《星際穿越》是一場未來主義的冒險

Like the great space epics of the past, Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” distills terrestrial anxieties and aspirations into a potent pop parable, a mirror of the mood down here on Earth. Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” blended the technological awe of the Apollo era with the trippy hopes and terrors of the Age of Aquarius. George Lucas’s first “Star Wars” trilogy, set not in the speculative future but in the imaginary past, answered the malaise of the ’70s with swashbuckling nostalgia. “Interstellar,” full of visual dazzle, thematic ambition, geek bait and corn (including the literal kind), is a sweeping, futuristic adventure driven by grief, dread and regret.

就像過去那些偉大的太空史詩一樣，克里斯托弗·諾蘭(Christopher Nolan)的《星際穿越》(Interstellar)將大地上的焦慮與抱負總結爲強有力的流行格言，反映出地球上的各種情緒。斯坦利·庫布裏克(Stanley Kubrick)的《2001太空漫遊》(2001: A Space Odyssey)把阿波羅時代對技術的敬畏與水瓶座時代迷幻劑影響下的希望與恐懼混合在一起。喬治·盧卡斯(George Lucas)《星球大戰》(Star Wars)三部曲的第一部不是發生在推斷中的未來，而是發生在想象中的過去，以誇大的懷舊迴應70年代的莫名不安。《星際穿越》充滿視覺奇觀、主題上的抱負、極客的花樣與玉米花式的感傷（也有真正的玉米），這是一場徹底的未來主義冒險，由悲哀、畏懼和遺憾所驅動。

Trying to jot down notes by the light of the Imax screen, where lustrous images (shot by Hoyte van Hoytema and projected from real 70-millimeter film) flickered, I lost count of how many times the phrase “I’m sorry” was uttered — by parents to children, children to parents, sisters to brothers, scientists to astronauts and astronauts to one another. The whole movie can be seen as a plea for forgiveness on behalf of our foolish, dreamy species. We messed everything up, and we feel really bad about it. Can you please give us another chance?

Imax屏幕上，光彩照人的畫面熠熠生輝（攝影是霍伊特·馮·霍伊特瑪[Hoyte van Hoytema]，以70毫米膠片放映），我藉着屏幕的光線匆匆記下筆記，已經忘了“我很抱歉”這句臺詞出現了多少次——父母對孩子說、孩子對父母說、姊妹對兄弟說、科學家對太空員說，太空員之間互相說。整部電影可以看做一個請求，代表我們這個愚蠢而又愛做夢的物種進行道歉。我們把一切都搞砸了，我們真的覺得很糟糕。“你”能再給我們一次機會嗎？

The possibility that such a “you” might be out there, in a position to grant clemency, is one of the movie’s tantalizing puzzles. Some kind of message seems to be coming across the emptiness of space and along the kinks in the fabric of time, offering a twinkle of hope amid humanity’s rapidly darkening prospects. For most of “Interstellar,” the working hypothesis is that a benevolent alien race, dwelling somewhere on the far side of a wormhole near one of the moons of Saturn, is sending data across the universe, encrypted advice that just may save us if we can decode it fast enough.

這個“你”有可能存在，並且是極爲仁慈的，這是片中一個誘人的謎團。人類的前景正在迅速變得黯淡，此時某種信息似乎穿越了宇宙的空虛，沿着時空奇異的扭曲，帶給人類一線希望。在《星際穿越》的大部分情節中，這個假說是：有一個仁慈的外星種族，居住在土星衛星附近蟲洞的另一端，向整個宇宙傳播數據，內容是經過加密的建議，如果我們儘快解開這個密碼，就能拯救自己。

What our planet and species need saving from is a slow-motion environmental catastrophe. Rather than explain how this bleak future arrived through the usual montages of mayhem, Mr. Nolan (who wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan) drops us quietly into what looks like a fairly ordinary reality. We are in a rural stretch of North America, a land of battered pickup trucks, dusty bluejeans and wind-burned farmers scanning the horizon for signs of a storm. Talking-head testimony from old-timers chronicles what sounds like the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, until we spot a laptop on the table being set for family dinner.

