Interstellar (film)

# Interstellar (film)

## Abstract

Interstellar is a 2014 epic science fiction drama film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan. It stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, Matt Damon, and Michael Caine. Set in a dystopian future where Earth is suffering from catastrophic blight and famine, the film follows a group of astronauts who travel through a wormhole near Saturn in search of a new home for mankind.

The screenplay had its origins in a script Jonathan developed in 2007 and was originally set to be directed by Steven Spielberg. Theoretical physicist Kip Thorne was an executive producer and scientific consultant on the film, and wrote the tie-in book The Science of Interstellar. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot it on 35 mm movie film in the Panavision anamorphic format and IMAX 70 mm. Filming began in late 2013 and took place in Alberta, Klaustur, and Los Angeles. Interstellar uses extensive practical and miniature effects, and the company DNEG created additional digital effects.

Interstellar premiered in Los Angeles on October 26, 2014. In the United States, it was first released on film stock, expanding to venues using digital projectors. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $681 million worldwide ($705 million after subsequent re-releases), making it the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2014. Thorne's computer-generated depiction of a black hole in the film has also received commendation from astronomers and physicists. Interstellar was nominated for five awards at the 87th Academy Awards, winning Best Visual Effects, and received numerous other accolades.

## Plot

In 2067, humanity faces extinction due to a global blight. Joseph Cooper, a former NASA test pilot, along with his son and daughter, Tom and Murph, and father-in-law Donald, toil as farmers. One evening during a dust storm, Cooper and Murph discover mysterious patterns in falling particles. Decoding the patterns using binary code leads them to a secret NASA facility run by scientist Dr. John Brand. Cooper is enlisted to pilot the spaceship Endurance through a newly-discovered wormhole near Saturn, searching for habitable planets. Cooper struggles with leaving his children behind but decides to do it in the hope of saving Tom and Murph's generation from extinction. He promises Murph he will return, but she is distraught. Cooper joins the Endurance team, consisting of Romilly, Doyle, Brand's daughter Amelia, and the robots TARS and CASE.

After years of travel, the Endurance crew transits the wormhole, arriving in a distant planetary system circling a supermassive black hole named Gargantua. Cooper, Amelia Brand, and Doyle take a small lander to the first candidate planet, orbiting deep in the black hole's gravity well, only to find that it is an inhospitable ocean world ravaged by colossal waves. In the ensuing evacuation, Doyle is swept away and killed by a wave, but Cooper and Brand narrowly manage to escape. Due to severe time dilation in which one hour spent on the planet equals seven years on Earth, 23 years have passed upon their return to the Endurance. Romilly's efforts to keep the Endurance in orbit around the planet for so long drastically depleted the fuel reserves of the spacecraft.

On Earth in 2092, an adult Murph helps John Brand with his perennially unsolved gravity manipulation equation, which is supposed to help transport humanity en masse to potentially habitable worlds. On his deathbed, he confesses that the crew was never supposed to return and that the equation was a charade meant to keep humans from dissolving into anarchy out of panic for their eventual doom. Murph is frustrated and wonders if Cooper knowingly abandoned her. She continues Brand's work and returns to her childhood home to search for clues.

The Endurance travels to the second candidate planet, a frigid ice world. They awaken Mann, the surviving NASA explorer in cryostasis, who landed decades ago. Mann and Cooper go on a scouting trip, but once alone, Mann confesses that the planet is uninhabitable and that he falsified data to attract rescuers. Mann assaults Cooper and leaves him to die, but Amelia rescues him. Romilly is killed in a booby trap set by Mann, and Mann hijacks a lander left by the Endurance crew and takes off for the orbiting spacecraft. Mann intends to commandeer the Endurance, but a failed docking kills Mann and severely damages the Endurance. After a turbulent docking sequence, Cooper, TARS and Brand regain control of the crippled spaceship.

Charting a gravity-assist path around Gargantua due to how little fuel they have left, Cooper propels the Endurance towards the third and final planet, losing another 51 years to time dilation. Cooper and TARS secretly agree to sacrifice themselves and detach their spacecraft from the Endurance during the gravity assist, such that the now-lightened Endurance will be capable of reaching the third planet with the fuel remaining, much to the protest of Amelia.

Cooper falls into the black hole and finds himself in a four-dimensional tesseract (a hypercube); the tesseract is made up of infinitely repeated copies of Murph's childhood bedroom but with each copy located in a different moment in time. Cooper finds that he can fly by these copies of Murph's bedroom as an outside observer, essentially travelling through time as if it were a physical dimension. Within this tesseract he finds himself able to manipulate the falling dust particles in his home during the dust storm, allowing him to send the NASA site coordinates to his past self and make his past self start his mission. He also deduces that the tesseract itself and the wormhole near Saturn were constructed by a future generation of humankind to similarly guide their predecessors. This meant that all the events that happened thus far were part of a Bootstrap paradox. Cooper travels through the tesseract and visits adult Murph, sitting in her bedroom, and by manipulating the hands of Murph's wristwatch, he and TARS transmit information from within the black hole. In the real world, Murph sees the hands of her watch move. Using the information, Murph solves the gravity manipulation problem and enables humanity to escape extinction and build colonies in outer space.

The moment Murph realizes the answer, the tesseract collapses and ejects Cooper and TARS out of the wormhole near Saturn, where the year is 2156 and they are rescued and brought to an O'Neill cylinder colony around the planet. Cooper reunites with Murph, now on her deathbed in her advanced age. She tells him not to wait for her to die and to seek out Amelia instead. Cooper takes a spacecraft and sets off on another mission with TARS. Meanwhile, on the final candidate planet, Amelia removes her helmet, breathing in the air of the new habitable world.

## Cast

- Matthew McConaughey as Joseph Cooper, a widower NASA pilot who reluctantly becomes a farmer after the agency was closed by the government, and eventually joins the Endurance mission as the lead pilot

- Anne Hathaway as Dr. Amelia Brand, Professor Brand's daughter and NASA scientist who, aboard the Endurance mission, is responsible for conducting planet colonization

- Jessica Chastain as Murphy "Murph" Cooper, Joseph's daughter, who eventually becomes a NASA scientist working under Professor Brand Ellen Burstyn as elderly Murph Mackenzie Foy as 10 year-old Murph

- Ellen Burstyn as elderly Murph

- Mackenzie Foy as 10 year-old Murph

- John Lithgow as Donald, Cooper's elderly father-in-law

- Michael Caine as Professor John Brand, a high-ranking NASA scientist, father of Amelia, former mentor of Cooper, and director of the Lazarus and Endurance missions

- Casey Affleck as Tom Cooper, Joseph's son, who eventually takes charge of his father's farm Timothée Chalamet as 15 year-old Tom

- Timothée Chalamet as 15 year-old Tom

- Wes Bentley as Doyle, a high-ranking NASA member, and Endurance crew member

- Bill Irwin as TARS (voice and puppetry) and CASE (puppetry), robots assigned to assist the crew of the Endurance

- Topher Grace as Getty, Murph's colleague and love interest

- David Gyasi as Professor Romilly, a high-ranking NASA member, and Endurance crew member

- Matt Damon as Dr. Mann, a NASA astronaut sent to an icy planet during the Lazarus program

Also appearing are Josh Stewart as the voice of CASE; Leah Cairns as Lois, Tom's wife; David Oyelowo and Collette Wolfe respectively as school principal and teacher Ms. Hanley; Francis X. McCarthy as farmer "Boots"; William Devane as Williams, another NASA member; Elyes Gabel as Cooper Station Administrator; and Jeff Hephner as Cooper Station Doctor.

