Interstellar: 11 Insane Spoilers Everyone Is Talking About

7. "Plan A" Is A Lie

When the Lazarus mission is first announced, it's said that there are two plans - plan A, to simply find a habitable planet while Professor Brand (Michael Caine) solves a gravity-related equation back on Earth in order to facilitate mass transportation of Earth's citizens to the new planet, or plan B, where if the Endurance is unable to return to Earth, cultivating colonies on the new planet with a "population bomb", a container full of zygotes with which to keep the human race alive while abandoning Earth. However, once Murphy is grown and Professor Brand is on his death-bed, he finally confesses a truth to her: plan A has been a hopeless lie. He himself solved as much of the equation as humanly possible many years ago, before realising that data from a singularity behind a black hole was required to finish it. As Brand passes on, Murph is clearly distraught about realising that Earth has been left to die, and agonises over whether Cooper knew this before taking off.