“Houston, we have a problem”! On April 1, 1970 the fateful adventure of astronauts Jim Lovell, T. Kenneth Mattingly, and Fred W Haise began on their mission to the moon. The crew of Apollo 13 was stranded in space for about six days, and despite many hardships the real life heroes made it home to Earth safely. While missions to the moon were a big deal back then, one may wonder what the next step in space exploration may be. One of the next most likely candidates will be a manned mission to the red planet Mars. While this may seem like something only in a science fiction book, scientists are making considerable achievements, and it is likely that the human race will land on Mars well within our lifetime (NASA predicts it will happen about 2030). Many authors have written about manned missions to Mars, but most of them include little green aliens trying to take over Earth. While it is possible that life does exist on Mars (they would most likely be single celled organisms), one author decided to write about a scientifically accurate mission to Mars where one of the astronauts gets stranded and needs to survive indefinitely. Author Andy Weir wrote a hard science fiction novel (meaning the novel is based in science and not random facts to explain technology) called The Martian which is about just that.

The Martian is a true cinematic experience that will be enjoyed by anyone interested in space travel, science fiction, or even an Oscar worthy movie. It is directed by the visionary science fiction director behind classics such as Blade Runner and Aliens, Ridley Scott. The movie has an all-star cast of praiseworthy actors and actresses. The astronaut stuck on Mars, Mark Watney, is played by the charismatic Matt Damon who always steals every scene that he is in due to sheer charm alone (although in most of the scenes he is alone so it is not that hard for him to be a scene stealer). Excluding Watney, the crew of Ares 3 is composed of five other astronauts: commander Melissa Lews (played by Jessica Chastain) who is a tough woman yet deeply cares about her team and is partly defined by her guilt for leaving Watney behind, pilot Rick Martinez (played by Michael Peña) who is as funny and serious as ever, the chemist Alex Vogel (played by Aksel Hennie), flight surgeon Chris Beck (portrayed by Sebastian Stan) and the computer expert Beth Johanssen (played by Kate Mara). While the cast did a phenomenal job at showing what it is like in space for hundreds of days on a space station, not all of them leave a huge impression on the audience. Many are likely to remember their face and what they did, but not their name. The crew of NASA was also incredibly talented including the NASA PR director Annie Montrose (played by Annie Montrose), the caring and honest Hermies flight director Mitch Henderson (played by Sean Bean), the brilliant director of the Mars mission, Vincent Kapoor (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a rocket expert Bruce Ng (played by Benedict Wong), and the business-like NASA Director Tedy Sanders (played by Jeff Daniels). The cast effectively communicated with the audience what each individual character truly felt. There was never a moment where it seemed like Henderson gave up fighting for the astronauts, or Tedy Sanders was not trying to find the most politically correct solution even if it was the morally incorrect one. Overall, the movie could not have asked for a better cast, and they should all be given a round of applause for the effort they put into this project.

The plot of the movie was handled very well and came naturally. There were not really any moments that felt forced. From the very beginning when Watney is stranded on the planet, you feel bad for him and cheer for him to get home to Earth. Despite being stranded, Watney never loses confidence that he will one day get off the planet. This is my main point of criticism about the movie; he never has an emotional breakdown. While at first this may seem a little out of character taking into consideration that he is a trained astronaut, he is still a human being and should still suffer the psychological effects of loneliness. While it may seem like a grim movie, it is quite the opposite. Between the clever writing, Damon’s wit, and Watney’s hate of disco music, there are both heavy moments that make the audience want to cry, and lighthearted moments that temporarily alleviate the character’s and audience’s pain.

The biggest part of the movie is obviously the scientific aspect of it, and the movie even admits it when Watney says, “I’m gonna science the **** out of this planet”. Most of what Watney does could actually happen in theory. As hard as it is to believe, Watney growing potatoes on Martian soil is really not that far-fetched. While it may seem disgusting to use human waste, it is a key element as it fertilizes the Martian soil allowing the plants to survive in the otherwise sterile soil. In addition, the way he made water is also chemically possible by manipulating compounds. Speaking of Mars, the portrayal of the Red planet is fairly accurate to what the terrain is like. In one scene, Watney is able to lift heavy canisters because on Mars there is 40% less gravity so the objects weigh a fraction of what it would on Earth. Even the acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said in an interview that “(The filmmakers) got all the fundamental science right”. However, for all their glories there are a few facts the movie got wrong. The biggest scientific inaccuracy is also the one that is most crucial to the plot. The author of the book commented on the sandstorm that stranded Watney on Mars saying, “In reality, Mars’ atmosphere is 1/200th the density of Earth’s. So while they do get 150 km/hr sandstorms, the inertia behind them — because their air is so thin — it would feel like a gentle breeze on Earth. A Martian sandstorm can’t do any damage. And I knew that at the time I wrote it”. Plain and simple, the atmosphere on Mars would not allow a sandstorm like that to happen. However, Weir wanted to show that it was Watney versus the planet, and this was the best way he came up with.
Despite its minor scientific flaws and few faults, The Martian is a well-acted, funny, hard science fiction movie that is a blast to see on screen in part due to the cinematography and the Martian landscape. There is a good chance that Damon will be nominated for an Oscar and for good reasons. Director Ridley Scott really outdid himself considering many of his movies are classics that will be watched for years to come. Despite the tragedy the characters are facing, the movie is still fairly fun to watch. It fills the audience with a sense of wonder and awe like any good science fiction (or science factual) movie should.

Although, there is one scientific fact that this movie completely ignored and did not even try to follow: SEAN BEAN DID NOT DIE!!! (like in every other movie/television show he has been.)