## Production

### Crew

- Christopher Nolan – Director, producer, writer

- Jonathan Nolan – Writer

- Emma Thomas – Producer

- Lynda Obst – Producer

- Hoyte van Hoytema – Cinematographer

- Nathan Crowley – Production designer

- Mary Zophres – Costume designer

- Lee Smith – Editor

- Hans Zimmer – Music composer

- Paul Franklin – Visual effects supervisor

- Kip Thorne – Consultant, executive producer

- Sivamani &nabs;-ISRO scientist

### Development and financing

The premise for Interstellar was conceived by the producer Lynda Obst and the theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, who collaborated on the film Contact (1997), and had known each other since Carl Sagan set them up on a blind date. The two conceived a scenario, based on Thorne's work, about "the most exotic events in the universe suddenly becoming accessible to humans", and attracted Steven Spielberg 's interest in directing. The film began development in June 2006, when Spielberg and Paramount Pictures announced plans for a science-fiction film based on an eight-page treatment written by Obst and Thorne. Obst was attached to produce. By March 2007, Jonathan Nolan was hired to write a screenplay.

After Spielberg moved his production studio, DreamWorks, from Paramount to Walt Disney Studios in 2009, Paramount needed a new director for Interstellar. Jonathan Nolan recommended his brother Christopher, who joined the project in 2012. Christopher Nolan met with Thorne, then attached as executive producer, to discuss the use of spacetime in the story. In January 2013, Paramount and Warner Bros. announced that Christopher Nolan was in negotiations to direct Interstellar. Nolan said he wanted to encourage the goal of human spaceflight, and intended to merge his brother's screenplay with his own. By the following March, Nolan was confirmed to direct Interstellar, which would be produced under his label Syncopy and Lynda Obst Productions. The Hollywood Reporter said Nolan would earn a salary of $20 million against 20% of the total gross. To research for the film, Nolan visited NASA and the private space program at SpaceX.

Warner Bros. sought a stake in Nolan's production of Interstellar from Paramount, despite their traditional rivalry, and agreed to give Paramount its rights to co-finance the next film in the Friday the 13th horror franchise, with a stake in a future film based on the television series South Park. Warner Bros. also agreed to let Paramount co-finance an indeterminate "A-list" property. In August 2013, Legendary Pictures finalized an agreement with Warner Bros. to finance approximately 25% of the film's production. Although it failed to renew its eight-year production partnership with Warner Bros., Legendary reportedly agreed to forgo financing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) in exchange for the stake in Interstellar.

### Writing and casting

Jonathan Nolan worked on the script for four years. To learn the scientific aspects, he studied relativity at the California Institute of Technology. He was pessimistic about the Space Shuttle program ending and how NASA lacked financing for a human mission to Mars, drawing inspiration from science-fiction films with apocalyptic themes, such as WALL-E (2008) and Avatar (2009). Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly said: "He set the story in a dystopian future ravaged by blight, but populated with hardy folk who refuse to bow to despair." His brother Christopher had worked on other science fiction scripts but decided to take the Interstellar script and choose among the vast array of ideas presented by Jonathan and Thorne. He picked what he felt, as director, he could get "across to the audience and hopefully not lose them," before he merged it with a script he had worked on for years on his own. Christopher kept in place Jonathan's conception of the first hour, which is set on a resource depleted Earth in the near future. The setting was inspired by the Dust Bowl that took place in the United States during the Great Depression in the 1930s. He revised the rest of the script, where a team travels into space, instead. After watching the 2012 documentary The Dust Bowl for inspiration, Christopher contacted the director, Ken Burns, and the producer, Dayton Duncan. They granted him permission to use some of their featured interviews in Interstellar.

Christopher Nolan wanted an actor who could bring to life his vision of the main character as an everyman with whom "the audience could experience the story." He became interested in casting Matthew McConaughey after watching him in an early cut of the 2012 film Mud, which he had seen as a friend of one of its producers, Aaron Ryder. Nolan went to visit McConaughey while he was filming for the TV series True Detective. Anne Hathaway was invited to Nolan's home, where she read the script for Interstellar. In early 2013, both actors were cast in the starring roles. Jessica Chastain was contacted while she was working on Miss Julie (2014) in Northern Ireland, and a script was delivered to her. Originally, Irrfan Khan was offered the role of Dr. Mann but rejected it due to scheduling conflicts. Matt Damon was cast as Mann in late August 2013 and completed filming his scenes in Iceland.

### Principal photography

Nolan shot Interstellar on 35 mm film in the Panavision anamorphic format and IMAX 70 mm photography. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema was hired for Interstellar, as Wally Pfister, Nolan's cinematographer on all of his previous films, was making his directorial debut working on Transcendence (2014); Pfister would later retire as a cinematographer for films. More IMAX cameras were used for Interstellar than for any of Nolan's previous films. To minimize the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), Nolan had practical locations built, such as the interior of a space shuttle. Van Hoytema retooled an IMAX camera to be hand-held for shooting interior scenes. Some of the film's sequences were shot with an IMAX camera installed in the nose cone of a Learjet. Nolan, who is known for keeping details of his productions secret, strove to ensure secrecy for Interstellar. Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Ben Fritz stated, "The famously secretive filmmaker has gone to extreme lengths to guard the script to... Interstellar, just as he did with the blockbuster Dark Knight trilogy." As one security measure, Interstellar was filmed under the name Flora's Letter, Flora being one of Nolan's four children with producer Emma Thomas.

The film's principal photography was scheduled to last four months. It began on August 6, 2013, in the province of Alberta, Canada. Towns in Alberta where shooting took place included Nanton, Longview, Lethbridge, Fort Macleod, and Okotoks. In Okotoks, filming took place at the Seaman Stadium and the Olde Town Plaza. For a cornfield scene, production designer Nathan Crowley planted 500 acres (200 ha) of corn that would be destroyed in an apocalyptic dust storm scene, intended to be similar to storms experienced during the Dust Bowl in 1930s America. Additional scenes involving the dust storm and McConaughey's character were also shot in Fort Macleod, where the giant dust clouds were created on location using large fans to blow cellulose-based synthetic dust through the air. Filming in the province lasted until September 9, 2013, and involved hundreds of extras in addition to 130 crew members, most of whom were local.

Shooting also took place in Iceland, where Nolan had previously filmed scenes for Batman Begins (2005). It was chosen to represent two extraterrestrial planets: one covered in ice, and the other in water. The crew transported mock spaceships weighing about 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg). They spent two weeks shooting there, during which a crew of about 350 people, including 130 locals, worked on the film. Locations included the Svínafellsjökull glacier and the town of Klaustur. While filming a water scene in Iceland, Hathaway almost suffered from hypothermia because her dry suit had not been properly secured.

After the schedule in Iceland was completed, the crew shot in Los Angeles for 54 days. Filming locations included the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites, the Los Angeles Convention Center, a Sony Pictures soundstage in Culver City, and a private residence in Altadena, California. Principal photography concluded in December 2013. Production had a budget of $165 million, $10 million less than was allotted by Paramount, Warner Bros., and Legendary Pictures.

