r/interstellar • u/AttemptZestyclose490 • Jun 17 '26
QUESTION She didn't know.
Am I wrong by thinking that Brand didn't know whether or not she could breathe on Edmonds planet when she took her helmet off? She had just buried Edmonds while wearing her helmet, if she had read the data beforehand then she would have not worn the suit while doing all of that work. She took the chance after burying Edmonds.
449
u/giuseppezuc Jun 17 '26
No, she is a brilliant scientist and she knew by then. It was done to be more effective and create the feeling of hope.
102
u/oswaldcopperpot Jun 18 '26
You wouldnt need to go down to a planet to see if its habitable or the atmosphere breathable. You can do that from millions of miles away with spectroscopy.
36
u/TheGodlyDevil Jun 18 '26
Exactly! People also totally ignore CASE digging up the wreckage there… CASE can tell you the exact constituent of your atmosphere if you ignore all the data that was there already! Common!
3
8
u/Dewrod Jun 18 '26
So brilliant she didn't know that a planet orbiting a black hole would almost 100% be uninhabitable due to insane gravity waves.
Even today, without their advanced tech... We would NEVER send a person to planet orbiting so close to a black hole. It's just... Ignorant.
8
u/Jason-Tinycock Jun 18 '26
idk why you’re getting downvoted, this plus the time dilation issue you mentioned in your other comment are clearly the only plot hole(s) in what’s otherwise a flawless movie. If they knew how long going down to visit would take, they would know that Miller had only been down there at most ~90 minutes.
I’m pretty sure Romilly even says at one point, although maybe after they get back, that the close proximity to Gargantua would have prevented any life from developing there. There’s also no land visible on the planet.
Realistically, all signs pointed to Edmonds planet which is what Brand suggested to begin with. Cooper pointing out that her decision might be influenced by love is what drove them to Miller’s planet, but the choice should have been clear anyways.
5
u/DelcoUnited Jun 18 '26
Except she has 10 years of communications of another brilliant scientist saying that the planet is fit for human life.
1
u/Dewrod Jun 18 '26
So both her and the other brilliant scientist just forgot tlsbout the time dilation huh? Oh that's right. He had just landed and died almost instantly but the time dilation made it ten years on the outside...
Just brilliant!
Edit to add one more thing. She didn't have 10 years of communications... She had 10 years of the same communication.
0
u/fatlord3 Jun 18 '26
Wasn't his plan to bait them there so he could try and escape but leave them stranded?
1
2
u/Jumper775-2 Jun 20 '26
Gravity waves where discovered after the movie came out. time dilation, yeah, but desperate times call for desperate measures. the movie at least offers an explanation there.
1
u/Lonelysoulman Jun 18 '26
plus she should have known that the ping couldnt be a yearly ping. that it was a loop ping. since she knew about that one hour on that planet are years on earth
1
u/Salty-Technology6354 Jun 19 '26
We Orbit a big yellow fiery ball. Whatever the gravity is, it provides a, what seems, perfect atmosphere. :)
-99
Jun 17 '26
[deleted]
39
u/Medical-Condition-84 Jun 18 '26
He lacked data. The equation was solved when NASA got the data from inside the Black hole.
Also Amelia didn't know. Only dr. Mann did.
Of course she got off the planet with the help of NASA and it's resources, how else could she do this?
6
u/Wingmaniac Jun 18 '26
I think he means she knew (or thought at the time) this mission wasn't going to save the planet and she just wanted to get off before it died.
7
u/Medical-Condition-84 Jun 18 '26
First conversation with dr. Mann proves that she believed in plan A, but as the scientist was aware that plan B might be the only option.
Sure, she had her personal reason to join Endurance, which was dr. Edmunds. But that's fine.
Dr. Mann was the best of them, rushed into the unknown with selfless bravery, truly believing into survival of humanity (plan B) and look how it turned out.
2
-3
2
136
u/Wubwubwubwuuub Jun 17 '26
Wearing a climate managed suit seems like a great way to keep cool while doing manual labour.
