The Martian (2015)

An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers:

Drew Goddard (screenplay by), Andy Weir (based on the novel by)

Stars:

Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig

Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 37 wins & 185 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Matt Damon	...	Mark Watney
Jessica Chastain	...	Melissa Lewis
Kristen Wiig	...	Annie Montrose
Jeff Daniels	...	Teddy Sanders
Michael Peña	...	Rick Martinez
Sean Bean	...	Mitch Henderson
Kate Mara	...	Beth Johanssen
Sebastian Stan	...	Chris Beck
Aksel Hennie	...	Alex Vogel
Chiwetel Ejiofor	...	Vincent Kapoor
Benedict Wong	...	Bruce Ng
Mackenzie Davis	...	Mindy Park
Donald Glover	...	Rich Purnell
Nick Mohammed	...	Tim Grimes
Shu Chen	...	Zhu Tao

Storyline

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring "the Martian" home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible, rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney's safe return.

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Plot Keywords:

astronaut | space habitat | left for dead | mars | nasa | 

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Taglines:

Help is only 140 million miles away

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some strong language, injury images, and brief nudity.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

2 October 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Martian 3D

Filming Locations:

Hungary

Box Office

Budget:

$108,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$54,308,575, 4 October 2015, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$228,433,663

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$629,281,283

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox,TSG Entertainment,Scott Free Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

144 min 151 min (extended cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Dolby Atmos Dolby Surround 7.1 Datasat SDDS Auro 11.1

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Some scenes were filmed in Wadi Rum, Jordan. A desert valley several miles long, it has been used as a stand-in for Mars before, most notably for Red Planet (2000).

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Goofs

Mark is shown digging up the Radioisotope Thermometric Generator (RTG) which had been deliberately buried in the sand. RTG's must radiate waste heat through their cooling fins in order to generate electricity, burying one underground would have prevented it from functioning.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Melissa Lewis: All right team, stay in sight of each other. Let's make NASA proud today.
Rick Martinez: How's it looking over there, Watney?
Mark Watney: Well, you will be happy to hear that in Grid Section 14-28, the particles were predominately coarse but in 29, they're much finer and they should be ideal for chem analysis.
Rick Martinez: Oh, wow. Did everybody hear that? Mark just discovered dirt.
[laughs]
Rick Martinez: Should we alert the media?

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Crazy Credits

During the first half of the ending credits, the names of the cast members (with the exception of Matt Damon) corresponds with their character in the film.

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Connections

Referenced in Honest Trailers: Interstellar (2015)

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Soundtracks

I Will Survive
Written by Dino Fekaris and Freddie Perren (as Frederick Perren)
Performed by Gloria Gaynor
Courtesy of Republic Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

A unique, visually styled film that's still not the sum of its parts

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

During an outer space mission around Mars, astronaut Matt Watney (Matt Damon) is separated from his spacecraft, and is presumed dead in the immediate aftermath. Stranded many light years from his home planet, Mark is forced to use his survival training (including fertilising faeces for food!) in order to survive, before managing to contact Earth and bring news of his survival to NASA president Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), who desperately works on Earth with scientist Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to get him home, while re-assuring a frantic public.

Having made his name in a landmark sci-fi classic many decades ago, Ridley Scott returns to the genre for a film where the only alien appears to be in human form. His ability to create an impressive visual spectacle doesn't seem to have diminished with time, and The Martian features some sets and designs in outer space that could quite blow your mind. The director oversteps any meaningful character development, and plunges us straight into a story that serves as a lengthier rendition of 2013's Gravity, with elements of Tom Hanks's Cast Away chucked in for good measure.

For a film stretching at nearly two and a half hours, it really needed not just an interesting story, but an effective screenplay to match it. While the 'one man stranded in space' plot still has some life in it, Scott seems overly preoccupied with stuffing Damon's Watson character full of insightful technical jargon and waffle, to reassure us he's highly intelligent and 'NASA's finest', to the point of disconnection. To try and balance the script with some humour, Scott has displayed an affection for '70s disco music, which Damon must awkwardly eschew. It's a welcome touch, if not truly effective.

Performances wise, Damon must carry the lengthy film almost singlehandedly, and it's his varying degrees as an actor that make as little or most of this. While a better actor could have made more of it, by turns a weaker actor could have made it worse, and so you're grateful for small mercies. In what could be the main supporting role, Daniels is grounded as the head of NASA but, in a film determined to have as much humour as drama, that role he took with Jim Carrey all those years ago (and recently reprised) can never get out your mind. A further colourful supporting cast further make it up, including Michael Pena, Sean Bean and Ejiofor.

Overall, it's not an entirely unsuccessful film, just one without the genuine tension and suspense to really make it last as long as it does, and so the cracks do appear at times. ***