Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Kate Mara, Michael Pena, Kristen Wiig, Sebastian Stan, Sean Bean, Donald Glover, Mackenzie Davis
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story:
Sci-fi action adventure directed by Ridley Scott in which the story centers on astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) who during a manned mission to Mars is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet.
With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring him home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return.
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Best Quotes
Melissa Lewis: Mark! Mark! Can you hear me? Martinez, what about the proximity radar? Could that detect Watney’s suit?
Rick Martinez: It’s made to see the Hermes from orbit not a little piece of metal from a single suit.
Melissa Lewis: Give it a try.
Rick Martinez: Roger.
Chris Beck: What is she thinking? She knows the infrared can’t get through a sandstorm.
Rick Martinez: She’s grasping for anything.
Chris Beck: We’ve got negative contact on the proximity radar.
Melissa Lewis: Nothing?
Rick Martinez: No. I can barely see the Hab.
Chris Beck: Commander, I know you don’t want to hear this, but Mark is dead. Commander!
Rick Martinez: Hey, what the hell is wrong with you, man?
Chris Beck: My friend just died. I don’t want my commander to die, too.
[talking into the video]
Mark Watney: Hello, this is Mark Watney, astronaut. I’m entering this log for the record in case I don’t make it. It is 06:53 on Sol 19 and I’m alive. Obviously. But I’m guessing that’s going to come as a surprise to my crewmates and to NASA. And to the entire world, really, so… Surprise. I did not die on Sol 18. Best I can figure this length of our primary communications antenna broke off and tore through my bio-monitor and ripped a hole in me as well. But the antenna and the blood, really, managed to seal the breach in my suit which kept me alive, even though the crew must have thought I was dead. I have no way to contact NASA. And even if I could, it’s going to be four years until a manned mission can reach me. And I’m in a Hab designed to last 31 days. If the oxygenator breaks, I’m going to suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks, I’ll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I’m just going to, kind of implode. And if by some miracle, none of that happens eventually I’m going to run out of food. So…yeah. Yeah. I’m not going to die here.
Mark Watney: What do we got? Right, let’s do the math. Our surface mission here was supposed to last 31 sols. For redundancy, they sent 68 sols worth of food. That’s for 6 people. So for just me, that’s going to last 300 sols which I figure I can stretch to 400 if I ration. So I got to figure out a way to grow three years’ worth of food here. On a planet where nothing grows. Luckily I’m a botanist. Mars will come to fear my botany powers.
Mark Watney: The problem is water. I have created 126 square meters of soil. But every cubic meter of soil requires 40 liters of water to be farmable. So I got to make a lot more water. Good thing is, I know the recipe. You take hydrogen, you add oxygen, you burn. Now, I have hundreds of liters of unused hydrazine at the MDV. If I run the hydrazine over an iridium catalyst, it’ll separate into N2 and H2. And then if I just direct the hydrogen into a small area and burn it. Luckily, in the history of humanity nothing bad has ever happened from lighting hydrogen on fire. NASA hates fire. Because of the whole “fire makes everybody die in space” thing.
Mark Watney: So, everything they sent us up here with is flame-retardant with the notable exception of Martinez’s personal items. I am sorry, Martinez, but if you didn’t want me to go through your stuff You shouldn’t have left me for dead on a desolate planet. By the way, I’m figuring you’re going to be fine with this, given my present situation. Counting on you.
Mark Watney: Wooh! So, yeah, I blew myself up. Best guess I forgot to account for the excess oxygen that I’ve been exhaling when I did my calculations. Because I’m stupid. Yeah, I’m going to get back to work here, just as soon as my ears stop ringing. Interesting side note, this is actually how the Jet Propulsion Lab was founded. Five guys at Caltech were trying to make rocket fuel and they nearly burned down their dorm. And rather than expel them they banished them to a nearby farm, told them to keep working. And now we have a space program.
Mark Watney: F*** you Mars.
[after Mindy has discovered that Watney may be alive]
Teddy Sanders: How sure?
Vincent Kapoor: A 100%.
Annie Montrose: You’ve got to be s**tting me.
Teddy Sanders: Prove it to me.
Vincent Kapoor: For a start the solar panels have been cleaned.
