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S3:E3 The Martian (2015 Film)
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Stranded on Mars with nothing but a heap of science, a wicked sense of humor, and a whole lot of potatoes. This week, Crystal takes the helm for our third Back to School episode of Season 3 with Andy Weir’s The Martian. We dive deep into Mark Watney’s fight for survival—from botany experiments gone wrong to Matt Damon’s take on Watney, we’re breaking down which version left us more starstruck. Grab your space suit, strap in, and get ready for a conversation that’s out of this world.
Hosted by Crystal with co-hosts Keri and Lindsey.
Books & Adaptations Mentioned:
Question of the Episode:
- What did you learn from this book?
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Chapters:
(00:00) Introductions
(01:22) Ratings and Non-Spoiler Discussion
(10:18) Book vs Movie Breakdown (SPOILERS)
(1:12:30) Final Verdict
(1:13:25) Question of the Episode
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction from Mars
00:00:08
Speaker
based on a book, the podcast coming to you on a 12-minute delay from Acidalia Planitia Mars. I'm your host, Crystal, and we are going to science the shit out of this episode.
Hosts' Personal Connections
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm Carrie, and I love disco music. And I'm Lindsay, and this story made my heart rate spike at at least 120.
Overview of 'The Martian'
00:00:32
Speaker
Our second title in our back-to-school month is none other than The Martian, the 2011 novel by Andy Weir and the 2015 movie of the same name, starring Matt Damon and directed by Ridley Scott.
00:00:45
Speaker
Set in the not-too-distant year 2035, The Martian tells the story of astronaut Mark Watney, who is stranded alone on Mars after a hurried evacuation and a freak accident leaves the rest of the Ares 3 crew believing him to be dead.
00:01:01
Speaker
decidedly not dead, we follow Watney as he fights to survive and all of the world's top scientists as they work out a plan to rescue him.
Book Review and Ratings
00:01:10
Speaker
Miscalculations, unknown variables, politics, and a whole lot of personality drive this story across the cosmos and I am thrilled to be your guide.
00:01:21
Speaker
But I'm not so sure about my companions. How did you guys feel about the book? And I want to start with Lindsay. How did you rate this journey? i gave it four and a half Mars rovers.
00:01:38
Speaker
That makes me so excited. Was there anything in particular that just really stood out to you? I love the humor. Yeah. Yeah. Martin Watney is so funny.
00:01:49
Speaker
he like the wit and that like seriously so much personality in this book and for a basically solo character for the first, what, eight chapters, it feels like? It feels like the first, like, 25% of the book.
00:02:05
Speaker
It's just him. and And yet somehow you're, like, compelled to keep reading. So, no, he he, that character in particular was freaking hilarious.
00:02:16
Speaker
And I love the way Andy Weir wrote that, that, like, wit and irreverence and sarcasm and, like, yeah. No, I got you. Carrie, what'd you think? I know. Carrie, our romance reader, not a romance in sight in this book.
00:02:33
Speaker
I gave it three and a half brain cells because that's all I have when it comes to science and chemistry.
00:02:46
Speaker
Well, that's a lot higher than I expected you to rate it. I'll be honest. Because feel like this is like I'm going to be honest, like because you both warned me the science.
00:02:57
Speaker
You're not going understand all the science. You just got to let it happen. Let the science go. Don't stop with the science and try to figure it out. Just let it go. and And honestly, that was great advice because that really helped me through the book, getting through the book.
00:03:13
Speaker
I really enjoyed the humor with it and everything. It was like kind of sitting at a three for a while. And the point five, because I feel like this book is like the type of book, at least for me personally, probably a lot of people don't agree because it's a very highly rated book.
00:03:32
Speaker
But for me personally, it was like one of those things where the rating doesn't come together till the very last like sentence of the book for
Emotional Climax Discussion
00:03:42
Speaker
me.
00:03:42
Speaker
Where it's like it's like everything came together when I got super emotional at this ending.
00:03:54
Speaker
And then I was like, oh my gosh. like I feel like I finally got it and understood the path that we went on and how we got there. And that's when I felt all the feels.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yeah. of everything that we just went through the entire journey we went through. And that's when like my rating like fully settled in. Do you remember when we read The Time Traveler's Wife and you were talking about how it was like a slow kind of a slog through the first bit because they were walking you through the tiniest minutiae, every single tiny detail of going shopping or doing their hair or brushing their teeth and like stuff that you don't really want to hear about.
00:04:35
Speaker
And it doesn't really matter. But then you realize that like it's building that connection to that, to these characters, you're starting to learn about them, you feel more connected, because they are more human to you.
Character Connections Through Mundane Tasks
00:04:48
Speaker
yeah i'm I'm really with you. The first part of this book feels You know, at first you're like, holy crap, this is wild. And then you're just kind of like, okay, I get it. You had to do more science. Okay. Yep. That was scary. Okay. Whatever.
00:05:01
Speaker
But as you, you know, go through these moments, these typical mundane moments of having to listen to disco repeatedly or whatever, you start to really love Mark Watney and you become invested in him surviving. Right.
00:05:17
Speaker
yeah I think what really helped me was getting other perspectives, like the perspectives of people on Earth that were trying to help him, like people at NASA and all this stuff, yep or his crew that were you know finding different things out about him and their decision-making along the way.
00:05:38
Speaker
i think switching perspectives, once that switch made yeah was made, i want to say probably like... 20% or 30%? I feel like it was like right around that 25% through the book, we start to see and what's happening on Earth. I felt like that's when I started feeling, was like, okay, I feel like I'm pushing through this ye faster and I'm liking it more.
00:06:02
Speaker
Yeah. How did you feel about the beginning of that, Lindsay? Like that first kind of, that first bit where was just Mark? Did you kind of get that like, oh crap, okay, I'm starting to get bored now moment?
00:06:14
Speaker
Maybe slightly, because I do remember when it did switch perspectives, I was like, oh, I really like this. And I really did get more invested. It wasn't that it was a bad thing in the beginning, but it definitely got better. Yeah, I feel like it was it was just the perfect moment to to start to to to give that switch to that those other perspectives. I think this was really well written.
00:06:38
Speaker
And i give this book five potatoes it For me, as a science fiction reader, as an absolute space journey nerd, this is top tier. Yeah, this is right up your alley. this is And I mean, especially knowing that the vast majority of the science in the book is accurate science, the chemistry and the physics calculations. That like that is what Andy Weir took his time, collaborated with other people and scientists to make sure that this was accurate.
00:07:09
Speaker
Not every single thing in this book is accurate. It is said in the future. There is a man on Mars, which obviously hasn't happened yet. So there's some liberties taken. But for the most part, the science is
Realistic Science in 'The Martian'
00:07:19
Speaker
really accurate. And knowing that, and I'm not like the world's smartest. I know I love i tell you guys all the time how much I love science. I'm not good at it.
00:07:27
Speaker
Not at all. Chemistry? I dropped that class as soon as I found out I could. Honestly, the whole time I'm just assuming everything's correct. I'm like, I i mean, you could tell me it's, you know, correct. and I would believe you. Yeah. and And absolutely, i feel like you didn't have to know the science in order to enjoy this book.
00:07:47
Speaker
yeah You didn't have to know it was true. It didn't have to be... like He could have made up all that science and it still would have been a great story to me. That's honestly... That's actually extremely true. like As someone who does not gravitate towards this genre at all, you...
00:08:03
Speaker
like you that's very true what you said like you don't need to love science you don't need to love science fiction to enjoy this story it was like i'm like legitimately you are not a science fiction reader in general and the fact that you gave it a 3.5 like makes my heart so freaking happy and like lindsey am i'm not shocked in any way that you liked this but i am shocked that you rated it so high and i'm so i'm thrilled i'm pumped that I found a book that is science that you both liked. So I feel like I won.
