WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Season 2 of Lost in Space, streaming now on Netflix.
Christopher Nolan is widely considered a master of his craft with cinematic triumphs like Inception, Memento and Dunkirk. However, one of his most popular films is Interstellar, in which Earth sends teams of astronauts into space to investigate a wormhole known as Gargantua while also trying to find inhabitable planets. As part of the journey to find other expeditions and data that could offer a safe haven, the refugees ended up on the Miller planet. The spacecraft Endurance must navigate the ocean planet while trying to avoid a tidal wave in what's regarded as the movie's best scene.
However, Netflix's Lost in Space draws heavy influence from this moment in the Season 2 premiere, "Shipwrecked," and actually outdoes Interstellar's aquatic voyage with ease.
On the water world in Interstellar, we saw Matthew McConaughey's Cooper guiding their pod as they tried to pull data from the vessel of Dr. Miller, who landed there and died. It appears he wasn't ready to deal with the rigors of the planet which, because of the planet's proximity to Gargantua, the immense gravity resulted in massive waves as tall as 4,000 feet. There was no sign of dry land, which didn't exist because of the sheer volume of water on the planet, so by the time Anne Hathaway's Amelia recovers the recorder and runs back to the ship, you're not surprised to see they're going to be swept away by a wave.
Luckily, the Endurance's pod is able to heat its engines, expel the water flooding it, ride a wave to escape and head back to the mother ship. That said, seeing their pod basically acting as a sailboat, trying to outrun the tidal wave, was certainly an exhilarating moment, setting the stage nicely for the rest of the film.
Now, Lost in Space does pull a lot from Interstellar this season as we see the Robinsons on an aquatic planet of their own at the start, albeit there's a lot of land. They're even cultivating crops in closed systems like Nolan's movie but due to the harsh weather conditions, and some sabotage from Smith (Parker Posey), they end up leaving. The big plan is to ride out into the sea and catch lightning using reflectors which occur during periodical storms.
This will allow their Jupiter to recharge so they can fly off through a rift to the Resolute and meet the other colonists. And when they take to the water, it's pretty much like Interstellar, that is until the waves hit and it becomes something sailor aficionados would enjoy. It feels like an extension and much more detailed experience of what would happen on Miller as rip currents heave the vessel around, so much so the family struggles to use the sails they lifted to properly guide themselves via the winds. It's a bit like Cast Away meets Star Wars as well, with the suspense heightening when the Jupiter gets stuck on coral reefs.
There, parasitic alien plankton starts attacking crew members, especially Don West, paralyzing him temporarily to add a cosmic spin and overall sense of horror to the sci-fi series. It's pretty brilliant and creates a higher degree of scare and tension, not to mention it looks better aesthetically than Interstellar, which was already such a tall order. All in all, the danger factor and excitement are kicked up a notch when the Jupiter gets caught at the edge of a waterfall, which turns out to be an alien structure. This leaves the Robinsons racing to recharge before the lightning storm fries them. They barely make it out, even after a couple of members fall off the ship and into the robotic trench, but as they start the engines and head out, looking back at their water world, it was anything but smooth sailing. Yet it's a mission that looked and felt way more adventurous than the Miller drama in Interstellar.
Lost in Space stars Toby Stephens, Molly Parker, Maxwell Jenkins, Taylor Russell, Mina Sundwall, Ignacio Serricchio, and Parker Posey. Season 2's 10 episodes are now available to stream on Netflix.