The Martian (2015) ft. Braden Ganter

Guest:

• Braden Ganter

  • Attorney at Duncan Disability Law

  • Previously on Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Godfather - Part II

Cast:

• Ridley Scott, Director

• Drew Goddard, Writer

• Dariusz Wolski, Cinematography

• Harry Gregson-Williams, Music

• Matt Damon as Dr. Mark Watney

• Jessica Chastain as Commander Melissa Lewis

• Chiwetel Ejiofor as Vincent Kapoor

• Kristen Wiig as Annie Montrose

• Jeff Daniels as Theodore "Teddy" Sanders

• Michael Peña as Major Rick Martinez

• Sean Bean as Mitch Henderson

• Kate Mara as Beth Johanssen

• Sebastian Stan as Dr. Chris Beck

• Aksel Hennie as Dr. Alex Vogel

• Mackenzie Davis as Mindy Park

• Benedict Wong as Bruce Ng

• Donald Glover as Rich Purnell

• Chen Shu as Zhu Tao (Chinese: 朱涛)

• Eddy Ko as Guo Ming (Chinese: 郭明)

• Nick Mohammed as Tim Grimes

Background:

• The Martian was released on October 2, 2015 in the U.S.

• It grossed $228.4 million in the United States & Canada and $402.2 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $630.6 million against a budget of $108 million to finish #10 at the worldwide box office for 2015 and the highest grossing non-IP film of the year.

• The Martian was a critical success and was named by the National Board of Review and by the American Film Institute as one of the top-ten films of 2015.

• The Martian also received 7 Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Actor (Damon), Adapted Screenplay (Goddard), Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects.

• In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of The New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 174.

• The Martian currently holds a 91% among critics on RT, an 80 Metacritic score, and a 3.8/5 on Letterboxd.

Plot Summary: The Martian is a science fiction drama about astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon), who is stranded on Mars after his crew believes he died in a storm. Alone on the hostile planet, he must use his skills as a botanist and engineer to grow food, create water, and survive until rescue is possible. Back on Earth, NASA and its crew race against time to bring him home. The film showcases human resilience, ingenuity, and the power of teamwork in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Did You Know:

• The atmospheric pressure on the Martian surface averages 600 Pa (0.087 psi), about 0.6% of Earth's mean sea level pressure of 100 kPa (14.69 psi). It is so low that a "fierce storm", as they put it, would be something akin to a very light breeze messing up your hair. Author Andy Weir admitted this was his biggest inaccuracy in the story. Due to the low air density sound would not travel like it does on Earth and you would have to stand next to someone and scream for them to hear you, providing you could survive the freezing cold temperature, poisonous atmosphere and lack of pressure.

• In the novel, Mark Watney has two Masters degrees, one in botany and one in mechanical engineering. In the film, however, he has a PhD in botany and no engineering background is mentioned, although he is shown to have a knowledge of engineering and maintenance of the mission equipment.

• Rich Purnell slips and falls after he finds a way to rescue Mark Watney and tells his boss "I need more coffee." Donald Glover revealed in an interview that he slipped for real and just got up and continued to act, and the footage was retained in the final edits for the movie.

• Sir Ridley Scott claimed that Matt Damon's solo scenes were shot for five weeks straight, after which Damon was relieved from the schedule. Consequently, Damon did not see most of his co-stars again until the cast was reunited to promote the film.

• As Beck is about to take a dangerous trip outside the Hermes, Beth tells him to be careful because "In space...", an unfinished quote of the famous tagline ("In space, no one can hear you scream") from director Sir Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). In the novel, Watney logs in that tagline in full after leaving Mars.

Best Performance: Matt Damon (Mark)

Best Secondary Performance: Jeff Daniels (Teddy)/Ridley Scott (Director)

Most Charismatic Award: Jeff Daniels (Teddy)/Jessica Chastain (Lewis)/Soundtrack

Best Scene:

• Waking Up Stranded

• Discovering Mark

• Growing Potatoes

• Decaying Isotope

• Communications

• Rescue

Favorite Scene: Decaying Isotope/Communications/Rescue

Most Indelible Moment: Waking Up Stranded/Rescue

In Memorium:

• Sonny Curtis, 88, American Hall of Fame musician (The Crickets) and songwriter ("I Fought the Law", "Love is All Around")

• Claudia Cardinale, 87, Italian actress (The Pink Panther, 8 1/2)

Best Lines/Funniest Lines:

Mark Watney: I don't want to come off as arrogant here, but I'm the greatest botanist on this planet.

Mark Watney: In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option. I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this!

Mark Watney: So I'm going to be taking a craft over in international waters without permission, which by definition... makes me a pirate. Mark Watney: Space Pirate.

Mark Watney: [after finding out the intercept distance is too far] Did you say 312? Yeah, I'll just wave to you guys as I go by.

Mark Watney: They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially colonized it. So, technically, I colonized Mars.

Mark Watney: In your face, Neil Armstrong.

Mark Watney: At some point, everything's gonna go south on you... everything's going to go south and you're going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem... and you solve the next one... and then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home.

Mark Watney: I'm the first person to be alone on an entire planet.

Mark Watney: Good news; I may have a solution to my heating problem. Bad news; it involves me digging up the radio isotope thermoelectric generator.

Mark Watney: Luckily, in the history of humanity, nothing bad has ever happened from lighting hydrogen on fire.

Mark Watney: Tell Commander Lewis, disco sucks.

Mark Watney: Mars will come to fear my botany powers.

Vincent Kapoor: How's he doing?

Mindy Park: Uh... He asked us to call him Captain Blondebeard.

Mark Watney: I am definitely gonna die up here, if I have to listen to any more of Commander Lewis's god-awful disco music. My God, Commander, could you have not brought something from this century? No, I won't 'turn the beat around'; I refuse to.

The Stanley Rubric:

Legacy: 7.17

Impact/Significance: 8.67

Novelty: 6.17

Classic-ness: 6.33

Rewatchability: 7.17

Audience Score: 9.0 (89% Google, 91% RT)

Total: 44.51

Remaining Questions:

• In what world are the Chinese voluntarily willing to help Americans with their own secret technology when they don't have to?

• How is the attention of the world transfixed for a year and a half?

• How did they settle on the rescue plan in the planning of the movie?