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Why did Romilly wait 23 years for them to come back from Miller's planet

posted 8 years ago by cm8040
32 replies | jump to latest

The plan was to spend about an hour on Miller's planet to gather the data then come back to the Endurance which would only take about 7 years. How long do you think Romilly was going to wait for them to come back? If they all died on Miller's planet would Romilly just wait forever or would he eventually leave to complete the mission. There was no way that he could know if they were alive or not but the longer he waits the more fuel and resources go to waste, including time.

When they were all deciding what the game plan was they were talking about time as a resource just like food and oxygen. Doyle said that Dr. Mann's data is promising, but it will take months to get there. And Edmunds' is even further. Why are they talking about time as a resource when Romilly was willing to stay put for 23 years. In actuality, Romilly could have ventured to the other planets and send TARS down in the ranger to pop on the planet's surface, retrieve the data and determine if it is habitable, and then pop back up the the endurance. Romilly could have explored the remaining planets and still make it back in time to pick up everybody else from Miller's planet. Not to mention he could have even used the fuel more efficiently by going to the other planets. TARS was controlling the Endurance to stay within the range of Miller's planet for 23 years and wasted a lot of fuel; by the time they came back they only had enough fuel to visit one more planet.

I enjoyed the way it came out and it was cool to see Romilly age but I think in real life, Romilly would have gave up on them to explore the other potentially habitable planets. He had 7 years to kill, why wouldn't he just go to Mann's planet that only takes months to travel to. Granted he would use fuel, but slowly using fuel over the course of 23 years seems just as bad. Plus he would have probably stayed there until all the fuel was gone.

[–] shayg 8 years ago

Wasn't he on the space station, i.e. no propulsion or ship to land on a planet?

[–] cm8040 8 years ago

I think the Endurance had more Rangers and Landers connected to it. They later used them as rocket boosters to push them out of the black hole's gravity. Tars had Lander 1, Cooper had Ranger 2, and Brand appeared to be in another Ranger to get to Edmunds planet. So there were other ships available.

[–] april_rain 8 years ago

You make a valid point. However,
The original plan was that the Endurance would stay in orbits of all the test planets while they make the rendezvous with the Lazarus scientist. Later, CASE, the plan B Cargo, Romilly, Brand and Doyle would stay on the plan B planet while Endurance would return to Earth with Cooper and TARS. Right?
I don't think they had contingency plans for parting ways, traveling light years in different directions and meeting again at a designated rendezvous point. So, the question of Romilly exploring by himself was not even considered.

First of all, the reasoning behind their decision to visit Miller's planet is full of holes. Even with their epiphany that time is a resource, the time dilation factor of Miller's planet should have raised some serious red flags.

Anyway, Its unclear as to what Romilly would had done had they not returned at all.

It was a nice way of showing the twin paradox though.

[–] dceuera 8 years ago

Am i missing something here? He wasn't a pilot i don't understand what anyone expected him to do.

[–] askoz 8 years ago

Why was he left behind if he'd be unable to do anything in case their mission failed? Wouldn't that be a reason to NOT leave him behind?

It doesn't even make sense to give him the job in the first place if he wasn't capable of carrying out basic tasks like that.

[–] hugovaz-604-326222 8 years ago

He was suppose to gather data on the black hole to send back to earth, in hopes to figure out how solve the physics on how to manipulate gravity and proceed with plan A (saving all humanity with space arks instead of "replanting" life on another - suitable - planet, plan B).

[–] cm8040 8 years ago

TARS can pilot the craft. Cooper can't be the only one who can fly the rangers... they were already going to carry on with the mission before they even knew he was on board.

[–] rushintuit 8 years ago

Rom came up with the 7 years = one hour equation. He would not abandon his crew knowing that if they ran into trouble, a 3 hour delay on the surface wasn't unreasonable.

[–] thisnameinuse 8 years ago

Exactly. Granted, it sucked for him to be stuck up there while they were on the planet, but a 1-hour to 3-hour extension wasn't a complete surprise. They'd have contingency plans for this kind of thing, it just wasn't necessary to place that dialogue in the movie.

"Oh by the way, just in case we're not back in 8 years you might want to hang around an extra 24 years or so just in case...", etc.

Additionally, the chance of successfully completing the mission with a crew of one (plus one robot) rather than the crew of four (which became three) and two robots would be significantly lower.

————
You're makin'... me... beat... up... GRASS!

