Every once in a while, a work of fiction feels so authentic that it makes you question whether or not it actually happened. And while, intellectually, a story about a guy who gets left behind on Mars after a mission he’s on with his team goes wrong is clearly not based on an actual event (I mean, surely, we would have heard about that, right?), author Andy Weir’s book The Martian manages to come across as a real account of a man and his struggle to survive alone on Mars.
Such is the premise of Any Weir’s captivating 2011 novel in which astronaut Mark Watney, a botanist and engineer by trade, sets out with a crew on a month-long stay to Mars. When dust storms cut their mission short forcing them to flee, Watney gets injured and is believed by the crew to be dead, so the mission’s commander, a woman named Melissa Lewis, must make the painful decision to leave Watney behind in order to protect the lives of the other crew members and see through the success of the mission.
When Watney comes to, he is injured (though only in a minor way), but has much bigger problems to deal with: His radio is broken and he quickly realizes that his food supply will eventually run out. But, of course, the biggest problem of all is that he’s stuck on a foreign planet, alone, and with no way off. The rest of the book deals with Watney’s ingenious and creative attempts at survival and communication, often conveyed through his ‘video logs’ and personal entries that allow us a peak into his mental processes, feelings and ideas.
Being his debut novel, Weir does an amazing job of bringing us into the world of Watney, combining his technical expertise (Weir used to be a computer programmer) with his curiosity for outer space and love of sci-fi novels. As mentioned above, he creates such a realistic depiction of what a person might be going through stuck on Mars that you can’t help but feel that what you’re reading actually happened. To be sure, this is not an easy thing to master. How many times have you read a book or watched a film that made you roll your eyes because of how ludicrous or unrealistic it seemed? Perhaps to the more informed, this work of fiction does have some of those aspects to it, but for anyone willing to suspend their disbelief for 400 pages, this is a very rewarding experience and was one of those books that I, in equal measures, didn’t want to put down or finish.
“I’m calling it the Watney Triangle because after what I’ve been through, shit on Mars should be named after me.”
ANDY WEIR, ‘The Martian‘
In 2015, critically-acclaimed director Ridley Scott (Alien, American Gangster, Blade Runner) adapted Weir’s book into a feature-length film starring Matt Damon (Goodwill Hunting, The Bourne Identity) in the role of Watney along with a bevy of incredible supporting talent including Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game, Interstellar), Kristin Wiig (Bridesmaids, Welcome to Me), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Triple 9), Jeff Daniels (Dumb & Dumber, The Squid and the Whale) and so many more. Scott did an excellent job of both remaining faithful to Weir’s source material and bringing it to life in way that really highlights the world Weir created.
Using the southern part of Jordan as a double for Mars, with its sandstone and granite rock made to look like what we imagine Mars does, Scott brilliantly shows us Watney’s struggle on Mars while interspersing it with scenes from NASA back in the US, the crew on Ares III who are not aware Watney is still alive, and the CNSA in China who may be able to offer help. As with any science fiction movie, being able to see the visuals makes for a very enjoyable movie-watching experience, particularly when viewed on the big screen.
Choosing between the two mediums is quite difficult in this case. On the one hand, the book brilliantly brings us inside Watney’s world as he explains to us his challenges and successes while still maintaining a hopeful attitude and sense of humour. Despite some of the technical jargon, Weir manages to keep it loose and easy to digest; Watney as our narrator is full of cheesy quips and self-deprecating humour that help to keep the story rolling forward. On the other hand, Damon as Watney is perfectly cast alongside the supporting actors in the film and brings his usual charm and humour to the role, while Scott expertly brings the story to life with a fast-paced execution that whisks us off to a foreign planet, something he’s done so effectively in his films many times before.
If I have to choose one, I think I’d have to go with Ridley Scott’s extraordinary film but I’m going to say this one with a caveat: read the book first. Normally, I wouldn’t prescribe it that way; I actually think watching the movie first is generally the better option if given the choice. The simple reason is that it’s easy to be disappointed when they leave things out of the film that were in the book. If you watch the movie first, then you can only be pleasantly surprised by how much more expansive and rich the novel is with all its extra details and filled-in backstory. But whatever you do, watch the movie or read the book because I guarantee, either way, you won’t be disappointed.
Final verdict: the movie.
If you’re interested in reading the book, pick up a copy by clicking here and be sure to take a look at the trailer for the film starring Matt Damon below.
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