Teddy Sanders: They could have been cleaned by wind.
Vincent Kapoor: Back it up. Look at Rover 2. According to the logs, Commander Lewis took it out on Sol 17 plugged it into the Hab to recharge. It’s been moved.
Teddy Sanders: She could have forgotten to log the move.
Mindy Park: No, not likely.
Annie Montrose: Well why don’t we just ask Lewis? Let’s get on CAPCOM and ask her directly right now.
Teddy Sanders: No. No. If Watney is really alive, we don’t want the Ares 3 crew to know.
Annie Montrose: How…how can you not tell them?
Teddy Sanders: They have another 10 months on their trip home. Space travel is dangerous. They need to be alert and undistracted.
Annie Montrose: But they already think he’s dead.
Vincent Kapoor: And they’d be devastated to find out they left him there alive.
Annie Montrose: I’m sorry, but you have not thought this through. I mean, what are we going to say? “Dear America, remember that astronaut we killed and had a really nice funeral for? Turns out he’s alive and we left him on Mars. Our bad. Sincerely, NASA.” I mean, do you realize the s**tstorm that is about to hit us?
Teddy Sanders: How are we going to handle the public?
Annie Montrose: Legally, we have 24 hours to release these pictures.
Teddy Sanders: We release a statement with them. We don’t want people working it out on their own.
Annie Montrose: Yes, sir.
Teddy Sanders: But if my math is right, he’s going to starve to death long before we can help him.
Vincent Kapoor: Can you imagine what he’s going through up there? I mean, he’s 50 million miles away from home. He thinks he’s totally alone. He thinks we gave up on him. What does that do to a man, psychologically? What the hell is he thinking right now?
[we see Watney drying himself from having a shower whilst listening to “Turn the Beat Around”]
Mark Watney: I’m definitely going to die up here if I have to listen to any more god-awful disco music. My God, Commander Lewis, couldn’t you have packed anything from this century? No. No, I am not going to “turn the beat around.” I refuse to.
Mark Watney: It’s time to start thinking long term. The next NASA mission is Ares 4 and it’s supposed to land at Schiaparelli Crater thirty-two hundred kilometers away. Thirty-two hundred kilometers. In four years, when the next Ares crew arrives, I’ll have to be there. Which means I have to get to the crater. Okay, so here’s the rub. I’ve got one working Rover designed to go a max distance of 35 kilometers before the battery has to be recharged at the Hab. That’s Problem A. Problem B is this journey’s going to take me roughly 50 days to complete. So I got to live for 50 days inside a Rover with marginal life support the size of a small van. So in the face of overwhelming odds, I’m left with only one option. I’m going to have to science the s**t out of this.
Mark Watney: Okay, so, success. Uh, I have doubled my battery life by scavenging Rover 1. But if I use the heater I will burn through half my battery every day. If I do not use my heater, I will be slowly killed by the laws of thermodynamics. I would love to solve this problem right now but, unfortunately, my balls are frozen.
[looking like he’s freezing]
Mark Watney: I can’t. I’m calling it. I’m calling it.
[he turns off recording and drives off]
Mark Watney: Good news, I may have a solution to my heating problem. Bad news, it involves me digging up the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. Now, if I remember my training correctly, one of the lessons was titled “Don’t dig up the big box of plutonium, Mark.” I get it. RTGs are good for spacecraft, but if they rupture around humans no more humans, which is why we buried it when we arrived. And planted that flag so we would never be stupid enough to accidentally go near it again. But as long as I don’t break it, I almost just said “everything will be fine” out loud. Look, the point is, I’m not cold anymore. And sure, I could choose to think about the fact that I’m warm because I have a decaying radioactive isotope riding right behind me but right now, I got bigger problems on my hands. I have scoured every single data file on Commander Lewis’ personal drive. This is officially the least disco song she owns.
[he puts on the music which plays Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff”]
[after Kapoor’s announcement to the press that they will bring Watney home alive]
Teddy Sanders: Don’t say “Bring him home alive,” Vincent.
Vincent Kapoor: You know, these interviews aren’t easy. So God forbid I try to say something proactive and positive.
Teddy Sanders: Annie.
