Interstellar

SPACE.

But not the dark lonely corner of it we're used to. This is

a glittering inferno -- the center of a distant galaxy.

Suddenly, something TEARS past at incredible speed: a NEUTRON

STAR. It SMASHES headlong through everything it encounters...

planets, stars. Can anything stop this juggernaut?

Yes. Something looms at the heart of the galaxy, hidden

inside the blinding starlight, a dark flaw in the fabric of

existence itself: a BLACK HOLE.

The neutron star is pulled into the black hole's swirl,

spiraling closer and closer to destruction. Finally, it

contacts the hole's edge and EXPLODES.

The EXPLOSION is so powerful that it sends shock waves into

the fabric of space-time itself. We ride one of these waves,

racing back out from the black hole.

Suddenly, a portion of the wave disappears down a crystal-

like hole, emerging in a much darker region of the universe --

a backwater that, as the wave races past a giant red planet

with a distinctive eye, we recognize as our own.

The wave, now just an infinitesimal ripple, finally reaches

our blue planet. It drops into our atmosphere over North

America, toward the high desert east of the Cascades, and

through the roof of a nondescript warehouse.

The wave tickles the atoms in the steel shell of a vacuum

chamber, then dances a tiny jig with a laser beam reflected

in a heavy piece of glass.

The wave shoots back out of the building and disappears in

the fractal branches of a tumbleweed resting against a

concrete tube that stretches for miles in the desert.

An SUV speeds past the tumbleweed and we follow it till it

parks at another plain-looking building at the opposite end

of the tube. A MAN climbs out of the SUV.

INT. CONTROL ROOM, WAREHOUSE -- DAY

The man lets himself into a large room that looks like Mission

Control. He pours himself a cup of coffee. It is the weekend

and the place is empty. No one has been there to see the

displays flashing a distinctive shape -- a pulse followed by

a series of echoes.

The man looks up at the screen, then DROPS his cup of coffee.

CUT TO:

2.

INT. LIGO OFFICES, CALTECH, PASADENA -- DAY

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory

headquarters at Caltech is a frenzy of activity. POSTDOCS

and RESEARCHERS huddle around monitors and printouts, arguing.

ANSEN, 60s, the director of LIGO, walks through the frenzy.

A postdoc hands him a printout: a pulse followed by echoes.

INT. LIGO DIRECTOR'S OFFICE, CALTECH -- DAY

Ansen steps into the relative calm of a large, sunlit office,

which overlooks a grassy stretch of Caltech's campus.

His ASSISTANT, 30s, is on the phone, on hold. He looks up

at Ansen as he enters.

ASSISTANT:

I'm on hold with the INS.

(COVERS MICROPHONE)

Don't you think we should double

check the triangulation before we

CALL ANYBODY-

ANSEN:

We have double checked it.

Someone finally picks up the line.

ASSISTANT:

Yes. I'm trying to reach-

(pause, listens)

No, I don't think you understand how

serious this is.

(PAUSE)

Because if you did, we'd be having

this conversation in person.

He listens for a moment, then hangs up the phone, confused.

ANSEN:

What did they say?

ASSISTANT:

They said we should look out the

window.

Ansen steps to the window and looks out:

In the courtyard below, coeds are scrambling to get out of

the way as a military helicopter sets down in the middle of

the quad and dozens of ARMED FEDERAL AGENTS converge on his

building.

3.

INT. MAIN CONFERENCE ROOM, LIGO, CALTECH -- DAY

Ansen sits, alone, on one side of a conference table.

The other side is filled with GOVERNMENT MEN -- NSA mostly,

some DIA. The door opens and his assistant steps in. Armed

guards pat him down, then shove him into a seat.

ANSEN:

Is that really necessary?

One of the NSA agents leans forward.

NSA AGENT:

You've been complaining for years

that the government doesn't take

your project seriously enough, Doctor.

(SMILES)

You can't have it both ways.

Ansen motions to his assistant, who turns on a projector.

On-screen, we see the familiar pulse and echoes.

ANSEN:

Yesterday morning, our facility in

Hanford identified this signal: a

neutron star colliding with a

supermassive black hole. We went

through the last year's data and

triangulated the source.

The pulse is translated into a crude animatic of a neutron

star circling into the black hole.

NSA AGENT:

We know that, Doctor. What we don't

know is why, according to your

numbers, this event took place right

here in our own solar system.

Suddenly, the image overlays the sun, the earth, and the

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