Gordon Strachan watched a film this week where the plotline is described as “the most important mission in human history”.
This evening the national head coach will send his team out to play a football match against the Republic of Ireland that is Scotland’s most important mission, maybe not quite in their history, but certainly in a long time.
And, if fellow former Celtic boss Martin O’Neill thought he would be bringing his players into a Parkhead home from home for the occasion, he has got it wrong.
Strachan, who sampled the buzz generated by this domestic dust-up in the qualifying group for Euro 2016 in his midweek trip to see the science fiction movie Interstellar, expects his own side to be inspired by the matchnight atmosphere.
“Tomorrow it will be Scottish territory, and you’ll know it is Scottish territory,” he insisted.
“There will be 55,000 Scots and you’ll be in no doubt where you are. You’re in Scotland, watching Scotland playing. Against Ireland.
“The atmosphere will be terrific tomorrow.
“It’s not a Celtic crowd, it’s a Scotland crowd.
“What I know is coming will inspire our players. Absolutely.
“It will manage to get another couple of per cent out of us.
“We can drink all the water we want and take all the carbohydrates we want but the extra bit will come from our fans.
“I was part of the decision to bring the game here. We’re getting more fans in. I think we’ve done the right thing no matter what the result is. There will be 55,000 Scots in there and we couldn’t have done that anywhere else.”
He added: “I went out yesterday to the cinema.
“As I was walking there I spoke to a lot of people and that’s when the excitement started. I got it from them.
“I was there for about three hours watching Interstellar with McGhee. He was explaining the theory of relativity to me. My head was buzzing by the time I got back to the hotel!
“It is exciting just now. I’ve said to the players ‘you can worry about things afterwards, use the excitement’.”
Tapping into the Tartan Army fervour is all good and well, but Strachan doesn’t believe this encounter will necessarily carry more significance than any of the other fixtures in Group D.
He pointed out: “Whether it’s Georgia, Germany or whoever we try not to let the players get too high.
“As coaches we set the standard and I try to detach myself from the madness that surrounds us.
“It’s a great madness for everybody apart from the players. It’s good to get excited. But we treat the games the same.
“We’ll have a better idea where we stand when everybody has played each other once.
“You never know when the big game is coming. It might be somewhere else along the line.
“You never know what points total will see you through. In the Champions League groups sometimes it can be nine, other times it could be 12.
“It would maybe put added pressure on if you put a points target on a match.”
Graeme Souness expressed his concern in midweek that Scotland lack a prolific striker.
The current number nine, Steven Fletcher, has to go back to 2009, for his last international goal.
Strachan is not overly concerned though.
“I can see where Graeme’s coming from,” he observed.
“But I watched Derby v Wolves on Saturday and it was 5-0 to Derby. Their main goal-getter is Chris (Martin). He didn’t score but he was involved in nearly everything.
“The out and out goal-getter might not be there anymore. It’s a bit different now. The days of Linekers and Rushes with two wingers crossing balls in are gone.
“The more important people can be the three behind the main striker these days. And they can’t do anything without the main striker.
“Fletcher didn’t score in Poland but he made a lovely pass for one of the goals. An old fashioned centre-forward wouldn’t have done that.
“It would be great to have an out and out goalscorer like Messi or Ronaldo but we don’t have one of them.
“We’re OK with the strikers we’ve got.”
Strachan, who gave the players an extra day off on Wednesday, has settled on his team.
“We’ve had a few knocks but everybody is all present and correct,” he reported.
“We had a good session today. I gave them a day off yesterday. Sometimes as a manager you just sniff it they needed a rest from me and coaches in general.
“They just needed to step back from football and get a mental rest.
“You can go right through the two squads not just the XIs and we’re well matched.
“There’s some terrific players in the Irish side, backed up by really good players. I think we could both change five or six and still have good sides.”