Annie Montrose: No more Vincent on TV. Copy that.
Teddy Sanders: Bruce, what’s the earliest we can get a pre-supply there?
Bruce Ng: Well, with the positions of Earth and Mars it’ll take nine months. It’ll take six months to build it in the first place.
Teddy Sanders: Three months.
Bruce Ng: Three? That’s…
Teddy Sanders: You’re going to say it’s impossible and then I’m going to make a speech about the blinding capabilities of the JPL team and then you’re going to do the math in your head and say something like, “The overtime alone will be a nightmare.”
Bruce Ng: The overtime alone will be a nightmare.
Teddy Sanders: Get started. I’ll find you the money.
Mitch Henderson: We need to tell the crew.
Teddy Sanders: Mitch, we’ve discussed this.
Mitch Henderson: No, you discussed this. I’m the one who decides what’s best for the crew. They deserve to know.
Teddy Sanders: Once there’s a real rescue plan, we’ll tell them, otherwise, it’s moot. Bruce has three months to get the payload done. That’s all that matters right now.
Vincent Kapoor: We’ll do our best.
Teddy Sanders: Mark dies if you don’t.
Mark Watney: It’s been 48 sols since I planted the potatoes. So now it’s time to reap and re-sow. They grew even better than I expected. I now have 400 healthy potato plants. I dug them up, being careful to leave their plants alive. The smaller ones I’ll reseed, the larger ones are my food supply. All natural, organic, Martian-grown potatoes. You don’t hear that every day, do you? And by the way, none of this matters at all if I can’t figure out a way to make contact with NASA. I know what I’m going to do.
[after finds the Pathfinder probe he sets it up and after a while the camera starts working, so he makes some signs in order to communicate with NASA]
Tim Grimes: Okay. Camera. Incoming.
[he reads Watney’s signs]
Vincent Kapoor: “Are you receiving me?” Yes. No.” Okay, point the camera at “yes.”
Tim Grimes: 32-minute round-trip communications time. All he can do is ask yes or no questions and all we can do is point the camera. This won’t exactly be an Algonquin Round Table of snappy repartee.
Vincent Kapoor: Are you kidding me?
Bruce Ng: Tim, Tim.
Vincent Kapoor: Just point the camera.
Tim Grimes: Roger that. Pointing the camera.
[back on Mars Watney sees the camera point to “yes”]
Mark Watney: Wooh! Yes! Yes!
Mark Watney: So here’s the rub. Somehow we have to have complex astrophysical engineering conversations using nothing but a still-frame camera from 1996. Luckily the camera does spin, so I can make an alphabet. It can’t be our alphabet. 26 characters plus a question card into 360 gives us 13 degrees of arc. That’s way too narrow. I’d never know what the camera was pointing at.
[after thinking about it for a moment]
Mark Watney: Hexadecimals. Hexadecimals to the rescue. I figured one of you guys kept an ASCII table lying around. And I was right. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you super-nerd Beth Johanssen. Who also had copies of Zork II and Leather Goddesses of Phobos on her personal laptop. Seriously, Johanssen, it’s like the Smithsonian of loneliness on there. Not that I’m complaining. Who am I to talk about loneliness?
Mark Watney: Now that we can have more complicated conversations the smart people at NASA have sent me instructions on how to hack the Rover so that it can talk to Pathfinder. If I hack a tiny bit of code just 20 instructions in the Rover’s operating system NASA can link the Rover to Pathfinder’s broadcasting frequency and we’re in business.
[Kapoor and Watney start communicating through the Pathfinder using the Rover]
Vincent Kapoor: “Mark, this is Vincent Kapoor. We’ve been watching you since Sol 54. The whole world is rooting for you. Amazing job getting Pathfinder. We’re working on rescue plans. Meantime, we’re putting together a supply mission to keep you fed until Ares 4 arrives.”
Mark Watney: Okay. Okay.
[Watney starts typing and they read it back in NASA]
Tim Grimes: “Glad to hear it. Really looking forward to not dying. How’s the crew? What did they say when they found out I was alive?”