### Production design

Interstellar features three spacecraft— the Endurance, a ranger, and a lander. The Endurance, the crew's mother ship, is a circular structure consisting of 12 capsules, laid flat to mimic a clock: Four capsules with planetary settling equipment, four with engines, and four with the permanent functions of cockpit, medical labs, and habitation. Production designer Nathan Crowley said the Endurance was based on the International Space Station: "It's a real mish-mash of different kinds of technology. You need analogue stuff, as well as digital stuff, you need backup systems and tangible switches. It's really like a submarine in space. Every inch of space is used, everything has a purpose." The ranger's function is similar to the Space Shuttle 's, being able to enter and exit planetary atmospheres. Lastly, the lander transports the capsules with settling equipment to planetary surfaces. Crowley compared it to "a heavy Russian helicopter."

The film features two robots, CASE and TARS, as well as a dismantled third robot, KIPP. Nolan wanted to avoid making the robots anthropomorphic and chose a 1.5 m (4.9 ft) quadrilateral design. He said: "It has a very complicated design philosophy. It's based on mathematics. You've got four main blocks and they can be joined in three ways. So, you have three combinations you follow. But then within that, it subdivides into a further three joints. And all the places we see lines—those can subdivide further. So you can unfold a finger, essentially, but it's all proportional." Bill Irwin voiced and physically controlled both robots, with his image digitally removed, and Josh Stewart replaced his voicing for CASE. The human space habitats resemble O'Neill cylinders, a theoretical space habitat model proposed by physicist Gerard K. O'Neill in 1976.

### Sound design

Gregg Landaker and Gary Rizzo were the film's audio engineers tasked with audio mixing, while sound editor Richard King supervised the process. Christopher Nolan sought to mix the sound to take maximum advantage of theater equipment and paid close attention to designing the sound mix, like focusing on the sound of buttons being pressed with astronaut suit gloves. The studio's website stated that the film was "mixed to maximize the power of the low-end frequencies in the main channels, as well as in the subwoofer channel." Nolan deliberately intended some dialogue to seem drowned out by ambient noise or music, causing some theaters to post notices emphasizing that this effect was intentional and not a fault in their equipment.

### Music

Hans Zimmer, who scored Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception (2010), returned to score Interstellar. Nolan chose not to provide Zimmer with a script or any plot details but instead gave him a single page that told the story of a father leaving his child for work. It was through this connection that Zimmer created the early stages of the Interstellar soundtrack. Zimmer and Nolan later decided the 1926 four-manual Harrison & Harrison organ of the Temple Church, London, would be the primary instrument for the score. Zimmer conducted 45 scoring sessions for Interstellar, three times more than for Inception. The soundtrack was released on November 18, 2014.

### Visual effects

The visual effects company Double Negative, which worked on Inception, was brought back for Interstellar. According to visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin, the number of effects in the film was not much greater than in Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises (2012) or Inception. However, for Interstellar, they created the effects first, allowing digital projectors to display them behind the actors, rather than having the actors perform in front of green screens. The film contained 850 visual-effect shots at a resolution of 5600 × 4000 lines: 150 shots that were created in-camera using digital projectors, and another 700 were created in post-production. Of those, 620 were presented in IMAX, while the rest were anamorphic.

The ranger, Endurance, and lander spacecraft were created using miniature effects by Nathan Crowley in collaboration with effects company New Deal Studios, as opposed to using computer-generated imagery, as Nolan felt they offered the best way to give the ships a tangible presence in space. 3D-printed and hand-sculpted, the scale models earned the nickname "maxatures" by the crew due to their immense size; the 1/15th-scale miniature of the Endurance module spanned over 7.6 m (25 ft), while a pyrotechnic model of part of the craft was built at 1/5th scale. The Ranger and Lander miniatures spanned 14 m (46 ft) and over 15 m (49 ft), respectively, and were large enough for van Hoytema to mount IMAX cameras directly onto the spacecraft, thus mimicking the look of NASA IMAX documentaries. The models were then attached to a six-axis gimbal on a motion control system that allowed an operator to manipulate their movements, which were filmed against background plates of space using VistaVision cameras on a smaller motion control rig. New Deal Studio's miniatures were used in 150 special effects shots.

## Influences

Nolan was influenced by what he called "key touchstones" of science fiction cinema, including Metropolis (1927), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Blade Runner (1982), Star Wars (1977), and Alien (1979). Andrei Tarkovsky 's The Mirror (1975) influenced "elemental things in the story to do with wind and dust and water", according to Nolan, who also compared Interstellar to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) as a film about human nature. He sought to emulate films like Steven Spielberg 's Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) for being family-friendly but also "as edgy and incisive and challenging as anything else on the blockbuster spectrum". He screened The Right Stuff (1983) for the crew before production, following in its example by capturing reflections on the Interstellar astronauts' visors. For further inspiration, Nolan invited former astronaut Marsha Ivins to the set. Nolan and his crew studied the IMAX NASA documentaries of filmmaker Toni Myers for visual reference of spacefaring missions, and strove to imitate their use of IMAX cameras in the enclosed spaces of spacecraft interiors. Clark Kent 's upbringing in Man of Steel (2013) was the inspiration for the farm setting in the Midwest. Apart from the films, Nolan drew inspiration from the architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

## Scientific accuracy

Regarding the concepts of wormholes and black holes, Kip Thorne said he "worked on the equations that would enable tracing of light rays as they traveled through a wormhole or around a black hole—so what you see is based on Einstein 's general relativity equations ". Early in the process, Thorne laid down two guidelines: "First, that nothing would violate established physical laws. Second, that all the wild speculations... would spring from science and not from the fertile mind of a screenwriter." Nolan accepted these terms as long as they did not get in the way of making the film. At one point, Thorne spent two weeks arguing Nolan out of having a character traveling faster than light before Nolan finally gave up. According to Thorne, the element that has the highest degree of artistic freedom is the clouds of ice on one of the planets they visit, which are structures that would go beyond the material strength that ice could support.

The astrobiologist David Grinspoon criticized the dire "blight" situation on Earth portrayed in the early scenes, pointing out that even with a voracious blight it would have taken millions of years to reduce the atmosphere's oxygen content. He also notes that gravity should have pulled down the ice clouds. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, explored the science behind the ending of Interstellar, concluding that it is theoretically possible to interact with the past, and that "we don't really know what's in a black hole, so take it and run with it". The theoretical physicist Michio Kaku praised the film for its scientific accuracy and said Interstellar "could set the gold standard for science fiction movies for years to come". Timothy Reyes, a former NASA software engineer, said "Thorne's and Nolan's accounting of black holes and wormholes and the use of gravity is excellent".

Mathematical Physicist Ikjyot Singh Kohli first published an article on his blog defending the physics used in the film. In particular, he provided calculations in which he showed that the time dilation effect caused by the spinning black hole in the movie was indeed accurate. The article was written shortly after the film's release in response to a number of scientific blogs that criticized the film's physics for not being accurate, which were shown by Kohli to be due to several misunderstandings by the authors of the blogs in question.

### Wormholes and black holes

To create the visual effects for the wormhole and a rotating, supermassive black hole (possessing an ergosphere, as opposed to a non-rotating black hole), Thorne collaborated with Franklin and a team of 30 people at Double Negative, providing pages of deeply sourced theoretical equations to the engineers, who then wrote new CGI rendering software based on these equations to create accurate simulations of the gravitational lensing caused by these phenomena. Some individual frames took up to 100 hours to render, totaling 800 terabytes of data. Thorne described the accretion disk of the black hole as "anemic and at low temperature —about the temperature of the surface of the sun," allowing it to emit appreciable light, but not enough gamma radiation and X-rays to threaten nearby astronauts and planets. The resulting visual effects provided Thorne with new insight into the gravitational lensing and accretion disks surrounding black holes, resulting in the publication of three scientific papers.