00:08:38
Speaker
i don't know what I won. I mean, if the book is going to make me cry in the end, like that's- you cry? Oh, I was crying. Okay. You guys have to know. I was crying. This is such a reread for me.
00:08:51
Speaker
I have read this book like no less than six times. No less than six times. And I know exactly what's going to happen. I know what order it happens in. I've seen the movie at least a half a dozen times.
00:09:04
Speaker
And I still cry at the end. I think I've only seen the movie, like, I was trying to remember maybe once. And I couldn't even remember if I had seen it, like, all the way through. Like, maybe it was, like, on TV or something.
00:09:16
Speaker
And i couldn't remember exactly like how everything went down. Like I just remember like little like scenes and stuff. Oh, I was crying at the end of the book and then cried again, even more at the movie. Right. Because I felt like, I mean, I'm kind of getting ahead a little bit, but I just felt like the movie Gave us a little bit more that we needed. Gave us a little bit more for someone like me who maybe doesn't need all the extra science, if that makes sense. Yeah. No, with you.
00:09:55
Speaker
What did you think,
Book vs. Movie Differences
00:09:56
Speaker
Lindsay? the The end? Did it tear you up a bit? I didn't. try but i felt it yeah i felt it in my soul yeah i get it i'm excited so okay guys are you ready to move ahead with spoilers you think you think yeah i'm ready okay crew secure the airlock and strap yourselves in we are heading into our full spoiler breakdown and review of the martian Before we fire rockets, though, I'd like to remind you of critical systems.
00:10:28
Speaker
The Martian contains discussion of malnourishment, calorie counting, abandonment, and isolation, excrement, medical drama, and mention of suicide. If you are sensitive to these subjects, please consider scrubbing the mission.
00:10:42
Speaker
For those of us still here, we are go for launch. I'm excited. I know, me too. I've been so excited to talk about this one. Me too. i have been Well, I mean, it's my jam anyway. Yeah.
00:10:56
Speaker
The book and the movie start a little bit differently. The book opens with Mark Watney's first log entry after the crew has already left and And he tells us what happened and led him to be stranded and left for dead on Mars.
00:11:12
Speaker
The movie opens an hour before the storm really hits. And we see the whole Ares crew on Mars going about their scientific duties, a scientific mission. mission They are fact finding. They are doing some experiments.
00:11:31
Speaker
They're getting rock samples. and they're kind of out doing all of their things when they get a mission alert from NASA with an updated
00:11:44
Speaker
What's the forecast for the the Mars? i Was it called a call to forecast on Mars? I guess. ah well but yeah they They get an updated forecast for a storm that they know was coming in. It is going to be way worse than they expected and well outside of safety standards.
00:12:03
Speaker
And so they have to make the horrible decision to scrub the mission and prepare for evacuation. Right away in the very, very beginning of the movie, we see exactly what happens.
00:12:16
Speaker
In the book, Mark kind of explains to us what happens, but he leaves out, you know, a lot of the the back and forth conversation that we see in the movie of him trying to find reasons for them to stay or ways for them to stay versus the commander basically saying, no, we're out of here. It's my decision. Let's go.
00:12:38
Speaker
mark gets hit with the communications antenna that gets blown off in the storm and he gets blown away. It impales his suit right through the bio monitor. So he's the rest of the crew gets zero biomarkers. It basically tells them he's dead.
00:12:57
Speaker
And so trying to save their own lives, they leave him behind. Of course, they think he's dead. We find out right away he's not. And now Mark has to figure out how he's going to survive on Mars.
00:13:14
Speaker
And the first few chapters of this book are very super science heavy, right? We, you know, Mark starts doing the very, very typical survival situation You know, checklist, right? That how much food do I have? How much water do I have? Do I have shelter?
00:13:36
Speaker
You know, and he starts counting how many ration packs they have. He starts thinking about, okay, well. They left all of their big, and you know, because everybody left in such a hurry. I still have X number of suits that I EVA suits that I can wear.
00:13:50
Speaker
I have the two rovers that I can use. I have, you know, they left a lot of their like their personal equipment and their personal items. So I have their laptops. I have.
00:14:01
Speaker
And he's basically comparing it to when the is the next time someone is going to be coming to Mars. Right. And so he knows when the next planned mission to Mars is.
Mark Watney's Survival Tactics
00:14:12
Speaker
And it's in four years.
00:14:15
Speaker
And not anywhere near where he is. He's in Acidalia Planitia. He needs to get to Schiaparelli Crater, which is... 32, 32 or 35, hundred kilometers away. Right. And the rovers, they have solar cells. The batteries only last so long. So he is literally doing all the math equations, all the physics equations for, you know, how long can I make this food last?
00:14:39
Speaker
How can I get these rovers to you know, the batteries to hold a charge longer or charge them on the road? How can I make more water for myself? Cause I have a water reclaimer, but yeah,
00:14:51
Speaker
You know, I'm probably going to need more than that. Of course, the first problem is food. He knows right away that the first thing that's going to kill him is going to be not having enough food.
00:15:02
Speaker
And the way it's written, I think is fun. Like, Lindsay, like you said this, how you like the humor isn and it. I think that was a really fun touch considering like, you know, the situation is really bad and we're getting it through his eyes and with his like sarcastic humor with it because it's kind of in like a diary type feeling yes as you're reading it which is it is like a good touch it's based on his log entries right and like in the weirdest way ever this whole story is like a slice of life look from from the first ever resident of mars
00:15:42
Speaker
You know what I mean? like Yeah. A day in the life, you know, we follow him along as he figures out. um Well, he's a botanist by by ah educationally. He was his schooling is in botany and engineering.
00:15:57
Speaker
Right. So he's a problem solver. That's the engineer in him. But he also knows how to grow things. And so he's trying to figure out, like, how do I make Martian soil? Right. like tillable growable soil because Martian soil doesn't have the nutrients and the basically the, the like bio, what's the bacteria and you know, that, that our earth soil has in order to help things grow.
00:16:26
Speaker
And so he, you know, is trying to figure out how he can make Martian soil. Cause there's plenty of dirt. There's plenty of dirt around, but yeah but but how can he make it, you know, it to able to grow anything. and he settles, he figures out that he can use night soil, which is basically poo.
00:16:50
Speaker
And he has all of the poo that the crew left behind because astronauts like vacuum sealed their poo and put it into separate containers so it's not just poo everywhere.
00:17:02
Speaker
um and he had like a little bit of earth soil with him. Because he's the botanist. Yeah, he's botanist. And was a scientific mission. Yeah. That was like part of what he was going to do while he was there.
00:17:16
Speaker
So he had a little bit of earth soil that did have the bacteria in it, but there was no way that that was going to be enough to grow what he needed. And he found that they had potatoes packed away because part of the mission, they were going to be on Mars for Thanksgiving. And NASA thought it would be good for morale to have them cook a Thanksgiving meal together.
00:17:36
Speaker
So there were a dozen potatoes. Like actual whole, not freeze dried, not, you know, mashed already, not like actual whole potatoes.
00:17:48
Speaker
And he realized they're going to be, they're going to be the easiest thing for me to grow if I can just get the soil up to par. And so he mixes like literally everyone's shit together.
00:18:00
Speaker
Into this bucket with some water and some Martian soil and some of the earth soil, hoping that the bacteria in the earth soil will reproduce and grow into this Martian soil.