[Kapoor doesn’t reply so Watney types “RU receiving? Kapoor clears everyone out the room before he replies to Watney]
Vincent Kapoor: “We haven’t told the crew you are alive yet. We need them to concentrate on their mission.”
[we see Watney looking visibly upset, through the Rover window we see him yelling “What the f***? What the f***?]
Tim Grimes: Okay, he says, “They don’t know I’m alive? What the F-word. F-word in gerund form. F-word, again, is wrong with you?”
Vincent Kapoor: “Mark, please watch your language. Everything you type is being broadcast live all over the world.”
Mark Watney: Yeah?
[Watney starts typing a reply filled with even more swearing]
Vincent Kapoor: Oh, my God.
[after Watney’s swearing being broadcast live across the world; Teddy is on the phone to the president]
Teddy Sanders: Yes, sir. He is under a tremendous amount of stress. I understand. We’re working on it. I’m sure he didn’t mean what he said. Thank you, Mr. President.
Mitch Henderson: Problem is, Mark’s right. The longer we wait, the worse it’s going to get. We need to tell the crew.
Teddy Sanders: You’re bringing this up while Vincent is in Pasadena so he can’t argue the other side.
Mitch Henderson: I shouldn’t have to answer to Vincent, or anyone else. It’s time, Teddy.
[after Henderson’s told them that Watney is alive]
Chris Beck: Holy s**t, he’s alive.
Melissa Lewis: I left him behind.
Beth Johanssen: No.
Chris Beck: No. We all left together.
Melissa Lewis: You were following orders. I left him behind.
Mark Watney: So now that NASA can talk to me, they won’t shut up. They want constant updates on every Hab system and they got a room full of people trying to micromanage my crops, which is awesome. Look, I don’t mean to sound arrogant or anything but I am the greatest botanist on this planet, so.
Mark Watney: Oh, one big bonus to this communication with NASA again, is the email. I’m getting them again, big data dumps like when I was on the Hermes, I even got one from the president. The coolest one, though, the coolest one I got was from University of Chicago, my alma mater. They say that once you grow crops somewhere you’ve officially colonized it. So, technically…I colonized Mars. In your face, Neil Armstrong.
Mark Watney: In other news, there’s been a request for me to pose for a photograph on my next transmission. I’m trying to figure out whether I should go with “High School Senior” or “Coquettish Ingénue.” But I’m not really sure how that’s going to look with my spacesuit on.
[after Watney sends them a photo of himself doing a Fonz like pose]
Annie Montrose: What is he doing? I asked for a photo, and what, he’s The Fonz?
Vincent Kapoor: Just be grateful we got you something, Annie.
Annie Montrose: I can’t use this, Vincent, and you know that. I need a picture of his face.
Vincent Kapoor: Well, I could tell him to take off his helmet but then he’d, you know, die, so.
[after Watney loses his crops due to the airlock decompressing and blowing out his crops in this habitat]
Vincent Kapoor: Crops are dead. Complete loss of pressure boiled off most of the water. Any bacteria that survived, died in the subzero temperatures when exposed to Mars’ atmosphere.
Annie Montrose: How long does he have?
Vincent Kapoor: Well he can still eat the potatoes he has, he just can’t grow any more, so get him 200 sols.
Teddy Sanders: Rations get him to what? Sol 409?
Vincent Kapoor: Mm-hmm. So with potatoes, 609.
Annie Montrose: So by Sol 868, he’ll be long dead.
Teddy Sanders: We’re going to have to launch as soon as possible which changes our travel time.
Mitch Henderson: Yeah, we’re working on it. Prelim estimates call for a 414-day trip.
Teddy Sanders: It’s Sol 135 now. We need 13 days to mount the boosters, perform inspections which gives Bruce and his team 47 days to make this probe.
[to Vincent]
Teddy Sanders: I’ll let you call Bruce, give him the news.
[back with Lewis and her team, Martinez is typing his communication to Watney as Lewis and the others watches on]
Rick Martinez: Dear Mark, apparently NASA’s letting us talk to you now, and I drew the short straw. Sorry we left you behind on Mars. But we just don’t like you. Also, it’s a lot roomier on the Hermes without you. We have to take turns doing your tasks. But, I mean, it’s only botany. It’s not real science. How’s Mars?
