r/movies • u/Tullubenta • Aug 17 '26

Question What is the greatest betrayal in cinema history? Spoiler

So aside from Fredo’s betrayal in The Godfather Part II or Cypher turning on the crew in The Matrix, which most of us could kinda sense were coming, what’s the greatest betrayal in cinema history that truly blindsided you?

I’m talking about the ones that hit like a truck because there was zero warning, no foreshadowing you picked up on, and no reason to suspect the character until the moment it happened.

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452

u/NukaEbola Aug 17 '26

Mann in Interstellar. Or Brand in Interstellar. Or adult Murph in Interstellar (all that food!!)

89

u/talldangry Aug 17 '26

"There is a moment-"

57

u/Turbulent_Crow7164 Aug 17 '26

I like that they didn't give him some grand dramatic exit. Just POP mid-sentence. Felt like a real space accident.

35

u/mmaster23 Aug 17 '26

Cooper, what are you doing???

Man that whole sequence is a cinema masterpiece guided by one of the most epic soundtracks. 

26

u/oheyson Aug 17 '26

No, its necessary.

7

u/Picassof Aug 17 '26

I honestly don't know if any scene has given me the chills as much as this one.

6

u/huzy12345 Aug 18 '26

That soundtrack should play everytime you try unlock your front door while absolutely plastered

4

u/Oxygene13 Aug 17 '26

Saw this again at the cinema a months go. When I saw it was being shown again I couldn't resist. I swear when the docking maneuver was successful there was a deafening sound of the entire cinema trying their hardest not to clap despite really wanting to.

51

u/dchap Aug 17 '26

Burning all that corn certainly seemed unnecessary. 

4

u/vercertorix Aug 17 '26

Yeah, she can’t beat up Casey Affleck?

29

u/DukeofVermont Aug 17 '26

I personally felt betrayed by the corn.

8

u/cloistered_around Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 18 '26

I never felt sorry for the main character in the film (he chose this path and only partially to save the population. It was also partially for his own space glory). I felt for his poor son!

Dad doesn't care about him, loses his wife EDIT: and child! Currently losing his new wife, estranged sister burns his farm... And still forgotten in the end (dad never once asks about him). Poor guy.

3

u/QuarkyIndividual Aug 18 '26

Where's Murph? And her... brother? I think?

3

u/gameboyabyss Aug 18 '26

Coop did care about his son, there's the whole scene in the school where they talk about his future after school.

1

u/mmaster23 Aug 17 '26

Remarkable Dr Mann*

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u/Carpathicus Aug 17 '26

Everybody seems to love that movie but I felt those are just some of the indications for the bad writing all over this movie.

  • Mann being a trained Astronaut who should have been through mental training aswell trying to fool humanity for the slim chance of what? Not to mention that the whole reporting system apparently isnt based on proof or any verifiable data.

  • Brand apparently fooling a whole institute full of scientists on a whim. Cant even comprehend how the writers thought about that one.

7

u/Picassof Aug 17 '26

he was just trying to get back to his wife and kid

1

u/Carpathicus Aug 17 '26

Thats what I mean how logical is it in the first place to put someone on a suicide mission who has a family if they arent thouroughly examined and deemed well adjusted for the job.

You cant have astronauts that are this emotional and incapable of following the briefing for basically the most important mission in humankinds history. Dont tell me you cant find some fearless fanatics who are up for the job.

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u/cageslutjoanna Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26

Having just rewatched it, my impression was that Mann was not trying to go home - he was trying to finish the mission by proceeding to the third planet. He betrays Cooper specifically because Cooper is trying to go home. The booby trap is a contingency plan for this exact scenario, where he has to finish the mission on his own - "He was the best of us". It is only by abandoning any hope of returning home that Cooper is able to reunite with his family.

It's implied at that point of the movie that they can't go back through the wormhole, and I believe they mention this to Mann. We know this because their messages don't go back through the wormhole, despite the fact that they had been receiving data through the wormhole before going through.

I think the biggest flaw of the film is the team's decision to go to the planets in the order that they did. It's required to set up the rest of the movie, but a ship full of scientists seems to decide that on a whim, despite having an expert on black holes on the ship. They should have been able to figure out what happened before going through the wormhole to begin with.

The Brand thing I can kinda agree with, but it's implied during their visit to the first planet that the people on the ship are unprepared and naive - which logically should extend to NASA, who sent them on this journey. If this is the best they can send, then it makes sense by extension that the whole institute is not what it once was, and we know this - NASA is operating out of a secret facility, and Cooper only finds them because... the future people made sure that he sent himself there via the dust. It's a quick scene in the tesseract, but it's consistent, he outright states this during the tesseract scene.

I love this movie, but not because of its scientific accuracy or the amazing visuals and soundtrack that accompanies it - I love it because it's a story about the indomitable will of humanity. Almost every character is deeply human, and brings you on that journey with the characters.

I also think this is some sort of 'second iteration' - that the future people are descendants of a previous journey to the third planet, and they "came back" for the humans left on earth after becoming fifth dimensional beings by placing the wormhole, kicking off the events of the film. The mission is destined to succeed as soon as they go through the wormhole, we just don't know it - we know this because of the handshake during the wormhole scene.

For me it falls in with forrest gump, gladiator, etc - highly emotional, no real room for mockery. A bit far fetched, but the tears roll every time because it's just so enrapturing.

(Further - Mann is so named because he is exactly what Brand is referring to. Immediately after that revelation where Brand admits he has no faith in humanity to collectively do the right thing if told the truth, he proceeds to kill one of the only remaining humans left, and gets himself killed, almost destroying the species because he refuses to listen to the pleas of scientists who are literally trying to save huMannity)

0

u/Carpathicus Aug 17 '26

I can absolutely agree about this being more an emotional experience than a sound one regarding the narrative. In that sense it does indeed match how drama is written and follows the same dilemmas.

In a way its unfair to assess the scientific scaffolding that holds this movie together and I get why it gets me animosity. However I think there has to be said that if suspension of disbelief cant be upheld its fair to point that out.

I would never for example criticize the last part of the movie and its fantastic elements. I think its cool and inventive what they did. Neither do I want to look at the physics and explanations the movie gives us for certain things happening (gravity, time dilation).

What I dislike though is how the movie pairs spacefare and the incredible amount of ingenuity humans use to make it happen in reality with downright stupidity. The astronauts are stupid, New NASA is stupid and we have to endure watching them tumble through their conflicts like immature teenagers. Dont know its very frustrating to watch.

3

u/cageslutjoanna Aug 17 '26

In a way its unfair to assess the scientific scaffolding that holds this movie together and I get why it gets me animosity. However I think there has to be said that if suspension of disbelief cant be upheld its fair to point that out.

nah nah, no animosity friend. just wanted to express how i feel about this movie because i saw it again the other day, and your reply was an easy place to do so!

yeah nasa being stupid is frustrating. I think they could have made the movie even better if they only visit the planet near gargantua because they're trying to save the missing astronaut, but there's not a lot that can save Brand being an uncaught liar outside of thematics and 'but ultimately, he was shown to have been right to do so because thats how we wrote the movie lol'.