In the last three years, there has been a spate of space movies in Hollywood (a resurgence, if you may) — Prometheus , Europa Report , Oblivion , Gravity , Interstellar — and it’s no surprise that Ridley Scott ( Alien, Blade Runner ) is at it again with his next space/sci-fi venture titled The Martian , with Matt Damon playing astronaut Mark Watney, who is stranded on Mars after a mission gone wrong due to a dust storm.
The trailer, which released yesterday, begins with a series of shots of the NASA facility, the astronauts, and what looks like the surface of Mars, with a voiceover from Mark, who explains that it’s human nature to help each other out whether they are search parties for lost hikers or raising money for disaster relief, “This instinct is found in every culture, without exception.”
From there, we’re introduced to Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) addressing a press conference at the facility, who explains that the organisation is keeping track of a giant storm that hit a Mars settlement, forcing the crew to abort their mission. While most of them successfully escape, Mark is believed to be dead. Moments later, Mark wakes up from being unconscious on the surface of Mars.
Matt Damon, who played a brief but similar role in Interstellar , starts his survival mission with a dramatic, “I’m left with only one option. I’m gonna need to science the s*** out of this.” As he realises that he might need an obscene amount of food to survive (for roughly three-four years), Mark decides to grow his own food... on a planet where nothing grows. It has all the makings of a steely survivalist movie. He also manages to contact NASA, sending them a video message, which Jessica Chastain’s character, Melissa Lewis, receives successfully. Mark’s shout of jubilation there is almost “sacrilegious” as he proclaims, “In your face, Neil Armstrong!” It’s sacrilegious, explains Damon in an interview later, because, “You can’t really say anything bad about Neil Armstrong... but in his situation (Mark Watney), stranded on Mars by himself, you know, he’s kinda the one person qualified to say that line. That’s the joke about that line.”
The film, which is adapted from the book of the same name by Andy Weir, is all about Matt Damon’s character trying to survive alone on Mars. It also features an immense star cast — Jessica Chastain, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig, Donald Glover, and, of course, Jeff Daniels, as the NASA administrator, who might just possibly be the bad guy, but it’s too soon to predict yet. The footage in the trailer features a stunningly red planet with Damon in a nice orange suit. While there have been comparisons to Interstellar and Gravity , The Martian seems more similar to Saving Private Ryan . One thing is for sure, for now, Mark Watney is just about the only life on Mars.
The Martian is scheduled to release on November 25.