[Watney chuckles to himself as he reads Marinez’s message and then types out his reply]
Mark Watney: Dear Martinez, Mars is fine. I accidentally blew up the Hab but unfortunately, all of Commander Lewis’ disco music still survived. Every day, I go outside and look at the vast horizons..
[Martinez reads out his reply to the others]
Rick Martinez: Every day, I go outside and look at the vast horizons.”
Mark Watney: Just because I can.
Rick Martinez: Just because I can. Tell the others I said hello.
[Martinez replies]
Rick Martinez: Will do, buddy.
[back at NASA as they try to find a way to rescue Watney quicker]
Teddy Sanders: All right, let’s ask the very, very expensive question.Is the probe going to be ready on time?
We’re behind.
Teddy Sanders: Give me a number.
Bruce Ng: 15 days. 15 days and I can get it done.
Teddy Sanders: All right, let’s create 15 days. 13 days to mount the probe. Can we reduce?
Vincent Kapoor: It actually only takes three days to mount the probe. And we can get that down to two, right?
Bruce Ng: I can get it down to two.
Vincent Kapoor: 10 days are for tests and inspections.
Teddy Sanders: How often do those inspections reveal a problem?
Mitch Henderson: Are you suggesting we don’t do the inspections?
Teddy Sanders: Right now I’m asking how often they reveal a problem.
Vincent Kapoor: One in 20. But that’s grounds for countdown halt.
Mitch Henderson: Well we can’t take that chance.
Teddy Sanders: Anyone else know a safer way to buy more time?
[nobody answers]
Teddy Sanders: Dr. Keller, stretch Watney’s rations four more days. You’re not going to like it, but that’ll get us to 15. And we’ll cancel the inspections.
Vincent Kapoor: Teddy.
Annie Montrose: Sir, if that ever got out…
Teddy Sanders: It’s on me. You got your two weeks. Get it done.
[as he cuts his food rations]
Mark Watney: So, now I have to hold out until the probe gets here with more food. You want to see what minimal calorie count looks like? Standard issue ration. But instead of three of these every one day, I’m now eating one of these
every three days. And now, they’ve asked me to do that.
[he cuts his food to more than half the rations he’s used to]
Mark Watney: The point is “stretch the rations four more days” is a real d**k-punch. I’m, uh, I’m going to dip this potato in some crushed Vicodin. And there’s nobody who can stop me.
[he takes the pills from the bottle and crushes some into his potato and starts eating them]
Mark Watney: It has been seven days since I ran out of ketchup.
[Cape Carnave – IRIS Probe Launch; NASA is getting ready to launch the probe to resupply Watney]
Mitch Henderson: Do you believe in God, Vincent?
Vincent Kapoor: Yeah. Yeah, my father was a Hindu, my mother’s a Baptist, so yeah, I believe in several.
Mitch Henderson: We’ll take all the help we can get.
Launch Control: Launch status check complete.
Mitch Henderson: This is Flight. We are go for launch.
Launcher Interface: Proceeding with the count. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6…
Capcom: Main engines start.
Launcher Interface: 4, 3, 2, 1. Liftoff.
Capcom: Good thrust. Performance is nominal.
Launch Control: The tail is giving good data.
Capcom: She’s rock solid at this point, Flight. TVCs look good.
[everyone starts cheering, but one of the controllers looks over to Henderson]
NASA Staff Member: We’re getting a little shimmy, Flight.
Mitch Henderson: Say again?
NASA Staff Member: We are getting a very large precession.
Vincent Kapoor: Are we good?
Launcher Interface: Flight, it’s hitting the redline.
NASA Staff Member: It’s spinning on the long axis around a 17-degree precession.
Mitch Henderson: Launch, what’s happening?
Guidance: Force on Iris is 7 G’s. We’ve lost readings on the probe, Flight.
[suddenly the probe explodes]
Mitch Henderson: S**t.
Vincent Kapoor: Oh, Jesus Christ.
