THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Trailer

You may know Stephen Hawking as the physicist in the wheelchair who speaks through his computer. He’s made numerous appearances in pop culture such as The Simpsons, Futurama, Last Week with John Oliver and even recorded his own ALS challenge. He doesn’t have ALS though; he has motor neurone disease (MND) that affects the control of voluntary muscle activity like speaking, walking and even swallowing. It starts slow and increases until the person can barely move and eventually dies. This is all way too sad to think about though so here’s Stephen in space and the trailer for his new biopic: The Theory of Everything.

The Theory of Everything is directed by James Marsh, known primarily for documentary films like Project Nim and Man on Wire. It stars  Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables) as Stephen Hawking and Felicity Jones (The Amazing Spiderman 2) as Jane Hawking. If you look at the IMDb page, it summarizes the plot as “a look at the relationship between the famous physicist and his wife”. That sound a bit boring, doesn’t it? Let’s change that up and describe it as “a look at the relationship between a genius and his atrophying body”.

That’s a more interesting description in my mind. The trailer even hints at this in several ways. Many shots have Stephen fumbling with everyday items like coffee mugs and pens. Other scenes have him struggling to hold onto a staircase railing or make a fist. All of this eventually leads to him falling to the ground and unable to get back up on his own power. It’s heartbreaking, but, he has his wife. She acts as the inspiration here for Hawking to fight back despite his MND.

It’s inspirational to see a person become such an icon in the academical world as well as in pop culture despite his disease. Stephen Hawking is a well respected theoretical physicist and cosmologist: he rationalizes natural phenomena of the world and studies the universe. He is also an avid supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics; as am I.

So, I implore you, watch this movie not just because Hawking’s an awesome dude you found out about in The Simpsons and Futurama, but because he’s an awesome dude who really knows stuff. The Theory of Everything comes to U.S theaters on November 7, 2014 and U.K theatres on January 2, 2015. For the full list of worldwide release dates, click here.

Note: I’m not a guy who likes misleading his readers so if you’ve read this far you should know some facts. Between 1990-2000, Stephen divorced Jane in favor of his nurse, Elaine Mason. In 2006 though, Stephen and Mason divorced whereupon he resumed being with Jane and their family.

Hey, fun fact: Stephen placed a bet that the Higgs Boson would never be found. What happened? He lost. Do you have any interesting trivia like that to share? Post it below!

(top image source: The Theory of Everything – Focus Features)