我們的行星和種族面臨的危機是一場緩慢演進的環境災難。諾蘭（他與弟弟喬納森[Jonathan]合寫了劇本）沒有通過常見的災害蒙太奇場景來解釋這個慘淡的未來是如何發生的，而是讓我們靜靜沉浸在一個看上去相當平凡的現實之中。我們置身北美的鄉村地帶，農夫們開着破舊的小卡車，穿着髒兮兮的牛仔褲，面容滄桑，看到暴風的徵兆，在地平線上奔忙。電視上接受採訪的人講述舊時代的事，聽上去有點像20世紀30年代的沙化災害，後來我們看見一家人用餐的桌子上放着一個筆記本電腦。

The head of the family in question is Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a widower who lives with his two children and his father-in-law (John Lithgow). Once a NASA pilot, Cooper now grows corn, the only thing that will grow after a blight has wiped out most of the planet’s other crops. The human population has shrunk to a desperate remnant, but the survivors cling to the habits and rituals of normal life. For now, there is plenty of candy and soda and beer (thanks to all that corn); there are parent-teacher conferences after school; and Cooper’s farmhouse is full of books and toys. But the blight is spreading, the dust storms are growing worse, and the sense of an ending is palpable.

這個家庭的一家之主名叫庫珀（Cooper，馬修·麥康納[Matthew McConaughey]飾），他是一個鰥夫，與兩個孩子和岳父（約翰·利特高[John Lithgow]）一起生活。他曾經是NASA太空員，現在種玉米，枯萎病侵襲了這個星球上的其他農作物，能種的莊稼只有玉米了。地球總人口已經縮減到令人絕望的數目，但倖存者還保持着正常生活的習慣與儀式。目前這裏還有許多糖果、蘇打水和啤酒（多虧了這些玉米）；學校放學後還有家長和老師的會面；庫珀的農舍裏有許多書籍和玩具。但災害在傳播，沙塵暴愈演愈烈，末日氣息觸手可及。

The Nolans cleverly conflate scientific denialism with technophobia, imagining a fatalistic society that has traded large ambition for small-scale problem solving and ultimate resignation. But Christopher Nolan, even in his earlier, more modestly budgeted films, has never been content with the small scale. His imagination is large; his eye seeks out wide, sweeping vistas; and if he believes in anything, it is ambition. As it celebrates the resistance to extinction — taking as its touchstone Dylan Thomas’s famous villanelle “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” with its repeated invocation of “rage against the dying of the light” — “Interstellar” becomes an allegory of its own aspirations, an argument for grandeur, scale and risk, on screen and off.

諾蘭兄弟聰明地把科學否定主義和技術恐懼混合在一起，想象出一個宿命籠罩的世界，雄心壯志已經變成解決小規模問題和最終的屈服。但克里斯托弗·諾蘭即便在早期的中等預算影片裏也從未滿足於小規模問題。他的想象力非常宏大，他的眼界無比寬廣；如果他信仰什麼東西，那就是雄心壯志。《星際穿越》歌頌對滅亡的抵禦——它使用迪倫·托馬斯(Dylan Thomas)的名詩《不要溫和地進入那美好的夜晚》作爲點睛之筆，不斷祈禱“怒吼吧，即使光明消逝”——因此影片便成爲關於自身抱負的寓言，在屏幕內外都爲宏大、規模與冒險而爭辯。

Dick Cavett, a son of Nebraska, used to ask (quoting Abe Burrows), “How you gonna keep ’em down on the farm, after they’ve seen the farm?” Cooper and “Interstellar” are clearly marked for something other than agrarian pursuits, but the first section of the movie is the richest and most haunting, establishing a delicately emotional tone and clear moral and dramatic stakes for the planet-hopping to follow. Cooper is devoted to his children, in particular his daughter, Murph, played as a young girl by the preternaturally alert and skeptical Mackenzie Foy and as an adult by Jessica Chastain. When her father is recruited for a secret NASA mission to search for a habitable new planet, Murph is devastated by his departure. Her subsequent scientific career is both a tribute to his memory and a way of getting even.

