Water that could sustain life! Possibly! Nasa has now revealed that there is evidence of stain-marks on Mars’s canyons and crater-walls: water is trickling downhill before drying up in the valleys and plains. Well … yes! Or rather … not exactly! But there is water. They’ve offered an answer to David Bowie’s famous question about whether there is life on Mars. And now Nasa itself has chosen this moment to get us all excited about some news about the red planet. Matt Damon’s lovely chops in his space-helmet are all over the airwaves and the billboards, promoting a film with which Nasa has cooperated, with generous use of their branding. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.It could hardly have come at a more spookily appropriate time: just when film-fans and the media are getting excited about the entertaining new sci-fi movie The Martian, about a troubled Nasa mission to Mars, released this week in the UK and the US. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. Nice to see you again.Ĭopyright © 2015 NPR. MONTAGNE: OK, well, Kenneth Turan is film critic for MORNING EDITION and the Los Angeles Times. And it's just all of a sudden, the very week the film opens, this story breaks in media around the world. A lot of people walk around in branded clothing. This film plays in part like an advertorial for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I mean, this is really a fascinating - I don't know if you want to call it a coincidence or not. MONTAGNE: So, Ken, it turns out that the very week that this film opens, NASA makes an announcement of water on Mars. And it's wonderful to see it unfold so beautifully. This is really the best version of this possible story. Just - you can't imagine it working any better. He's made optimistic movies on Earth - "A Good Year." But this is the first time he's done this kind of a film that has this kind of a positive outlook to it. This is the first optimistic movie Ridley Scott has ever made in the future. MONTAGNE: And Ridley Scott is the director - master of science fiction movies - or dystopian movies more like it - "Blade Runner" and "Alien." What about this one, though? And you're really on his side all the way. The character has to project self-confidence and a good sense of humor, and Matt Damon does that beautifully. You know, this is really Matt Damon at his best.
#The martian movie matt damon series#
He's a man presented with a series of problems he has to solve. No, well, this is kind of "Robinson Crusoe" on Mars. MONTAGNE: Well, he sounds a lot more pumped than I would be under the circumstances. So I got to figure out a way to grow three years' worth of food here on a planet where nothing grows. So for just me, that's going to last 300 souls, which I figure I can stretch to 400 if I ration. For redundancy, they sent 68 souls worth of food. Our service mission here was supposed to last 31 souls. MATT DAMON: (As Mark Watney) Let's do the math. And this is him talking to his video diary kind of talking about his plans. But he has to stay alive for years until the next manned expedition gets there. The expedition is supposed to last 31 souls, which are Martian days, which are marginally longer than Earth days.
#The martian movie matt damon how to#
And he has to figure out how to stay alive. He's inadvertently left behind on Mars, 50 million miles away from Earth, all by himself. And he plays an American astronaut named Mark Watney. MONTAGNE: OK, let's start with - I mean, let's guess - Matt Damon, he's the Martian? MORNING EDITION and Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has seen it and is here to tell us what he thought. It stars Matt Damon and is based on a best-selling novel hailed for being both imaginative and scientifically accurate.
A new movie called "The Martian" lands on Earth today.