"Those Aren't Mountains, They're Waves"

 

I'll start by saying this movie is a masterpiece and this scene brings out more anxiety than my worst nightmares. 

Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors, and his use of POV in this scene was done beautifully. The camera starts with a bird's eye of Cooper's ship and the crew, showing the sheer size and emptiness of Miller's Planet. It makes the crew seem insignificant and fragile even when they could be the only reason humanity survives the dying Earth. The camera doesn't even show the horizon, signaling that there is something coming but doesn't make it certain. This starts the building of tension.

The next shot is still facing away from the horizon keeping the uncertainty for a bit longer. Switching to Cooper's POV, showing a peaceful horizon while a minor tone in the music causes sensory disagreement. It makes the viewer wonder, "Everything looks fine, but why doesn't it sound fine?” Anne Hathaway finally comments about the "mountains", something simple, harmless, and something you would see on Earth. The camera is angled downwards, and just as the comment is made and the viewer starts to look at what she's talking about, it switches again. When Cooper says "those aren't mountains, they're waves."

The music intensifies and later we are given a shot of the massive wave - which seems to come out of nowhere - again in a wide shot emphasizing the small size of the crew. From here on, the camera barely points to the wave and is more focused on the crew, making it more uncertain whether they will make it out or not.

Even though the movie is told through Cooper’s POV most of the time, there are a few instances where he switches to wide shots like this scene and the scene where they are near the black hole. For context, Cooper has children on Earth that he didn’t want to leave, and he had no idea how long he would be gone. It gives him a reason to return home faster, and when the things that could end them are shown, it emphasizes just how skilled of an astronaut he is and how lucky they are to make it past so many obstacles.