10 Interstellar Script Changes That Drastically Changed The Film

5. The Robots Are Humanoid

One thing that many of Interstellar's detractors have praised en masse is the design of the film's robots. Reminiscent of the monolith from 2001, they're incredibly novel in the way they move and stand out as one of this future's most interesting elements. This wouldn't have been the case in the first draft; in the original plan they're basically humanoid. The personalities of TARS and CASE are still memorable, but they're much less visually distinct (at least in how they're described), closer to, say, David from Prometheus. Without having the finished version to miss, this wouldn't have been much of an issue, but from our standpoint it seems a little uncreative. In terms of plot the robots get slightly more to do, highlighting the film's less human-obsessed focus. While CASE has a more ignominious end, taken over by a crazed Chinese android, TARS feels more important from the off; ejected early on in the mission, he comes back in the finale to fill a similar role as he does in Nolan's film, but it's surprisingly more believable (we'll get to that, don't worry).