The Martian: The science of surviving a space catastrophe

The actor portrayed the titular paratrooper in Steven Spielberg’s war epic Saving Private Ryan (1998), and had a surprise supporting role previous year in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar as an astronaut stranded on a distant planet. “This is pretty unlikely”. “The Martian” is a movie about brute force botany, chemistry, astrophysics and engineering.

He said audiences would find the film “surprisingly amusing”. Show us the second tallest mountain in the world and we want to climb it. Show us the tallest and we need to.

“I think the bottom line of both the book and the movie is yes, it is worth doing”, he said.

“Don’t get hung up on what the filmmakers got wrong”, Barratt said. It was great to get the chance to work with Ridley, I’ve always wanted to work with him. “No one should put their life in my hands; I couldn’t deal with the responsibility”.

Damon chuckles: “They’re in a whole other movie”. He told his colleague David Fugate (a literary agent) about it. David ended up becoming my agent, and Julian offered me a book deal.

I recommend “The Martian” without reservation. “It depends on the actors”, he quips, laughing.

If you haven’t read “The Martian”, it’s most aptly described as a combination between “Cast Away” (more sand, fewer volleyballs) and that scene in “Apollo 13” where astronauts have to build a new air filter out of random rubbish from their ship.

Scott shoots on four cameras at a time. As he says in the film’s most memorable line, “I’m going to have to science the (s-word expletive) out of this”. In years before that, the festival showcased unfinished versions of Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” and Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo”.

“But even this book Andy Weir wrote – he decided that the commander of the manned mission to Mars was gonna be a woman”.

“Everything he does makes total sense”. “People think of him as an action-movie star”.

The character is “more resourceful” than he is, he adds. And as the lone human on Mars during The Martian’s 141 minutes, he’s very much alone.

“Obviously, I’m incredibly biased”, he says, reached by phone in Los Angeles the other day.

Who knew going to space could look this good?

Damon, sitting in a thronelike straight-backed chair in the big, empty hotel room (“it’s like a villain’s lair in a superhero movie”), is looking particularly fit and muscular these days – far more so than the food-rationing, withering hero of The Martian. In The Martian, opening Friday and likely bound for awards-season glory, Damon is Mark Watney, a botanist and engineer who has been camped on Mars with his Ares 3 shipmates (Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Michael Peña, among them). It’s a movie where science is front and center, and where scientists – including, for what it’s worth, a refreshing (though not perfect) ratio of women and people of color – are real and scared and incredibly courageous.

I can vouch for the film being great, which is one battle down. He looks for big films that will also be good. We probably did 50 takes. I don’t want to push an agenda. “So I’m hoping we’re heading towards a positive place“.

Would Damon be happy if Jason Bourne turns out to be the one character he’s ultimately remembered for? And I love working with Paul.

“When your backup plan is Ridley Scott, it sort of makes your decisions much easier”, Goddard said.