The Martian (2015)
The Martian is a 2015 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. Drew Goddard adapted the screenplay from the 2011 novel The Martian by Andy Weir. The film depicts an astronaut’s lone struggle to survive on Mars after being left behind and the efforts of NASA to rescue him and bring him home to Earth. It also stars Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover, and Benedict Wong. Produced through 20th Century Fox, the film is a coproduction of the United Kingdom and the United States. Producer Simon Kinberg began developing the film after Fox optioned the novel in March 2013, which Drew Goddard adapted into a screenplay and was initially attached to direct, but the film did not move forward.
Scott replaced Goddard as director, and with Damon in place as the main character, production was approved. Filming began in November 2014 and lasted approximately seventy days. Twenty sets were built on one of the largest sound stages in the world in Budapest, Hungary. Wadi Rum in Jordan was also used for exterior filming.
The film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2015, while the London premiere was held on September 24, 2015. The film was released in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2015, and in the United States on October 2, 2015, in 2D, 3D, IMAX 3D and 4DX. It received positive reviews and grossed over $630 million worldwide, becoming Scott’s highest-grossing film to date, as well as the 10th-highest-grossing film of 2015.
Plot.
In 2035, the crew of the Ares III mission to Mars is exploring Acidalia Planitia on Martian solar day (sol) 18 of their 31-sol expedition. A severe dust storm threatens to topple their Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV). The mission is scrubbed, but as the crew evacuates, astronaut Mark Watney is struck by debris. The telemetry from his suit’s bio-monitor is damaged and Watney is erroneously presumed dead. With the MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle) on the verge of toppling, the remaining crew takes off for their orbiting vessel, the Hermes. Watney awakens after the storm, injured and with a low-oxygen warning. He returns to the crew’s surface habitat (“Hab”) and treats his wound. As Watney recovers, he begins a video diary. Unable to communicate with Earth, his only chance of rescue is the next Mars mission. In four years, the Ares IV will land 3,200 kilometers (2,000 mi) away at the Schiaparelli crater.RELATED:
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Watney’s immediate concern is food; being a botanist, he creates a garden inside the Hab using Martian soil fertilized with the crew’s bio-waste and manufactures water from leftover rocket fuel. He then cultivates potatoes using whole potatoes reserved for a special Thanksgiving meal. He also begins modifying the rover for the journey to the Ares IV MAV site.
On Earth, NASA satellite planner Mindy Park, reviewing satellite images, notices moved equipment and realizes Watney must be alive. NASA director Teddy Sanders releases the news to the public, but decides not to tell the Ares III crew so that they will remain focused on their mission, over flight director Mitch Henderson’s strong objection.
Watney takes the rover on a one-month journey to retrieve the Pathfinder probe, which fell silent in 1997. Using Pathfinder’s camera and motor, he establishes visual contact with NASA. NASA transmits a software patch to link the rover with Pathfinder, enabling communication by text. Sanders finally allows Henderson to inform Watney’s crewmates.
Mars missions director Vincent Kapoor and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) director Bruce Ng prepare a space probe to deliver enough food for Watney to survive until Ares IV’s arrival. However, the Hab’s airlock blows out, exposing the Hab to the harsh Martian environment; the potato plants all die. Now, to save time, Sanders orders the routine safety inspections be bypassed. His gamble fails, and the Atlas V rocket explodes soon after lift-off.
Development.
The Martian was directed by Scott and based on a screenplay by Drew Goddard that was adapted from Weir’s 2011 novel of the same name. 20th Century Fox optioned the novel in March 2013, and producer Simon Kinberg was attached to develop the novel into a film. The following May, Goddard entered negotiations with the studio to write and direct The Martian. Goddard wrote a screenplay for the film and Matt Damon expressed interest in starring under Goddard’s direction. Goddard then pursued an opportunity to direct Sinister Six, a comic book film about a team of supervillains. Kinberg then brought the book to Scott’s attention. In May 2014, Scott entered negotiations with the studio to direct the film with Damon cast as the film’s stranded astronaut. Scott said he was attracted by the emphasis on science and thought a balance could be struck between entertainment and learning. Damon said he was attracted by the novel, the screenplay, and the opportunity to work with Scott.