內布拉斯加人迪克·卡維特(Dick Cavett)曾經引用艾貝·布洛斯(Abe Burrows)的話問道：“如果他們親眼見過農場，你還怎麼把他們留在農場裏？”庫珀和《星際穿越》顯然是要講述土地之外的東西，但影片的第一部分是最豐富，也是最令人難忘的，它爲其後的星際旅行奠定了優美的情感基調，以及清晰的道德和戲劇性基礎。庫珀深愛自己的孩子們，特別是女兒墨菲(Murph)，小女孩時期的墨菲由異常警覺，充滿懷疑的麥肯吉·弗伊(Mackenzie Foy)飾演，成年後由傑西卡·查斯坦(Jessica Chastain)飾演。父親被招去參加NASA的祕密任務，尋找適宜居住的新行星，他的離去令墨菲悲痛欲絕。後來她當上了科學家，這既是對父親的記憶致敬，也是一種報復。

The Nolans are fond of doubled characters and mirrored plots, and so “Interstellar” is built around twinned father-daughter stories. Among Cooper’s colleagues on board the spaceship is Dr. Brand (Anne Hathaway), whose father, also called Dr. Brand (Michael Caine), has developed the theories behind their quest. He and Murph remain on the ground, crunching the numbers and growing older in the usual earthly way, while Cooper and the younger Brand, thanks to relativity, stay pretty much the same age. (Cooper’s son, Tom, played by Timothée Chalamet as a boy, matures into Casey Affleck). The two pairs of daughters and dads perform variations on the theme of paternal and filial love, finding delicate and moving passages of loyalty, rebellion, disillusionment and acceptance.

諾蘭喜愛雙重性的人物與互爲鏡像的情節，《星際穿越》也是建立在父女之間雙重敘述的故事之上。庫珀在飛船上的同事中有位布蘭德博士（Dr. Brand，安妮·海瑟薇[Anne Hathaway]飾），她的父親也是布蘭德博士（邁克爾·凱恩[Michael Caine]飾），正是他建立了這次探索行動背後的理論。老布蘭德博士和墨菲留在地球，進行艱苦的研究工作，按照正常的地球方式增長年紀，庫珀和年輕一點的布蘭德由於相對論的關係，基本保持在和出發時同樣的年齡。（庫珀的兒子湯姆[Tom]小時候由蒂莫西·卡拉麥特[Timothée Chalamet]飾演，成年後由卡西·阿弗萊克[Casey Affleck]飾演。）兩對父女詮釋着父愛與子女之愛這個主題，巧妙感人地在忠誠、背叛、幻滅與接納中穿行。

A lot of other stuff happens, too, as it tends to out in space. A cynical critic might suppose that the last two hours of “Interstellar” were composed in a fit of spoiler hysteria. Nondisclosure pleas from the studio have been unusually specific. Forget about telling you what happens: I’m not even supposed to tell you who’s in the thing, aside from the people you’ve seen on magazine covers. I guess I can disclose that Cooper and Brand are accompanied by two other astronauts, played by a witty, scene-stealing David Gyasi and a deadpan Wes Bentley, and also by a wry robot who speaks in the voice of Bill Irwin.