Nolan was initially concerned that a scientifically accurate depiction of a black hole would not be visually comprehensible to an audience, and would require the effects team to unrealistically alter its appearance. The visual representation of the black hole in the film does not account for the Doppler effect which, when added by the visual effects team, resulted in an asymmetrically lit black and blue-black hole, the purpose of which Nolan thought the audience would not understand. As a result, it was omitted in the finished product. Nolan found the finished effect to be understandable, as long as he maintained consistent camera perspectives.

As a reference, the asymmetric brightness of the accretion disk is very well visible in the first image of the event horizon of a black hole obtained by the Event Horizon Telescope team in 2019. Futura-Sciences praised the correct depiction of the Penrose process.

According to Space.com, the portrayal of what a wormhole would look like is scientifically correct. Rather than a two-dimensional hole in space, it is depicted as a sphere, showing a distorted view of the target galaxy.

## Marketing

The teaser trailer for Interstellar debuted December 13, 2013, and featured clips related to space exploration, accompanied by a voiceover by Matthew McConaughey's character, Cooper. The theatrical trailer debuted May 5, 2014, at the Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater in Washington, D.C., and was made available online later that month. For the week ending on May 19, it was the most-viewed film trailer, with over 19.5 million views on YouTube.

Christopher Nolan and McConaughey made their first appearances at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2014 to promote Interstellar. That same month, Paramount Pictures launched an interactive website, on which users uncovered a star chart related to the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

In October 2014, Paramount partnered with Google to promote Interstellar across multiple platforms. The film's website was relaunched as a digital hub hosted on a Google domain, which collected feedback from film audiences, and linked to a mobile app. It featured a game in which players could build Solar System models and use a flight simulator for space travel. The Paramount–Google partnership also included a virtual time capsule compiled with user-generated content, made available in 2015. The initiative Google for Education used the film as a basis for promoting math and science lesson plans in schools.

Paramount provided a virtual reality walkthrough of the Endurance spacecraft using Oculus Rift technology. It hosted the walkthrough sequentially in New York City, Houston, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., from October 6 through November 19, 2014. The publisher Running Press released Interstellar: Beyond Time and Space, a book by Mark Cotta Vaz about the making of the film, on November 11. W. W. Norton & Company released The Science of Interstellar, a book by Thorne; Titan Books released the official novelization, written by Greg Keyes; and Wired magazine released a tie-in online comic, Absolute Zero, written by Christopher Nolan and drawn by Sean Gordon Murphy. The comic is a prequel to the film, with Mann as the protagonist.

## Release

### Theatrical

Before Interstellar ' s public release, Paramount CEO Brad Grey hosted a private screening on October 19, 2014, at the AMC Lincoln Square 13 IMAX theater in Manhattan, New York. Paramount then showed Interstellar to some of the industry's filmmakers and actors in a first-look screening at the California Science Center on October 22. On the following day, the film was screened at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California for over 900 members of the Screen Actors Guild. The film premiered on October 26 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, and in Europe on October 29 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.

Interstellar was released early on November 4 in various 70 mm IMAX film, 70 mm film and 35 mm film theaters, and had a limited release in North America on November 5, with a wide release on November 7. The film was released in Belgium, France, and Switzerland on November 5, the UK on November 7 and in additional territories in the following days. For the limited North American release, Interstellar was projected from 70 mm and 35 mm film in 249 theaters that still supported those formats, including at least forty-one 70 mm IMAX theaters. A 70 mm IMAX projector was installed at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles to display the format. The film's wide release expanded to theaters that showed it digitally. Paramount Pictures distributed the film in North America, and Warner Bros. distributed it in the remaining territories. The film was released in over 770 IMAX screens worldwide, which was the largest global release in IMAX cinemas, until surpassed by Universal Pictures ' Furious 7 (2015) with 810 IMAX theaters.

Interstellar was an exception to Paramount Pictures' goal to stop releasing films on film stock and to distribute them only in digital format. According to Pamela McClintock of The Hollywood Reporter, the initiative to project Interstellar on film stock would help preserve an endangered format, which was supported by Christopher Nolan, J. J. Abrams, Quentin Tarantino, Judd Apatow, Paul Thomas Anderson, and other filmmakers. McClintock reported that theatre owners saw this as "backward," as nearly all theatres in the US had been converted to digital projection.

Interstellar will be re-released in theaters on December 6, 2024 for its 10th anniversary, showing in 70 mm IMAX and digital formats.

### Home media

Interstellar was released on home video on March 31, 2015, in both the United Kingdom and United States. It topped the home video sales chart for a total of two weeks. It was reported that Interstellar was the most pirated film of 2015, with an estimated 46.7 million downloads on BitTorrent. It was released in the Ultra HD Blu-ray format on December 19, 2017.

## Reception

### Box office

Interstellar grossed $188 million in the US and Canada, and $493 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $681 million on original release, against a production budget of $165 million. Deadline Hollywood calculated net profit to be $47 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs, with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from home media, placing it 20th on their list of 2014's "Most Valuable Blockbusters". It sold an estimated 22 million tickets domestically.

The film set an IMAX opening record worldwide with $20.5 million from 574 IMAX theaters, surpassing the $17 million record held by The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), and is the best opening for an IMAX 2D, non-sequel, and November IMAX release. It had a worldwide opening of $133 million, which was the tenth-largest opening of 2014, and became the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2014. Interstellar is the fourth film to gross over $100 million worldwide from IMAX ticket sales. It was released in the UK, Ireland and Malta on November 6, 2014, and debuted at number one earning £5.5 million ($8.6 million) in its opening weekend, which was lower than the openings of The Dark Knight Rises (£14.4 million), Gravity (£6.2 million), and Inception (£5.9 million). The film was released in 35 markets on the same day, including major markets like Germany, Russia, Australia, and Brazil earning $8.7 million in total. Through Sunday, it earned an opening weekend total of $83 million from 11.1 million admissions from over 14,800 screens in 62 markets. It earned $7.3 million from 206 IMAX screens, at an average of 35,400 viewers per theater. It went to number one in South Korea ($14.4 million), Russia ($8.9 million), and France ($5.3 million). Other strong openings occurred in Germany ($4.6 million), India ($4.3 million), Italy ($3.7 million), Australia ($3.7 million), Spain ($2.7 million), Mexico ($3.1 million), and Brazil ($1.9 million). Interstellar was released in China on November 12 and earned $5.4 million on its opening day on Wednesday, which is Nolan's biggest opening in China after surpassing the $4.61 million opening record of The Dark Knight Rises. It went on to earn $41.7 million in its opening weekend, accounting for 55% of the market share. It is Nolan's biggest opening in China, Warner Bros.' biggest 2D opening, and the studio's third-biggest opening of all time, behind 2014's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ($49.5 million) and 2013's Pacific Rim ($45 million).

