Interstellar’s villain twist is even better 10 years after Christopher Nolan’s space epic

InterstellarThe villain twist with Dr. Mann has aged well in the decade since the Christopher Nolan movie was released. The 2014 movie saw Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), Doyle (Wes Bentley), Professor Romilly (David Gyasi), and the robots TARS and CASE (Bill Irwin) travel through space and time to find a hospitable planet for humans. The second planet they traveled to was an icy world III The scientists found Dr. Mann, a NASA astronaut from the Lazarus Program who has been there for decades.

While McConaughey, Hathaway, and the rest of Interstellar‘s cast members are featured prominently in the marketing, the actor playing Dr. Mann is kept a secret. It made it all the more surprising to see Matt Damon in the role, since he was and continues to be one of the biggest names in Hollywood. .The surprise didn’t end there, however Dr. Mann, who was an ally to Cooper and Amelia, was a villain in Interstellar, In what became one of the movie’s biggest twists.

Interstellar’s husband twist is even better knowing Matt Damon would become a recurring Nolan actor

Dr. Mann was just the beginning

Part of what helped Dr. Mann’s twist age well was how Damon became a recurring actor in Nolan’s movies. From Cillian Murphy to Michael Caine, many actors have played a wide range of roles in Nolan’s vast filmography. Interstellar was Damon’s first role in a Nolan movieBut it would pave the way for him to act in more of the acclaimed director’s projects. The second collaboration came almost a full decade later, when Damon played General Leslie Groves, the real-life individual who oversaw the Manhattan Project, in the Academy Award-winning. Oppenheimer.

More interestingly, Nolan’s next movie will also star Damon, which is the third collaboration between the actor and the director. Seeing Dr. Mann gradually reveal himself as a villain and choose himself over the greater good of humanity is even more effective when you know that it is only the beginning of a long-term partnership between Damon and Nolan. Damon has now become one of Nolan’s go-to actorswho played important but ultimately supporting characters in two of Nolan’s best movies, and who will now lead the cast of Nolan’s mysterious 2026 movie.

How Christopher Nolan pulled off the Matt Damon villain twist in Interstellar

It was beyond the script

In addition to the actor’s performance and Nolan’s direction, Damon Interstellar The role worked well because the actor’s involvement was kept a secret before the theatrical release. This meant that there were no pre-set expectations about who Dr. Mann would be. When he first appeared, and the audience saw that he was played by Damon, The tendency soon was to trust Dr. Mann, because Damon usually played honest good guys.

The character’s name, Dr. Mann, even made him believableWhich indicates that he is just a regular person who will help ensure the survival of Cooper, Amelia and all of humanity. This made it even more shocking when Dr. Mann betrayed them, in which his failed docking attempt killed Professor Romilly and severely damaged the space force of scientists. With another actor whose casting was known before, the betrayal of Dr. Mann would not have been as surprising or effective in the 2014 movie.

Matt Damon coming out of his acting break for Oppenheimer was a big decision

This further boosted his successful career

Before they are thrown in OppenheimerDamon planned to take an acting break, with his one caveat being if Nolan contacted him to be in a movie. Accepting Nolan’s proposal was a huge move for Damon’s careerBeginning with his prominent role in Oppenheimers star-studded cast. He starred in the Academy Award-winning Best Picture, which also became the third-highest-grossing movie of 2024 at $987.5 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), only with Barbie And The Super Mario Bros. Movie able to earn more at the worldwide box office.

Damon is now set to be the face of Nolan’s 2026 movie In the same way that Murphy, who won an Academy Award for his performance, was at the forefront of Oppenheimer. The ongoing collaboration between Nolan and Damon has now made him just as a recurring actor for the director as Murphy, Caine, Christian Bale and Tom Hardy. Since Oppenheimer, Damon has appeared in other movies, including Apple TV+’s the institutions, where he starred alongside Casey Affleck, but Damon’s most promising future project is in Nolan’s 2026 movie, which is only happening because of Interstellar.