The story starts of with earth having been decimated by war and famine. A disease has killed off most of the fruit and vegetation, except for corn. Almost all of the animal life has been killed by people after the famine began. All pre existing world governments have appeared to have crumbled with a few small exceptions such as the Republic of Texas.
A space probe falls from the sky one night and Cooper, who is known for his technical prowess in a world that no longer needs it, is called in by a farmer who finds it. Cooper takes it home in hopes of salvaging some of the parts. He is able to take an image off of it which appears to be an ice planet of some sort. The probe then starts to make a scream like noise and won't stop unless its carried in a western direction towards California. Cooper and his son Murph go in the direction the probe takes them until they reach a hidden industrial base which contains what appears to be the last remnants of NASA. Cooper and his son are detained for the sake of trying to save a confidential mission.
Brand is a young female scientist whose main drive in life is to make sure their mission succeeds. Cooper asks just what the hell is going on. Brand and her father show him that the disease that is causing the famine is evolving and will eventually destroy the corn crop as well, effectively killing off the human race. It is inevitable at this point. They have discovered a worm hole near the earth that is very stable and appears to be designed rather than a random event in the universe. This is what the probe came from. They had been sending out probes for years, but this is the first one to come back and appears to have found an inhabitable planet with oxygen and water.
Cooper is asked to join the mission as he has proven himself to be a very resourceful and intelligent person in a world with few such people. Cooper gives his son Murph his watch as a promise that he will be back to get it. He says goodbye to Murph his other son Tom. Cooper and the rest of the team (of which includes Brand and a rather humorous robot marine called Tars) head into space and pass through the wormhole. While in the wormhole they see what can only be described as gravity beings which are able to warp space effortlessly. They play with the members of the team, contorting them into grotesque shapes, but it does not hurt them. Once on the other side of the wormhole, the team plants a relay so that they are able to talk to people on earth.
The solar system they are now in features two gigantic blackholes that they will use to slingshot themselves to the planet. However things go awry and the ship is sucked into orbit around one of the black holes. The ship very nearly approaches the speed of light as it is speeding round and round. Tars is blasted into space saving the ship from destruction and setting it free from the gravity of the black hole. They arrive at the new planet and detect the signals of all the other probes that were sent out.
The team goes to the planet surface and digs where the probe reading is coming from. They discover a Chinese outpost has already been built, but it is now abandoned. While searching the outpost they find that the entire crew has been killed from radiation poisoning as there is a Neutron star in the system that was being blocked by the black hole for 20 hours at a time. As the neutron star is about to dawn on the planet, the crew scrambles to find a way to hide from it as it will kill them as well. They find the Chinese have dug a tunnel in the ice in an attempt to shield themselves. The crew digs deeper and finds an open MASSIVE cave filled with Oxygen and Water
Brand is adamant that this discovery is part of a plan by whomever built the wormhole to save humanity from extinction. They see that the interior of the cave is covered by a colony like lifeform that has no discernible stationary form. This lifeform soaks up the Neutron star's radiation, thus shielding them from certain death.
The crew finds a large Chinese colony outpost built for hundreds of people. This was built by the robots sent on the initial mission, but since the crew did not survive, the robots kept building and fulfilling their original plan. Chinese robots detain the crew and hold them in their colony. The crew then discovers that there was another Chinese mission that explored the rest of the system and they found what they described as a "treasure". The reason for them exploring the rest of the system is because of a smaller blackhole working it's way through the system that will eventually destroy the ice planet. The crew also finds a gravity device built by the Chinese that was intended to move the black hole. However, Case, the mission leader ,and also a robot, decides this device would be better suited to move the whole human race elsewhere without the aide of the wormhole or the ice planet.
They attempt to leave with the device, but the Chinese robots won't let them. A fight ensues and Case destroys a few of them and eventually wins. They leave the surface with this new device and a sample of the lifeform previously discovered in order to keep it from extinction as well. On board the main ship, they attempt to contact Earth but they get no answer. Brand then informs Cooper of the reason for this. When they were caught in the black hole's gravity, they were trapped outside of time and are now 47 years into the future. Cooper is able to contact the relay and receives several years' worth of messages from his sons
Deciding now is the time to go home and see what is left of the human race, the ship is about to set course for home. But it is revealed that one of Chinese robots switched out his control module into Case's body and sabotages this attempt. The ship is caught into the gravitational pull of the black hole and the crew is able to watch as time fast forwards exponentially. The small black hole destroys the ice planet and the wormhole is swallowed up by one of the bigger black holes. They are able to fire their propulsion system and escape the black hole once again, but now it is 200 - 250 years into the future. Humanity is almost certainly extinct and three humans are all that is left. In a last ditch effort to save themselves, the remaining crew of Cooper, Bran, and Doyle, decide to make way for the place in the system where the Chinese said they found a treasure
They find a second wormhole and travel through. This time they are in what can only be described as pure nothing. They are in this nothing for days. While in the void, Cooper watches all the videos his sons sent him. The crops have all died and humanity is slowly dying by the time the last transmission is made. Then the wormhole gravity beings they found earlier are once again inside their ship. The beings drag the ship to a massive and super technologically advanced space station in the void. Below them is a view of the universe. They are outside of space/time at this point. Tars greets them much to their surprise. It is revealed he went there after being blown into space and has been cataloging all the advanced technology for the past 300 years. Above them is a series of thousands of black holes that lead to even more destinations. Tars tells the group that the Chinese built this space station over a period of 4,000 years. However, they only used one black hole. Cooper looks at which one it is, and it appears to be a time warp back to earth before their launch even took place.
Brand decides she wants to explore the universe and uses one of the Chinese advanced space ships and goes off through a random wormhole. Doyle and Cooper get in another that has been prepped for travel through the wormhole. However, on the way to the wormhole, Cooper notices that a probe is strapped in and it is the exact same one he found before they left. He implores Doyle to stop as this ship is going to be destroyed and the probe will be the only thing left. Doyle doesn't listen but keeps going. Cooper uploads the schematics for the gravity device to the probe and ejects. The ship goes through the wormhole and is destroyed. All but the probe. Cooper then resigns himself to the fact that he is one of the last two humans alive, but elects to go through a wormhole to Earth as it exists 300 years after he left it in an attempt to save what humanity might possibly be left.
A flashback occurs that shows that Murphy looked through the contents of the probe many years after his father left. HE finds the gravity device schematics and attempts to build it. Fast forward more years, Murph's daughter is able to build it but destroys a barn in the process. Back to the present day: Cooper lands on the now barren earth and decides to let the lifeform from the ice planet go. It begins to thrive on it's new planet, which has been turned into a frozen tundra. Cooper now realizes that was the plan all along from the gravity beings. Not to save humanity, but this other creature. Cooper decides to find a place to die a quiet death and falls asleep in the snow storm.
Cooper wakes up in a hospital. It is revealed he is in a space station named for one of his descendants. Coopers great great grandson, who is now 80, gives him his watch back. The new government sets Cooper up a farm on the new space station, but he becomes bored. He grabs Tars and hijacks a space ship from the dock and goes into the black void for another adventure.
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