It topped the box office outside North America for two consecutive weekends before being overtaken by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) in its third weekend. Just 31 days after its release, the film became the 13th-most-successful film and 3rd-most-successful foreign film in South Korea with 9.1 million admissions trailing only Avatar (13.3 million admissions), and 2013's Frozen (10.3 million admissions). The film closed down its theatrical run in China on December 12, with total revenue of $122.6 million. In total earnings, its largest markets outside North America and China were South Korea ($73.4 million), the UK, Ireland and Malta ($31.3 million), and Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) ($19 million). Interstellar and Big Hero 6 opened the same weekend (November 7–9, 2014) in the US and Canada. Both were forecast to earn between $55 million and $60 million. In North America, the film is the seventh-highest-grossing film to not hit No. 1, with a top rank of No. 2 on its opening weekend. Interstellar had an early limited release in the US and Canada in selected theaters on November 4 at 8:00 pm, coinciding with the 2014 US midterm elections. It topped the box office the following day, earning $1.35 million from 249 theaters (42 of which were IMAX screens); IMAX accounted for 62% of its total gross. Two hundred and forty of those theaters played in 35 mm, 70 mm, and IMAX 70 mm film formats. It earned $3.6 million from late-night shows for a previews total of $4.9 million. The film was widely released on November 7 and topped the box office on its opening day, earning $17 million ahead of Big Hero 6 ($15.8 million). On its opening weekend, the film earned $47.5 million from 3,561 theaters, debuting in second place after a neck-and-neck competition with Disney 's Big Hero 6 ($56.2 million). IMAX comprised $13.2 million (28%) of its opening weekend gross, while other premium large-format screens comprised $5.3 million (10.5%) of the gross. In its second weekend, the film fell to No. 3 behind Big Hero 6 and newcomer Dumb and Dumber To (2014), and dropped 39% earning $29 million for a two-weekend total of $98 million. It earned $7.4 million from IMAX theaters from 368 screens in its second weekend. In its third week, the film earned $15 million and remained at No. 3, below newcomer The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and Big Hero 6.

### Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 378 critic reviews are positive, with an average of 7.1/10. The site's critics consensus reads, " Interstellar represents more of the thrilling, thought-provoking, and visually resplendent filmmaking moviegoers have come to expect from writer-director Christopher Nolan, even if its intellectual reach somewhat exceeds its grasp." Metacritic assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Scott Foundas, chief film critic at Variety, said that Interstellar is "as visually and conceptually audacious as anything Nolan has yet done" and considered the film "more personal" than Nolan's previous films. Claudia Puig of USA Today praised the visual spectacle and powerful themes, while criticizing the "dull" dialogue and "tedious patches inside the space vessel." David Stratton of At the Movies rated the film four-and-a-half stars out of five, commending its ambition, effects, and 70 mm IMAX presentation, though criticizing the sound for "being so loud" as to make some of the dialogue "inaudible". Conversely, co-host Margaret Pomeranz rated the film three out of five, as she felt the human drama got lost among the film's scientific concepts. Henry Barnes of The Guardian scored the film three out of five stars, calling it "a glorious spectacle, but a slight drama, with few characters and too-rare flashes of humour." James Berardinelli called Interstellar "an amazing achievement" and "simultaneously a big-budget science fiction endeavor and a very simple tale of love and sacrifice. It is by turns edgy, breathtaking, hopeful, and heartbreaking." He named it the best film of 2014, and the second-best movie of the decade, deeming it a " real science fiction rather than the crowd-pleasing, watered-down version Hollywood typically offers".

"It's been a while since somebody has come out with such a big vision to things... Even the elements, the fact that dust is everywhere, and they're living in this dust bowl that is just completely enveloping this area of the world. That's almost something you expect from Tarkovsky or Malick, not a science fiction adventure movie.

— Quentin Tarantino on Interstellar.

Oliver Gettell of the Los Angeles Times reported that "film critics largely agree that Interstellar is an entertaining, emotional, and thought-provoking sci-fi saga, even if it can also be clunky and sentimental at times." James Dyer of Empire awarded the film a full five stars, describing it as "brainy, barmy, and beautiful to behold... a mind-bending opera of space and time with a soul wrapped up in all the science." Dave Calhoun of Time Out London also granted the film a maximum score of five stars, stating that it is "a bold, beautiful cosmic adventure story with a touch of the surreal and the dreamlike." Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film a full four stars and wrote, "This is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen—in terms of its visuals, and its overriding message about the powerful forces of the one thing we all know but can't measure in scientific terms. Love."

Describing Nolan as a "merchant of awe," Tim Robey of The Telegraph thought that Interstellar was "agonisingly" close to a masterpiece, highlighting the conceptual boldness and "deep-digging intelligence" of the film. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "This grandly conceived and executed epic tries to give equal weight to intimate human emotions and speculation about the cosmos, with mixed results, but is never less than engrossing, and sometimes more than that." In his review for the Associated Press, Jake Coyle praised the film for its "big-screen grandeur," while finding some of the dialogue "clunky." He described it further as "an absurd endeavor" and "one of the most sublime movies of the decade." Scott Mendelson of Forbes listed Interstellar as one of the most disappointing films of 2014, stating that the film "has a lack of flow, loss of momentum following the climax, clumsy sound mixing," and "thin characters" despite seeing the film twice in order to "give it a second chance." He wrote that Interstellar "ends up as a stripped-down and somewhat muted variation on any number of 'go into space to save the world' movies." Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, saying that despite his usual quibbles regarding Nolan's excessive dialogue and its lack of a sense of composition, " is still an impressive, at times astonishing movie that overwhelmed me to the point where my usual objections to Nolan's work melted away... At times, the movie's one-stop-shopping storytelling evokes the tough-tender spirit of a John Ford picture... a movie that would rather try to be eight or nine things than just one."

New York Times columnist David Brooks concludes that Interstellar explores the relationships among "science and faith and science and the humanities" and "illustrates the real symbiosis between these realms." Mark Steyn commented on the technological future and the focus on the father-daughter relationship. Wai Chee Dimock, in the Los Angeles Review of Books, wrote that Nolan's films are "rotatable at 90, 180, and 360 degrees," and that "although there is considerable magical thinking here, making it almost an anti-sci-fi film, holding out hope that the end of the planet is not the end of everything, it reverses itself, however, when that magic falls short when the poetic license is naked and plain for all to see." Author George R. R. Martin called Interstellar "the most ambitious and challenging science fiction film since Kubrick 's 2001." In 2020, Empire magazine ranked it as one of the best films of the 21st century.

### Accolades

At the 87th Academy Awards, Interstellar received nominations for Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing, and won Best Visual Effects.


# International rankings of the United States

## Abstract

The following are links to some international rankings of the United States.

## Civil liberties

- U.S. News and World Report ranked 21 of 87 in "cares about human rights"

## Economics

(Date ranges indicate different countries were sampled in different years.)

- GDP (nominal) - 1 of 213 (IMF, 2023)

- GDP (PPP) - 2 of 196 (IMF, 2024)

- Median income per capita - 1 of 45 (OECD, 2011-2021)

- Income per capita (nominal) - 7 of 190 (2009-2022, World Bank)

- Total wealth - 1 of 173 (UBS and Credit Suisse, 2023)

- International Labour Organization ranked 13 of 181 for labor productivity, 2019 (See List of countries by labour productivity)

- Income inequality - 61 highest out of 168 (World Bank, 1992-2022)

- World Economic Forum 2018–2019 Global Competitiveness Report, ranked 2nd out of 141 countries

- World Economic Forum 2016 Global Enabling Trade Report ranked 22nd

- The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal 2018 Index of Economic Freedom ranked 17th out of 178 economies

- Fraser Institute Economic Freedom of the World 2019 Annual Report (Economic Freedom Ratings for 2017) ranked 5th out of 152 countries and territories

- The Harvard Growth Lab ranked 12th in technological advancement, as of 2019.

