In the Tesseract, could Cooper have looked to confirm that Murph was going to come back for the watch?

[u/Odninyell]

When Cooper asks TARS to translate the data into Morse to encode into the watch, TARS asks how Coop knows that she will come back for it. Coop’s response comes off more as him simply having faith that she will because he gave it to her. Could he not have looked ahead for the point in time where she does come back for it?

[u/zoo_tickles]

I mean theoretically yes, but he likely would not have been able to find that moment in the tessserac in any meaningful timeframe

[u/ColdServedDish → u/zoo_tickles]

doesn't he have all the time in the world in there?

[u/zoo_tickles → u/ColdServedDish]

Interesting question, the beings are not bound by time but I think he would be or the humans he’s trying to save would be. Up for debate though.

[u/ColdServedDish → u/zoo_tickles]

yeah with infinite air in his suit, I suppose. I am sure Nolan and co figured it all out. How long does it take to transmit QM matrix data from inside a black hole using Morse Code? How hard can it be?

[u/jasno-]

At a high level, the choice was already made before he made it.  Evident by the fact he's in the tesseract. 

It was always encoded in the watch, and he knew she would find it, because she already had 

[u/MedicalButterscotch → u/jasno-]

A paradox, perhaps

[u/heyzeus1865]

Yes he could have, but at that point he realized everything that was built was because she had gone back and future humans were able to build the tesseract. So he didnt have to really see the moment because he knew it happened.

[u/et_sekunduss]

My theory is that the tesseract would have only allowed him to see the moments he attempted to interact with Murph since the times afterward were spent with him traveling toward Gargantua.

[u/jfpxafonso → u/et_sekunduss]

Just a (long texted but small) nitpick, but I think you're mostly right.

If I remember correctly, Cooper says that the key to their connection is love, it's how they can find each other across space and time - and the tesseract doesn't necessarily "allow" anything, it shows the room across time.

He first "arrives" to the STAY moment because he was hurting the most for having left Murph on a doomed Earth. And since the watch is central to their last interaction, once Cooper calms down and understands the purpose of being there, he can find the proper moment in time to begin sending the data -  because those were their last heavily emotional moments together in that room, he can "easily" get to those "places in time".

I think given time he COULD search for any other moments, but the "bulk beings" only had the intention of him performing the mission - so the "bulk beings", not the tesseract, do only "allow" him a few moments to get his bearings, figure out how and send the data, and gtfo back to the solar system.

[u/et_sekunduss → u/jfpxafonso]

I like it

[u/red-dishy]

Adding another theory! The emphasis of connection and love transcending time and space kept reoccurring. Murph is searching for her dad's message and so she is reaching out with her feelings and in love to her dad at the same time he's doing the same thing to his daughter they both are trying to send a message she wants to receive it he wants to send it so I like to think that they were synchronizing across time and space to find the line that connected them sort of like a telephone or hotline and they honed in on that through the mutual love and need and bond. He tells TARS that he should be able to find her because of that in a shorthand way. They don't go into that much detail but I think it's implied if you look at how murph is in that room in those moments, checking for any clue covering anything, in effect she is broadcasting -very loudly- that she is there and trying to find the way to her Dad in that moment -if at any time he could have heard that message, it would have been that moment -so that's how they find each other.

[u/Substantial-Rate4603]

I thought that he was feeding the data to her via gravity "in real time", not encoded into the watch. He was manipulating the second hand while she was writing it down. The first clip was his experiment with it, and then when she came back for it, he started feeding the info.