After a team of scientists and
explorers, led by commander Lewis (Jessica
Chastain), are hit by an unexpectedly large storm on the surface of Mars,
they must stage an emergency evacuation.
Yet on the way to the module, botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is hit by a communication antenna and left behind
presumed dead. He then quickly has to
figure out a way to survive for multiple years for a rescue mission in a
habitat designed to last for 30 days and “science the shit out of” his
terrifying dilemma.
There’s an old philosophical thought
experiment about five passengers riding an out-of-control tram on a rail line
approaching a cliff next to a track-switch with a second line with a sleeping
man laying on it. Should you pull the
lever and save the five even if it means killing the one? What is the ethical price of a human
life? The Martian is an extended meditation on that very question, with a
whole harmony of other themes of solitude, determination and survival.
A lot of the early half of the year is
reminiscent of Tom Hanks in Castaway, with Watney stranded on his
‘island’ and talking to himself. The
major difference is Watney is a scientist so the narration is mostly about how
to make water from liquid Nitrogen, and scientists at Caltech inventing jet
propulsion.
Meanwhile down on Earth, Vincent Kapoor
(Chiwetel Ejiofor) the Mars mission director
and Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) the
NASA director, are busy discussing the next mission to the planet to ‘salvage
the remaining equipment’ and the PR implications of broadcasting Watney’s dead
body to the world through satellite photos.
Only later when they discover the truth that he is alive do the ground
control team go all Apollo 13 and
work round the clock to try and save him.
The global space organisation’s effort to devise a rescue plan also has
a whiff of Robert Zemeckis’ underrated sci-fi Contact.
Watching everyone try and solve this
extraordinary problem is, obviously, a lot of fun. But what makes it even more fun is the
inspired correlation between cinematography and soundtrack. Watney is constantly exasperated that the
only music he has access to is commander Lewis’ cheesy playlist, yet this
juxtaposition of innovative technology cinematography and throwback ‘70s disco
is a stroke of genius. It gives the
project a hint of Jetsons / Thunderbirds retro-futurism and allows the script a
comedy that led The Martian to win a
controversial “Best Comedy/Musical Film” Golden Globe award. (Matt Damon is funny, but… a comedy, it is
not).
The incredible production design – from Arthur Max, famous for epic cinema such
as Se7en, Gladiator, Robin Hood,
Prometheus and Exodus: Gods and Kings
– is paired with a gorgeous cinematography from Darius Wolski (of Pirates of
the Caribbean franchise fame) and post-production colouring. The
Martian is an undeniably good-looking film.
Hopefully after the Academy Awards it will have a second cinema run so
that those who didn’t see it get the chance to marvel at it on a big screen…
Yet for all its sci-fi bravado, the film
is surprisingly sober, even tender in its sincere solidarity between marooned
and mission control. The science,
finally, seems to be just as important as the fiction.
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