00:18:11
Speaker
Mm-hmm. the way he writes it in the book is funny because he's like, this this is awful. And he, like, makes fun. i can't even remember which um of the rest other crew he was like, oh, my God, what did he eat when he cuts open his back? Yeah. I think it was Beck.
00:18:27
Speaker
Yeah. It was so funny. Yeah. You know, it was in the movie. He's got like earplugs, but in his nostrils, you know, it was gross. But it was like, OK, I'm going to even in the story. He was like, I'm going to make this funny because I know how awful this is, but I'm going to try and laugh my way through it.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah. Whenever we when both of you were picturing. him doing this in the book versus the movie. Were you picturing it the same way how they did it in the movie?
00:18:59
Speaker
Like in my mind, the hub or whatever they call it that he's in was very much smaller than how they made it look in the movie. yeah Okay. So in my mind, when I picture it, because I really did read this many, many more times before I started watching the movie. Yeah.
00:19:21
Speaker
And it's in my mind, it was definitely smaller because he talks about how like he doesn't have enough floor space. He's actually going have to use the tables too. He's calculating out the floor space because he is like going down specifically to how much like square footage he needs yeah of soil versus. Like the soil has to be at least 10 centimeters deep. yeah you know it can And that will only grow this number potatoes. Like he was thinking about using like bunks.
00:19:48
Speaker
For like what he would need for the soil and things like that. Exactly. And in the movie, it's just one area. yeah Closed off that has all the soil in it.
00:19:59
Speaker
Right. And it has all the plants in it. No, like I feel like it was definitely bigger in the movie than it was in my mind's eye, you know?
00:20:11
Speaker
Did you think the same thing, Lindsay? were you like... I had already seen the movie, so I was just picturing the movie. That's fair. yeah i am I love how, though, in this first bit, too, you know, Mark's alone. He has no communication back to NASA or Earth.
00:20:31
Speaker
right And because basically there were there were redundant communication systems, but they were all on the ascent vehicle. They were all...
00:20:42
Speaker
they like they Except for the one that broke and killed, air quotes, Mark Watney, the rest of the communication systems were on the MAV and they left with it.
00:20:55
Speaker
So he you know the one that would have been left with him is the one that broke and nearly killed him. So he doesn't have a way to contact anyone. And so part of these log entries is his like talking to someone, just having anyone to talk to.
00:21:13
Speaker
And I think that's part of why we see so much detail in the science. He is measuring the square footage of the hab. He is measuring the, you know, and weighing out the soil. he is, you know, measuring out exactly how many potatoes per cubic inch he can grow.
00:21:34
Speaker
how many eyes on each potato are going to be grown in this spot. And then he's calculating how many days it's going to take to grow them and when he can harvest and then replant what he has harvested in order to make even more particular. He's sciencing down to everything, you know, like measuring out like how many, you know, multivitamins do I have because potatoes aren't going to be enough nutrition. So I'm going to have to supplement with the vitamins and with the, basically what are em MREs, his theyre the nutritional packs that they already had. He's going to you know have to ration those out in order to make sure that he's getting nutrients along with the – he's going like hardcore down.
00:22:13
Speaker
In fact, the biggest accident we see right away is he's realized he's not going to have enough water to water his potato plants. And so he is this is when we get it super into chemistry. Chemistry is the class that I dropped in as soon as I found out I could in school. I am not good at chemistry at all.
00:22:32
Speaker
but no It's interesting. I think it's really interesting. I just don't get it. I respect people that are good at it. um yeah he That's not for me. Right. So he realizes he has to make water. Everybody in the world knows that water is H2O. Right. And so he's like, well, I can get hydrogen and I have oxygen.
00:22:54
Speaker
so if I can get the hydrogen and the oxygen, and he like basically makes an explosion and it's he's like, i it's going to be a controlled burn. I just have to do the math. It'll be okay. And he does the math and he's got it all figured out and he's measuring and going slow and making sure that everything is all right. And he still manages to nearly blow himself up when he realizes that the, the,
00:23:19
Speaker
Like there's too much hydrogen in the air because he forgot to calculate the fact that he was going to be also exhaling oxygen because we don't just exhale carbon dioxide. And he didn't factor his breathing into the equation.
00:23:33
Speaker
And that like it's so not only is the science part and him going so full detailed into into the science part, probably a huge coping skill and being alone and, you know, making sure that he's keeping his mind active and finding things to do so that he doesn't spiral into absolute sheer panic.
00:23:50
Speaker
But also it's saving his life. Yeah. Other things that he does to cope is he's listening to, you know, music from his crew that they left behind.
Humor and Character Insight
00:24:01
Speaker
tv shows that they left behind. And his little comments and his logs are hilarious. And they included that in the movie too, which I thought was such a good touch and so funny.
00:24:11
Speaker
That was perfect. And we haven't even talked about the cast in this movie. cast amazing. This insanity. So good. Like, first of all, obviously Matt Damon, and who is at this point an expert at being stranded and having to be rescued. It's just something that as a society we do.
00:24:31
Speaker
We save Matt Damon. But also in this cast, we have Jessica Chastain as Commander Lewis. We have Kristen Wiig as Annie Montrose. She is the director of media relations at NASA.
00:24:48
Speaker
That woman had a job to do in this book. Back from the secret life of Walter Mitty. Right? Speaking of secret life of Walter Mitty, I think there was another one. Maybe there wasn't.
00:25:00
Speaker
No. Oh, no, I'm thinking of we we have another... entrance of sean bean in this movie national welcome back to the podcast sean bean sean bean my favorite ah national treasure hero you know who we have i don't think we've had um we've i've watched any of his movies yet we have jeff daniels who i adore i love jeff daniels right We have Michael Pena as Martinez. We have Sebastian Stan as Beck.
00:25:34
Speaker
The return of Sebastian Stan. Like, hello. We have always lived in the castle. Right. We have, who's the other one that I saw that I was like, what oh, Benedict Wong is Bruce, who like pre-Marvel superhero, he worked at NASA apparently. Thank you.
00:25:51
Speaker
but there's just this This movie is just packed with people that I was like, oh, I forgot he was here. Or, oh, yeah, no, I haven't. you know Because I hadn't watched this in maybe like two years, three years. And it's still kind of refreshing when I see these faces that...
00:26:07
Speaker
we know so well at this point.
Movie Cast Discussion
00:26:09
Speaker
It was a really great... Oh, and Donald Glover? Mm-hmm. ah Yeah. Like, where'd you come from? And then, of course, Vincent Kapoor, who is in the movie, but the character Vanket Kapoor in the book.
00:26:23
Speaker
I am going to... just absolutely massacre this name. Chueto Yofur? i have no idea. And I'm sorry, but you are an amazing actor. And when I see your face, I smile if you're listening.
00:26:38
Speaker
um
00:26:40
Speaker
Sorry, I can't pronounce your name, but I love your face.
00:26:45
Speaker
that's That's how we roll. ah But yeah, it was like a jam-packed cast. At this point, you know, we we haven't seen anybody, but, you know, the the crew's gone, so now we're just stuck with Matt Damon, which is also not a bad movie to watch.
00:27:02
Speaker
But I was glad when they went back to NASA, and then we have... Oh, what's her face? The character's name. Mindy. Mindy. She, they convince Vincent slash Venkat Kapoor convinces Teddy to let him have some satellite time back on Mars and get some images of the Ares 3 landing or, you know, area in Acidalia Planitia because he wants to see if there's anything that's salvageable, like
00:27:34
Speaker
You know, the the have if the have is still there, if the rovers are still there, he might be able to, you know, make a case for sending, you know, because they know they've got a fourth mission schedule, but he might be able to make the case for Ares five or six.