- Global Innovation Index - 3 of 50 in 2023

## Education

- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment, ranked 38 of 79 in mathematics, 19 of 79 in science, 13 of 78 in reading

## Environment

- Environmental Performance Index - 43 of 180 in 2022

## Globalization

- 2006 Globalization Index (A.T. Kearney) ranked 3rd

- 2010 KOF Index of Globalization ranked 27th

## Healthcare

As of 2015, the Maternal mortality ratio was 46th lowest out of the countries ranked. (See Maternal mortality in the United States.)

Among wealthy nations, a study on 2016 data found the United States ranked first for child deaths by automobile accident and firearm, with overall child mortality 57% higher in the U.S. than other high-income countries, although traffic deaths were decreasing.

As of 2017, the United States life expectancy is 79.8 years at birth, ranking 42nd among 224 nations.

## Peace

- Vision of Humanity 2018 Global Peace Index ranked 121st out of 162 countries

## Politics

- Transparency International 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index: ranked 23rd lowest corruption out of 198 countries

- Reporters Without Borders 2022 Press Freedom Index: ranked 42nd out of 180 countries

- V-Dem Democracy indices: ranked 2023 27th out of 179 countries

- Democracy Index (The Economist): ranked 2022 30th out of 167 countries

- World Justice Project 2020 Rule of Law Index ranked 21st out of 128 countries and jurisdictions

## Standard of living

- List of countries by Human Development Index: ranked 13th out of 189 countries for 2018

- List of countries by inequality-adjusted HDI: ranked 25th out of 156 countries for 2018


IJsselmonde (village)

# IJsselmonde (village)

## Abstract

IJsselmonde (Dutch pronunciation:) is a former village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It was located to the east of the city of Rotterdam. The village ("IJssel mouth") derives its name from the river Hollandsche IJssel, which flows into the Nieuwe Maas opposite the village. The village gives its name to the large island it's on, IJsselmonde.

IJsselmonde was a separate municipality until 1941 when it merged with Rotterdam. In the area of the municipality, a large residential area was built, which is now the IJsselmonde borough of Rotterdam.


Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers

# Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers

## Abstract

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers were an American rock band formed in Western Massachusetts in 2003. The band features lead singer and founding member Stephen Kellogg (born November 28, 1976) piano and bass player Kit Karlson (born September 22, 1976), drummer Brian "Boots" Factor (born August 14, 1979), and electric guitar/pedal steel player Sam Getz (born October 17, 1983). Chip Johnson (born February 10, 1983) joined Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers on bass in 2011.

## General information

They have recorded albums for Universal Records, Everfine Records (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records) and Vanguard Records. Their album Glassjaw Boxer, recorded for Everfine Records, was named one of the top five albums of 2007 by USA Today critic Brian Mansfield.

Their release The Bear, Vanguard Records, was voted "Best of 2009" by No Depression and JamBase. Their single "Shady Esperanto & The Young Hearts" cracked the Billboard Top 20 for AAA. They were named 2009 Entertainers of the year by Armed Forces Entertainment.

Their song "Maria" was covered by Canadian country band Doc Walker and was a top 10 hit.

The band is also known for annual commitments to St. Jude Children's Hospital.

In 2009, the band recorded a music video of " Shady Esperanto & The Young Hearts " with the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band. Kit Karlson is a former member of said marching band.

### Touring credits

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers' on stage credits include tours with George Thorogood, Needtobreathe, Sugarland, Hanson, O.A.R., Josh Ritter, Dar Williams, David Crosby, Martin Sexton as well as an appearance with James Brown shortly before Brown's death. Noteworthy festival plays include 2006 Telluride BlueGrass Festival, 2008 Lyons Folk Festival, 2008 Mile High Festival, The 2007 All Good Festival and Multiple appearances on NPR's Mountain Stage featuring Larry Groce.

The band's touring history also includes several trips overseas to play for the United States Armed Forces. They spent one month in the spring of 2009 playing on bases in nine different countries such as Kuwait and Bahrain as well as a trip to Israel to play for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

### Hiatus

After over twelve-hundred shows and nine years of playing together as a band 'Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers' went on hiatus at the end of November 2012. The band did a send off called "The Hi-Ate-US Tour" which consisted of a national tour of the country between October 17 and November 24. Their final show of that tour was at Webster Hall in New York City. They have no current plans for future tours.As of December 2012 Stephen Kellogg has been touring extensively, having released his first solo album, Blunderstone Rookery in 2013. His second album, South, West, North, East was released in February 2016 and a greatest hits album, Tour De Forty: Greatest Hits so Far (Live), followed in 2017. His most recent work, Objects in the Mirror, was released in 2018.

## Current band members

- Stephen "Skunk" Kellogg - lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, piano

- Kit "Goose" Karlson - bass guitar, keyboards (including keytar), accordion, tuba, backing vocals

- Brian "Boots" Factor - drums, backing vocals, mandolin, banjo

- Sam "Steamer" Getz - electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, bass, backing vocals

- Chip Johnson - bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, backing vocals

### Former band members

- Chris Soucy - electric guitar, bass, vocals (2004–2007)- Now is the regional director of School of Rock Denver

- Kyle Riabko - electric guitar, bass, vocals (2007–2008) - Left band to pursue solo musical and Broadway interests.

## Discography

### Released with "The Sixers"

- Bulletproof Heart - 2004

- Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers - 2005

- The First Waltz - 2006 - CD/DVD set

- Glassjaw Boxer - 2007

- The Bear - 2009

- Live from the Heart: 1000th Show, Irving Plaza, NYC - 2010

- Gift Horse - 2011

### Stephen Kellogg solo releases

Stephen Kellogg

- Invest in Us - 1994

- Rain Summer - The Stephen Kellogg Band - 1995

- Buffalo - Stephen Kellogg and the Root Cellar Band - 1997

- South of Stephen - 2000

- Muskrats, Mullets & Mesh Caps - 2001

- The Early Hits (1992-1997) - 2002

- Lucky 11 - 2002

- Blunderstone Rookery - 2013

- South West North East - 2016

- Tour De Forty: Greatest Hits (So Far) Live - 2017

- Objects In The Mirror - 2018

### Other releases

Brian Factor

- "January Bridges" - 2006

- "Dead Language Demos" - 2007

- "Part or Execution" - 2010

Trevor Jackson

- Kyle Riabko and Boots Factor Are... - Trevor Jackson - 2008

Sam Getz

- The Vig- "Around and Around and So On"- 2010

- Welshley Arms- "Welcome" - 2013

Chip Johnson

- This Winter Room- "Losing the Paper Moon" - 2011

## Featured on

- The Letterbox EP - Heath Brandon - 2006 (Kit Karlson - bass) * Time for Good - Todd Martin - 2005 (Kit Karlson - Bass, Factor -Percussion, Stephen Kellogg - Harmonica & Vocals) * "Smoke"- Stepanian -2005 (Stephen Kellogg - Vocals) * "Mont Clare" - Todd Martin - 2007 (Kit Karlson - Bass, Factor - Percussion)

## Songs appeared in

- One Tree Hill - October 2008 - Song: "Hearts in Pain"

- One Tree Hill - 2009 - Song: "Born in the Spring"

- Mercy - 2009 - Song: "Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts"

- Men of a Certain Age - Fall 2010 promotional advertisement - Song: "Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts"


Amber Beacon Tower murder

# Amber Beacon Tower murder

## Abstract

The Amber Beacon Tower murder is an unsolved case where a woman was murdered by two unknown attackers, who ambushed her and her boyfriend during the couple's romantic night out at Amber Beacon Tower in East Coast Park. During the attack, the female victim, 21-year-old Kelly Tan Ah Hong (陈亚凤 Chén Yàfèng), was stabbed in the neck by one of the men while her 22-year-old boyfriend, James Soh Fook Leong (苏福良 Sū Fúliáng), was stabbed in the back by the man's accomplice. Although Soh managed to survive with timely medical intervention, Tan died as a result of massive bleeding from her wound. Despite the extensive police investigations of this case, the murderer(s) were never identified or caught.