Filming.
Korda Studios 26 kilometres (16 mi) west of Budapest, Hungary, in the wine-making village of Etyek was chosen for filming interior scenes of The Martian. It was favored for having one of the largest sound stages in the world. Filming began in Hungary on November 24, 2014. Around 20 sets were constructed for the film, which was filmed with 3D cameras. Actual potatoes were grown in a sound stage next to the one used for filming. They were planted at different times so that different stages of growth could be shown in film scenes. A team of six people built 15 suits for the film. External scenes, some with Matt Damon, were filmed in Wadi Rum, a UNESCO world heritage site located in Jordan, over eight days in March 2015. Wadi Rum had been used as a location for other films set on Mars, including Mission to Mars (2000), Red Planet (2000) and The Last Days on Mars (2013). Total filming time for the film lasted approximately 70 days.RELATED:
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NASA involvement.
When the novel was first published, NASA invited Weir to tour the Johnson Space Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. When Scott began preparing the film, Weir contacted NASA to collaborate on the film.[34] When Scott and producer Mark Huffam had their first production meeting, they called NASA and spoke with its film and television liaison Bert Ulrich. NASA decided to assist the filmmakers with depicting the science and technology in The Martian since it saw potential in promoting space exploration. Key NASA staff members that joined the partnership were James L. Green, the Director of the Planetary Science Division, and Dave Lavery, the Program Executive for Solar System Exploration. Scott conversed with Green twice before filming started. Over a period of a month, NASA answered hundreds of questions—on a weekly basis—on everything from radioisotope systems to the look of potential “habs”—the residences for future Mars astronauts. The questions were answered by Green or passed on to the right expert, and then came back to Scott’s team to make their way into the production.
The space agency also sent hundreds of files of real images of Mars and images of control centers, down to what the computer screens look like, to the production team. Green arranged a tour of the Johnson Space Center in Houston for production designer Arthur Max, who met with individual specialists, taking hundreds of photos as he went for eight hours. The production designer created a futuristic, heavily modernized Mission Control as a studio set; Ars Technica described its depiction as “the space agency that we all dream of” and the opposite of the real Johnson Center’s appearance as “a run down college campus”.
Newsweek said NASA collaborated more with The Martian than most other films: “Staff from many NASA departments consulted on the film, from script development through principal photography, and are now helping with marketing timed to the theatrical release.” As part of the collaboration, the production’s NASA liaison included the front page of the script for the film in the payload of the spacecraft Orion during its Exploration Flight Test 1 on December 5, 2014.
Box office.
Two months before The Martian’s release, BoxOffice forecast that the film would gross $46 million on its opening weekend in the United States and ultimately $172 million in its theatrical run. The magazine said positive factors for its performance included the continued sales of Weir’s novel, Scott’s success with past science fiction films, and the positive reception of prior space-based films Gravity (2013) and Interstellar (2014). The magazine said negative factors included Damon not being a consistent draw at the box office, Gravity and Interstellar setting high expectations. A week before the film’s release, pre-release trackings in North America (United States and Canada) showed that the film was on pace to earn between $40–50 million at its opening weekend from 3,826 theaters.RELATED:
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In comparison to other contemporary space films, Gravity, facing far less competition, opened to a better-than-expected $55.8 million in 2013. In November 2014, Interstellar debuted to $47.5 million. Unlike Gravity and Interstellar, which had the benefit of IMAX locations, boosting profits, The Martian was not initially playing in IMAX, since IMAX was committed to an exclusive run of Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk. The Martian played in more than 350 premium large-format theaters including 2,550 3D locations. Also, the film was released several days after the announcement of NASA’s discovery of water on Mars’ planetary surface, which might have aided in boosting its opening. Ticket selling website Fandango reported that the film was outselling Gravity. Unlike Gravity, The Martian did not contain abundant 3D spectacle (even though it was filmed in 3D), and was longer than Gravity.