‘Interstellar’ trailer: Christopher Nolan voyages across the universe

Christopher Nolan’s upcoming sci-fi epic “Interstellar” has launched a new trailer that takes star Matthew McConaughey deeper into the far reaches of space and sheds a tiny bit of light on the mysterious movie.

Unveiled on a new website for the film (enter access code “7201969”), the trailer opens on a dry, despairing Earth. Cooper (McConaughey), an engineer and pilot, sets up humanity’s grim situation.

“We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars,” he says. “Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”

To save mankind, Cooper joins a space-faring mission (with crew mates including Anne Hathaway and Wes Bentley) to travel through a wormhole and explore potentially habitable worlds. Some of those worlds (or at least one) are glimpsed in the new trailer, as vistas of barren tundra and gleaming seas contrast with dusty images of Earth.

The trailer doesn’t shy away from emotion either, playing up the family drama as Cooper is forced to leave behind his two young children — simultaneously trying to save them and abandoning them. As Cooper grapples with his choice, Hathaway tells him, “Love is the one thing that transcends time and space.”

The release of the video follows its debut at Comic-Con in San Diego over the weekend, where Nolan and McConaughey made a surprise appearance.

Speaking about what inspired him to make the movie, which opens Nov. 7, Nolan said, “I grew up in a time when to be an astronaut was the highest ambition.” He added, “The idea we’d keep exploring space, pushing further and further out, seemed inevitable. I felt that had fallen off greatly over the past couple of decades.”

McConaughey added that “Insterstellar” is “by far the most ambitious film Mr. Nolan has ever directed.”

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