Matt Damon in Ridley Scott's 'The Martian'
Of all the television series and movies I've reviewed in these posts, most of them take a very dim view of human nature. A fundamental aspect of drama is conflict, and most conflict comes from flawed people making questionable choices. Sometimes there are good reasons for those choices, and sometimes there are not so good reasons, but the primacy by which most of these stories revolve is that when one strips away the artifice of civilization and society, human beings are selfish animals that will rip one another apart when things go to shit, whether that be in your standard fictional apocalypse or a full-blown zombie one.
While the news reminds us every day of our cruelty and injustice to one another, the truth about human nature is a bit more muddled. Yes, I'm sure there are people who would probably not think twice about either figuratively or literally slitting your throat for a dollar, but there are many more that would come to your aid if they saw it happening. There are millions of teachers who this very day are volunteering hours of their own time and spending out of their own pockets to give some child under their care a chance. There are millions of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals out there in some shithole, both here or on the far side of the world, trying to make it a better place, some working for little or no pay as you read this sentence. These are just small examples in a grander scheme. But like in all things, some people are horrible, and others rise to their best when things are at their worst.
It's that belief in an enduring human community and its ability to tackle great problems with reason that's at the core of Ridley Scott's The Martian, which won the box office this weekend and has been called a "love letter" to science. Based on the self-published novel of the same name by Andy Weir, and adapted for the screen by Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods), the film's story is basically Robinson Crusoe on Mars. It follows a botanist turned astronaut named Mark Watney (Matt Damon) who is stranded on Mars, and the struggle to get him back alive.
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I've mentioned this before a while back, but I've always been fascinated by the 1950s and '60s depiction of Space Age optimism. In design and technological aspiration, there seemed to be positive feelings about the future. As a culture, we've always had problems and inequalities, but we built things in hope of a "Great Society," and dreamed of things that may never be. We built roads, we built bridges, we built towers that stretched into the clouds, and rockets that went to the Moon. And people imagined days in which we would live in domed cities here on Earth and in outer space, wear silver jumpsuits, drive flying cars, and everything would be nuclear powered.
Set in a not-too-distant future, The Martian imagines a not-too-distant future where the United States is sending regular manned missions to Mars. During the Ares III mission, a violent dust storm forces Commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and her crew to abandon their position on the Red Planet. During the escape and before all of them can make it to safety, a radio antenna snaps and seems to crush Watney (Damon), with his biometric suit indicating no sign of life. However, he survives and awakens alone on a desolate world, with limited supplies that will not stretch the four years until the next NASA mission to the planet. Eventually NASA notices that he's still alive through satellite images of the site, and the best and brightest minds begin debating how to get him back alive. This leads to a debate over whether they attempt a dangerous maneuver proposed by astrodynamicist Rich Purnell (Donald Glover) to turn the Hermes spaceship around and risk the entire crew to save one man?
The Hermes
If this sounds like
Apollo 13 meets
Cast Away, the story definitely takes on aspects of both films. But the movie also sticks fairly close to Weir's novel, with Goddard and Scott having the narrative giving us Watney's thoughts, frustrations and solutions through a contemporaneous log of his activities. Watney relays in detail how he makes water from hydrazine, salvaging potatoes from a planned Thanksgiving dinner to make a potato farm, and trying not to give into despair when things go wrong. It's in these moments that the audience connects with Watney, values his intellect, and appreciates his eccentricity and humor. In this way, screenwriter Goddard kept Weir's characterization of Watney as a big nerd who
loves The Lord of the Rings (and in a
deleted scene questions Aquaman's ability to control mammalian whales). There's also a running gag about his hatred of Disco. Guess what's the only music he can find among what's left of the crew's belongings? Other than the use of David Bowie's "Starman" in the film, get ready for “Hot Stuff,” “Rock the Boat,” and The O'Jays' classic “Love Train” making appearances.
"You do the math. You solve one problem. And then you solve another. And then another. Solve enough and you stay alive." —Mark Watney
While Watney is trying to "science the shit out of" the situation, the people back at NASA (Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig, Mackenzie Davis, and Benedict Wong) and those in space (Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie) try to figure out ways to communicate with Watney, ways to send him supplies, and ultimately a way to save him. The rescue mission ultimately becomes a global one, with the Chinese coming in to help at a significant point, that unites humanity for a singular purpose. And one thing that makes
The Martian a bit odd than other films of its type is that the filmmakers refrained from fucking around with the basics of its story. There's no bullshit romantic subplot inserted to pull at people's heartstrings. There's no tacked on government conspiracy to just let Watney die on Mars, rather than go through the bother of saving him. There is no real villain in the movie except for Newtonian physics and the harshness of the Martian environment. And in showing a united humanity confronting those issues
together for the betterment of just one person, the film imagines a world where we can put to the side our own crap and achieve greatness.
- The ties that bind: Ridley Scott has said in interviews that he sees the story as being about how humanity is connected, no matter what differences separate us. Also, it should be pointed out that this is arguably the most positive in tone and hopeful film in Scott's filmography, which includes the likes of Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator.
“I think the film is about how no one is ever alone,” he said in a phone interview. “When you see an earthquake in Nepal and people coming to help, you realize that. When you see any tragedy around the world and all the efforts to do something, you realize that. That’s what I think the movie is about.”
- Scientific accuracy: Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski used the Jordan desert as a stand-in for the Martian environment. The film received cooperation from NASA and did little things such as creating a reproduction the Mars Pathfinder landing craft (i.e., the Carl Sagan Memorial Station and the Mars rover named Sojourner). And while the film has generally received passable grades from the scientific community, the accident which causes the film's plot is the biggest stretch. Mars has a thin atmosphere, which can not produce hurricane force winds. The recent confirmation of flowing water on Mars is a case of science marches on. When Weir was writing the novel, it was still unknown how much water might be recoverable from the surface, hence the reason he has Watney burning hydrazine to recover water. Also, while from all accounts the people who work at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are huge fans of the novel, they actually decided to analyze Mars' southern Acidalia Planitia after its use as a setting in the book, and actually disproved Weir's description of the terrain.
- Not the first time people had to save Matt Damon: This is the second time the United States government had to mount a rescue effort, risking multiple lives, to ensure the survival of a Matt Damon character.
- Was it worth it?: When I reviewed Interstellar last year, I brought up the debate about space exploration as a function of government spending. There are conservatives who object to NASA and see it as a waste of money that could be a potential tax cut, and for some liberals it's an agency that's taking money away from hungry children and people without health care. At least a few media reviews have wondered about the ethical implications within The Martian along the same lines.
There’s a legitimate argument to be had, which the film never even raises, about the ethics of spending what must be billions of dollars to rescue one astronaut, when the same money could potentially save many thousands of lives at home.