[77] Ticket selling website Fandango reported that the film was outselling Gravity. ", "One Person Who Doesn't Think 'The Martian' Was Whitewashed? Sanders vetoes the "Rich Purnell Maneuver", as it would entail risking the other crewmembers, but Henderson secretly emails the details to Hermes. [8][36] In May 2014, it was reported that Ridley Scott was in negotiations to direct an adaptation that would star Matt Damon as Mark Watney. Himler said it "came as no surprise" that NASA astronauts in the International Space Station were reported by The Guardian and CBS News as having read Weir's novel and hoping to see the film on board the ISS. For this accidental castaway, space is the place where he's physically marooned, but also where his mind is set free", from a film director, whose "great, persistent theme is what it means to be human". During the hurried evacuation, an antenna tears loose and impales astronaut Mark Watney, a botanist and engineer, also disabling his spacesuit radio. He's a wiseacre with a tendency to steer well clear of existential matters. It was his debut novel under his own name. As Watney recovers, he begins a video diary. In the novel, the character's name was Venkat Kapoor, and he identifies religiously as a Hindu (a Baptist and a Hindu in the film).

He is flung out of sight by the wind and presumed dead. [65] NASA participated in the marketing of the film despite its lack of involvement with previous films. 1; 'The Walk' Opens in Imax", "Forecast: Can 'The Martian' Top 'Gravity's October Record?
After returning to Earth, Watney becomes a survival instructor for astronaut candidates. [21] Actual potatoes were grown in a sound stage next to the one used for filming. [124], Writing for the New York Post, Lou Lumenick considered the film to be Scott's and Damon's best and thought that it is a "straightforward and thrilling survival-and-rescue adventure, without the metaphysical and emotional trappings of Interstellar". "[123] According to aerospace engineer Dr. Robert Zubrin, commenting in The Guardian: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, [The film] is the first genuine Mars movie. "[118] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [7], Naomi Scott was cast as Ryoko, a member of the JPL team.

Watney resumes modifying the rover because the new rescue plan requires him to lift off from Mars in the Ares 4 MAV. [77] Unlike Gravity, The Martian did not contain abundant 3D spectacle (even though it was filmed in 3D), and was longer than Gravity. "[44] British physicist Brian Cox said, "The Martian is the best advert for a career in engineering I've ever seen.
You can be Venkat Kapoor and black. 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). [4] USA Today rated The Martian three out of four stars, calling it "terrific stuff, a crackling good read" but noting that "Mark's unflappability, perhaps the book's biggest asset, is also its greatest weakness. [89][90] The film's Friday gross included $2.5 million from late-night Thursday screenings that took place in 2,800 theaters.

[8] Weir had previously used the concept of humans stranded on Mars in his webcomic Casey and Andy. Twenty sets were built on one of the largest sound stages in the world in Budapest, Hungary. [108] It opened in Japan on February 5, 2016 under the name Odyssey,[100][109] where it earned $5.2 million from 8,333 screens in its three-day opening weekend, debuting at No. [139] When Scott began directing the film, he also sought to make it realistic and received help from James L. Green, the Director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA's Science Mission Directorate. [88], In North America, it opened on Friday, October 2, 2015, and earned $18.06 million on its opening day of which $2 million came from premium large formats from 3,831 theaters. The audiobook was nominated and won an Audie Award (2014) in the Science Fiction category. However, Watney is not dead. [34] 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. The Martian, a 2011 novel by Andy Weir, served as the screenplay adapted by Drew Goddard. [2] 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. A deal with the China National Space Administration provides a ready booster—planned for use with the Taiyang Shen, an unmanned solar probe—to try again. [2][3][4] The Martian, a film adaptation directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon, was released in October 2015.[5]. He then plants the crew's unused potatoes. The story follows an American astronaut, Mark Watney, as he becomes stranded alone on Mars in 2035[1] and must improvise in order to survive. [21][24][25] 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).

After only six sols, an intense dust and wind storm threatens to topple their Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), which would trap them on the planet. ", "21st Century Fox Earnings: Cable Gains Can't Lift Weaker Film Results", "No. [99], Internationally, The Martian was released in a total of 81 countries. Produced through 20th Century Fox, the film is a co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States. Beck, the Hermes' EVA specialist, uses a Manned Maneuvering Unit, MMU, on a tether to reach Watney and bring him back to Hermes.

In a final log entry, Watney expresses his joy at being rescued, reflecting on the human instinct to help those in need. However, there are a number of technical mistakes. He explained, "For me the rehearsal process was sitting with Ridley and going kind of line-by-line and moment-by-moment through the script and playing out a plan of attack for what we wanted each scene to accomplish. "[29] Amazing Stories commented, "Andy Weir's The Martian will leave you as breathless as if you'd been dropped on the Martian surface without a suit". He begins a log of his experiences. [119] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale,[120] while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an average 4.5 out of 5 stars and a 66% "definite recommend". NASA director Teddy Sanders publicly releases the news, though the Ares III crew (still en route to Earth) are not told so that they remained focused on their mission. [35] Scott conversed with Green twice before filming started. Fans of The Martian's book form will love our first deleted scene, as Sebastan Stan's Beck and Kate Mara's Johannsen were finally revealed as being a … However, astrodynamicist Rich Purnell devises a "slingshot" trajectory around Earth for a gravity assist[7] that could get Hermes back to Mars on a much-extended mission to save Watney, using the Chinese rocket booster to send a simpler resupply probe to Hermes as it passes Earth. 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.