Review of The Martian (2015) by Sarah C — 02 Feb 2017

An astronaut's greatest fear: being left alone in space. There's nobody to keep you company -- nobody to keep you alive. Nothing to rely on but human instinct and, of course, potatoes. We humans rarely find ourselves in ideal situations. Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is forced into a particularly problematic situation in Ridley Scott's 2015 movie, The Martian. He's stranded on Mars, impaled by an antenna, and presumed dead by all of earth. Not to mention an insufficient food supply and no way to phone home. But Mark's a botanist, and these are problems that a botanist is trained to solve. This movie must be seen by anyone who, like myself, loves great adventures that exhibit the wonders of science and the tenacity of human ingenuity.

The plot is relatively straightforward. The 6 person crew of the Ares 3 mission are busy performing experiments and engaging in some lively banter when they are alerted (a little too late) to an oncoming martian dust storm of death. They decide that they need to abandon the mission and blast away from Mars lest their rocket get destroyed by the storm. But in the dark chaos of the storm, some debris hits Mark Watney and throws him back out of sight, The crew leaves him there, presumably dead. But he isn't. He wakes up the next morning with shrapnel in his stomach and begins his epic journey of survival. Using his super-genius mind, he manages to solve any problem thrown his way (and there were plenty). In the meantime, NASA, after announcing Watney's death, find out that he is still alive and do everything within their power to get him back. Everybody in the movie, from NASA to the crew to Watney, as Watney says, "science the shit out of it.".

Watney's first and arguably most important breakthrough was growing potatoes using a combination of astronaut poop, martian soil, and self-manufactured water. As the first human to grow anything on Mars, Mark technically colonized Mars. He proceeds to find an ingenious method to communicate with Houston which gives him encouragement to begin formulating a plan to get himself home. An incredible team effort from JPL, NASA, and the Ares 3 crew make Watney's return possible.

So many times in movies, science is used as a shackle, an antagonist-- something that prevents heroic characters from doing their heroic things. It was refreshing to watch a mainstream sci-fi film that featured science and portrayed it in a positive light. Science is what allowed Watney to survive and thrive. Science was the hero. The key to this unique portrayal of science was that the science wasn't boring. It was pragmatic and fascinating to watch. And there was a healthy amount of humor to prevent Watney, NASA, JPL, and the crew from seeming like their stereotypes. The characters were approachable and made me want to team up with them to solve the problems that they were facing. The movie did a good job staying away from making the incredibly smart characters seem like elitists. The attitude of the movie encourages science and critical thinking which are skills becoming increasingly valuable in society today. In the Martian, Matt Damon was a great actor but science was the star.

-- Johann Kailey-Steiner.