00:27:49
Speaker
It to go back and recover some of this stuff. And of course, the the head of NASA, and this is where a lot of politics start coming into the book, because we had like, I hadn't really thought of this point the first time I read this book.
00:28:00
Speaker
But the head of NASA, Teddy, is like, no, because we are a public agency and we're Like we have 24 hours to release any photos that we take. If we take photos of that site and Mark Watney's body is visible, I basically just broadcast his body to the world. Because at this point they like have announced everything. and Yeah, that the whole world thinks Mark Watney is dead.
00:28:26
Speaker
Like it's they've they've had memorial services already at this point. But Vincent Venket convinces Teddy to like give him some satellite time because they can sell it as we're looking to see if Mark's body is recoverable.
00:28:44
Speaker
Like we might because sympathy is public sympathy is still with the Watney family is still with NASA. And we kind of imply that we're looking in order to see if we can recover Mark, you know.
00:28:59
Speaker
when they do look, Mindy Park is the analyst who receives the pictures and then is supposed to like distribute them to whoever they go to. And she notices, she's like, oh, I think those coordinates are from the Ares 3 mission. Let me see if anything's there. And she looks at them and she's like, wait a minute. I don't think the rover is where we left it.
00:29:18
Speaker
I don't think like, why are the solar panels cleaned off? Like stuff like that. Right. And so she kind of realizes right away, i don't think Mark is dead. I loved this part because I felt like we were in on this secret and they were and we were watching them find out, oh my God, he's still alive. like We've known the whole time, but now they're catching up to us.
00:29:42
Speaker
yeah I really liked that. I was afraid that they were going to let it go too long in the book. I thought that they were going to make it where we they weren't going to know he was still alive and until much, much later.
00:29:57
Speaker
right And I was like, nerd because I mean, like I said, i I couldn't tell you anything about the movie at that point. So I really couldn't remember anything. And I was like, I really hope that they're not going to not know until the very end of this book. And that's when they're going to go on this rescue mission. That's going to frustrate me to hell where I'm in on it. Like you said, in on the secret to the very end of the book, that's going to like drive me insane. Right.
00:30:24
Speaker
But the fact that immediately into it, like we said, 25, maybe 30 percent, they know. And the rescue mission is beginning now.
00:30:36
Speaker
Right. And this is there is some. I love it. There are some differences between the movie and the book as to the timing. It's days is's soul six, day six, basically, of the mission when Mark Watney is impaled in the book.
00:30:51
Speaker
In the movie, it's like day 15 or something. 18. Yeah, it's it's way further on on in this 30-day mission. in the move or In the book, it is like day 45 when they notice that he might still be alive in the movie. It was like day 54. So like, and it's not like super off and it doesn't really change any of the story at all.
00:31:17
Speaker
It's just one of those that kind of made me go, wait, why? But mere this is also the part in the book, NASA's figured out he's alive. They've decided not to tell the rest of the Ares crew.
00:31:28
Speaker
The Ares crew is still flying home and they want them to focus on getting home and getting home safe.
NASA's Ethical Dilemmas
00:31:36
Speaker
NASA has decided right away, we're not telling them, at least not until we know whether or not we can save him.
00:31:44
Speaker
We don't want them to feel like they left a man behind. We don't want them to feel guilty. We want them to just focus on getting home and getting home safe. And the head of the crew, like the guy who's in charge of making sure that the crew is safe, Mitch Henderson, played by Sean Bean, basically is like, I think you're making a huge mistake. I think they have the right to know.
00:32:07
Speaker
We need to tell them. And this is where we kind of right away learn that Mitch is kind of a jerk, but in the to me in the best way. Like i I liked that character. he He was, to me, he's the kind of guy I always want in my corner, right? Because you know he's going to stand up for what's right.
00:32:24
Speaker
But that doesn't necessarily mean he's doing what's smart. And the rest of NASA is trying to be smart about this. Because it was crew over NASA. Right.
00:32:35
Speaker
For him. Right. In my opinion. That's what it appeared to me. Like it was crew over NASA. Like that crew was most important. Right. Exactly. And we start to, again, see like the, the, not just the politics of just, you know, corporate politics, but like actual world politics coming in because now the world has to know, because again, those pictures are about to become public and they're already trying to figure out how we're going to spin this. How are we going to break this news?
00:33:05
Speaker
Right. we already We need to have a press release ready the moment we release those photos. So and we start to kind of see a little bit of that happening. Of course, now we know Mark is on Mars growing his potatoes. He's got his water. His eyebrows are growing back from where he burned them off.
00:33:23
Speaker
I do love the explosion that happened in the movie. And then he goes and sits in his bunk for a second. You see the steam still rising off of him. It's coming off of him. That was ah it was a nice touch. He's like, well, I blew myself up.
00:33:38
Speaker
I loved seeing the logs in the movie, too, because reading it in the book, for some reason, i was having a hard time imagining him recording the logs. And I'm thinking of him sitting him and in his bunk, writing in his diary. Like, dear diary. Stay high.
00:33:51
Speaker
I felt the same exact way. Because and like it really felt that way where i was like, you mean to tell me, like... chaos was like happening around you like where like shit was hitting the fan and you're like pause writing it down like for long logs and i was like that doesn't make sense to me in the movie there were cameras everywhere yeah these are video like yeah these were video logs even when he was like actively working on things they had cameras set up
00:34:25
Speaker
And he's talking through it he's looking up, talking to, like, the surveillance-type camera up there that he set up. Or he would have, like, almost, like, GoPro-type situations. I was going say, I'm picturing, like, a ring doorbell camera with, like, fish eye, you know? yeah Yeah. Yeah. He has like a GoPro on as he's like walking around. That makes more sense to me. Yeah.
00:34:48
Speaker
I will say I listened to, I have the audio book. There are two versions of the audio book. There's the Wil Wheaton version and the RC Bray version. In my mind, Mark Watney looks like Matt Damon and sounds like RC Bray.
00:35:01
Speaker
And you cannot tell me otherwise. That's it. And so i will say, I love Wil Wheaton. I love you. hope. I honestly, like, legit, if you are listening, hi! I would be thrilled. I'm a super Will Wheaton, like, fangirl.
00:35:14
Speaker
However, i like the R.C. Bray book so much better. i and in love with R.C. Bray's narration on this. R.C. Bray is actually from Chicago, just like the character, Mark Watney. And so in my mind, that sense of humor, because he really does act out these logs in the audiobook. It is so...
00:35:38
Speaker
you know just like at one point he literally like yells like fuck yeah science and he just like yells it in the audiobook too so it's not a dry reading it's a it's it's
Audiobook Recommendations
00:35:50
Speaker
like mad props to rc bray for this one and it it's i think it makes because i have read the physical book too and it's like you said you kind of in your head you're like log entry Like, Dear Diary, it's it's it really is. It feels that way. But then having somebody, the words, like, spoken to you, it kind of was a more immersive experience that I think Andy Weir was going for.
00:36:16
Speaker
Yeah, I did the other audiobook. The Will Wheaton. The Will Wheaton one. And yeah, i wasn't feeling it too much, at least like compared to what everyone is saying how incredible the audiobook is.
00:36:29
Speaker
i am curious how the Project Hail Mary audiobook is going to be. i Because I hear incredible things about that audiobook. Listen, I'm just putting this out there. i'll like you guys would like i don't know if our audience knows this or not, but we choose our books.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah. personally like I'm hosting the book that I chose and although the other two hosts can always say I'm not comfortable doing that book I don't really want to and we will take that into consideration at the end of the day we get to choose the books that we do we will be doing Project Hail Mary you will be doing Project Hail Mary it's going to happen whether anybody else likes it or not and and if I have to do that on my own but I think after this book y'all like to do that too yeah so definitely I'm excited for that one for reals Where are we?
