beej67 said:
The very idea that some famous scientist stranded on an alien planet doesn't know how airlocks work should be enough to plant your tongue firmly in your cheek.
Its not an error at all. The entire movie is a criticism of much of modern science and alarmist movements.
"“We’re sort of in this moment in which humans are obsessed that we’ll prove our own undoing—that we’ll poison the planet, we’ll destroy ourselves, and all these things,” Jonathan says early on in an interview that accompanies the screenplay. “But I thought it would be more interesting to find a slightly less personal Armageddon, or the idea that the universe obliterates you or the planet turns itself toxic because it doesn’t care about you and me because we’re an accident in outer space.” (Emphasis mine.) Later on, he drives this point home: “That’s the fascinating question of why is it that humans are so obsessed with not just the idea of their own Armageddon, but their own culpability.”
As Christopher notes later on in the interview, man’s obsession with his own self-destruction is, at least in part, a function of ego. “Every generation believes they’re the last generation on Earth. Maybe one generation will eventually be right. I certainly hope it’s not ours,” he says. Interstellar rejects that idea. “It’s about the way in which human beings adapt and transcend natural movements—apocalyptic type movements.”
Dr. Mann is a famous scientist but that does not mean he is a good scientists. Manny famous scientists are only famous because they are media personalities. Dr. Mann is a typical post normal scientists. He is willing to lie, cheat, and in this case kill to keep from living his life in obscurity.
"Dr. Mann: No. I tried to do my duty, Cooper. But I knew, the day that I arrived here, this place had nothing and I resisted the temptation for years. But I knew that if I just pressed that button, then somebody would come and save me."
Dr. Mann dies doing something so stupid to show that just because a scientist is famous in this media age doesn't mean he is a particularity good or relatively smart scientist.
