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 38 wins & 193 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 | nasa | presumed dead | 

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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.

Did You Know?

Trivia

A real potato farm was installed on the studio lot with potatoes in all stages of growth so they could be used for filming.

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Goofs

As Kapoor approaches the JPL building, we see him from inside the lobby, looking through glass doors labeled "JPL." From inside the lobby the lettering should typically be reversed, but both can be correct. The technology for this is a pattern of dots which are black on both faces, then : selected ones are coloured on one face for the "inside" view, and different selected ones are coloured on the other face for the outside view.

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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

In the opening credits, the letters of "THE MARTIAN" fade away but as the top of the "T" fades, it then leaves an "I" onscreen for a fraction of a second, reminiscent of Ridley Scott's "Alien," where the letters slowly fade in one at a time.

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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

Featured in WatchMojo: What Critics Are Saying About Dark Phoenix (2019)

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Soundtracks

Starman
Written and Performed by David Bowie
Courtesy of RZO Music

User Reviews

Roasted, Mashed, Boiled, Sauteed? How'd you do your Potatoes?

If you've ever wondered if Tom Hanks went even further adrift in Castaway then this could be the answer you're looking for.

An Earth team are on Mars carrying out tests on the surface of The Red Planet, a message comes through from Earth warning of a huge and fast approaching storm. The team quickly assemble and flee, unfortunately Mark Watney is caught in the storm, loses his communication device and presumed dead. Watney has survived and has a harsh realism that he's abandoned on Mars with precious little supplies, no company and little chance of survival. Being 50 million miles away and 4 years away in terms of rescue life seems bleak. Watney has to defy the odds in order to survive.

Ridley Scott is responsible for so many wonderful films, and for many The Martian will sit among them.

This is a beautifully made film, it looks incredible, I love the realisation of Mars's surface, truly brilliant, wasn't going to be otherwise with the budget they had. The music is interesting, the score itself is quite subtle, but the tunes from Abba, Gloria Estefan etc are so random.

The pacing of the film is very cleverly done, never does it feel rushed, and on very few occasions does it feel slow or padded. If i'm honest at twenty minutes I was questioning how the film was possibly going to last over two hours.

Matt Damon shows his class, he carries the film on his shoulders, he gives a stellar performance as Mark, cannot be faulted. Some of the others in the film were a little hit and miss, I enjoyed Chiwetel Ejiofor very much. Jeff Daniels was fairly good. Kristen Wiig seemed an odd choice, but she was good too.

It was better then I expected, I enjoyed it a lot 8/10

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Site

Country:

UK USA Hungary Jordan

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

Gross USA:

$228,433,663

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$630,162,448

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:

2.39 : 1