## Background

Born sometime in late 1968, Kelly Tan Ah Hong was the second of seven children in an affluent family. Although Tan was a Singaporean by birth, her father, Tan Lam Lee, was a Chinese Indonesian immigrant who operated a vegetable wholesale business, while her mother, Ong Lye, was a housewife. Tan had one elder sister, three younger sisters and two younger brothers in her family, who resided at a bungalow house in Thomson Road.

After completing her primary school education, Tan enrolled at Yio Chu Kang Secondary School at Ang Mo Kio, where she became classmates with her future boyfriend, James Soh Fook Leong, who was the only child of his family. His father was the owner of an electronics business. Soh was said to be a studious student and enthusiastic about sports and games. Both he and Tan, who were of the same age, became prefects. Although Tan was the opposite of Soh in terms of their interests and personality, Soh was attracted to Tan, who had mutual feelings for him, and they became friends after they first met.

After both Soh and Tan graduated, Soh enrolled into an electronic engineering course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, while Tan did not continue studying and instead joined her father's business and worked under him. In 1990, before Soh began his third year in polytechnic, he decided to ask Tan out, and on 13 May 1990, about a decade after they first met, Soh and Tan officially became a couple. According to Soh's parents, they didn't meet Tan until a few days before her death, when Soh invited her to their flat. Soh's parents remembered their son telling them that Tan was his former schoolmate, but they never knew the specific nature of the couple's relationship.

## Murder of Kelly Tan

On the night of 15 May 1990, two days after they first became a couple, James Soh and Kelly Tan went to have a date at East Coast Park. They headed to the Amber Beacon Tower, which was a popular spot for young couples to hang out.

When Soh and Tan were sitting on the tower's spiral staircase and chatting with each other, two men walked past them and went to the upper level of the tower. After about fifteen minutes, the two men ambushed the couple with knives. While Tan ran away to escape one of the attackers, the other man stayed at the tower to attack Soh, who defended himself against the assailant. Soh was stabbed in the back. The wound was so deep that it narrowly missed Soh's spinal cord, and would have been fatal if it had.

A short distance away, Tan was in a more dire situation when her attacker caught up with her. She sustained a deep neck wound on the left side of her neck, after her attacker stabbed her below her left ear. The knife wound caused massive bleeding. After the two men escaped the scene, Soh, who had barely retained his consciousness, staggered to help his girlfriend. He tried to bring her to the nearby Singa Inn Seafood Restaurant; one of their attackers was last seen running towards the restaurant, while the other was last seen running to the park's bird sanctuary.

Soh, who was drenched in blood, managed to reach the restaurant, and asked the employees to help his girlfriend and himself, before he fainted. The police and ambulance, as well as Soh's parents (who rushed to the scene) were contacted, and 22-year-old James Soh Fook Leong was rushed to Singapore General Hospital, where he survived with timely medical intervention. 21-year-old Kelly Tan Ah Hong was pronounced dead at the scene. Reportedly, Soh, who regained his consciousness in hospital and was in stable condition, was unaware of his girlfriend's death and kept asking his mother if she was all right. Soh was said to be devastated upon receiving news of Tan's death two days after she was killed. Soh's parents had kept the news from their son for fear it may affect his recovery progress, in accordance to the doctor's opinion. According to Soh's 47-year-old mother, whose surname was Tan, she and her husband were baffled over the horrific and senseless attack, and she knew that her son did not have any enemies since he was often well-behaved.

Tan's father, who was in Indonesia at the time, flew back to Singapore to attend his daughter's funeral.

## Investigations

The case of Kelly Tan Ah Hong's death was classified as murder. Under the laws of Singapore, the death penalty was the mandated sentence for any offenders found guilty of murder. In light of the violent killing of Tan, which shocked the nation at that time, members of the public, especially young people and couples, were advised by the authorities to be vigilant when going out at night.

As part of their investigations, the police also interviewed the survivor James Soh in the hospital. Despite surviving the attack, Soh was unable to recall the faces of their attackers, and could not hear their voices, since the two men never spoke a word during the attack. However, the police were able to gain a description that the men were dark-looking and out of these two men, the person who attacked Soh had short hair and was about 173 cm tall. The second male assailant who went after Tan was about 167 cm and had curly black hair. While the assailants were speculated to be drug addicts, they were also speculated to be foreigners since Soh remembered hearing the two killers speaking a foreign language while they were escaping from the tower. Although both Tan and Soh did not lost anything, robbery was theorized as a possible motive of the crime, and this theory was corroborated by the previous reports of people being robbed at the area itself and several other areas in East Coast Park during nights or late evenings. The police also did not rule out the possibility of a revenge killing, but both Soh and Tan were known to be good-mannered people who never had any grudges or feuds with other people. Still, due to lack of clues in this case, the police were unable to make a breakthrough in their investigations. The murder weapons were also never recovered.

In April 1992, two years after the incident, a coroner's court held an inquiry hearing of Kelly Tan's death and issued a verdict of murder by a person or persons unknown. Professor Chao Tzee Cheng, the senior forensic pathologist, certified that due to the assailant having stabbed Tan in the neck, the knife had cut through a blood artery on the neck, which resulted in Tan losing an excessively huge amount of blood and she died as a result. James Soh, who by then had begun to serve his National Service after completing his diploma, came to court to testify during the coroner's inquiry. After the coroner's verdict was meted out, Tan's bereaved family put up a reward of S$30,000 for any information leading up to the arrest of Tan's murderer(s). According to Tan's 28-year-old cousin Anthony Tan, who was also the manager of her father's company, the reward would be entrusted to the police and be indefinitely in effect up until the arrest of Tan's killer(s).

In June 1992, Singaporean crime show Crimewatch re-enacted the Amber Beacon Tower murder and inside the episode, both the police and Tan's family, including Tan's 42-year-old mother Ong Lye and 26-year-old older sister Tan Kwee Mui appealed for information from members of the public to assist in their investigations of the case. Tan's mother and sisters were reportedly still haunted by nightmares and sadness about the case, due to the uncertainty of when the case itself would be solved. Flyers were also published on newspapers to seek the public's help to solve the murder.

Despite the police's efforts to investigate Tan's murder, the Amber Beacon Tower murder case remains unsolved as of today, and the police were unable to uncover the identities of the killer(s). However, the police investigations remained open in this case because all criminal cases in Singapore, including murder, did not carry the statute of limitations and the police would regularly review these outstanding cases from time to time to yield any new clues to solve these cases.

## Aftermath

The murder of Kelly Tan Ah Hong remains as one of Singapore's infamous cases of unsolved murders, which also included the 1979 Geylang Bahru family murders, the 1985 Winnifred Teo murder case, the 1984 curry murder and several others.

After surviving the attack, Tan's former boyfriend James Soh Fook Leong would eventually work in sales after completing his education. He was later married with another woman and together, they had a son, who was reportedly 16 years old when his father was interviewed in 2015.