[–] MandumeYaNdemufayo 8 years ago

Also, he did use the "stasis pod" , so it wasn't like he lived out a full 23 years before they came back.

Kill the boer!

[–] Prismark10 8 years ago

'Also, he did use the "stasis pod" , so it wasn't like he lived out a full 23 years before they came back.

Good job as there was only so much Sudoku he could do in the mean time.

It's that man again!!

[–] booya83 7 years ago

Sure life support, food and water for even part of 23 years is ludicrous. He may not have been awake for the full 23 but most of it or else he wouldn't have aged. Do you even consider how much oxygen or even basic materials like light bulbs computer parts 23 years of constant use would consume.

This was inserted into script for the cheap wow time dilation moment and made no sense at all. Why even think a planet next to a black hole was even worthy of 7 years of oxygen and power and most importantly time. You people do realize the oxygen, food, water, replacement parts would even make 7 years a improbable risk. Add that they send most of the crew to blindly land on a planet no one knows anything about. What happens if a simple accident kills all three, mission over! Wait most of 23 years awake goodbye supplies goodbye humanity goodbye common sense.

It's really disgusting how people claim this incredibly illogical film is intelligent.

[–] AwaixJvd 8 years ago

The idea of stasis pod was, if one goes to sleep he cannot wake up himself. It had to be done by someone else. As in the case of Dr.Mann.

So, Romilly didn't use the pod because he was also unsure if they would ever return or not. In case they didn't return, he would keep sleeping and mission was a total fail. He himself said that he chose not to sleep and use the time to research.

[–] cosmic_surveyor 8 years ago

One would think the pod is programmable. Clocks, computers, coffee machines, et al. have the capability. Why not a pod? Not to mention an AI cohabiting with Romily while the crew is away. Mann had his AI, but he grew tired of the coexistence.

________

Est modus in rebus sunt certi denique fines quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum Goldilocks

[–] DeniP 8 years ago

They ARE programmable. Apparently, you've forgotten how Mann said "the last time [he] went to sleep, [he] didn't even set a waking date."

Dr Mann sits, blanket over his shoulders, sipping from a
steaming cup. He looks at their faces, marveling.

DR MANN
(cracked, parched)
Pray you never learn just how good
it can be to see another face.
I hadn’t much hope to begin with.
After so much time, I had none. My
supplies were exhausted. The last
time I went to sleep, I set no
waking date.
(Looks at them all.)
You have literally raised me from
the dead.

[–] AwaixJvd 8 years ago

ohh yea now i recall the dialogue. I forgot it totally while i was writing the comment.

[–] Can-I-Get-A-Hot-Tub 8 years ago

Additionally, when Brand asked Romilly why didn't he go to cryosleep, Rom'lly answered he did a couple times, but that if Cooper and Brand didn't make it back to him, he didn't want to 'die' in cryosleep.

[–] pgFiSheYe 8 years ago

A better question, instead of asking why did he wait 23 years, was HOW MANY TIMES he jerked off thinking of Brand!!?!??!

[–] Urogy (176) 6 years ago

BRAND? I've seen better looking "men"! Anne Hathaway looked HIDEOUS in this movie...... Short butch hair style, no sexy make-up and ABSOLUTELY ZERO sex appeal! Oh and its ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE for any human to be in "solitary confinement" for 23 years! They would be completely suicidal after 23 days....... Nevermind 23 years!!!!

[–] fzane (1001) 5 years ago

And now we know Anne is an elite transgender.

[–] strpes 8 years ago

Ideally, he would've gone into suspended animation but he said he chose not to in order to continue research and bc he didn't want to "sleep his life away".

[–] TRinzler 8 years ago

If they all died on Miller's planet would Romilly just wait forever or would he eventually leave to complete the mission.

I doubt Romilly could carry out the mission alone so if nobody returned they were probably screwed, which was a good reason NOT to take 3 of the 4 crew to the surface! Either Doyle or Brand should've stayed behind as well. Doyle's death was stupid (and perhaps even unnecessary as it didn't really affect the plot) but was probably included for dramatic impact to emphasis the danger of their predicament and slim chances of survival.

There was no way that he could know if they were alive or not but the longer he waits the more fuel and resources go to waste, including time.