[Sol 186 – after the probe explosion Marks types out a message for Lewis]
Mark Watney: Commander Lewis, I may need you to do something for me. If I die I need you to check in on my parents. They’ll want to hear all about our time here on Mars. I know that sucks, and it’ll be hard talking to a couple about their dead son. It’s a lot to ask, which is why I’m asking you. I’m not giving up, we just need to prepare for every outcome. Please tell them, tell them I love what I do and I’m really good at it. And that I’m dying for something big and beautiful and greater than me. Tell them I said I can live with that. And tell them thank you for being my mom and dad.
[astrodynamicist Rich Purnell bursts into Kapoor’s office]
Rich Purnell: You should hang up the phone.
Vincent Kapoor: I’m sorry, who are you?
Rich Purnell: Rich Purnell. I work in Astrodynamics, and you should hang up the phone right now.
[to his assistant who comes up behind Purnell to take him]
Vincent Kapoor: All right, all right.
[into his phone]
Vincent Kapoor: I’m going to call you back.
Rich Purnell: I know how to save Mark Watney. Your probe plan won’t work. Too many things can go wrong. I’ve got a better way.
[he hands Kapoor a piece of paper]
Vincent Kapoor: Astrodynamics?
Rich Purnell: Yeah.
[discussing Purnell’s idea of saving Watney]
Annie Montrose: What the hell is “Project Elrond”?
Vincent Kapoor: I had to make something up.
Annie Montrose: But “Elrond”?
Mitch Henderson: Because it’s a secret meeting.
Annie Montrose: How do you know that? Why does “Elrond” mean “secret meeting”?
Bruce Ng: The Council of Elrond, it’s from Lord of the Rings. It’s the meeting where they decide to destroy the One Ring.
Teddy Sanders: If we’re going to call something “Project Elrond” I would like my code name to be “Glorfindel.”
Annie Montrose: Okay, I hate every one of you.
Mitch Henderson: What, Teddy doesn’t even know about this yet?
Annie Montrose: I’m sorry, who are you?
Vincent Kapoor: This is Rich Purnell, Astrodynamics. Tell them what you just told me.
Rich Purnell: I can get the Hermes back to Mars by Sol 561.
Teddy Sanders: How?
[Purnell stands then points to Annie]
Rich Purnell: Could you stand right there for me, please?
[Annie goes to stand at the spot he’s pointing to]
Rich Purnell: Thanks. Right there. Great.
[pointing to Sanders]
Rich Purnell: And could you stand right there?
[Sanders moves to the spot]
Rich Purnell: Right there.
[Purnell takes the stapler on the desk]
Rich Purnell: Okay, let’s pretend that this stapler is the Hermes and you are, I’m sorry, what’s your name again?
Teddy Sanders: Teddy. I’m the Director of NASA.
Rich Purnell: Cool. Teddy, you’re Earth. Right now, the Hermes is headed towards you starting its month-long deceleration to intercept. But instead, what I’m proposing is…
[he starts going around Sanders]
Rich Purnell: We start accelerating immediately to preserve velocity and gain even more. We don’t intercept with Earth at all but we come close enough to get a gravity assist and adjust course. And while we’re doing that…
[he takes the pen from Sanders front coat pocket and puts it between the stapler]
Rich Purnell: We resupply with the probe…
Vincent Kapoor: The Taiyang Shen.
Rich Purnell: Pick up whatever provisions we need and now we’re accelerating towards Mars.
[Purnells walks towards Annie]
Rich Purnell: You’re Mars. Now, we’re going too fast at this point to fall into orbit, but we can do a flyby.
Bruce Ng: What good is a flyby if we can’t get Watney off the surface?
Vincent Kapoor: Watney would intercept using the MAV.
[he picks up a pen and stabs the end of it on Annie’s head]
Annie Montrose: Ow!
[Kapoor places the pen back in between the stapler Purnell’s holidng, who then turns]
Rich Purnell: And then we just head home.
[he walks back towards Sanders]
Rich Purnell: I’ve done the math, it checks out.
Teddy Sanders: Rich?
Rich Purnell: Yes, sir.
Teddy Sanders: Get out.
Rich Purnell: All right.
[he places the pen back in Sanders coat pocket then walks out of the meeting room]
[after Purnell leaves the meeting room]
Teddy Sanders: Is he right?
Vincent Kapoor: Yeah.
Teddy Sanders: Bruce, what do you think?