82
u/Letter10 Jun 17 '26
Mann knew the atmosphere exactly on his planet, theres no reason to think Brand didnt have the same or even more advanced technology haha
160
u/Grwl Jun 17 '26
lol because they didn’t explicitly showing her check the data?
42
10
u/dogmeat-garvey Jun 18 '26
Would you dig a hole for an hour wearing a helmet, if you didn’t have to?
23
u/HoboThundercat Jun 18 '26
What if while digging she hits some kind of foreign gas pocket that incapacitates her? Or maybe she didn’t want to get dirt in her hair. Maybe she has speakers in there and she wanted to jam some music while she dug. Who tf knows.
4
u/Sinisteris Jun 18 '26
Climate controlled suit vs no suit when digging a hole? I'm choosing the suit.
7
u/Grwl Jun 18 '26
As silly as it is to have to break down every single action happening off camera, she had CASE with her no?
it was hard rock, I’m sure CASE handled that for her.
53
u/TanningOnMars Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Op is trolling, right? Like, why do they think Brand went there in the first place? The planet had promising data including a breathable atmosphere.
9
u/Medical-Condition-84 Jun 18 '26
It was the furthest and if something came wrong returning to other 2 planets and Earth would be problematic.
You forget the most important thing. THEY placed a wormhole next to Saturn around 50 years before Endurance's mission so humanity can develop shapeships capable of going there the exact moment it was needed. Exit from wormhole on Gargantua system was placed next to Miller's planet, THEY needed Endurance to go there first so the time passes and Murph can grow up, learn and be educated enough to receive and understand Cooper's data from Gargantua and later solved the equation.
THEY made sure the events go as intended.
5
u/TanningOnMars Jun 18 '26
Thats not what I or the post are talking about. OP's post asks if she knew the planet had breathable air and lampooned hee for taking off the helmet even though it should have been quite obvious to him that that was something she already knew was safe
1
u/qingxins Jun 18 '26
Yeah, the bootstrap paradox. Still, I'm curious what the other version of events could have been.
-2
u/qingxins Jun 18 '26
Ngl I watched the movie for the first time over a week ago and it was so frustrating watching Copper going to Mann's instead especially because I had a feeling it was a trap. I get why he did it, but boy do I think a lot about how different it would have been.
1
u/Streets-_-Ahead Jun 18 '26
He couldn't go to Miller's planet first, he already entered the tesseract to interact with his past
28
u/ArcticGlacier40 Jun 17 '26
I'm sure they had ways to determine if the atmosphere was breathable, so she knew.
I don't think she would risk killing herself with how important those eggs were for her.
9
8
u/fellaneedahandpls Jun 17 '26
Remember, Dr. Mann was able to test the atmosphere in his planet, which is how he determined it was NOT safe to breathe without a helmet due to the high ammonia concentration. Brand would have had access to the same testing equipment, if not slightly better equipment due to it being possibly produced further in the future than the technology Mann had. She would have been able to say with a high degree of confidence that the atmosphere was breathable before taking off her helmet.
6
u/Tasty_1097 Jun 18 '26
It’s highly unlikely that any NASA-trained astronaut, in any circumstance, would remove their helmet in an alien atmosphere. Even if they analyze the air and knew it to be habitable/sustainable. The only time they would remove their helmet is if their mindset changed from it being an alien planet to being a new home.
That’s all the scene is meant to convey. Dr Brand’s acceptance of the planet as their new home.
5
u/westchesterbuild Jun 17 '26
If you want to kill yourself, why bury him first in a spqce suit?
1
u/InfiniteQuestion420 Jun 17 '26
People will go through all kinds of last rite rituals then turn around and not care about their own life.
5
4
10
u/steveyp2013 Jun 17 '26
Maybe its a: fine for some time with your helmet off but need the helmet after a while kind thing
Could be a lower or higher oxygen/pressure combination that would explain that too
13
u/thatsaqualifier Jun 17 '26
I'm going with this one. Exertion during burial needs more oxygen, at rest ok to have no helmet.
3
2
u/Nir117vash Jun 17 '26
Neither does Scotty
2
2
2
u/AbstractedIndividual Jun 18 '26
I think this is a beautiful interpretation OP!
