4 Things I Loved about The Martian
The Martian
I loved The Martian, a science fiction film that breaks the modern mold in that it tracks so closely to what could be in real life. The character Mark Watney had a significant problem. He was shipwrecked, only his shipwreck was on Mars. This Robinson Crusoe of space presents us with a hero abandoned but alive and hopeless but full of hope. Here’s what I liked about it:
The science was of our current time, not our fantasy. The technology the astronauts used in the film felt recognizable, like technology I simply hadn’t seen yet. It didn’t require suspension of disbelief and made the story more immersive.
There were no villains, but there was plenty of tension. Tension keeps our attention and allows the story to move along. Most tension comes from conflict, and conflict depends on a person with bad motives and a corrupt soul - a villain. If any villain stalked Mark Watney, it was the quiet, desolate, voiceless hostility of Mars itself. This is so true to life. The resistance we face shows itself as a hidden, ominous force, real but unannounced. It tears us apart, keeps us in our place, causes us not to do anything. Mark Watney’s struggle against this villainous desolation had intense tension.
Science alone couldn’t save him. At the end of the film, Mark Watney sits in the cockpit of a rocket, ready to leave, not having heard a human voice speak to him in 2+ years. The radio crackles to life with the voice of his companions. The experience left him dumbfounded, filled with tears. We see how deeply moved he is by this connection. The film emphasized science, but acknowledged the power of emotion in his life. He didn’t survive for science sake, but for the sake of connecting to people once again.
The heart’s longing alone couldn’t save him. As Watney says in the closing moments of the film about his high stakes survival experience, “At some point you are going to say, ‘this is how I end’. You can either accept that, or you can get to work…you just begin. You solve one problem, and then the next. You solve enough problems and you get to come home.”
The human heart lives in an interesting sphere, driven by a spiritual need to connect with others that powers our actions, and also bound by physical realities that limit us and confound our desires. The Martian paints a vivid story of what it looks like to be awake to our need and to choose to deal with our problems.