Bruce Ng: Well, if Vincent says so.
Teddy Sanders: We need to use the Taiyang Shen?
Vincent Kapoor: Uh-huh.
Annie Montrose: What am I missing? Why is that important?
Vincent Kapoor: Because we can only do one.
Teddy Sanders: Send Watney enough food to last till Ares 4 or send Hermes back to get him right now.
Vincent Kapoor: Both plans require the Taiyang Shen, so we have to choose.
Annie Montrose: But what about the Hermes crew? We’d be asking them to add 533 extra days to their mission.
Mitch Henderson: Yeah, they wouldn’t hesitate, not for a second.
Teddy Sanders: Can the Hermes function for 533 days beyond the scheduled mission end?
Vincent Kapoor: It should. Built to last the full Ares mission, so technically it’s only halfway through its lifespan.
Annie Montrose: But if something goes wrong…
Vincent Kapoor: Then we lose the crew.
Bruce Ng: So what? We either have a high chance of killing one person or a low chance of killing six people. How do we make that decision?
Vincent Kapoor: We don’t have to make it, Bruce.
[points to Sanders]
Vincent Kapoor: He does.
Mitch Henderson: Yeah, well, bulls**t. It should be Commander Lewis’s call.
Teddy Sanders: We still have a chance to bring five astronauts home safe and sound. I’m not risking their lives.
Mitch Henderson: Let them make that decision.
Teddy Sanders: Mitch, we’re going with option one.
Mitch Henderson: You’re goddamn coward.
[Henderson walks out in anger]
[after Henderson sends secretly sends Purnell’s the plan to the Hermes crew via an email attachment]
Melissa Lewis: And the mission concludes with Earth intercept, 211 days later.
Rick Martinez: Would it work?
Melissa Lewis: Mm-hmm. We ran the numbers. They check out.
Alex Vogel: It’s a brilliant course.
Chris Beck: So why all the cloak and dagger?
Rick Martinez: Because it goes directly against NASA’s decision.
Melissa Lewis: Yeah. If we do the maneuver, they’d have to send the supply ship or we die. We have the opportunity to force their hand.
Beth Johanssen: So, are we going to do it?
Melissa Lewis: If it was up to me, we’d already be on our way.
Rick Martinez: But it is, though, isn’t it? Up to you.
Melissa Lewis: Not this time. This is something NASA expressly rejected.
Melissa Lewis: We’re talking about mutiny here, which is not a word that I take lightly. So we do this together or not at all.
[to Martinez as he’s about to speak]
Melissa Lewis: And before you answer, consider the consequences. If we mess up the supply rendezvous, we die. If we mess up the Earth gravity assist, we die. If we do everything perfectly we add 533 days to our mission. 533 more days before we see our families again. 533 days of unplanned space travel where anything could go wrong. If it’s mission critical, we die.
Rick Martinez: Sign me up.
Melissa Lewis: All right, cowboy, slow down. You and I, we’re military. Chances are, we go home, they’ll court martial us.
Rick Martinez: Oh, yeah, there’s that.
Melissa Lewis: And for the rest of you guys I guarantee they will never send you back up here again.
Chris Beck: Good. So, if we go for it, how would it work?
Alex Vogel: I plot the course and execute it.
Beth Johanssen: Remote override. They could take over the Hermes from Mission Control.
Melissa Lewis: Can you disable it?
Beth Johanssen: Hermes has four redundant flight computers each connected to three redundant comm systems. We can’t shut down the comms because we’d lose telemetry and guidance. And we can’t shut down the computers because we need to run the ship. I’d have to disable remote override on each system. It’s part of the OS, I’d have to jump over the code.
Rick Martinez: Okay, but, like, in English, what would that mean?
Beth Johanssen: I can do it.
Melissa Lewis: Great. Well, it has to be unanimous.
Alex Vogel: If we do this, it’ll be over 900 days of space. That’s more than enough space for one life. So, yes.
Rick Martinez: I vote yes.
Chris Beck: Let’s go get him.
Melissa Lewis: Johanssen?
Beth Johanssen: Yes.
Chris Beck: Yeah!