00:37:18
Speaker
I don't know. Oh, he just he's grown his potatoes. NASA knows he's alive, but he still can't communicate with them. They can't communicate with him. So they know he's alive. They're watching him. They have no way to say we're going to find a way to to get you some food or we're going to find a way to something. They can't even tell him that.
00:37:37
Speaker
So now that he's got food growing, now that he's got his water situation figured out, he's even going, okay, like four years until they they come back to Mars, like i I can't sit here by myself. I'm going to have to find a way to communicate.
00:37:56
Speaker
And he gets it in his head to go pick up more human trash left on Mars. And he goes and finds the rover the vo Voyager rover? No. Which one was it?
00:38:08
Speaker
Pathfinder. Pathfinder and Sojourner, the little, the rover's pet. The rover's rover. so but So he goes and he finds Pathfinder.
00:38:20
Speaker
And NASA's watching him. And they're like, where's he going? Because this is like a days long trip. He's packed up his little rover car to go find the Pathfinder. And he's headed off in some random direction. And they're like, where's he going?
00:38:34
Speaker
What's going on? Because NASA's watching him hard now. They've rerouted satellites to get more images. They've got people like working on this nonstop round the clock. and And he keeps going, keeps going, they can't figure it out. And then suddenly it dawns on them, wait a minute, we've left other stuff on Mars.
00:38:54
Speaker
He's heading right for Pathfinder. And of course he finds Pathfinder, he packs it up, he takes it back. And there is some sort of... radio that he can use to communicate. It's clunky. He can't, he can only send images and they can, if, if they figure out what he's doing and he doesn't know if they're, they have like, again, he has no idea, but he's just trying to fix this stupid pathfinder to be able to send an image so that
00:39:28
Speaker
you know, fingers crossed somebody will notice at some point, but NASA's already figured it out. They went and got the guys that worked on Pathfinder to. I love this part. I like this part a lot in the movie.
00:39:42
Speaker
Whenever it's like all coming together at this point. And we're seeing it on their perspective as they're like setting everything up. Like the way that it's filmed where, you know. Yes, we see Mark on one side. Yeah, Mark on one side setting everything up.
00:39:59
Speaker
And then all of them. Flash to JPL. Yeah, and they're setting everything up in order so that they can communicate back and forth. They do that a lot throughout the rest of the movie as they're trying to tell him what to do They're also practicing and setting up the scenario themselves to ensure that it would work for him.
00:40:25
Speaker
And I love that. I thought that was really good. was so cool. This is, to me, as the science nerdy, this is that moment when you're like... Yeah, this makes sense, right? Because they they know what he's doing and they know the stuff that he has because they're the ones who packed everything, right?
00:40:42
Speaker
And much like our amazing Carrie who packs and has her list ready to go a week in advance... NASA knows every bolt, every weld, every milliliter of liquid, anything that was in what bottle, where the bottle was manufactured, who touched the bottle, who packed the bottle, who put the label on the bottle. Like they...
00:41:10
Speaker
That's NASA, right? So they know what all he's got. They know everything about everything that he has. And so they are engineering it back to those specs on Earth to make sure that it's going to work so that when he gets everything up and going, they're ready to talk and
Mark's Communication Breakthrough
00:41:26
Speaker
they're ready to receive. And right away, Mark sends a picture that says...
00:41:30
Speaker
still alive anybody there kind of thing and right off the bat they move like nasa was ready and waiting and they moved the head of the camera so that he knows holy crap they're there hu and in the and it was like emotional it's like it was like i finally communicated with someone like i'm not alone yep there were a handful of moments that well still get me emotional in this book and that is definitely one of them So they have to figure out, you know, more science crap. They have to find a way to communicate because he only has, like again, they only have the camera.
00:42:10
Speaker
So he has to come up with the, you know, ah a way to communicate with them. Yeah, faster way. Right. So they come up with a faster way. And then after they come up with a faster way to communicate...
00:42:22
Speaker
short messages by just moving the camera they tell him their plan for how he can rig the pathfinder radio into the rover and basically chat like with a keyboard instead of having to send these messages with the camera angles pointing at different signs for a code you know what i mean so that's super exciting and then he gets because he even like say i'm gonna chat That made me emotional. because Oh, yeah. And it was like being like projected to everyone because like everyone's been like waiting for every like for this moment for them to get into contact with him.
00:43:03
Speaker
And then they chat him. And i think at this moment, they tell him that that he's like, how's the crew? and like what was the crew? they say? How did they react?
00:43:14
Speaker
Yeah. And then they're like, we haven't told them yet. And he was like... F you, why haven't you effing told them, blah, blah, blah.
00:43:26
Speaker
And then they're like, you're lit everyone can see you. Watch your language. Watch your language. it it's like I ask myself, and now I'm going to ask you guys, what would you have said?
00:43:40
Speaker
I would have reacted the same way. This is the first time you've spoken to anyone in months. You have been alone. Not even a cat to talk to. Alone.
00:43:52
Speaker
You and your best friend, the potato. Yeah. Me and the potato. So what would you say? i'm going to be livid. I'm going to be like, why aren't you telling, like, why are you not informing right the crew I've been with for a very long time?
00:44:11
Speaker
yu Why, like, everything that, the truth of what happened. Right. So they're are they're finally communicating. My favorite part was when they were like, they told him to watch his language because it was being broadcast. And he's like, look, boobs.
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah. That was a good one. Because I get he's so at this point, he is so irreverent. He is just done with everyone. But also like, I'm still on Mars.
00:44:40
Speaker
Yeah. What are you to do about you to do about it? So, so yeah, he's, he's, he's finally talking to NASA there, you know, they've got him this chat system set up and now that they can communicate and there's a 12 minute delay, right? So from earth to Mars and then from Mars back. So earth sends him a message. It takes 12 minutes to get there.
00:45:00
Speaker
He responds to their question and it takes another 12 minutes. So this is like 24 minute round trip. You know, this is not a quick gab. You know, this is this is worse than dial up. OK, so he's there sending him all kinds of instructions, asking all kinds of questions. They want updates on how many potatoes does he how did he grow the potatoes? How many potatoes does he have? Now that you have the potatoes, these are the plan for the potatoes. And he's like, excuse me.
00:45:29
Speaker
I'm the only Martian botanist in existence. Leave me alone. I'm the greatest botanist on this planet. Yeah, that's what was about say. Technically. he was so, like, and I love the part where he talks about being, like, he's a pirate. He's the he's colonized Mars because he was the first one to to grow crops on Mars. So that means he's colonized Mars. Like, he was, like, first ever Martian colonist.
00:45:56
Speaker
He's, In fact, at one point um in the book and and in the movie, the rest of the crew is like, well, if we do this, oh, like, I'll get ahead of myself. But basically, they're like, if we do this, not even Mark can say he's done that. Because at this point, Mark can say he has done everything.
00:46:15
Speaker
So NASA sending him all these instructions. And one of the instructions is how they're going to basically retrofit the one of the rovers or just Frankenstein, one of these rovers to make it livable and drivable for the incredibly long fricking drive to the other Mav, right? Right.
00:46:48
Speaker
Or to the... yeah to the and we' like the other areas yeah Where the Ares Fort... Rocket is yeah and And so he starts doing that and he starts working on that. But one of the things that happens is he... The food resupply that they were going to send him explodes at launch. right It doesn't make it through launch.
