Ridley Scott is the one to vouch for when it comes to sci-fi. The talented director has opened the window to a world beyond imagination with films like Alien and Blade Runner. Ridley Scott has been very busy working for Prometheus 2, which is set to be released in 2017, but he said in an interview that he loves doing science fiction movies and hence went back to shoot The Martian.
The Martian that is based on the book about NASA astronaut Mark Watney, captivated Ridley Scott. He loved the optimism that the book portrays and together with the kind of humor that it falls back upon, was a great story to depict onscreen.
The Martian has been called by the critics as the most accurate scientific film ever in Hollywood. The film is so true that some audience are left wondering if the film is actually based on a real life story.
There needs to be some clarification for those under the impression that The Martian is based on a real-life story, since humans have never set foot on Mars.
The story is a fictional narration of how US astronaut Mark Watney was left back in the Red Planet when his team leaves him behind, thinking that he has died in a storm. The film shows how Watney survives in the deserted planet, in the hope that NASA will launch a rescue mission one day.
The very fact that audience felt that The Martian was an adaptation of a real incident is a clue enough that the film was so perfect in its portrayal that it hoodwinked the audience into believing that the fantasy depicted on screen was real.
Vox tried to understand some of the finer details of The Martian to realize how the scientists and the creative team of the film could think of something this extraordinary. The first thing that the film deals with is the massive storm that takes the crew of Ares 3 by complete surprise.
While they are rushing back to get inside their spacecraft, one of their equipments flies out and hits Mark Watney (Mark Wahlberg) so hard that he is sent flying into the distant.
The force of this impact that starts into motion the whole plot of the film has been questioned by numerous audience and it seems like it is actually likely. Any Weir, the author of The Martian has himself said that Mars with a very thin atmosphere has storms, but they can’t really do much damage. So he knew for a fact that his central character will survive the force.
NASA, on the other hand, assured the audience that the depiction of the storm is genuine. Since Mars has a very thin atmosphere, there are storms very frequently and some can have a speed of almost 100 meters per second. This is almost close to the Category 5 hurricane closer home.
The other ludicrous aspect of the movie was Mark Watney growing potato with the help of human excreta. While this might seem impossible and too far-fetched, NASA scientist Michael Mumma, has said that this is actually one of the most accurate depiction of scientific fact in The Martian.
The soil in Mars is very hostile with a high concentration of perchlorates. The human excreta acts as a fertilizer and provides microbial content to the Martian soil that is conducive to the growth of potatoes in the planet.
Ridley Scott had quite a challenge in his hand when he set about to shoot The Martian. The film depicts a landscape that human race has very little information on, along with incidents that are alien to Earth and to top of it off, create an interesting story where the protagonist is all alone for the major chunk of the movie.