Besides the scientific foundation of Interstellar, Nolan also tends to ground his films within a reality that is built from familiar elements.
Taking everyday experiences and enlarging them building them into the bigger story.
Again going back to Inception, when establishing the rules of the dream world and the concept of extraction, Nolan used universally experienced elements to make a science fiction concept feel relatable to the audience.
Such as the kick and the idea that dreams feel real while, we're in them.
"It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange."
In Interstellar, he does this by drawing on our universal experience of being imprisoned by time, which is beautifully symbolized by the clock shaped Endurance that while moving in infinite space, binds the crew within its limits, and Hans Zimmer's score which during high tension scenes becomes a ticking clock at exactly 60 beats per minute.
We also see this in what is perhaps the most devastating scene in the film, the moment when Cooper and Brand come back from Miller's planet to find out that 23 years have passed in the mere hours they were gone.
In what feels like the blink of an eye, Cooper's children have aged decades.
What was once their future is now a series of memories that he was not a part of, and we, too, as the audience are deprived of being part of their story like we were in the first act of the film.
Why do we find this moment so profoundly moving?
