Interstellar: 20 Easter Eggs & References You Need To See

15. The Event Horizon Pencil Trick

The grand rule of sci-fi is that whenever someone needs some complex science described to them (and there's always one playing the cipher for the audience), there's always a very handy prop lying about that translates it. With wormholes, somebody uses something to bend space - usually a bit of paper, which futuristic movies have never evolved beyond for some reason. In Interstellar, the moment when Romilly explains to Cooper how a wormhole works - because the pilot about to fly through one wouldn't have had that training, obviously - uses that layman's terms explanation, but rips it directly from Event Horizon, even pushing the pencil through the bent paper. If it's an accident, it's a good one, as the film explores similar themes, of lost and desperate humanity, madness, endurance and black holes.