I have seen the now Golden Globe winner movie, The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott, four times and have loved it every time. From the fast-paced and intense opening sequence when Matt Damon’s character Mark Watney gets stranded on Mars, the pace hardly slows. The world is led to believe that Watney died on Mars, while the rest of his crew was safely evacuated to the Hermes, the space “taxi” that ferries crews from Earth to Mars, after an intense sandstorm. However, we soon discover that Watney survived, and is the only man on a desolate planet with limited supplies and no way to contact NASA.

So begins Watney’s journey of survival with triumphs and defeats. One of his first major obstacles is finding a way to contact NASA. The solution is locating the Mars Pathfinder which can contact it’s twin back on Earth at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. Once this contact is established, NASA puts together a complex rescue plan.

The movie does an excellent job at addressing the answers to simple questions, such as what do you do if the glass of your helmet cracks. It also provides solutions to complex and sometimes impossible-seeming obstacles, such as how to grow food on a planet that does not support life. These answers include “lots of duct tape” and “grow potatoes in a makeshift greenhouse”. Throughout the long but never boring movie, we come to know Watney as the wisecrack botanist “Space Pirate” he is. By the end, the whole world is rooting for Watney’s rescue mission to be a success.

One of the interesting things about this movie is that majority of the science is accurate, even when Watney successfully grows potatoes using Martian soil, and manages to blow up part of the HAB while trying to make water by extracting hydrogen from the hydrazine in the rocket fuel. The Hermes is powered by ion engines, which are already being used in some space missions because the provide a constant thrust by harnessing solar power. One of the only scientifically inaccurate parts of the movie is the sandstorm that stranded Watney on Mars, and kicked started his entire journey. The atmosphere on Mars is so thin that the dust storm wouldn’t have been more than a breeze. Another interesting thing about this book adaptation is just how funny and laid-back it seems even in the most suspenseful moments. The combination of great photography, music, and acting, brings Andy Weir’s original book to life.

The Martian has since come out on DVD and is available for purchase on multiple platforms.