[they laugh and cheer]
[Hermes sends a message to NASA headquarters]
Guidance: Got an unscheduled status update from Hermes.
Flight: Roger. Read it out.
Guidance: Message reads, “Houston, please be advised. Rich Purnell is a steely-eyed missile man.”
Flight: What?
Guidance: Flight, Guidance. Hermes is off-course.
Flight: CAPCOM, advise Hermes they’re drifting. Guidance, get a correction ready.
Guidance: Negative, Flight, it’s not drift. They’ve adjusted course.
Flight: What the hell? Telemetry, any chance this is instrumentation failure?
Telemetry: Negative, Flight.
Flight: Guidance, work at how long they can stay on this course before it’s irreversible.
Guidance: Working on that now, Flight.
[he turns and says quietly to Mindy]
Flight: Who’s Rich Purnell?
Mindy Park: I don’t know.
Flight: Will somebody find out who the hell Rich Purnell is?
[Henderson meets with Sanders]
Teddy Sanders: Annie will go before the media this morning and inform them of NASA’s decision to reroute the Hermes to Mars.
Mitch Henderson: Sounds like a smart move, considering the circumstances. Whoever gave them the maneuver they only passed along information. Crew made the decision on their own.
Teddy Sanders: You may have killed them, Mitch. We’re fighting the same war. Every time something goes wrong, the world forgets why we fly. I’m trying to keep us airborne. It’s bigger than one person.
Mitch Henderson: No, it’s not.
Teddy Sanders: When this is over, I’ll expect your resignation.
Mitch Henderson: I understand.
Teddy Sanders: Bring our astronauts home.
[SOL 219 – back on Mars Watney is making another video log]
Mark Watney: Every Ares mission requires three years of pre-supplies. So NASA decided a long time ago it’s a lot easier to send some of the stuff beforehand rather than bring it with us. So, as a result, the MAV for Ares 4 is already there at the Schiaparelli Crater, just waiting. So the plan is for me to use that to go into orbit just as the Hermes is passing, and I guess they catch me? In space. So, I’ve got 200 sols to figure out how to take everything here that’s keeping me alive the oxygenator, the water reclaimer, the atmospheric regulator bring that all with me. And luckily, I have the greatest minds on Planet Earth, really, all of the brainpower on the entire planet helping me with this endeavor. And so far they’ve come up with, “Hey, why don’t you drill holes on the roof of your Rover “and hit it as hard as you can with a rock?” We’re going to get there.
[SOL 461 – Watney has lost a lot of weight and looks worse for ware as he makes another video log]
Mark Watney: I’ve been thinking about laws on Mars. There’s an international treaty saying no country can lay claim to anything that’s not on Earth. And by another treaty, if you’re not in any country’s territory maritime law applies. So Mars is international waters. Now, NASA is an American non-military organization. It owns the Hab, but the second I walk outside, I’m in international waters. So here’s the cool part, I’m about to leave for the Schiaparelli Crater where I’m going to commandeer the Ares 4 lander. Nobody explicitly gave me permission to do this and they can’t until I’m on board the Ares 4. So that means 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.
[to himself as he finally leaves the Hab to makes his way to the Schiaparelli Crater]
Mark Watney: A Space Pirate.
Mark Watney: Everywhere I go, I’m the first. It’s a strange feeling. Step outside the Rover, first guy to be there. Climb that hill, first guy to do that. Four and a half billion years, nobody here. And now, me. I’m the first person to be alone on an entire planet.
Mark Watney: No matter what happens, tell the world, tell my family, that I never stopped fighting to make it home.
Mark Watney: Every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people coordinate a search. If an earthquake levels a city, people all over the world send emergency supplies. This instinct is found in every culture without exception.
Mark Watney: This is space, it doesn’t cooperate.
Mark Watney: I guarantee you that at some point everything’s going to go south on you. 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.
What do you think of The Martian quotes? Let us know what you think in the comments below as we’d love to know.
Trailers:
I love this movie. It portrays the value of patience, calmness even in the face of danger, and the ability to use your unique survival skills. It even teaches the value and character to finish your mission against all odds. Matt Damon has perfectly done his role here. It inspires us to be stronger for the grand plan of making the planet Mars a habitable place. So a good movie.