In July 2015, 25 years after his former girlfriend's murder, James Soh, then 47 years old, was approached for an interview, and he agreed to talk about his ordeal. Soh, who remained haunted with trauma over the attack, stated that even after many years, he was unable to understand why he and Tan were attacked, and he still could not recall the faces of their assailants. He also developed a fear of footstep sounds coming from behind him and avoided secluded places at all times. Soh stated that he regretted not knowing Tan better before she died, and he still tried to move on from the incident, something which he finally told his son in 2014. Soh added that due to the attack, he often remind his son to not go to secluded places and be vigilant at all times. Soh also held on to the hope that the killer(s) of Tan would be brought to justice, and asked that anyone with information about the killing can step forward to help crack the case.

The Amber Beacon Tower, where Kelly Tan was murdered, was rumoured to be haunted ever since her death, and there were reported sightings of a ghostly figure, described as the restless soul of Tan, roaming around the area at night, due to her unjust death and her murderer(s) not being arrested or punished. Wailing sounds and some fresh bloodstains at the tower were also included among the witness accounts regarding the tower's haunted presence. Lee Teng, a Taiwanese television host based in Singapore, revealed that when he and his friends camped nearby the tower at East Coast Park back in secondary school, his Buddha penchant mysteriously disappeared the next morning after the night camping trip, and Lee also claimed that inside one of the photographs taken by his friend at the tower that night itself, a shadowy figure was seen "hovering near another friend's head."


Stanley Battle

# Stanley Battle

## Abstract

Stanley Fred Battle (born June 12, 1951) is an American educator, author, civic activist and former leader of Coppin State University and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Currently, Battle serves as the director of the Master of Social Work program and as a professor of social work at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut.

## Early life and education

Battle is a native of Springfield, Massachusetts Battle holds four degrees. In 1973, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Springfield College; a Master of Social Work from the University of Connecticut in 1975; and a Master of Public Health and Doctorate in social welfare policy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Battle later completed the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University and the Millennium Leadership Institute of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

## Career

Battle's career in academics spans over 3 decades. Starting in 1980, he was an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work. From there, Battle would serve at public and private institutions, including Boston University, the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where he served as vice chancellor of student and multicultural affairs from 2000 to 2003.

### Coppin State University

On March 3, 2003, Battle was appointed as the fourth president of Coppin State College in Baltimore, Maryland. The Battle administration focused on a three-point plan of academic excellence, facilities improvement and external relations to improve the college. Under Battle's leadership, the campus attained university status in 2004, and changed its name to Coppin State University. According to a university press release, state support increased by more than 50 percent in the 2005–2006 fiscal year during Battle's tenure. Coppin also became the first completely wireless campus in the University System of Maryland. Battle was also the creative force behind the establishment of the Urban Educational Corridor, a partnership with an elementary, middle and high schools. Under his tutelage, the university also managed the Coppin/Rosemont Initiative; the only higher education institution in Maryland to manage a public school that was failing and helped raise it to the ranks of the very best city schools. In 2005, he established The Coppin Academy, a 400-student on-campus high school partially funded by the Gates Foundation and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

In November 2006, the board of governors of the University of North Carolina, elected Battle as the newest chancellor of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina.

### North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Battle would assume the role of chancellor of the University on July 1, 2007; and would be installed as the 11th in the school's history in April of the following year. Under Battle's leadership, the university focused on continuing to increase its national academic reputation while preparing globally competent students. During the fall of 2008, North Carolina A&T had its College of engineering ranked among the top 25 in the nation; increased the pass rate in its School of Nursing from 66% to a 91%, resulting in full accreditation with no sanction; and also became the only Historically Black University to have a Wall Street trading room. The university also became the first Historically Black University to receive the prestigious Engineering Research Center (ERC) grant awarded by the National Science Foundation. The grant consists of an award of $18 million over 5 years with a 10-year life span. A&T was also the only HBCU in the nation with a Wall Street trading room.

Battle implemented the Dowdy Scholarship program. Named for the university's sixth president and first chancellor, Lewis C. Dowdy and his wife Elizabeth, the four-year scholarship is awarded to outstanding scholars with GPAs ranging from 3.2 to 4.0. Battle also developed and implemented The Cosby Kids initiative, a joint effort with Guilford Technical Community College, that tracked 4th, 6th, and 8th grade students through high school to prepare them to enroll in college by focusing on math, reading comprehension and science. He also signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Guilford Tech to assist students that, academically, were not fully prepared to enter North Carolina A&T. In February 2009, Battle announced his resignation from North Carolina A&T, effective June 30 of that year, citing personal and family reasons for his departure from the university.

### Southern Connecticut State University

After being appointed on April 1, 2010, Battle assumed the position of interim president of Southern Connecticut State University effective in May 2010. As interim president, Battle was instrumental in the timely renovation and building of two major facilities projects on the New Haven campus. He also hired three new deans to strengthen the academic program in addition to raising $1.4 million for the campus. Battle also established the Southern Academy, an academic enhancement program for rising 4th graders in preparation for college. This initiative led to an appearance on the Today Show with Bill Cosby.

In late 2011, it was announced that Battle withdrew his name from consideration for the position as president to pursue other opportunities. In April the following year, Battle joined the faculty of Central Connecticut State University as a professor of social work.

### Present day

Battle served Central Connecticut State University as a member of the faculty from 2012 to 2013. In August 2013, it was announced that Battle would be appointed as professor of social work and the founding director of the master's degree in social work program at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut.

## Personal life

Battle is married to his wife Judith Lynn Rozie-Battle, who holds a law degree from the University of Minnesota, a master's degree from the School of Social Work at the University of Connecticut, and a bachelor's degree from the University of New Haven.


List of Loganair destinations

# List of Loganair destinations

## Abstract

## Destinations

As of September 2024, Loganair serves the following destinations:


Ru den Hamer

# Ru den Hamer

## Abstract

Rudolf den Hamer (24 July 1917 – 14 March 1988) was a Dutch water polo player who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. He was part of the Dutch team which finished fifth in the 1936 tournament. He played four matches.


Osh-Tisch

# Osh-Tisch

## Abstract

Osh-Tisch (Crow: "Finds Them and Kills Them") was a Crow badé. A badé (also spelled baté and boté) is a male-bodied person in a Crow community who takes part in some of the social and ceremonial roles usually filled by women in that culture.

Osh-Tisch fought in the 1876 Battle of the Rosebud, as recounted by Pretty Shield. During the battle, Osh-Tisch and a woman named The Other Magpie saved Bull Snake, and Osh-Tisch later shot a Lakota warrior, for which Osh-Tisch received her name.

In the late 1890s, an American agent named Briskow, tasked with forcing the Plains Indians to assimilate into the dominant culture, jailed Osh-Tisch and the other badés, and forced them to get masculine haircuts, wear masculine clothing, and perform manual labor such as planting trees. The Crow, who considered their badés valuable members of their community, particularly known for their needlework and cooking, were outraged, saying this abuse went against their nature. Chief Pretty Eagle used what power he had to compel the agent to resign and leave tribal lands. Crow historian Joe Medicine Crow, delivering this oral history in 1982 said, "It was a tragedy, trying to change them."

Osh-Tisch was one of the last known badés of the Crow Nation, and the institution of the badé is said to have gone into decline during Osh-Tisch's life. With modern LGBT communities providing more options in current society, some contemporary badé people may participate in a revival of these traditions, or in the modern, pan-Indian two-spirit or LGBT communities.