Today the trailer hit for Ridley Scott’s next big sci-fi epic, The Martian. Almost instantly people began complaining that the trailer was full of spoilers. That’s not exactly true. In fact, if the trailer for The Martian spoils anything, it’s the experience of reading the fantastic book it’s based on.
The basic problem is that you can pick up a copy Andy Weir’s The Martian knowing the basic set up: an astronaut is stranded on Mars and has to figure out how to survive. You can pitch that to someone and it makes sense, and since Weir writes the book as if they were journal entries from that astronaut, it seems like that’s all the story is about. It’s a much bigger story, though.
The story is so big, in fact, that you can’t hide it in the movie’s marketing. All it takes is one visit to the movie’s cast page and you instantly realize, hey, Matt Damon may be the only person on Mars, but he isn’t the only person in the movie. And since you can’t hide it, you may as well embrace it.
So if you watched the trailer and think the movie has been ruined for you, I want to talk you off that ledge. The Martian has the potential to not only be incredibly entertaining, but a pretty profound piece of science fiction. Here’s why.
The Martian and the accident
Matt Damon stars as Mark Watney, a botanist aboard the Ares 3 manned mission to Mars, and the story opens with him being left for dead on the Red Planet. A surprise storm barreled down on his landing team, forcing their evacuation. Watney gets struck by debris during the chaos and the team, having every reason to believe he’s dead and out of reach, has no choice but to leave his dead body behind.
Watney later wakes up, half buried in the Martian soil, and manages his way back to their habitat, which was never fully set up. He has no immediate means of contacting either his fellow astronauts or NASA. All he can do is try to survive long enough to figure out how to make that happen.
(And also make us laugh, because Watney is actually a tremendously funny character. He’ll be quoted for years.)
The NASA scientists and the Earthlings
Back on Earth, NASA learns from Watney’s crewmates of his untimely death. They promptly inform the world, which then mourns for the first human who died on Mars. Unfortunately this also means the loss of this very vital mission to Mars, as the Ares 3 must return to Earth. But then, one day, a low level employee spots a few subtle changes at the accident site, eventually proving that Watney is still alive.
There’s a catch, though. NASA can’t communicate with Mark, and he can’t communicate with them. Even if they could, they can’t rescue him. And if they tell the crew of the Ares 3 they stranded a live person on Mars to die a horrible death of starvation, they know they’d want to try and save him even though they don’t have the means (or time) to do so. So NASA has to figure out how to save Mark’s life, how to stop the Ares 3 crew from killing themselves, and how to tell (or not) all of this to the world.
The Apollo 13-ness of it all
Remember that scene in Apollo 13 where the NASA scientists have to figure out how to make a square peg fit into a round hole using only the supplies aboard Apollo 13, and then they have to hope that the crew actually builds it successfully?
The Martian is basically a non-stop version of that scene. Even when you think you know what’s going to happen, watching Watney try to figure out how to pull off the impossible is straight up exhilarating. People are already loving his “I am going to have to science the shit out this” line, but the reality is the entire story is about everyone trying to constantly “science the shit” out of everything.
The whole story is like one giant science fair experiment that keeps going horribly wrong. Seriously, Weir’s ability to turn scientific equations into action movie set pieces is kind of astounding. If Drew Goddard’s script can capture even some of them, we’re in for something special.
More than just one man’s story
Watney’s story becomes a drama that takes place not just on a global, but an intergalactic stage. The Martian isn’t really about whether or not Mark does survive, it’s about if mankind, with all of our problems, is collectively capable of saving him, and if the answer to that question is indicative of our own future as a species.
Like I said, there’s a much bigger story here, one that isn’t easily spoiled. The trailer definitely hasn’t spoiled it, but let’s just hope all future marketing keeps it that way.
Oh, and let’s hope that Ridley Scott pulls the whole thing off.
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The Martian hits theaters on November 25, 2015. But if you can’t wait, I highly recommend reading the book.
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