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

The name of the missions to Mars are named Ares. In real life, NASA was developing launch vehicles called Ares I and Ares V, for the crew and cargo of the Constellation Program. The program was canceled in 2010 and replaced by the Space Launch System with more lift capability.

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Goofs

Orbits and gravity assist maneuvers don't take much computing power to calculate, are commonly used for all sorts of interplanetary missions and are well understood by most people working at NASA. Taking days to research, using a supercomputer, and needing to be in the same room as the supercomputer are all unnecessary.

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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

At the end of the credits: "The making and authorized distribution of this film supported over 15,000 jobs"

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Alternate Versions

In June of 2016, an extended cut was released on Blu-Ray and Ultra HD 4K Blu-Ray that adds 10 additional minutes of footage.

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Connections

References The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

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Soundtracks

Love Train
Written by Kenny Gamble (as Kenneth Gamble) & Leon Huff
Performed by The O'Jays
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

I Am The Only One Who Was Not Disappointed

Having read the book, and being very impressed, I was looking forward to the movie interpretation. I was not the least bit disappointed. I was hoping this movie would not be an overacted, overproduced and sappy version of the original, and I was pleasantly surprised that the story played out without the overblown extraneous embellishment that Hollywood seems to depend on so often.

It was great to see how the screenplay added extra material that was not in the book, and it enhanced the story to make it even better. The characters were interpreted with full respect to the intention of the author, Andy Weir, and nothing was overdone. The pacing and editing of this movie was some of the best I've seen, in fact, some of the one-liners from the book are done so quickly it pushed the story forward relentlessly.

One thing that struck me is that everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and I think that could be a testament to the originality and uniqueness of the book. I believe anyone who reads the book is captivated and involved with the story from beginning to end, and it's possible this comes across in all phases of the production; the acting, the sets, sound, everything. They all knew they had some great material to work with and ran with it.