來到太空，有很多事情發生。一個憤世嫉俗的評論家可能會覺得《星際穿越》的後兩個小時已經被籠罩在歇斯底里的防劇透狂熱之中了。製片公司特別請求保密。我不會告訴你接下來發生了什麼，我甚至不應該告訴你，除了你在雜誌封面上見過的那些人之外，還有誰參與了這件事。不過我覺得可以告訴你，庫珀和布蘭德身邊還有另外兩個宇航員，由詼諧搶鏡的大衛·吉亞西(David Gyasi)和麪無表情的韋斯·本特利(Wes Bentley)飾演，此外還有一個愛挖苦人的機器人，由比爾·歐文(Bill Irwin)配音。

The touches of humor those characters supply are welcome, if also somewhat stingily rationed. Nobody goes to a Christopher Nolan movie for laughs. But it is hard to imagine that his fans — who represent a fairly large segment of the world’s population — will be disappointed by “Interstellar.” I haven’t always been one of them, but I’ve always thought that his skill and ingenuity were undeniable. He does not so much transcend genre conventions as fulfill them with the zeal of a true believer. It may be enough to say that “Interstellar” is a terrifically entertaining science-fiction movie, giving fresh life to scenes and situations we’ve seen a hundred times before, and occasionally stumbling over pompous dialogue or overly portentous music. (In general, the score, by Hans Zimmer, is exactly as portentous as it needs to be.)

這些角色帶來的幽默氣息很受歡迎，雖說分量有點少。沒有人來看克里斯托弗·諾蘭的電影是爲了大笑一場。不過，很難想象他在全世界爲數甚衆的影迷看過《星際穿越》後會感到失望。我並不總是他們之中的一員，但我一直都認爲諾蘭的技巧和獨創性都是無可否認的。他並沒有過多超越類型電影的傳統，而是用真正信仰者的熱情去充實它們。《星際穿越》是一部極具娛樂性的科幻電影，爲我們已經看過上百次的情節和場面賦予了新鮮氣息，有時也會笨拙地來點浮華的對話或者過分裝腔作勢的音樂（總體而言，漢斯·齊默[Hans Zimmer]的配樂的裝腔作勢程度還是恰到好處的），這麼說也許就夠了。

Of course, the film is more than that. It is in the nature of science fiction to aspire to more, to ascend fearlessly toward the sublime. You could think of “Interstellar,” which has a lot to say about gravity, as the anti-“Gravity.” That movie, which would fit inside this one twice, stripped away the usual sci-fi metaphysics, presenting space travel as an occasion for quiet wonder and noisy crisis management. Mr. Nolan takes the universe and eternity itself as his subject and his canvas, brilliantly exploiting cinema’s ability to shift backward and sideways in time (through flashbacks and cross cuts), even as it moves relentlessly forward.

當然，這部影片不止於此。科幻電影的本質就是渴望更多，無畏地向頂點攀登。《星際穿越》與引力關係很大，你也可以把它看做電影《地心引力》(Gravity)的反面。《地心引力》的長度幾乎只有《星際穿越》的一半，它剝除了科幻片中常見的形而上學，把太空旅行呈現爲寧靜的奇觀與嘈雜的危機管理。諾蘭把宇宙和永恆本身當做自己的題材和畫布，通過閃回和交叉剪輯絕好地探索了電影在時空中向後或平行發展的能力，儘管它一直不屈不撓地向前發展。

But “Gravity” and “Interstellar” are both ultimately about the longing for home, about voyages into the unknown that become odysseys of return. And “Interstellar” may take its place in the pantheon of space movies because it answers an acute earthly need, a desire not only for adventure and novelty but also, in the end, for comfort.

13但是《地心引力》與《星際穿越》最終都反映出對回家的渴望，反映出進入未知的旅行都會變成奧德賽的歸鄉之途。《星際穿越》在太空電影的殿堂中會享有它的一席之地，因爲它迴應了一個尖銳而現實的需要，人們渴望冒險與新奇，但最終也渴望着安慰。

“Interstellar” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). A few expletives, a lot of peril.

《星際穿越》被標記爲PG-13級（強烈建議父母指導觀看），若干咒罵的語言，很多冒險情節。