00:47:15
Speaker
And... And so they have to move up their plan to get him moving and going because they don't think that they're going to be able to get him another food supply before.
International Collaboration to Save Mark
00:47:27
Speaker
Like, because by the time they launch one, it's not going to get there in time before he starves to death, basically. Also, the reason they had to move up the launch is because there was a breach And all the potatoes died. All the potatoes died.
00:47:46
Speaker
The airlock breached because of a failure in the carbon fiber material around the airlock.
00:47:57
Speaker
I, you know, this book was written before the Titan submersible, but I feel like our scientists should know by now that carbon fiber is not something that we should use under stress multiple times.
00:48:12
Speaker
we've We've learned our lessons now. and feel like that is, although this was written long before then, we know better now and it would never happen on Mars. So thanks, Andy, for pointing that out for us.
00:48:25
Speaker
i wish other people would have learned those lessons. Having said that, so the airlock explodes. It kills all the potatoes. Now they have this rush to get him more food. the one food rocket explodes And they're scrambling to get another one together.
00:48:45
Speaker
and this is where we get into world politics. Because the Chinese space program has a rocket that they're going to use to launch a probe into the sun to do solar experiments and gather solar data.
00:48:59
Speaker
um But... The Chinese realize that this rocket is big enough and strong enough to make the trip to Mars to deliver more food.
00:49:13
Speaker
The United States government, nobody else really knows that what's going on with that rocket. They know they have a rocket, but they don't know the specs of the rocket because that's a state secret, right? So the Chinese government realizes, well, we don't have to tell them. They would never know.
00:49:28
Speaker
But they kind of say, or we could use this to ah our advantage. We could go save this guy and negotiate a Chinese astronaut on the next Aries mission.
00:49:41
Speaker
And so they do that. They, you know, in the hopes of saving Mark Watney, they reach out to NASA and say, hey, we have this rocket that you can use. You know, we only ask that you put one of our astronauts on your next Mars mission.
00:49:56
Speaker
And of course, NASA's like, fuck yeah, helps out. And so they do. But this is where Donald Glover comes in. Rich Parnell, who in the book was a very awkward character, definitely socially awkward.
00:50:14
Speaker
i think it's kind of hinted that he is like a spectrum person because he is like, am I being difficult? people Some people say I'm difficult. I wish they'd just tell me, you know.
00:50:27
Speaker
And Vincent Kapoor, Vanky Kapoor, right away it was like, you're being difficult. And he was like, thanks. you know so And I appreciate that. like Please just tell me. But Rich Parnell is an astrophysicist and he does all the math and he's like, you know, we could...
00:50:43
Speaker
and Instead of shooting this rocket with the food at Mars that probably isn't going to work and we all know it, we just don't want to admit it. We could use that rocket to resupply the Aries 3 and they could slingshot around Earth and go back to Mars and get Mark. And I think that would work better. And I've done all the math.
00:51:02
Speaker
And they have a little meeting. and decide like it's a secret meeting because they don't want to let out what is happening because they haven't decided yet and so vanket i'm gonna go with the movie on this one because it's funnier the vincent in the movie kind of sets a meeting and titles it meeting of elrond and everybody's like well well not everybody annie is like why is this called the meeting of elrond like the council of elrond why is this called the council of elrond
00:51:34
Speaker
And Sean Bean is like, because it's secret? secret like I think they literally hired him just to say this line.
00:51:46
Speaker
Yes! Just for this moment. Just this line. swear. That's literally why they did that. I was like, literally when they said that line, started dying laughing. was like, that's literally the only reason why this man is here. It's also the only reason they hired Ridley Scott because the line in space no one can hear you scream was used.
00:52:08
Speaker
yeah In the book. yu So, we... That cracked me up. I was literally, like, cackling. I rewinded it and played it. I was like, did he really just say that? I'm dead.
00:52:21
Speaker
ye So... Richard Parnell, Rich Parnell explains this maneuver to, in his calculations, to Mitch and Teddy and Venkat and Annie and Bruce, Benedict Wong, and is basically like, this is the our best chance. And Teddy, of course, the head of NASA, is like, okay, so basically you're telling me We have a really high risk of killing Mark if we just send the rocket straight to him with food because it might not work.
00:52:53
Speaker
Or we have a low risk of killing all six of the Ares crew, the five that are on the the Mav and Mark with this maneuver. And he's like, no, we're we're not doing that. We're going to just, like we're going to save at least the five and we'll send the food to mark. And if it doesn't work, that was my call.
00:53:16
Speaker
It is what it is. We've got a saving private Ryan all over again. For realsies. And Mitch loses it at this point. He's like, no this is what we need. We like,
00:53:28
Speaker
the rich Parnell mover is the way that we need to let the Aries crew decide.
Ares Crew's Decision to Return
00:53:33
Speaker
Commander Lewis has the right to know this. She needs to be the one to decide. Like we need to. Because she was the one who made the decision To leave. To evacuate in the first place. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:45
Speaker
So, and of course they all override Mitch. Well, He never comes out and says he did it, but somebody, and it's heavily implied it was Mitch, um sent the whole file with the Rich Parnell maneuver to the Aries 3 secretly at like as an attachment that was supposed to look like an attachment of the pictures of the kids to Johansson. Was it Johansson? and I can't remember. Vogel. Vogel.
00:54:16
Speaker
To Vogel. And... um And so when he can't open the what he thinks is an image, he goes to Johansson and to see if Johansson can open it. She's like, this isn't even a JPEG. This is, I don't know what this is. just look And he was like, holy crap.
00:54:31
Speaker
I think I know what this is. And the crew all decides together that they're going to go save Mark. Which is another one of those moments in the book that kind of had me like tight in the chest. But watching it in the movie and watching them all decide in the movie is just...
00:54:47
Speaker
okay, I'm going to tear up a bit. going to tear up in this moment because you can tell they're all suddenly... Like they feel like they're a little bit more in control now. They're they're a little bit more excited. but And this, deciding this is going to add an extra like 533 days or something. Yeah. So they're their entire basically another year and a half to them not getting home, not seeing their families.
00:55:10
Speaker
you know, some of them have kids. some They have, you know, some of them have spouses. They have family to get back to. and this is going to add a whole nother year and a half to that. commander lewis has an abba album to get back to real for real real relatable that i love i and honestly we haven't talked about it yet but like i know we've said that we made fun of um commander lewis loving disco but the soundtrack of this movie is really good i mean yes it's full of disco but it's the best it's the best disco it's it's so fun it's so fun
00:55:44
Speaker
So we've kind of sped up the pace. Now, there's still a lot of ways that this could go wrong, right? Like if the rocket doesn't reach the Mav, then and they don't get their resupply, then all five are going to starve to death before they ever get to Mark, you know?
00:56:01
Speaker
And so if that goes wrong, we're in trouble. You know, if their flyby george trajectory is too fast, they won't be able to catch Mark. Mark still has to get to orbit, you know. So there's a lot of things that can go wrong.
00:56:14
Speaker
In the movie, it picks up the pace so fast. In the book, Mark still has to get to Schiaparelli Crater to get... To the MAV, the Ares 4 site.
00:56:30
Speaker
And it's a really long distance. And we, he struggles. Like in the book, there's a sandstorm that means his solar cells are not charging. There was a sandstorm in the book, which was not in the movie. Yeah.
00:56:43
Speaker
There's a sandstorm that means his his solar cells aren't charging. And if his solar cells can't charge completely, that means he can't get there as fast. But he doesn't know there's a sandstorm coming because in the book...
00:56:55
Speaker
He's had an equipment failure that killed his radio and now he has lost all communication with NASA. In the movie, he maintains, commute once he gets communication, he has it the whole time. He has it the whole time.