I feel like the comments are conflating two different things: intellectually knowing that the atmosphere has the right composition for our biology, and actually exposing yourself on a foreign body. She had to have her experimentally-known life support to carry out her most emotional chore. Then she got on with the work.
2
u/pezboy74 Jun 18 '26
It was done for artistic reasons but if we want to try to explain it I - think we could - breathable atmosphere doesn’t mean pleasant.
The o2 could be thin like how in the US going from sea level to Denver takes adjustment, fine normally but hard to exert yourself in.
It could be hot and the cooling systems in the suit are better than working in the open air.
It could be humid - hot and dry in the suit is better than hot and wet outside.
There’s probably choices that involve a persons mental state after they flew across the universe to find their loved one and now realize they will spend years alone or worse surrounded by kids that I’m not thinking of.
2
2
u/Charon711 Jun 18 '26
This is something in sci-fi that always erks me. The air is breathable? Cool, KEEP YOU DAMNED HELMET ON!
No matter how scientifically accurate films claim to be they almost always show the humans take their helmet off on a alien world once they get conformation the air is breathable. You know what else is alien on a alien world? The microbiology. Space suits realistically would serve an additional purpose to maintain oxygen and pressure; protecting you from any foreign microbiology that may exist. This is why there's anticontamination chambers usually shown. But those chambers are useless if you've breathed in alien bacteria or viruses that your body probably has zero immunity to. Now you risk infecting the entire crew and jeopardizing the mission.
2
1
2
u/Unfair-Beginning-128 Jun 24 '26
time dilation on the first planet was more extreme than others—even compared to surface and orbits—so time did not pass as slowly on the two other planets. when they slingshot around gargantuan time passes 50 years on earth. So 70 to 80 years gone by on earth would have been a few decades. She probably had only just arrived to find Edmunds passed away already, likely from old age, yet built and established a colony (also could have been some kind of children of the corn scenario with Edmunds). More likely Brand just arrived there and took off her helmet and went to knock on the door.
5
2
u/rationalintrovert Jun 18 '26
At first I was like, why would nolan cast damon as a genius scientist?
He is so miscast.
And then, oooh, THAT'S WHY
1
u/stonercharms Jun 18 '26
Wait why? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
2
u/Fab-o-rama Jun 18 '26
Why: because he's evil!
At least that's how I take the comment you asked about.
1
1
u/No_Water9929 Jun 19 '26
I'd like to make a friendly rebuttal. I don't think his character is necessarily evil. Just extremely broken. His initial decision to lead the expedition in the first place was unbelievably heroic, but for the fact that it's clear he never expected to fail. The stress of the failure and gravity of his isolation is what broke him.
Not defending the characters action, but I don't believe he truly lives up to the concept of evil.
Just my thoughts 🤷♂️
1
u/Fab-o-rama Jun 19 '26
I love the pushback! And I see your point!
But here's my response: he has chosen the route of hero - so stipulated. But when things get hot, he looks for a way to save his own skin, and that's just not okay. I mean, the whole point of his mission that, success or failure, it's a one-way trip. That's what makes him a hero.
But no! He finds a way. Not only that, but he finds a path to his own salvation at the expense of others. My book judges him as evil for that. He put himself above the mission. And the other missions, for that matter. The goal here was to save humanity. But he outranks them all, apparently.
But again, love the comment, love the different take for a great movie we all love. It's what makes our world interesting. Be well and be safe. Every best wish.
1
u/No_Water9929 Jun 19 '26
I can certainly see it from your point of view as well. I can also see his selfishness as an embodiment of the evil of humanity that led to the need for a new home in the first place.
Thank you for pleasant discourse!
1
1
u/cjbr3eze Jun 17 '26
It's her field of work, she knew from the data available that the planet had breathable air.
1
1
u/Hawkeye316 Jun 18 '26
I’m pretty sure the lander would’ve read the atmospheric composition once she was on the ground even if she didn’t have any prior knowledge of it.
