Matt Damon plays Mark Watney in Ridley Scott’s science fiction film, The Martian, made in 2015. Mark is abandoned on Mars after a big storm comes through the crew’s camp. His fellow astronauts including Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan), escape Mars safely, but leave him behind after coming to the conclusion that he had died due to debris. Mark makes contact with the crew and with NASA back on Earth and communicates with them to try and get him off the barren planet. Being a botanist, he plants potatoes and lives off rations as long as he can to stall time until NASA can get a craft to him with more supplies. He must survive the test of time until his crew and the people of Earth extract him from Mars.
I personally loved this movie. It really hammers home the feeling of being alone and desperate. Even with 0 personal contact, Mark still evolves as a character, and the Earth parts are just as interesting to watch as the outer space parts. I would recommend this movie to people who love space fiction, but not too much space if that makes sense. The story is still grounded well, literally and figuratively. I would give this movie a 4 out of 5! Definitely worth a watch.