The Deeper Meaning Behind Murph’s Name in ‘Interstellar,’ Explained

Interstellar is one of the greatest films ever made, with Christopher Nolan’s creativity bursting through in every instance, as well as the visual storytelling that transcends beyond the norm. If it hadn’t been for the films The Dark Knight and Inception, Interstellar would have easily been his best work, but in terms of rewatchability, it certainly outperforms any of his other movies.

Aside from being an exceptional science fiction film that messes with people’s minds, Interstellar is also a visual spectacle, with most of the scenes set in space, other planets, and Gargantua (a black hole). While that is certainly an impressive aspect of Nolan’s masterpiece, its true grandeur lies in its incorporation of physics, including a well-known law from a prominent scientist.

At this point, you would have guessed what it was, since the law was mentioned once in the film, but why is this sci-fi feature so insistent on making Cooper’s daughter Murph the central figure of the story? For the most part, Cooper has been an incredible protagonist, but near the end of the film, we learn that Murph is the missing key that completes the puzzle. So, if you’ve been curious about naming Cooper’s daughter Murph and the deeper meaning it holds in Interstellar, you’ve come to the right place to find out.

Murph’s Name in ‘Interstellar’ Is a Subtle Nod to Murphy’s Law

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Release Date

November 7, 2014

Runtime

169 Minutes

As we all know, Christopher Nolan loves to play around with physics, and he takes it to the highest possible level in Interstellar, which is based on one of the most popular scientific ideas, Murphy’s Law. This concept is central to the film, so it’s imperative that we understand it before we begin to figure out how it connects to Cooper’s daughter, Murph. In a nutshell, Murphy’s Law states that “anything that can go wrong will go wrong,” which means that when there’s a possibility of something going awry at the most inconvenient time, it most likely does.

The law is said to have originated in the late 1940s when Edward A. Murphy Jr. remarked on a technician who made an error, quoting, “if there’s any way they can do it wrong, they will.” Over the years, Murphy’s Law evolved into a concept that is widely used in most real-life scenarios, including films like Interstellar, which cleverly utilizes the law and redefines it in a more optimistic way. Having said that, Nolan ingeniously altered the law into something more optimistic, allowing the film to achieve its ultimate purpose more effectively, making it one of the greatest science fiction films ever made.

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The Significance of Murph’s Name in ‘Interstellar’

Although Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper is the film’s protagonist, the core concept of the film revolves around Murph. To begin with, Nolan’s movie is replete with intricate elements that enrich the thematics of science and are typically difficult for viewers to comprehend, but the fact that he tied everything to Murph’s name is simply remarkable. Murph Cooper has profound significance as her name itself nods to Murphy’s Law, and her journey throughout the film reflects it, beginning with young Murph believing that her name implies a bad omen, but her father corrects her, quoting, “Murphy’s Law doesn’t mean that something bad will happen. It means that whatever can happen, will happen.”

In fact, she plays a significant role in the film’s conclusion, deciphering the Morse code conveyed by her father from a five-dimensional space known as The Tesseract, which helped Earthlings leave their dying planet and find a new home. In other words, despite her childhood belief that her name was a bad omen, she becomes a bridge between the past, present, and future. Her existence alone is hope for humanity, as she pursues in her father’s footsteps, hoping to meet him someday, but in the end, she ends up saving the world by persevering against all odds, despite acknowledging what is meant to happen, will happen, another instance of Murphy’s Law.

How ‘Interstellar’ Incorporates Murphy’s Law

Even though Interstellar places great significance on Murph’s name, it isn’t the only place where Murphy’s Law is symbolized, as, throughout the film, the accomplished filmmaker crafted numerous sequences that best define the principal. For instance, the concluding scene is an ideal example of how Murphy’s Law is put into effect, as Murph finds the watch and figures out the way to save the people of Earth using the Morse code transmitted by Cooper, which happened because things were destined to unfold that way.

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Similarly, the dust storm that arises in Murph’s room, Dr. Mann sabotaging the mission, and Cooper surviving the impossible black hole all represent Murphy’s Law because everything that has transpired has set the stage for Murph to solve the equation and save humanity. For this reason, Cooper emphasizes at the beginning that the law isn’t about things going wrong at times, but rather about both positive and negative events playing out at different periods to create a major scenario that was always meant to happen.

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