De acordo com a novela oficial do filme, ele foi financiado por um consórcio de potências estrangeiras, incluindo o governo indonésio. Ele está muito preocupado se eles realmente vão sair. Note que, embora ele jogue o bandido, ele está realmente envolvido pela ciência e por seu amor platônico por Lily.
And if there were other beings out there Please, God, don‟t let them be bad guys. Let them bring help.
I have a deal with some Indonesians, Zef finally said. They see the potential and know it‟ll take some time. But they‟re willing to pay millions.
Indonesia, huh? She had paused and rubbed her freezing arms. Is it warm there?
...
So for the next few years, they played a little game with each other: he pretended to be nothing more than a hard-bitten entrepreneur desperate to strike it rich, while she pretended to be nothing more than a hard- bitten thief hungry for a piece of the action. They were in it strictly for the money, because the war and its subsequent hell had taught them that dreams and futures were made to be shattered. Idealism was for fools, as were feelings. Or so she reminded herself everytime she dragged him from the Crash & Burn and tucked him into his own bed when he was too drunk to find his way home, or kept watch over him everytime a minor setback on the project plunged him into a depression so deep he threatened suicide.
Affection had nothing to do with it, she told herself. She was merely taking care of her investment.
In the future…
Beside her, Zef grunted, bringing her back into the present—to the frozen mud and biting air. She shivered and rubbed her arms as she had done so long ago, then stared up at the star-littered night sky, wondering. Would it really happen? Would they be up there making history tomorrow as the first two people to travel using warp drive?
And would the Indonesians really pay them all that money? She stared dreamily up at the glittering darkness, allowing herself for the first time to consider success. What would it be like, to have a solidly constructed house with real running water and her own charging station and car? To pay a farmer to grow anything she wanted? To indulge in the shameless luxury of feeding a pet dog?
sobre o que Zef afirma que planeja fazer com todo esse dinheiro;
“You‟re damn right you can‟t. But I can. I didn‟t build this ship to usher in a new era for humanity. You think I want to go to the stars? I don‟t even like to fly! I take trains! I built this ship so I could retire to some tropical island filled with naked women. That‟s Zefram Cochrane.