After a nervous moment, the comms computer TONES with a response -- they're still in touch with the Earth.
COOPER
It's working.
Tars finishes reeling the nuclear engines back in from their tether and locks them into place.
Roth's updated model appears on the monitors. Brand stares at it, startled. BRAND We're moving. DOYLE
That's not possible. We haven't activated the engines yet.
The ship's skin illuminates, overlaying a plotted course on top of the view.
65.
They are moving, very rapidly, on a course that leads directly between the black hulks of Gargantua and Pantagruel.
CASE
Roth looks at the stars, then back to his model.
ROTH
The smaller black hole. We're much closer to it than the models predicted. We're being pulled by its swirl. Very quickly.
The crew looks out through the hull. They are being pulled into Pantagruel's swirl -- a glittering disc of matter spinning at high speed around the hole.
Doyle looks behind them. The wormhole mouth is rapidly growing smaller.
CASE
Doyle. Fire the engines. Now.
The ship's engines FIRE, straining to fight the irresistible pull of the supermassive black hole. They won't be able to fight it for long.
DOYLE
We're being pulled into it?
ROTH
No. I don't think so...
Roth looks at the instrumentation for a moment.
ROTH (CONT'D)
It appears to be pulling us on exactly the trajectory we modelled. If we try to fight it, we could push ourselves off of that trajectory.
DOYLE
You don't know that.
Case stares ahead into the darkness.
ROTH
We should turn off the engines. Let the swirl take us.
DOYLE (FRANTIC) Listen to me. (MORE) 66. DOYLE (CONT'D)
If the modelling was wrong, then we can't be sure about anything. We need to go back.
Case thinks it over. Decides.
CASE
Shut down the engines.
The engines shut down.
SILENCE. The ship drifts for a moment in the swirl, then begins to move.
EXT. ENDURANCE
The ship accelerates as it is pulled by the irresistible force of the black hole onto an inspiraling orbit.
INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE
The crew watch as the ship hurtles around the black hole at higher and higher speeds.
The sky overhead begins to spin due to their motion -- faster and faster until it becomes a blur. The ship begins to GROAN as it appears to be pulled in two different directions.
The ship is now speeding around the black hole at incredible speed -- one revolution every four seconds. The crew are suddenly SLAMMED against the hull in opposite directions -- some towards the black hole, some towards the opposite side.
Roth looks at his model, which shows the projected path of the ship. It looks perilously close to the event horizon.
ROTH
It's the tidal gravity caused by the black hole. It means we're right on the critical orbit.
The comms screen lights up, TONING again and again, as it receives a long garbled update. Then it shuts down. Cooper drags himself along the hull until he reaches the controls.
COOPER
We've lost contact with the relay.
Case joins Cooper at the comms screen.
While they're distracted, Doyle maneuvers himself over to the engine control.
67.
COOPER (CONT'D)
One long garbled transmission came in. Then nothing.
Case looks at the screen.
Suddenly, the ship is JOLTED as the engines fire at full power.
The crew looks over. Doyle is standing by the controls.
DOYLE
I'm sorry. I can't let you kill us. We have to go back.
The engines strain to fight the swirl -- but they're hopelessly outgunned by the gravity of the black hole.
EXT. ENDURANCE
Instead of reversing course, the Endurance begins to speed up, as it plummets closer and closer to the black hole.
INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE
Doyle's face sinks as he watches the controls -- on the 'volcano' model, the ship is now passing the crest and spiraling towards destruction. He has made a tragic mistake.
DOYLE
Why isn't it slowing down?
ROTH
We're being pulled towards the event horizon.
ALARMS begin sounding throughout the ship as the projected course on Roth's model shifts, showing the Endurance being pushed up the rim, past the critical orbit and down towards the black hole's event horizon.
Case takes control of the ship, trying to fire the engines forwards to speed them back up to safety, but it's too late.
CASE (CALM)
The engines don't have enough power to push us back.
ROTH
They would if we used it all at once.
Cooper is still trying to understand what Roth means as Tars locks himself into the engine compartment.
68. COOPER What is he doing? BRAND Saving us.
Tars tears open the engine's control panel and begins overriding it.
EXT. ENDURANCE
Tars rips out the cooling circuitry. Then, holding on tight, he fires the engine.
INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE
The crew watch as Tars holds the engine, blasting it at full power into the swirl. The engine heats up white-hot.
ROTH
Prime the remaining engine. When he detonates it, we'll only have a few seconds. If we overshoot we could be pulled into the bigger hole.
Roth moves to the controls.
CASE
Secure yourselves. The ship should be able to withstand the blast.
COOPER
What about Tars?
As the crew watches, Tars continues to hold the engine even as the casing around it begins to melt. Finally, it EXPLODES.
EXT. SPACE
Tars is thrown backwards from the explosion, tumbling through space as the ship is ROCKETED upwards.
INT. ENDURANCE
The ship is SLAMMED by the explosion. Cooper and the rest of the crew are SMASHED against the hull. Doyle is knocked unconscious. Brand steps over to him and cradles his head, trying to protect him.
the danger zone, back to the original delicate orbit.
As they near the original orbit, Case fires the remaining engine, pushing them back onto the outspiraling orbit.
69.
CASE
It's going to be close, but we're going to make it.
Brand looks at the instruments. Points to a tiny radar contact receding towards the massive black hole.
BRAND
Tars. His transponder is still working.
The ship's instruments TONE every few seconds as it communicates with Tars' onboard computer.
ROTH
He's being pulled toward Gargantua. We can't help him.
The crew watch, helpless, as the tones grow further and further apart. Then they stop.
Cooper looks at Doyle, anger rising. Then he looks down.