Romilly knows that decades for him are hours for them so he can't assume they're dead without communication from the surface which was something the film overlooked. Once Cooper and Brand were stranded by the tidal wave they should've immediately sent a message to Romilly letting him know what had happened and that they would be delayed. Instead, they chose to argue with each other for half an hour...

In actuality, Romilly could have ventured to the other planets and send TARS down in the ranger to pop on the planet's surface, retrieve the data and determine if it is habitable, and then pop back up the the endurance.

TARS and CASE provide indispensable aid to the humans during the mission but can't be entrusted with it because they will encounter unknowns which they aren't programmed for. They lack the creativity to take the initiative so must be given orders/instructions to follow instead. Romilly can't do this effectively from the Endurance.

It's Cooper who comes up with the plan to visit Miller's planet without putting the Endurance in orbit. It's Cooper who aerobrakes to glide down to the surface to save fuel. It's Cooper who risks docking with the Endurance immediately after the explosion etc. Only the humans have enough creativity to improvise which is essential on a mission like this. Admittedly, Cooper is a stereotypical "Mary Sue" who single-handedly overcomes every obstacle they encounter but this is a common Hollywood trope. On a real mission progress would be impossible without a team effort and at least one of the other crew members would also be a trained co-pilot.

Also, all the mission gear is designed for human usage. Even such things as door handles, buttons, zips etc. are all intended for humans to use, not the robots, so they may even be unable to do something as simple as unzip Dr Mann's hibernation bag! Romilly can send TARS down to Edmund's planet but they may have to knock and wait to be let into to Dr Edmund's capsule...they will be waiting forever!

Romilly could have explored the remaining planets and still make it back in time to pick up everybody else from Miller's planet. Not to mention he could have even used the fuel more efficiently by going to the other planets.

This is indeed an excellent point. If they'd split into pairs and done this the film would've turned out very differently. The optimal course of action was probably for Doyle and Romilly to visit Miller's planet while Cooper and Brand continued onto Mann and Edmund then came back for them. However, I think the time dilation is such a huge disadvantage that the best decision would be to leave Miller's planet until last because of Murphy's Law!

[–] JonnyHbomb 8 years ago

No idea. Millers planet would cost 7 valuable earth years to receive maybe 1hr of data. Mann's would take 3 months and had years of data. Edmunds more and years of study. All three signaled. I guess earth came second to one hour of data over 3 months of extra travel. If Miller had survived, what was the point going there first? Hey! Miller! We're Here! We got the signal! Is this the one!
uuuh not quite sure yet, just got here an hour before you guys, it looks interesting at first glance.....

[–] drgreenthumb1001 7 years ago

They misjudged how long the signal had been sent, the gravity threw off the time so much they miscalculated

Remember, Dr. Brand surmises that in Miller planet time Dr. Miller had just arrived hours before them, so the signal they received had literally just been sent, but they didnt figure that all out till they got there, but by then it was to late

[–] TRinzler 7 years ago

Exactly, but this is absurd.

Romilly was a Theoretical Physicist who made the Time Dilation calculations before they decided to visit Miller's planet so he should've calculated that she was only on the surface for a few hours at most but her pings were being Doppler shifted to arrive over years.

The film expects us to believe that they were aware of the extreme time dilation but overlooked the consequences of this for Miller.

In other words, they were stupid!

[–] ILJtheFirst (1926) 5 years ago

I think it was CASE who was saying the Initial ping was echoing endlessly. I assume the quick pings were spaced out annually on earth.They didn't know this until after they retrieved Miller's data module.

I think the whole point of Miller's planet was to showcase Murphy's Law and to show how ill-prepared they were with such limited training.

They had no solid information to make critical decisions. Most Importantly, I learned robots can be badass marine wannabes, lol.

[–] kameeleoned_out (59) a year ago

Doyle's death was stupid (and perhaps even unnecessary as it didn't really affect the plot)

The movie does that a lot, killing off characters just to get them out of the way of the plot. Doyle, Romily, Brand Sr, hell, even Murphy eventually (I have my kids here, you can just leave, Dad, I am of no use to you or the story anymore).

[–] barttp 7 years ago

My question is, if time is such a valuable resource, why do they even go to the Miller's planet first (or at all, for that matter) if it takes 7 Earth years to complete whatever they are planning to complete, while the other planet is "only" months away?

[–] djcornbread-165-827938 7 years ago

I think the most obvious explanation would be that, Cooper was the pilot. All the other scientists had never even left the Earth's atmosphere.