The Martian: The love-hate relationship with Space — emphasis on love.
The Martian was determined to present a more understated version of space as we have come to know it through science-fiction movies. And holy hell, did it succeed.
What was The Martian? No aliens, no flash, no glamour (not too much, at least); The Martian was real down to its very core. The movie rode on the shoulders of Matt Damon’s impeccable delivery and easy-going likability. He was charming without the too-good-to-be-true aura and he was resourceful without being overbearingly smart. Damon’s character — Mark Watney — managed to break down all misgivings I had about yet another space movie.
Full disclaimer, for which I must be forgiven: I have not yet read the book.
Major and minor spoilers ahead, but if you haven’t watched it yet…what are you doing?!
Kidding.
“This is space. It doesn’t cooperate.”
That was one of many great lines from the film. I wish I had a better memory so I could recall some of the many gems over the course of the movie.
So — space. It doesn’t cooperate. Well, of course not. So why are we so obsessed with space and travelling through a vast amount of near-nothingness? Why all the danger and the need for perfection with almost every mission we embark on?
A few answers might pop up, depending on who you ask: Exploration, science, curiosity, passion.
I latched onto that last one, because I’m a sucker for the idea that humans are first and foremost emotionally-driven creatures, then comes all the logic that we’re so keen on.
Space exploration is fuelled by passion. I mean, it is literally fuelled by a lot of money, time, and effort, but something the movie touched on was the fact that nearly everybody was driven by their sheer love for what they do and the fact that they’re doing it for future generations. Space exploration is seeking out something beyond human understanding, often involving a lot of personal sacrifice. Astronauts know what they’re getting into every time they embark on a mission, or every time they spend extended periods of time up in space. They are celebrated as heroes, but sometimes I think the meaning is lost upon the throngs of people; lost in the glamour of it all, when it really isn’t that glamourous at all.
One of the more overlooked aspects that I thoroughly enjoyed was the fact that China was the country to provide a much-needed resource for America in their time of need. It was presented rather abruptly and came as one of two deus ex machina moments (the other involved Donald Glover and it was great). This worked beautifully, however, in unravelling a greater sub-plot, which I think captures the overall spectacle that is space travel.
My first thought was that it was absolutely fantastic that this movie tackled the overwrought “America-is-on-its-own” storyline, where no other countries in the world are able to help. In this case, it was China who came to the rescue with their resources. It was to be only between the space agencies though, that much was emphasized. No government intervention and the intelligence would be a product of their respective space programs’ teamwork skills.
While a lot of the movie focused on Mark Watney’s emotional, physical, and lonely journey on the red planet, he was never really alone. There was no shortage of support from people on Earth and we were always reminded of the amount of people actually involved with the mission and their constant effort to keep him alive.
The movie does not glamourize being stranded on Mars, let alone attempting to colonize it. The movie does not try to tell you that this is possible. The movie — which NASA kind of helped out with — is grounded in science and the difficulties that humans will face with any kind of space exploration. It is through teamwork and collaboration of the best and brightest minds that humanity’s greatest achievements will come to be. This movie was a reminder that science-fiction is great and wonderful because it does hold some truth — the truth that allows us to see a scope of endless possibilities to fuel dreams and further exploration.
For more reading on NASA’s involvement with The Martian, click here.
I’m thrilled that this movie was apparently a huge surprise to a lot of movie-goers who were skeptical upon receiving the trailer. It seemed to give away the basic premise: man goes to Mars, man is left behind, man must fend for himself, man will seemingly not survive. Everybody loves a good survival story, particularly one that strikes close to home without being too realistic because nobody really wants to truly envision themselves in that kind of situation. That being said, I thought that the movie did so much more than all of that, which means that trailer did its job by kind-of purposefully misleading people into think this was just another anxiety-inducing space movie. People’s reception to this movie stemmed, I believe, from the sheer awesomeness — I mean that in every sense of the word — of the film and its appeal to our very base human nature. It did not try to hide behind outlandish falsities, nor did it try to convince us of anything beyond the fact that Mars is still a mystery we seek to solve.
Before I go, I must mention that the team behind the scenes of the movie did a fantastic job at bringing audiences that much closer to what could be an actual reality in the near future (read this — NASA’s press release about journeying to Mars!!). Ridley Scott is no stranger to keeping his audiences on the edge of their seats — and paired with screenwriter Drew Goddard, this movie was filled to the brim with goodies. Scott and his creative team — well-known for his epics, sci-fi, and crime thrillers — commandeered this film magnificently into the stratosphere. Each shot was beautiful, every scene, poignant. I’m a very emotional movie-goer, so obviously I had my hands near my face the entire time, doing my best not to whisper expletives at some scenes. A huge kudos to Goddard (again), for ensuring that the comedy was not too cheesy, such that it did not dismantle the very essence of the film.
And lastly, I want to send a huge shout-out to space because — wow.
The Martian stars Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The film was directed by Ridley Scott. The screenplay was written by Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weir.
The Martian was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
