Who Matt Damon and Casey Affleck Play in Interstellar

For what seems like way too long, the movie Interstellar has been shrouded in secrecy. At long last, Christopher Nolan’s mysterious new movie opens in theaters this weekend, meaning we’ll finally find out what sort of complex story he and his brother have concocted.

The one-sentence plot summary is as follows: Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and a team of astronauts go through a wormhole in search of a habitable planet to save humankind.

Now, of course no Nolan movie can really be summarized in one sentence. Just consider one of many complicated aspects of the film: time.

In Interstellar, characters age at different rates depending on where in space they are. For example, Cooper’s daughter, Murph, is played by Mackenzie Foy as a child, Jessica Chastain as an adult, and Ellen Burstyn as a senior. Sticking with Murph’s trajectory on Earth, audiences will also meet Casey Affleck’s character, Murph’s older brother, Tom. Young Tom is played by Timothée Chalamet, and old Tom is played by William Devane.

Meanwhile, Cooper is off in his spaceship—a Lincoln, we presume—not aging, but also not shirtless, which is a shame.

So far, so good for a space adventure flick, right? But wait! There’s more.

Cue cameo-like appearance by Matt Damon, who plays Dr. Mann, whom the audience meets halfway through the film. Mann was one of the first astronauts to travel through the wormhole. All together now, “That’s one small step for…”

Mann gives the plot a “small-but-pivotal turn,” says Digital Spy. His character seems to age 20 years in five, according to a review in the Telegraph, which says Damon “embodies [the time] paradox with particular poignancy when he eventually shows up.”

GQ was less impressed:

[Damon] does what may be the worst acting of his career as one of the early-bird investigators sent through the worm-hole.

Womp womp.

This only adds to our trepidation about another space movie Damon is slated to star in, Ridley Scott’s The Martian, in which he’ll play an astronaut stranded on Mars. Jessica Chastain plays a character sent to save him, which surely will not be confusing at all after Interstellar.

OK, so maybe Damon’s tiny part in Interstellar won’t win him an Oscar. He’s probably fine with that. And so are we, because his mere involvement in the movie gives us an excuse to dig up Damon’s old impressions of Matthew McConaughey.

Long before Jim Carrey was mimicking McConaughey on SNL, and long before the “McConaissance,” Damon’s been doing his own impersonations of the Oscar winner—and he’s really good!

If you feel at all embarrassed about crying at any point during Interstellar this weekend, just think of these:

Interstellar opens in theaters nationwide Friday.