Time Dilation in Space Films

    Time dilation is a physics phenomenon which, at its most basic structure, describes the slowing of time as perceived by one observer compared to another depending on variables such as their motion and position.  Despite there being no direct way to observe it, the theories it’s produced has been repeatedly proven by modern navigation systems such as GPS.  Time dilation has been accepted for around a century at this point, and has become quite an appeal to the science-fiction community.  At the moment, it’s the closest we can get to genuine time travel.  It’s limited to only jumping “in the future” depending on the observer, but the concept is an alluring source of inspiration for many futurists.

    Matter of fact, two of the most famous space stories of all time have used it as a crucial narrative point in their plots.   Both Interstellar (2014) and Project Hail Mary (2026) use the theories of time dilation as an integral plot device to connect science-fiction and reality.

    The history of time dilation expanded with each new scientist presenting and Newton had theorized with his classical mechanics that time is meant to be viewed as a uniform, absolute, and universal constant.  This is otherwise known as a “universal clock” that ticks at the same rate everywhere, regardless of observers or relative motion.  When Einstein proposed his Theory of Relativity, it completely contradicted Newton.  Instead of a constant clock, time is relative to the observer depending on gravity and velocity.

The first theory, General Relativity, explains that objects (or people) in stronger gravitational fields experience time slower.  The second theory, Special Relativity, explains that objects move slower as their velocity approaches the speed of light.  Later experiments confirmed Einstein’s theory to be true.  For example, Bruno Rossi and D.B. Hall conducted atmospheric muon experiments in the 1940s and determined relativistic decay in their results.  In 1971, physicists in the Hafele-Keating experiment flew atomic clocks around the world on commercial flights and confirmed that they counted time slower than stationary clocks on the surface of Earth.

In 1911, Paul Langevin presented the famous “twin paradox” at the Bologna Philosophical Congress, often known as the “Langevin observer.”  The twin paradox is a thought experiment in special relativity where a traveling twin returns from a space journey and comes back younger than their counterpart.  This phenomenon was observed in real time when in 2015, astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth slightly younger than his twin Mark Kelly, who was earth-bound.  However one article states that, "Since Scott wasn't moving near light speed, the actual difference in aging due to time dilation was negligible. In fact, considering how much stress and radiation the airborne twin experienced aboard the ISS, some world argue Scott Kelly increased his rate of aging" (Stein and Dobrijevic).  As much as time dilation was truly experienced by Scott Kelly, the difference is so minuscule that it can’t be properly measured.

Yet, there was a cosmonaut by the name of Segei Avdeyev who retired in 2003 with the most time accumulated in spaceflight (747.59 days in earth orbit).  Therefore, he aged around “0.02 seconds (20 milliseconds) less than an Earth-bound person would have” (ISS Tracker).  Both of these astronauts have experienced Einstein’s special and general relativity, despite how small the time difference is.  This parallels fictional astronauts Joseph “Coop” Cooper and Ryland Grace undergo the pressures of time dilation in Interstellar and Project Hail Mary in a more extreme way due to their positions in gravity wells and velocity.

Interstellar is a film about a retired NASA pilot, Cooper, who leaves a dying Earth and his family to find a habitable planet for the human species to retreat to.  For the entire film, time is a running reminder of everything that Cooper is sacrificing for humanity.  He’s losing the precious time he could spend with his children by watching them grow up the longer he stays in space.  It becomes even worse when one of the planets NASA has gathered promising research on is very close to the event horizon of a supermassive black hole aptly named Gargantua.

In the film, it’s described that one hour on that planet equates to seven years passing by on Earth.  This short visit ended up becoming twenty-three years to their colleague waiting on the ship, and a significantly longer time back on Earth.  So much so that Cooper’s children became the same age as him.  Later on, he ends up making a decision to slip through the event horizon of Gargantua and lose around fifty more years.  One of his children had ended up dying from old age, and the other was on the brink of mortality.

This is a severe example of general relativity and relies heavily on that cornerstone of theoretical physics.  Yet, it’s been proven in more recent years that gravity has an effect on aging, albeit on a much smaller scale.  For example, people in higher altitudes have been discovered to have “increased biological aging” than those on the surface of Earth due to weaker gravity.  In one study, scientists used a population in Ethiopia to conclude a "reduction in DNA damage- related senescence (IR and Doxo), suggesting a protective role of high altitude in some aspects of biological aging" (Teklu et al.) in their results. While this study does mention that there's an increase in cancers due to the higher amount of UV light people are exposed to in higher altitudes, it doesn't negate how gravity has such a large effect on aging.

