The Oscar-winner, who stars in the highly anticipated Ridley Scott space drama The Martian, revealed he never liked the idea of space travel as a child, finding the concept too restrictive.
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Inevitably, some big names wind up in little more than cameo roles; Sean Bean’s flight director Mitch Henderson stops by for a chat and a cup of tea, while Kristen Wiig pops up as NASA’s PR wizard.
Final verdict: Scott masterfully controls a massive cast in a story set across the solar system to tells a story that is as thrilling as it is amusing and at times touching. It wouldn’t do any damage to anything. It’s just more dramatic that way. From California to Houston, Florida to Beijing, professional nerds and full-time geeks toil feverishly around-the-clock, formulating and laying out abstruse theories and plans – which, though patently dumbed-down for mouth-breathing audiences, still made me go cross-eyed with incomprehension – to aid Watney.
What is missing is an experiment to test these techniques in a long-term Mars simulation on Earth, by sealing people off in an area with no outside oxygen or water and only their own tools for growing food and recycling waste. “The dust coats everything and it’s gritty; it gets into mechanical things that move, like gears”. Less sunlight means less energy created. The journey to Mars continues with additional robotic missions planned for 2016 and 2020, and human missions in the 2030s. Global storms can also present a secondary issue, throwing enough dust into the atmosphere to reduce sunlight reaching the surface of Mars. Here’s a comparison of all the awesome, seemingly science fiction elements of the movie that actually exist as science fact.
The film, based on the best-selling novel by Andy Weird, has received high praise from critics – and it hasn’t just been well received on Earth.
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Asked what ISS crew members Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren thought of the movie, he joked, “I have a picture of them sitting there watching it. They weren’t laughing”.
