The Martian by Ridley Scott’s (2015): A Beautiful Gift for NASA

Ridley Scott’s The Martian (20th Century Fox, 2015) was a terriffic sci-fi feature directorial work after his flop at the biblical-inspired epic Exodus: Gods and Kings at 2014. The 2015 film is an adaptation of a novel with the same title written by Andy Weir. The script was written by Drew Goddard. Shot by Wolski, the film screen time is 141 minutes. It starred an ensemble cast consisted of Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Donald Glover, and Michael Pena. The Martian tells us two parallel stories that merged in the middle all the way through the end, on one perspective, Watney (Damon) that was accidentally left on Mars alone, and the post-accident atmosphere of NASA back on Earth. Ridley presented the adaptation by asking a contemplative question: are we ready to face the risk of space adventures?

The first five minutes of the film, we feast our eyes with the beauty and the silence of Mars barren land. The film capture a group of astronaut doing a research in Acidalia Planitia, a desert on Mars. Watney, a biologist, was one of them. The white HAB (short for Habitat, the astronauts’ base) exude a really bright contrast compared to the red desert, noting the ‘alien’ feel of the astronauts walking on the Mars. The astronauts looks like they are not ready for the worse things that could happen, and it happened. Shortly after the opening, a sandstorm force the astronauts to flee out from the Mars, accidentally leaving Watney alone after being hit by a communication antenna impaling through his bio-monitor.

For 3 years, Watney should solve problems and overcome endless challenges to go home – all by himself. Started with a breakdown, he find his spirit back by “I’m not going to die here.” Using his botanical background, he planted potatoes inside the HAB using Mars soil, the astronauts’ waste and water from rocket fuel. He succeed, producing more than two years worth of food, and bragging about how he is the “greatest botanist on the planet”. Of course he is. He then find a way to communicate to Earth using a device left dead in 1990s, called Pathfinder, hacking through the system of the Rover to make a better communication system.

The sense of anxiety-inducing backstory is quickly compensated by the vast panoramic scene of Martian topography. We also cannot forget how – in the middle of the stress – Watney sneak through Commander Lewis (Chastain)’s laptop and complain on how she only have ‘weird’ disco music that – eventually – Watney dances to. Watney’s everyman traits gives relatability for the audience, and also gives some comedic situations that livened up the journey.

The second perspective serves us an atmosphere of tension in NASA back on Earth, when the Mars Program Director Kapoor (Ejiofor), backed by the flight director Mitch (Bean) found that Watney is alive and tried to floor a rescue plan to NASA Director Sanders (Daniels). They use every power they can do to help Watney in his endeavour, to survive. The failed attempt of sending Watney supplies, the politics and the idealistic visions helped to give a sense of struggle, even without action or fight scenes.

Weir’s vivid imagination, the visually compelling vision of Scott, combined with the beautiful work of Wolski creates a majestic, stunning, and comprehensive artistry in their work. Scott has always been making visually motivated artworks – we can see it on Blade Runner (19) and epic Kingdom of Heaven (20). In The Martian, however, Scott pushes his limit to a scientific-concept production, designed to be as realistic as possible to the real-life NASA projects. Incorporating some camera placement like those in TV reality shows, Scott makes sure that the film would be palatable for the audience.

Talking about sound, we hear eerie atmospheric music in the background, while seeing Acidalia Planitia at the opening shot. Anxiety-inducing screeches heightened tension throughout the film. And, of course, optimistic strings and brass marked success of – whatever it may be.

In the spirit of realism, we are provided with the reality of space exploration. That in one second we feel the emptiness and vast probability of what we can do there, but the next second it could be chaotic and scary, full of things that potentially killing us. The Martian perfectly capture the fluctuations, both visual, mood, pace, and twists that could extend possibilities of what can and cannot happen in both space adventure and, eventually, life.

Ridley Scott designed the film to be a beautiful homage to space missions’ dreams and visions of the past. With Dariusz Wolski before the camera, he captured the feel and the unraveling reality of space travel into our perspective – that space is dangerous and all, we can only do our best inside the thin-aluminium ship we’re in. But in front of them all, the beauty and mystery of space still lurks us all into our own curiosity – what would it feels like to be in space? Far from home? That curiosity might fuel Scott into the cinematic vision of space travel. Subsequently, the NASA as the frontier of humanity’s space exploration might be fueled by the same spirit – if not for the political war-of-arms the US funded NASA for. Recently we heard of a story, a plan to put human back to the Moon and stay there. NASA envisioned to go back to the moon at 2024 and setting a new bar for human exploration – turning the space into condominiums.

The Martian is a comprehensive window to look at, giving us an overview of how space feels like. Visually, the film is science-fiction meet reality show in an unexpected realism. It provides us an insight on a contemplative yet practical question – are we ready? The answer is up to us.