00:57:06
Speaker
In the book, he's lost communication and he is literally sending more, like putting out rocks as Morse code, knowing that they're still watching him. He's leaving rocks as Morse code every day with just quick updates. But there's only so many rocks he can use in certain areas because he's driving through some very sandy areas.
00:57:25
Speaker
And it takes time to do that. And he's exhausted. he is malnourished at this point. He hasn't eaten. This is like soul 450 at this point. He's in the movie. Oh, man. Seeing him.
00:57:38
Speaker
Skin and bones. He was skin and bones. yeah know He's bruising. He's got full beard. Yep. Like his teeth. and Everything. It made me emotional.
00:57:50
Speaker
And they talk about it in the book about how he's losing, you know, he's going to be malnourished. He's going to lose muscle mass. And he talks about being tired and he talks about not necessarily having the strength to do certain things.
00:58:02
Speaker
Yeah. And then he talks about like using Vicodin to get through the day because he's out of caffeine pills. He's exhausted and sore and tired. And he just, you know, and so like we see, and then at one point,
00:58:17
Speaker
he He talks about making Mars tea. Isn't that what he called it? it's Mars tea is basically you just warm up the water drink it. That's Mars tea.
00:58:28
Speaker
Because yeah he doesn't have any coffee. He doesn't have any tea. He doesn't have anything left. He's got water and potatoes. And he's saving some of these meal packs for like to celebrate certain moments, like celebrating his halfway to the Ares foresight, celebrating when he gets there, celebrating the day he gets to leave. And then he has one pack for surviving something that should have killed him.
00:58:51
Speaker
One of the things that should have killed him is when the rover... tips over because he gets stuck in like a sandy spot heading down a crater and it just flips and rolls and it comes apart. And we don't see a lot of this in the movie. The movie goes really fast paced from the moment they decide to rescue go rescue him to the point where they get to, like he gets to the Ares foresight.
00:59:13
Speaker
mean, there's a lot of... more, you know, again, isolation, him creating the bedroom bubble balloon off of the side of the rover. We don't get bad in the movie.
00:59:24
Speaker
the movie, it makes it look like it's like a 10-day drive. In the book, it's like a 35, 40-day drive. He's living in this rover, which is not like a camper van. There's, you know, there's no full-size bed in the back.
00:59:39
Speaker
In the movie at this point, isn't this where, so we're in the perspective of the people at NASA and they're talking about how when he gets to the MAV at Ares 4 or whatever, and he has to get there, he has to take off all these different, this part had me shook. Okay, listen.
01:00:02
Speaker
This part had me so shook and stressed the hell out. I really have to talk about this. He had to go there and they told him... Well, at first, they're all telling... I mean, I can't remember all these different groups' names, but they're telling the people... ah What's that guy's name? The JPL people are telling the NASA people...
01:00:26
Speaker
That we're going to have to gut this rocket. Yeah, because there's too much weight. because there' It's too far because ah the crew won't be able to get too close to Mars. And it doesn't have enough fuel because yeah part of the reason they send it ahead of time is so that it can slowly draw in hydrogen yeah from the atmosphere over the course of, again...
01:00:46
Speaker
This part had me fucked up because they literally had to take off weight from it. So they're like, okay, present to me what you what we have to take off. And they start discussing all the things that need to be taken off the the rocket that he's going to be sitting in when he goes up into space.
01:01:02
Speaker
And the guy's like, are you serious right now? They're like, we haven't even gotten to the worst part yet. They're like, you have to take off the nose, the front of the ship. The cone at the top. The cone at the top, and you need to put it in a tarp around it.
01:01:17
Speaker
Yep. Yep. And like he's like, you want to send him in space in a tarp. In a convertible. Yeah, in a convertible.
01:01:28
Speaker
This part had me... so messed up. Like I, and then they communicate that to him. I can't remember if they did that in the book. Yeah. Okay. Well, because when he gets to the Aries 4 site, he now has communication back with NASA. Yes, that's what it was.
01:01:46
Speaker
I was getting confused. I was getting mixed up. was like, i swear that that happened in the book, but I couldn't remember when the communication came back. But I just remember in the movie, this part was so funny because Matt Damon sitting there, he's like,
01:02:01
Speaker
They keep trying to like make it sound fun to me because I'll be like the fastest man ever like in space. And he's like, you you know, like that's just like stupid. I'm not doing that. He's like, I kind of want to be the fastest man ever in space. And then he just starts knocking everything out.
01:02:20
Speaker
Yep. I'm like, oh my gosh, this has me so stressed. like From here on out, I don't think I was breathing. No. it's And in the book, Like you're thinking to yourself, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap.
Intense MAV Launch
01:02:34
Speaker
and But you're like, they've had teams working on this for days and days and days at NASA and JPL. And even the Chinese scientists are helping at this point.
01:02:45
Speaker
And like it's, they must have the right answer. Like obviously they've gone through the calculations. They've run the drills. They put in the simulation in the computer, whatever it is they had to do.
01:02:56
Speaker
So its it must be okay.
01:02:59
Speaker
Spoiler, it wasn't okay. Mark gets there. he gets in the rocket. He's done all these alterations. He's taken the whole thing apart. He's pulled all the seats out, panels out, the nose cones off. Everything's gone. It's covered in a tarp with a ratchet strap.
01:03:17
Speaker
He's going to have windows going up into space. like That is like open windows. It's a ragtop. It really, literally. It literally had me so shook.
01:03:28
Speaker
And he goes to, and the whole idea is, is that Martinez is going to remote drive the rocket because they've had to pull the whole control panel out to lose weight. And Mark is in his EVA suit. So he wouldn't even have hands, you know, good dexterity to control it anyways.
01:03:45
Speaker
Um, cause you have to be in your EVA suit when you don't have a fricking nose cone. Yeah. So here's Mark basically starved. Um, just nothing skin and bones in the seat in his suit oh shit i might start to cry i know and it's being like broadcast around the world like people are in time square and out on the lawn of the nasa space centers and they're like because they're wanting the live updates and it's being broadcast everywhere of course it's on a 12 minute delay
01:04:17
Speaker
So NASA at this point knows there's nothing we can do. It is 100% in their hands. Even if they told us something was wrong, by the time we got them the fix, it would be too late. And Mark is sitting in this.
01:04:32
Speaker
Commander Lewis is, you know, hey, Mark. And he was like, thanks for coming back for me. And I start bawling. Because he literally. and he's starting to tear up. I read that this was actually Matt Damon's reaction because he had filmed his scenes separate from everyone else and he felt isolated. So when he was hearing the crew and the recordings, he got emotional and they ended up using that in the movie.
01:04:58
Speaker
that That's... that's That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I saw that interview when he said that and I was like, oh my, when he has that genuine, you could like feel that genuine reaction because that was like the first time hearing a human voice.
Mark's Emotional Rescue
01:05:15
Speaker
Yep. Since, and it was like familiar human voice. Since everything happened. And whenever they start like. Counting down. Oh man.
01:05:26
Speaker
I want to have tears in my eyes right now. Because they start counting down. Yeah. And like even when he was talking to NASA before. was not hearing a voice. It was all chat. It was all messages and emails. And you know.
01:05:41
Speaker
data packs and stuff none of it was actual videos none of you know other than his 70s movies and disco music he had not heard another human voice and they're like saying everyone like checking in for everyone to go you know like everyone hears him say like go or whatever yeah a rocket he says go and everybody across the world begins cheering yeah And then they the rocket fires and he goes up and Martinez right away is like, something's not right.