Compared to Interstellar and its expression of general relativity, Project Hail Mary takes the parallel of Einstein’s theory and uses special relativity instead.  Project Hail Mary is a film adapted from a book, which actually explains the science far more in depth and complete compared to the film.  The story features a middle school science teacher —Ryland Grace— who woke up in space for reasons unknown with two other bodies on board.  He soon discovers that he’s no longer in the solar system, and instead in a completely new star system otherwise known as Tau Ceti.  When he reaches Tau Ceti, Grace only experienced about four years of time travel during his long stint in a coma while Earth experienced twelve to fourteen years, according to the book.  By the end, Grace states that he’s fifty-four years old, despite seventy-one years having passed on Earth since he was born.

This is due to the fact that the Hail Mary, the spaceship, moved through space in time-dilated travel due to its astrophage-powered fuel which moved ninety percent the speed of light.  To add even more to this feature of time dilation in Project Hail Mary, Rocky —the Eridian alien Grace meets abroad— and his crew was unaware of relative physics.  This caused the Eridians to “pack” so much extra fuel that Rocky was able to give enough for Grace’s return trip home.

The introduction of astrophage in Project Hail Mary actually helps to solve the problem of special relativity in current times.  Astrophage is a microbial life form which feeds on energy from the sun by absorbing heat, and then migrates to a planet with a specific carbon dioxide mixture in its atmosphere to reproduce through mitosis.  The cycle repeats over again when they expel that energy and returns to the sun, all at ninety percent the speed of light.  According to the U.S. Department of Energy, they explain on their website that, “as an object approaches the speed of light, its observed mass becomes infinitely large.  As a result, an infinite amount of energy is required to make an object move at the speed of light” (U.S. Department of Energy).  Astrophage is the bridge between science-fiction and real life.  Going near the speed of light and using that energy as fuel allowed Grace to travel at the rate he did because of how quick its life cycle is executed.

Both of these films make time to be the enemy, a force of nature and physics to be reckoned with.  Humanity is on the brink of extinction, and Grace and Cooper suffer through the effects of time dilation in order to save their dying species.  How the viewer perceives these fantastical science-fiction films is greatly influenced by the fact that it could happen due to the very real foundation it’s built on.  Einstein’s Theory of Relativity weaves itself into the inner matrices, proposing the conflict of intense gravity and unimaginably fast speeds.

What’s so fascinating about these films is the fact that they suggest humans can prevail even against the fundamentals of the universe in which we live.  Time is an enemy, one that can’t be resisted against, yet can be stood up to.  It won’t stop humans from pulling at the fabric and tearing through spacetime itself.  As Amelia Brand says in Interstellar, even though it can’t run backwards, time is still malleable, we can still stretch and squeeze it.

Works Cited:

Interstellar. Directed by Christopher Nolan, Paramount Pictures, 2014.

Project Hail Mary. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Amazon MGM Studios, 2026.

“Sergei Avdeyev.” ISS Tracker, isstracker.pl/en/astronauts/sergei_avdeyev,275.

Stein, Vicky, and Daisy Dobrijevic. “Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity.” Space.com, 12 May 2025, www.space.com/36273-theory-special-relativity.html.

Teklu, Amanuel Abraha, et al. “Deep Learning Reveals Diverging Effects of Altitude on Aging.” GeroScience, 15 Jan. 2025, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-024-01502-8. Accessed 26 June 2025.

U.S. Department of Energy. “DOE Explains...Relativity.” Energy.gov, 2024, www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsrelativity.

Weir, Andy. Project Hail Mary. London, Cornerstone Digital, 4 May 2021.

The Dance of Spanish in "Accents" by Denise Frohman

        I know when it comes to my writing, I tend to be the one who writes the long, winding phrases of prose.  I’m not very good with brevity.  In my creative writing class back in high school, I would send lengthy stories over thirty pages long that would only be fragments of a much longer work.  My teacher would roll her eyes and poke fun at me, titling my submission spot in Blackboard as “Ethan's Very Long Story.”  I was the only one in that class who never submitted poetry.

