Review #5: The Martian
If one man was stranded alone on Mars.
“I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this.” -Mark Watney
Synopsis
In a future where NASA actually has money, an exploratory team on Mars is hit by an immense dust storm. Astronaut Mark Watney is rendered incapacitated by a sharp Mars stick, and is unable to reach the Aries Martian Ascent Vehicle (MAV) before the storm threatens to knock it over. His team is forced to leave without him, stranding the botanist alone on the cold, dead surface of the Red Planet with nothing except literally everything he needs to survive. Using his vast knowledge of plants (and apparently medicine, chemistry, engineering, computer programming, and astrodynamics), Mark is able to heal his wounds, grow potatoes from poop, and repair the derelict Pathfinder probe in order to communicate with NASA. After a failed attempt to send Mark food and supplies, NASA turns to to the Chinese Taiyang Shen to send a second payload to Mars. However, Mark’s team has other plans…
Working with NASA astrophysicist Rich Purnell back on Earth, they devise a plan to dock the Hermes with the Taiyang Shen to resupply and refuel, and then slingshot back to Mars to rescue Watney themselves against NASA’s orders. For the plan to work, Mark must reach another pre-positioned Aries MAV 3,200 kilometers away to get him into space. After a 90 day journey Mark reaches the MAV, guts it to make it light enough to achieve the required altitude for a rendezvous, and then launches into space using a plastic tarp as a nosecone. The Hermes doesn’t quite have enough fuel to match Mark’s MAV velocity, so they decompress part of the ship to provide a small thrust to push them just close enough to allow Mark to fly to the Hermes using a cut in his suit as a gas jet. Mark is saved, the crew gets back safe, and NASA gets more publicity! Oh, and Mark becomes a teacher.
Mood/Setting
The Martian poses a realistic, sleek vision of future space travel. The spacecraft designs, Martian rovers, and even the Hab Mark lives in feel like they were designed by real engineers, and then given to Steve Jobs to “Apple” them up a bit. I was struck by mixed feelings of both loneliness and determination watching this film, somewhat reflecting the emotions of the film’s protagonist, but also garnered from the beautiful external scenes of both Mars and space. These scenes are utterly breathtaking, but are also completely devoid of all human presence. Seeing the Pathfinder probe amidst the desolate Martian deserts was akin to finally finding one bar of service from airplane WiFi.
Humor is spot on. I can’t name a science fiction movie that makes me spew chunks of Popcorn and rivers of Sierra Mist out of my nose more than The Martian does. What’s more incredible is that five minutes later, I may be on the verge of tears or nervously chewing on my nails; yet the pacing still seems comfortable. The movie also accurately captures both the beauty and the danger of outer space, and doesn’t lean more heavily on one or the other.
Plot Review
Have you ever stuck a fork into an electrical outlet? Neither have I. That’s why we’re still alive. That’s how watching The Martian makes me feel: alive. Watney suffers one horrible setback after another, and yet he keeps finding ways not only to survive, but to keep his spirits up in the process. The tension during this movie has the perfect grow and ebb cycle, feeding its audience an agreeable ratio of successes and failures to keep them both excited and involved. Viewing The Martian feels like watching a one-man version of Survivor, only the stakes are actually real and the nearest 5 star hotel is 100 million kilometers away.
I think what I love most about The Martian is the fact that there is no antagonist. The film boasts an inciting and suspenseful science fiction story line without one evil alien, psycho terrorist, or government conspiracy to be found. The closest thing to an antagonist the film conjures is NASA administrator Teddy, but even he is just trying to do what is best for NASA’s public image. One could argue that Mars’ environment itself is the antagonist, and they’d be technically right seeing as it is the cause of most of the conflict in this film. Still, I find the fact that no single character is displayed as shady or self-serving a feat within itself.
And that brings up another really good point. The movie is not about how Mark Watney found his way home all by himself. Mark’s survival was dependent on both the actions of the crew of the Hermes, as well as the engineers, scientists, and leaders back at NASA. Without these characters, Mark would have been toast. This is not only really awesome from a plot standpoint, but also serves to be incredibly realistic from an engineering standpoint as well. What else is cool is that I felt genuinely connected to almost all of the non-Matt Damon characters, each one with their own traits and personalities unique from the next.
Reliance on other characters aside, Mark Watney does seem to mirror the idealistic genius of Tony Stark in the film, and not just when he is Iron Man-ing himself to the Hermes with his gas jet hand. Mark is a botanist, but he has somehow developed the finer skills of calculating intricate engineering equations, conjuring complex chemical experiments, and programming antiquated technology with unorthodox computer languages. Watney’s character is essentially a space android who hates disco and eats potatoes. I suppose this really isn’t that far fetched however, seeing as he is one of only six crew on the Aries III mission, and NASA probably only wants the best of the best to go to Mars.
It is uncommon to find a movie based off of a novel which does the original work justice. The masterminds behind The Martian did just that. The story line keeps it’s flare, the casting well represents the original characters, and the effects and cinematography illuminate the same moods that are experienced in the original work. The movie is so good that it makes some other film novelizations look like the poop that Mark poops after eating his potatoes that were grown in poop.
I have very few grievances with the plot of this movie, but one thing that always seems to get overlooked is the unlikely existence of the other Aries MAV which Mark uses to leave Mars. We all know thanks to Neil Degrasse Tyson that a real Martian dust storm is not powerful enough to knock over a spacecraft on Mars because the air there is too thin. However, the whole plot of this movie relies on the fact that dust storms are this powerful, so let’s assume that in this universe, they are. If this were true, why would NASA pre-position all of the MAVs for the Aries missions ahead of time? Wouldn’t they all get knocked over in various dust storms over the years? #SorryMartianFans.
Singular plot hole aside, The Martian is a fantastic sci-fi film. Not enough jokes for you in this review? Here is a picture of The Martian being sold at a grocery store next to potatoes that I saw on Twitter once.
Conclusion
The Martian yields an incredibly well-paced and exhilarating story line, all while avoiding reliance on science fiction cliches for its conflicts. The film is incredibly realistic, gorgeously directed, and amply written, standing as one of very few science fiction movies containing laugh-out-loud humor. Though a noteworthy plot hole exists, it hardly takes away from the enjoyment of seeing Mark Watney overcome problem after problem using real life science and engineering.