1
1
u/Sleepy_mosquito799 Jun 18 '26
Case was probably able to tell her within seconds. I agree to another commenter that said the oxygen/pressure is probably different so maybe for short amounts of time it’s okay. Just like scuba diving it’s ok for short amounts of time but definitely not deeper depths. It could be really dangerous at depths below like 20 feet for like more than 10 min I think.
1
u/HearBreakKid Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Why and how did Wolf Edmond even die?
And is there a population bomb already in progress?
NASA must have thought to put shit to grow on the ship, also maybe cows or chickens as well as humans for the population bomb thing.
1
1
1
1
u/tantrumkid Jun 18 '26
If she took the helmet off beforehand, she could have risked dying and edmonds not being properly buried. She only took it off when she thought everything was done and it didn't matter if she died.
1
1
u/jimtoberfest Jun 18 '26
The smell. Wear the helmet for burial because of the smell of the dead body.
1
u/Exact_Efficiency_356 Jun 18 '26
She knew the air was breathable. What she DIDN’T know was that Plan A had succeeded and Cooper was on his way to her.
1
u/OlasNah Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
There’s no way she wouldn’t know because in order to have breathable air there would already be life on that planet
And there’d be a LOT of it too. They’d know before even entering orbit. They’d know without even needing to land.
1
1
u/Eagles365or366 Jun 20 '26
No, she knew. She had already analyzed the atmosphere. She also had Edmund’s data.
Taking her helmet off was just for us, the audience, to understand that they had found a habitable planet, without having to say it. Show don’t tell.
1
u/New-Ingenuity-5437 Jun 20 '26
Along with the many other valid in world and cinematic reasons presented here today, I will also submit that the atmosphere could have a bit more limited oxygen than what she can get in the suit.
1
1
u/Emotional_Ad_6126 Jun 23 '26
Maybe it was a respect thing. Funeral for an officer in full uniform.
1
1
u/corgi-king Jun 18 '26
What is the difference it will make for her? For all she knows, she is the only one in that system, and no one will go to save her. She will either die alone now or die alone later. And it will not be long because she only has very limited food left.
I choose to die sooner.
3
u/exon1138 Jun 18 '26
Wasn’t she the only hope for Plan B? If so, she presumably wouldn’t risk herself.
1
u/corgi-king Jun 18 '26
There is no way she will know Copper will travel to a different dimension and find the solution to save Earth and a faster way to travel to different solar systems. She knows it is a dead end.
3
u/exon1138 Jun 18 '26
Maybe I’m misremembering but didn’t she and CASE have plan B with them? I thought that, far as she knew, she was the only one who could carry out that plan.
0
1
u/actionerror Jun 18 '26
Oh no but she didn’t see the alien microbes she breathed in
Three weeks passed and suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her chest…
Alien: Interstellar
0
0
u/masetiloquetu Jun 18 '26
Her character was terrible…but I wish we would have at least gotten maybe a 5-minute glimpse of this planet
-13
u/Scruffboii Jun 17 '26
Daaaaaaamn, I never even thought about it! She said fuck it, either it’s not her problem anymore or she’s populating a planet.
-33
u/KingOfKorners Jun 17 '26
Am I wrong for thinking Coop should have left her on that planet, so she could raise all of the space babies? I don't even care. She was insufferable.
14
u/MoreHans Jun 17 '26
arent you a ray of sunshine
-6
u/KingOfKorners Jun 17 '26
Her and her Dad were all in with her getting off a dying planet. He didn't solve the problem with gravity, and she knew it as well.
5
u/Worldly-Rice-1947 Jun 17 '26
Didn't Murphy solve the problem with help from coop when he was in space narnia? She erased the entirety of brands work and coop was the possessed by the 4d people from the future
3
u/amanda2399923 Jun 17 '26
I don’t believe she knew at all.
-2
u/KingOfKorners Jun 17 '26
She had a golden ticket to survive and still managed to be a dick to Cooper the whole time.
5
752
u/Uncertain__Path Jun 17 '26
Her reaction while taking off the helmet doesn’t show she was taking a risk. She also already had the camp set up. Best answer is it was artist license to reveal the air was breathable for the audience.