        I still remember some of them, one most notable work to me being “Bitter Almonds" by my best friend  How she formatted the poem into the shape of that nut.  Comparing kisses to cyanide.  It made me think about how well versed I was in fiction, yet utterly failed to critique our peers who wrote poetry in that class.  I could talk the entire time regarding someone’s character choice in their twelve page story, then flounder when someone submitted a work with only three lines.

There’s a poem that we read in English II recently that made me think of that class, and therefore my best friend, when I read it.  It’s called “Accents” by Denise Frohman.  She’s a queer woman with a multi-cultural background as a Puerto Rican and a Jew.  Her background is in everything that she writes, performs, and teaches.  Cultural, sexual, and gender pride move her words.  My professor sent me a video of her performing this piece, and her voice rings proud and true.  This particular poem highlights Frohman’s mother, and her admiration regarding how unashamed she is of her Puerto Rican accent.

Frohman is sharp with her words, which matches the way she describes her mother and how she speaks.  She personifies her language, giving it its own personality that leaps out from the stanzas.  From “her tongue, all brass knuckle slipping in between her lips” (3 - 4) to “it got too much clave / too much hand clap / got too much salsa to sit still,” (30 - 32)  she tells a strong accent that dances between her lips.  And she’s not at all ashamed of it either, as it’s both a weapon and a banner of where she comes from, a “stubborn compass always pointing her toward home” (46).  It’s a love letter both to Frohman’s mother but also of the culture that she represents in Frohman’s life.  A grounding rock in a country that she wasn’t born into.  She merges Spanish and English together in a whirlwind of words, creating this symphony of vastly different cultures.  Or, as Frohman states, “a sanchocho of spanish and english / pushing up against one another / in rapid fire” (6 - 8).  The spanish word isn’t italicized or indicated to be different in any way compared to the rest of the text, but instead jumps between one to the other like a jubilant dance.

        Frohman also uses repetition at several points within the poem, but there’s one particular stanza which jumps out to me.  She starts to describe all the ways in which some people may consider her mother’s accent as “too much,” but in the ways she lists it, none of them have very negative connotations.  She says that her language has “too much hip / too much bone / too much conga,” and “too much cuatro” (23 - 26).  In the perspective of a dancer, this is much preferred.  There can be personality in your moves, something that can make your movement unique.  Maybe more ignorant people find this difference insulting, preferring assimilation instead of diversity.  I think it’s beneficial to form bonds with people from different places.  Many people have done it as children, way before we were old enough to understand that some people may not appreciate this melting pot we all live in.

        As Frohman writes, “say ‘wepa’ and a stranger becomes your hermano.  Say ‘dala’ and a crowd becomes your family reunion” (41 - 42).  Community is something that exceeds these invisible lines we draw in the sand between us. It's a power unshaken by the hate that bleeds in the world we live in today.

        Read "Accents" here!

The Symbolism of Cultish Capitalism in "The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes" by Haruki Murakami

    In our day and age, means of production to acquire everything we need or want falls into the hierarchy of the brutal market.  Many stories explore the dark underbelly of this process, a grimy dive into the places that suck people in and refuse to let them out until their pockets are dry or they’re dead.  “The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes” is no different, yet it approaches the topic in a fairly different way.  It’s humorous instead of dreadful, portraying the market as something to laugh in the face of instead, yet is also just as unsettling as those stories set in their ghastly settings.  In “The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes,” Murakami utilizes absurdity as a way to make fun of today’s capitalism and how it strangely replicates the concept of cults, stomping on those below it.  Murakami makes us question who are the true consumers within the society we live in, and the self-sustaining cannibalism that happens from the ground up.

    In the beginning of the story, we follow the perspective of our protagonist as he sits down at a “Major Informational Seminar” he was invited to, where the president of the Sharpie Cake Company proclaims that they’re looking for new products within the essence of Sharpies, mimicking the air of a pastor delivering a sermon to devoted followers.  As soon as he gets settled in his seat, the reader is disquieted as we’re let into a strange environment filled with fanatics regarding these confections.

    Asking one of the other people there about the Sharpie Cakes and nearly professing that they don’t taste very good, the girl kicks him in the foot and whispers, “Coming to a place like this and bad-mouthing Sharpies?  The Sharpie Crows could get you.  You’d never make it home alive."  This, along with the glares shot the protagonist’s way, gives an uncomfortable zeal regarding these Sharpie Cakes that the protagonist isn’t privy to.  Intense devotion to these beings, the “Sharpie Crows,” and the promise of stability so long as they create the best product, is akin to the popular model of cults that have been formed throughout history.

