While watching the latest TV adaptation of aStephen Kingnovel, I could not help but think about how it reminded me of a dark debate from aChristopher Nolanmovie. Unlike mostStephen King TV shows, the adaptation in question inclines more towards sci-fi, which is why one of its story threads seems reminiscent of one featured in an acclaimed Christopher Nolan film.
Audiences familiar withChristopher Nolan’s movieswould know how they often leave one with many intriguing arguments about the nature of time, choice, and human morality. For instance,Inception’s ambiguous endingis still heavily discussed, with many arguing whether Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb was still trapped in a dream or had finally returned to reality.
Another epic Christopher Nolan movie presents a similar moral puzzle that raises many questions about how far one should go to serve the perceived greater good. Interestingly, a story development from a newStephen King adaptationalso delivers a similar conundrum, blurring the lines between altruism and moral decay.
The Institute’s Ms. Sigsby Presents A Similar Argument To Interstellar’s Professor Brand
In the TV adaptation ofStephen King’sThe Institute, the main villain, Sigsby, justifies torturing children and forcing them to use telepathic and telekinetic powers to carry out assassinations by claiming it helps humanity avoid global catastrophe. She claims that brutal experiments and morally reprehensible practices are necessary evils that help prevent wars that could end humanity.
According to her, it is worth killing thousands in the present to be able to save millions of humans in the future. Professor Brand (played by Michael Caine) in Christopher Nolan’sInterstellarpresents a similar moral argument by believing that humanity can only be saved if a selected few are sent out to set up a new colony on a distant planet while the rest of the world perishes.
Both characters in the two narratives lie about saving the world and risk sacrificing many humans for what they believe is the “correct” outcome. Although Sigsby is undoubtedly more morally bankrupt than Professor Brand, their justifications stem from the same unsettling utilitarian logic.
There Is A Twisted Logic In Both Characters' Beliefs, But It Is Hard To Agree With Them
Sigsby justifies her actions by firmly establishing that they can only prevent future political instability, wars, and calamities in the real world by using children with psychic abilities as weapons. While it is understandable where she comes from, the way she and the titular Institute dehumanize children and use them as disposable resources highlights everything that is wrong with what they are doing.
Her logic only makes sense if one accepts that ends always justify means. Similarly, when it comes to Professor Brand, it makes sense that he hopes to preserve humanity when he realizes that the gravity equation cannot be solved, and there is no way to save millions of people on Earth.
DId You Know:Steven Spielberg was slated to directInterstellarin 2006. However, after he departed from the project, Jonathan Nolan suggested his brother, Christopher Nolan, should be taken onboard as its director.
However, the fact that he lies to Cooper and his team by convincing them everyone can be saved just to motivate them to leave the planet reveals the twisted core of his reasoning. He denies his own daughter the dignity of making her own decisions in theChristopher Nolanmovie, which makes him no less morally skewed than the villain in theStephen Kingshow.
The Institute
Cast
A kidnapped prodigy with special abilities, Luke, ends up at The Institute, while Tim, a former cop, seeks a new life in a nearby town. Their fates are inevitably linked.
Interstellar
From Christopher Nolan, Interstellar imagines a future where the Earth is plagued by a life-threatening famine, and a small team of astronauts is sent out to find a new prospective home among the stars. Despite putting the mission first, Coop (Matthew McConaughey) races against time to return home to his family even as they work to save mankind back on Earth.
