What I found interesting about this film is how much it deviated from the standard Hollywood fare. Its not a lone hero - its a whole TEAM of scientists working their arses off to get him back. There is no personified nemesis... Its just the hostile environment. Even in most survival films you get one of the survivors trying something silly or violence... but not here. Also - no violence! And its all about science solving problems :) Unlike many films where the "smart guy" turns out to be the bad guy, plotting crazy schemes.

I was more aware of it in the book than the movie, but I liked how most of the new problems that Watney encountered were the result of his last solution, "I forgot to take THIS into account, so THIS happened." Like, the reason the airlock blew and destroyed all his tubers is because the seams had been worn down by repetitive stress, he should have been alternating between airlocks. Or how Teddy decided to avoid the safety inspections on the first supply rocket and it wound up crash-landing because the protein cubes liquified from vibration, which forced them into an either-or choice about how to use the Chinese rocket.

Kenny, be sure to check out tomorrow's post because we go into this at length. And how nice, as you note, the scientists are the GOOD GUYS!

Good point, Chris. Two things. First, that means the complications don't just happen. Rather there is a cause-and-effect which we see. Second, as writers, we need to embrace complications, roadblocks, and reversals. They can give a story more drama. It makes the Protagonist's journey that much more difficult and his/her success (if they do, indeed, succeed) that much more enjoyable. There's a third thing, now that I think about it: The complications provide events which happen, enabling the writer to create a structure of plot points, going from one complication and obstacle to another.

Kenny, another excellent example of a "Team-of-Good-Scientists-working-the-arses-off" was in "Apollo 13". With the exception of Xander Berkeley's fictional public affairs character "Henry Hunt", everyone else in NASA were working the "good science" to get Lovell, Haise and Swigert back safely.

What struck me most about The Martian, though, was how few setbacks Watney actually experienced while on Mars. There were obstacles he had to overcome, but once he figured out a solution, it worked, and it was on to the next one. About midway through the movie, I remember thinking, it's a wonder we haven't colonized Mars yet -- it was just too easy. Two minutes later, the airlock blew and ruined his crops, but that was the only setback that the protagonist actually experienced; the other setbacks happened on Earth. It kind of bothered me, but then I liked how at the end, they basically acknowledged it -- I can't remember exactly what Watney said, but it was in the classroom when he was telling the students how it was about overcoming obstacles one by one. It basically summed up the film.