22). “Their” divine ability to create is matched by “their” ability to “see” the future and take steps to prepare the ground for humanity’s salvation, all qualities that equally apply to the God of the Old Testament. “They” have the ability to “search the heart [and] try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways” in order to choose the right apostles for their mission (Jeremiah 17:10). “They” recognize Murph’s potential and choose her when she is still a child, just as God chooses many of his prophets long before their mission can begin. Conclusion Interstellar is generally thought of as a film that visually demonstrate a number of scientific quandaries, and it is so successful at doing so that certain physicists even recommend it to students as a supplement to course materials, noting, for example, “Christopher Nolan’s science fiction movie Interstellar offers a variety of opportuni- ties for students in elementary courses on general relativity theory.”26 25 Plato 2005, 109–115. 26 Oliver/Tunzelmann/Franklin/Thorne 2015, 486. Biblical Narratives in Interstellar | 67www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/1, 53–69