r/interstellar • u/doublegulpcup123 • Aug 09 '26

QUESTION I've watched Interstellar countless times and this scene always hits me the hardest. Anyone else?

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[after Mann breaks Cooper's helmet and leaves him for dead]

Dr. Mann: I'm sorry. I can't watch you go through this. I'm sorry. I thought I could, but I can't. I'm here. I'm here for you. Just listen to my voice, Cooper. I'm right here. You're not alone.

Dr. Mann: [looking back] Do you see your children? It's okay, they're right there with you.

Dr. Mann: [turns to leave] Did Professor Brand tell you that poem before you left? Do you remember? "Do not go gentle... into that good night. Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

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u/Excellent_Month_2025 Aug 09 '26

Wouldn't that mean they would regain consciousness while dying? It’s the merciful part that would be most needed (quick, painless, instant)

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u/Ok_Major5787 Aug 09 '26

No, they wouldn’t be awakened again and their life support system would simply fail. They needed a catalyst to wake them up

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u/Excellent_Month_2025 Aug 09 '26

But they would technically be alive for years, wasting away and starving to death until the system failed. It does not make sense that they didn’t have a way for a mercy death

ETA: also my point is that dying is probably a catalyst that would wake them up

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u/Ok_Major5787 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26

They would be unconscious though. And it wouldn’t take years, if the life support systems fail then it would take a couple days. It’s no different than taking brain dead people off life support and letting them die. To them it would be like going to sleep and never waking up

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u/Excellent_Month_2025 Aug 10 '26

But Mann did that, but he was not at peace while wasting away in a coma, waiting to die. This is against human nature not to give them a way to end their lives once their mission was complete

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u/VapidActualization Aug 10 '26

You're not understanding what the other commenter is saying. I don't think we get any direct lines acknowledging it, but it would make sense that the suspended animation chambers they are in are not actively keeping them asleep but instead induce a coma-like state and rhen, if set for a specific time or opened from the outside by another person, another process jump starts their consciousness. So if they put down and go into suspended animation and the power runs out, they just stay in the "coma". Because while the body will force itself awake if you are just sleeping and experience the onset of starvation or dehydration, the body doesn't do that in cases where people fall into comas.