He really is achieving things that no one else has ever done in similar conditions, and he finds something thrilling in this. He has gotten things to grow where nothing has ever grown. There are certainly plenty of moments of fear and frustration, along with long, suspenseful sequences, but there is something uncommonly buoyant in THE MARTIAN as well.ĭamon’s Watley absolutely wants to live and he’s aware there are long odds against it, but when he devises something new that will extend his lifespan, he rejoices in his own ingenuity and in the remarkable nature of his situation – yes, he is trapped on Mars, but then, hey, he has made it to Mars. Unlike most films where the protagonist is marooned in a hostile environment, Mark engages in relatively little soul-searching. NASA personnel figure out on their own that Watley has survived and in turn need to work out a communication system while they determine whether they can resupply him so he can live long enough to be rescued. He has to figure out how to a) stay alive and b) communicate with NASA. Watley wakes up a day later, having been wounded and knocked unconscious, with his life signs monitor destroyed. Reluctantly, Mission Commander Lewis (Jessica Chastain) gives the order to head back to Earth. When disaster strikes, the astronauts are forced to evacuate, and in the chaos, it appears that one of their number, botanist Mark Watley (Matt Damon), has been killed. Scripted delightfully by Drew Goddard from a novel by Andy Weir, the film is set in the near future, when behavior, technology and pop culture references are all still familiar, but NASA has managed to get a group of astronauts to Mars. Writer: Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weirĭirector Ridley Scott is an acknowledged master of the visual arts, but the words “charming” and “intentionally funny” don’t usually spring to mind to describe his works, especially those set largely in outer space ( ALIEN and PROMETHEUS are not generally cited as sources of warm fuzziness). Stars: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Michael Cena, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover, Aksel Hennie, Benedict Wong THE MARTIAN movie poster | ©2015 20th Century Fox

The martian movie poster