01:06:14
Speaker
And he's not reaching the right altitude. Mark from the inside sees that the canvas that he has covered the nose with is flapping really hard and tearing and it's creating a ton of drag.
01:06:28
Speaker
I have chills right now because just thinking about that, like honestly, that was... Honestly, I did not think I was – that was, like, a terrifying thing to me.
01:06:40
Speaker
But I kept thinking about it. I was like, that is probably scariest thing i have ever seen in my life. like And this is why as much as I love space, I ain't going.
01:06:53
Speaker
Yeah. Tarp is gone. Windows open out in the open. And they keep saying he's going to pass out. He's probably gonna be passed out. They keep trying to talk to him. He's probably passed out.
01:07:04
Speaker
He's the man is floating in space. He's got open windows out here. I can't get over it. And the of course, the at this point, because he didn't reach is like they finally got him high enough.
01:07:16
Speaker
But because it took so long and they don't have any more fuel in the rocket to move him or maneuver him at all, they're going to miss him. And they know it. And so they they figure out a way to burn some of their fuel to adjust the rocket to align better with him. But now they're they're going to get to him, but they're going to be going too fast to be able to grab him. They're just going to smash him.
01:07:38
Speaker
And so now they've got to slow down and they figure out how to use atmosphere as an accelerant to go the other way.
01:07:48
Speaker
ah Love that they called it acceleration in the book. and not deceleration, because they were using acceleration in the opposite direction to decelerate the vehicle. but so Sorry, I got science nerdy on you.
01:08:02
Speaker
I told you I was going to try not to do that in this episode too much. But they did. they So they used atmosphere to... blow you know the one of the hat airlocks and use venting atmosphere to accelerate in the opposite direction that they're going, slows down the vehicle just enough that they can reach him.
01:08:22
Speaker
In the book, this moment wasn't quite as dramatic. The dramatic moment of them getting him into the the Mav, the whatever a return via the Hermes, there you go. Getting them into the Hermes was Just him arriving in the Hermes, right? Mm-hmm.
01:08:45
Speaker
In the movie, there's a little bit more because the tether won't quite reach and they have to, you know, go and he does get to pop the hole in his hand and be like Iron Man. and And so like, it's a little bit more dramatic in the movie, but I loved it.
01:08:59
Speaker
so I know. And he even says like, because he's like talking to them. And he they're like, you're too far away. He's like, all right, I'll just wave at you when I go by like, damn, like it's not even working right.
01:09:11
Speaker
yep And that whole part of him like coming to her. I know it's like so dramatic, but it was like, no. And then he was the one that left him. yeah She was the one that left him. I want to get emotional right now it's no that Left him.
01:09:29
Speaker
And he like came to her and like, you could just feel like the like desperation. Like acting was so, I'm like, going to cry. And when the, like, it slows down and we see him getting wrapped. Yeah, it was like, the acting was so good because they were so desperate to grab onto each other to get back.
01:09:53
Speaker
Like, that was so good. It was. And then they get in the Hermes and right away somebody's, like, they take his his helmet off and they're like, damn, son He's like, I haven't had a shower in a year. I know.
01:10:05
Speaker
it was ah It was a ah was ah okay perfect Also another. book kind of ends here. kind of talks about like they came back for me and everything's fine. And now we're heading home.
01:10:16
Speaker
And the book kind of ends. Another terrifying thing. Why? didn't know that astronauts be doing this. But walking around. Like walking around the outside.
01:10:30
Speaker
Not attached to anything is crazy to me. They don't really do that that much, but also like, it's not like there's wind. I know, but like floating around, like jumping from one thing to another without being attached.
01:10:46
Speaker
That's sort of a movie thing. I know, but I literally was so stressed out. I was like, oh my God, please don't do that ever again. Right. I hated that. Definitely anxiety inducing. Mm-hmm.
01:10:59
Speaker
Did you know that there's like a Martian VR experience or something like that? Where you can actually play as Mark Watney and like experience like the different scenes and stuff.
01:11:10
Speaker
Huh. I should try that I'd be scared. No. I mean, it's VR. I'll be doing it from my couch. It'll be fine. wait I'm just scared. vr is scary. The movie does give us the epilogue that I feel like
Hopeful Conclusion and Teaching Future Astronauts
01:11:23
Speaker
we all needed. And because I didn't want to spoil it for you guys before we got to this point, I knew how the movie ended. And this is exactly why I chose this for Back to School Month.
01:11:33
Speaker
Because in the movie, we end with Mark Watney on Earth teaching a class to some new NASA cadets about how to survive in space.
01:11:48
Speaker
And it's kind of like we see him like filled back out, like back to a normal healthy weight. We see him with healthy skin and a full head of hair and definitely gained a few pounds and looks, you know, looks a little bit older, a little bit wiser.
01:12:06
Speaker
and he starts cracking jokes to these. He says, and before anybody asks, yes, I did farm potatoes in my own shit. You know, so it was kind of a perfect...
01:12:18
Speaker
circle moment i i love having that little ending epilogue what did you guys think or movie i have to say movie honestly just for the purpose of out a lot of the like deep tiny details of the science that weren't really it for you anyways yeah i feel like it was just more entertaining for me personally lindsey While I really liked the movie, I still think the book had more of the humor that I liked. So I have to go book.
01:12:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think the humor was a lot more like on it in the book. I absolutely love this book for me. It will always be book. It is. This is my go to like 11 hour road trip. I'm turning on the audio book for The Martian. My family's sick of hearing it. I don't care.
01:13:07
Speaker
Go to sleep. I'm driving. So, yeah. That brings us to our question of the episode. And in keeping with our back-to-school theme, I wonder, what did you learn from this book, Carrie?
01:13:23
Speaker
My big thing was the night soil, actually. Using human waste as fertilizer. I went on a huge... When I encountered this part in the book, I went on a huge deep dive on this.
01:13:37
Speaker
Where... like back then of, you know, when fertilizers and high demand feces being extracted from, you know, chamber pots and stuff. And like, there was like, but like a night cart man that would go and collect them using it on farms. Obviously not the best idea when bacteria being spread and all that stuff. But just thought it was interesting how that was done in the book and the,
01:14:09
Speaker
You know, it worked in this sense because it was like the bacteria was being killed when it was being frozen, things like that. right But I don't know. i i didn't know about that. i didn't know like all the details behind that. So I found that kind of fascinating.
01:14:25
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Shit. ah Literally. Literally. ah Lindsay, what'd you learn? I learned that Andy Weir is one of my favorite authors.
01:14:39
Speaker
Oh, that's fair. I'm like, I learned human species and fertilizer. For me, I i don't want to, I don't feel like this is that I learned it, but I guess it never really clicked in my head that the L in LCD is liquid.
01:14:57
Speaker
Like I knew that. i knew that. But at one point in the book, Mark takes a laptop out of the hab to try and like record data on the laptop only to realize that the LCD screen instantly froze and killed the laptop basically. So like, because Mars is really cold.
01:15:20
Speaker
And I knew that I knew that the L in the LCD stood for liquid it just never occurred to me what that might mean for the functionality of the devices that I use all the time.
01:15:31
Speaker
So the more, you know,
01:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, we all learned something. There you go. Welcome back school. Well, with that, I think that wraps us up. Thank you for joining us on yet another space adventure. We're so glad to have you in our crew.
01:15:46
Speaker
Don't forget to follow us on social media for mission updates and additional book to screen news. Unlike the Mars Hab, we have redundant communication systems and can be found on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
01:16:01
Speaker
We love to gap and promise to keep the conversation going. So until next time, stay tethered, leave the nose cone on.
01:16:11
Speaker
We'll see in the next chapter based on a book.