Sep 28, 2015 07:53 PM
In honor of the discovery of water on Mars, a thread about what might be an extraordinary Science Fiction movie that's due to open this Friday.
It's unusual because it's a real-science science fiction movie, not a future science movie. And the science plays a leading role in the film, almost like a character.
The story has a Mars expedition in the near future. The technology they use is basically technology that's available today. There's an interplanetary vehicle that's constructed in orbit, built to travel to Mars orbit, where a Mars lander deposits a human crew on the surface. They set up inflatable habitation unites and settle in for a month of so of scientific research.
One day our protagonist (an astronaut/engineer named Mark Watney) is outside, some distance from the hab, and a huge dust-storm blows up. Our hero is cut by a sharp piece of gear, his suit is ruptured, and his companion leaves him behind, thinking that he's dead.
The rather timid expedition commander fears that the storm threatens the entire expedition, and orders everyone into the lander which departs for the ship in Mars orbit, which soon heads back to Earth.
Except... that Watney isn't dead. He manages to struggle back to the hab and finds it deserted. The radio antennas are wrecked and he can't communicate with anyone.
So he's Robinson Crusoe on Mars. He figures that he's a goner, a walking dead man, but he's not ready to give up yet. As he says, "I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this!" So the movie follows him trying to figure out how to extend the expedition's provisions as long as he can, and how to make himself air, water and food on Mars' barren surface.
Watney devises a way to use what he has left to communicate with Earth, with lots of computer geeky details, and NASA is shocked to hear he's still alive. He somehow becomes a world reality TV star, with the whole planet tuned in following his every move. Suddenly everyone who just shrugged at space exploration is demanding that somebody do something, right now, and damn the cost.
Everyone wants to rescue him, except that there's only one American interplanetary vehicle which is still on its way back to Earth and many months away. Should Earth tell its crew that they left one of their guys behind? They can't turn around to get him and they need to keep their minds on their own survival.
How Earth gets a rescue mission together is a big part of the story. And how Watney stays alive is the other. There are some unexpected plot twists.
It's unusual because it's a real-science science fiction movie, not a future science movie. And the science plays a leading role in the film, almost like a character.
The story has a Mars expedition in the near future. The technology they use is basically technology that's available today. There's an interplanetary vehicle that's constructed in orbit, built to travel to Mars orbit, where a Mars lander deposits a human crew on the surface. They set up inflatable habitation unites and settle in for a month of so of scientific research.
One day our protagonist (an astronaut/engineer named Mark Watney) is outside, some distance from the hab, and a huge dust-storm blows up. Our hero is cut by a sharp piece of gear, his suit is ruptured, and his companion leaves him behind, thinking that he's dead.
The rather timid expedition commander fears that the storm threatens the entire expedition, and orders everyone into the lander which departs for the ship in Mars orbit, which soon heads back to Earth.
Except... that Watney isn't dead. He manages to struggle back to the hab and finds it deserted. The radio antennas are wrecked and he can't communicate with anyone.
So he's Robinson Crusoe on Mars. He figures that he's a goner, a walking dead man, but he's not ready to give up yet. As he says, "I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this!" So the movie follows him trying to figure out how to extend the expedition's provisions as long as he can, and how to make himself air, water and food on Mars' barren surface.
Watney devises a way to use what he has left to communicate with Earth, with lots of computer geeky details, and NASA is shocked to hear he's still alive. He somehow becomes a world reality TV star, with the whole planet tuned in following his every move. Suddenly everyone who just shrugged at space exploration is demanding that somebody do something, right now, and damn the cost.
Everyone wants to rescue him, except that there's only one American interplanetary vehicle which is still on its way back to Earth and many months away. Should Earth tell its crew that they left one of their guys behind? They can't turn around to get him and they need to keep their minds on their own survival.
How Earth gets a rescue mission together is a big part of the story. And how Watney stays alive is the other. There are some unexpected plot twists.