I'll get more into plot tomorrow, but the really big point about this story: Human vs. Nature. Even if set on another planet, The Martian is reminiscent of movies like Cast Away, 127 Hours, and All Is Lost. In each of these movies, it's not just a human, it is a single human. So it's not just a story of survival in the physical sense, it's about the character's psychological survival as well. For all the talk about the science in this movie, there is an equally strong psychological component at work.

Scott, I have not seen the movie and I've only seen a glimpse or two of the trailer, but judging ONLY by the description above, it seems to me that the story ends later than it should have. Maybe I'm rreading too much into this, but everything beginning with the paragraph that starts with "Back on Earth about one year later" onwards seems unnecessary. Any thoughts?

The interesting point from a screenwriting POV: there's no villain. We talk so much about how a strong nemesis makes a movie, but the nemesis, such as it is, is Mars itself. People back on Earth sometimes make decisions we disagree with, but they're making the best decisions they can, almost always with Watney's best interests (as they see them) at heart. Even the crew are united in their desire to return for him - a few hesitations, but no one seriously considers saying no. So it's a very rare movie where all the human characters are pulling in the same direction and want the same thing. And yes, okay, it's a disaster movie - but even disaster movies often have human bad guys, who act selfishly and endanger others. No one does that here. Which is interesting...

Something I loved about the flick was how the NASA specialists on earth were mirroring what Watney was doing, when he finds the Pathfinder, they dig out their Pathfinder and use it. I thought it was a great way of visually connecting the two worlds (Pathfinder Earth raises a camera and looks around, then Pathfinder Mars does the same). it also reminded me of Apollo 13, where they have that box of parts, "this is everything they have up there, make an air filter out of this!" It also keeps the film from just being people talking technical plans in different rooms, it gave them business to do.

piotr, I think what you're referring to is what is called the denouement: "The final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.' Not to be confused with what I call the Final Struggle, the culminating Plot Point, generally something involving the Protagonist and whatever oppositional dynamic, actual Nemesis figure or otherwise. But typically, that's not the end of the story. The audience wants to know what the impact of the Final Struggle - and indeed the entire story - is on the Protagonist and other characters. So in the case of The Martian, it's those beats after the Final Struggle, the Denouement, in which we learn about Watney (1 year later), and during credits the launch of Ares V, Beck and Johanssen married and with a kid, etc. In a way, the story is 'over' with the disposition of the Final Struggle. But again, we - the audience - want to see what it all means, how the characters have changed and processed what's transpired. If it's a happy ending, we want to see some happy images of the characters to send us out of the theater with a positive feeling.

Debbie, I can't underscore your point enough. We often think of a Nemesis as a specific character(s). And that's often the case. But The Martian reminds us of this fact: The Nemesis functions to provide opposition to the Protagonist. So that opposition need not necessarily be a WHO, but a WHAT. As you note, the Nemesis is Mars, the climactic and topographical conditions Watney confronts in order to survive. As I noted previously, he is a Human in an Anti-Human environment, a Stranger in a Strange Land. Yes, there are a few moments of internecine tension on the home front and between the crew of Ares III, and they provide a bit of indirect opposition to Watney, but clearly the Nemesis / oppositional dynamic is provided almost wholly by Mars. What this means to us as screenwriters: Remember Nemesis = Opposition. Person. Place. Thing. Psychological dynamic. Whatever. If it functions in opposition to the Protagonist, there's a Nemesis in action.

Nice catch, Chris. I think you're right, the cross-cuts do give us more of a sense of 'proximity' between the two distance environments. And that whole Apollo 13 'let's figure this thing out' dynamic is a key part of the story. I think we like to see people work together for a common cause. The fact we are emotionally invested - as the whole world is re Watney - in saving the stranded astronaut heightens everything in that process of trying to recover him.