    Later on in the story, the protagonist is able to meet the Sharpie Crows because he bakes excellent Sharpie Cakes.  This is similar to the idea in religion where if a follower does good in life, they get to ascend and meet their divine beings.  Where religion drives people together through the means to do good, cults drive people through collective fear and the leader’s charisma.  The protagonist is easily inducted into this ring by the president’s words, stating after the girl’s comment that he “was worried about the Sharpie Crows."  It’s further sealed as the protagonist decides he’ll create the perfect new Sharpie Cake for the company to sell because of the promise of two million yen.

    Casting his net out, the president is able to snatch the fish in the sea with the promise of money that not everyone will be able to receive.  Not if they don’t try hard enough to satisfy their gods, the Sharpie Crows.  This is further confirmed as the managing director leads the protagonist into the room where the crows live, describing them as “Their Holiness the Sharpie Crows."  If those inducted don’t do “good enough,” they don’t get the money, or see the crows, and are supposedly cast out and left to fend for themselves.  It’s hook, line, and sinker.

    Cults and capitalism have been a comparison since the economic system shifted from the days of mercantilism and feudalism in the sixteenth century.  Both of them institute social conditioning in a way where a person will slowly lose their sense of self, becoming a statistic instead of a person, subjected to the whims of a “higher goal.”  Capitalism collapses without growth, yet those who benefit at the top will have the entire biosphere destroyed before the system is dismantled.

    Murakami tentatively approaches this idea in his analogy when the protagonist describes what happens when Sharpie Cakes are thrown to the crows, “In their fever to reach the Sharpie Cakes, the crows pecked at each other’s feet and eyes. No wonder they had lost their eyes!”  Then, when his Sharpie Cakes that were baked for the competition were fed to them, he says this, “Whether a cake was a Sharpie or non-Sharpie was a matter of life and death."  The Sharpie Crows will do anything to reach the confections, fake or real, even if it means tearing each other up in the process.

    With their mangled bodies, blind eyes, and mob mentality, these crows surely represent an absurd facsimile of those corporations and even the presidents of those companies at the top who will amputate themselves so long as they can stay at the top.  Laying off workers, swallowing competition that were once partners, sacrificing assets to steal better ones.  Self-cannibalism is the price of gluttony in the market.

    The inherent humor within “The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes” diverts it from the rest of the stories that critique the current woes of our society, and shines most brightly within its ending.  Instead of our protagonist selling his soul away by signing some contract or being tricked by authorities who can pluck their strings in order to get what they want, he takes agency of his situation.  He exits the room with the crows by himself, declaring, “From now on I would make and eat the food that I wanted to eat."

    Furthermore, he expresses apathy as he storms off, saying that, “the damned Sharpie Crows could peck each other to death” for all that he cared.  For a protagonist to decline the offer served to him on a silver platter because he has the foresight to see how this will end gives autonomy back to the common worker.  People who typically feel as though they don’t have a say in these things.  Most of the audience who will read this story would have been subjected to the whims of capitalism at some point in their lifetime, therefore making this moment strangely vindicating in a way.  He’s choosing to carve his own path without being allured by money or having preachers whispering the word of some god in their ear.  He’s wielding the most dangerous weapon, one stronger than cults or capitalism alike: the word no.

    Murakami runs a fine line within the realm of depressing humor.  Under the guise of starving crows and lower-than-average confection cakes, he writes a critique on how society rewards these systems that decay from within and infect everything around them.  The mindless conformity of consumers are re-contextualized within mad-eyed Sharpie Crows, and the companies who toy with them are nothing but the puppet masters toying with the strings.

    What’s seen in front of the wall is only the tip of the iceberg, and behind it are the murky depths of cultivated cash cows.  Capitalism has become so normalized because the effects of it have been concealed beneath layers of religious rhetoric.  What’s seen as a part of the primary market is just the cost that comes with a flourishing nation.  To those in control, the profits outweigh the pain.  Yet, although Sharpies are considered non-toxic on their label, that doesn’t change the fact that inhaling the fumes or swallowing the ink can make someone sick.