Miller’s Planet in Interstellar (2014) is a world orbiting close to the supermassive black hole Gargantua, and its defining feature is the presence of gigantic, recurring tidal waves that sweep across its shallow ocean.
From a scientific perspective, the enormous waves are caused by gravitational tidal forces. Because the planet orbits so close to Gargantua, the black hole’s immense gravity pulls on its oceans much more strongly than anything on Earth. The result is that the planet’s surface water is constantly being dragged upward, creating enormous, slow-moving waves that tower kilometers high. These aren’t “storm waves” created by wind or tectonic activity; they’re gravitational tides on an extreme scale.
The time dilation on Miller’s Planet adds another layer to the “Water Planet”. One hour there equals seven years on Earth meaning the planet is caught in such a strong gravitational field that time itself moves differently. The waves, then, seem to move slowly, but that’s because time is distorted. For the astronauts, what looks like a giant, crawling wall of water is actually a tidal phenomenon that would take hours or days in Earth’s frame of reference.
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