The Martian

Disclaimer: I am a believer in extraterrestrial life.

That, however, is not what this movie is about.

While a deceptive title at first glance, the lack of actual martians in The Martian does not diminish the beauty or intensity of this fascinating movie!

In a way, The Martian is a bit like Castaway.  There's an accident and one guy gets stranded in an isolated and desolate area and has to learn to fend for himself.  But Chuck Noland had it easy compared to Mark Watney (Matt Damon), who finds himself stranded on Mars after a severe dust storm forces his crew to abort their mission and evacuate.  As the world mourns the heroism of Watney back on Earth, Watney wakes up in a pile of martian sand with a satellite antennae sticking out of his gut and the realization that there likely won't be another manned mission to Mars for the next 4 years.

After sewing himself up and spending a few days moping around while he waits to die, Watney becomes determined to survive the 4 years until the next Mars mission arrives.  He rations his food and figures he has enough to last about a year.  To account for the remaining 3 years, he uses his magical skills as a botanist to grow potatoes inside the aborted mission's artificial habitat.  He then starts to experiment and figure out a way to communicate with NASA and let everyone know he's still alive.

Meanwhile on Earth, an astute NASA worker notices movement in some of the satellite photos they've been receiving from Mars.  Mission Control is called in, at which point it is somewhat unofficially determined that Mark Watney is alive after all.  But to save themselves from the embarrassment of admitting they were wrong, NASA coordinator Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) tries to rig any attempts to rescue Mark so that they would arrive too late to actually save his life (therefore, he's pretty much dead).  When the news of Watney's survival is released to the public, Sanders advises his team not to get the hopes of the public up too high since a rescue mission wouldn't be able to reach Watney for the next 4 years.

In the meantime, Watney finds the location of the Pathfinder (yes, the one sent to Mars in 1996/7) and figures out how to get it working again.  Back on Earth, the NASA team who have been closely monitoring his progress figure out what he's doing and set up an exact replica of Pathfinder in hopes that they'll be able to communicate.  Since Pathfinder can only take still images, Watney devices a sort of morse code in order to communicate with Earth by turning Pathfinder's camera toward certain numbers and symbols Watney sets up around it.  They tell him how to hook Pathfinder up to his computer so that they can communicate in a more efficient manner.

Meanwhile, an brilliant (if not highly disorganized) astrodynamicist, Rich Purnell, figures out that it would be faster and easier to send crew from the last Mars mission (still on their way back from Mars) back to Mars to get Watney instead of trying to send him supplies to help him survive until the next Mars landing.  When Sanders at NASA turns down his proposal, he disguises an email to the crew in space and sends them his data.  Together, the crew discuss the possibilities -- they could defy a direct order for NASA and go back for Watney or they could return to Earth as planned and hope Watney survives the next four years.


This movie has something for everyone.  It really does.

I know this because I know a Mars enthusiast, a case worker, a graphic designer, a youth pastor, a college instructor, and two film students who all loved it!

Mars enthusiasts will be existed by anything to do with Mars, particularly all of the geography and historical references (Pathfinder, etc.).

Film students and filmmakers will like the gorgeous cinematography and production design.

Everyone else will love this movie for a variety of reasons.  They may love the picturesque landscape shots on Mars, or the concept of the story (after all, how would one survive if one got stranded on Mars?), or they may just like movies that show the inner workings of NASA.

And Lord of the Rings fans will get a kick out of Project Elrond!

But, overall, this movie inspires.  It has long since been a goal of NASA to send a manned mission to Mars, to colonize our nearest partially habitable planetary neighbor.  My hope is that movies like The Martian and Interstellar (among others) will once again inspire us to reach for the stars, literally, and influence the government to refund NASA exploration.

There was a bit of language, but it's not very frequent and mostly justified (if you consider the predicament Watney is in).  We briefly see a Watney's naked backside, but nothing overly graphic is shown.  The most disturbing part to watch is probably the part where Watney has to give himself stitches (I had to cover my eyes).

That being said, I feel comfortable recommending The Martian to anyone in the over 20 crowd who love beautiful movies, compelling survival stories, and/or anything to do with Mars.  Young children probably shouldn't see it, as some of the Mars sequences can be quite intense and I don't want to be responsible for anybody's five-year-olds walking around saying the f-word or the s-word.

Personally, I really loved this movie.  I loved the story, and the science, and the filmmaking, and I would see it again in a heartbeat!