Matt Damon’s critically acclaimed sci-fi box office hit The Martian is now streaming on Max. While the beloved actor, screenwriter, and producer is celebrated to this day for his action roles and his Boston-themed movies, Damon’s career made a strong pivot in 2013 with the release of Elysium, which introduced Damon to the sci-fi blockbuster. Damon then went on to have a surprise cameo in Christopher Nolan’s celebrated intergalactic film Interstellar before starring in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, which was nominated for 7 Oscars. These three sci-fi outer space movies are some of the strongest in Damon’s acting career.
Known for directing some of the most iconic movies of all time such as Alien, Gladiator, and Blade Runner, Ridley Scott took a lighter approach to the sci-fi genre with The Martian. Capable of making audiences both laugh and cry thanks to Damon’s arguably career-best performance, The Martian was a critical hit when it first came out in 2015, earning a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 91%. Although The Martian made a big splash at the 88th Academy Awards held in February 2016, it was unable to take home any Oscars including Best Actor for Damon, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture.
Out of his entire filmography, only Ridley Scott’s
Alien
has a higher Rotten Tomatoes critic score than
The Martian.
Matt Damon’s The Martian Is Now Streaming On Max – What The Hit Ridley Scott Sci-Fi Movie Is About
Damon plays a US astronaut who must survive alone on Mars
Watney is unintentionally left behind on Mars after a dangerous storm separates him from his crew.
The Martian was adapted for the screen by screenwriter Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods, Daredevil, World War Z) based on a 2011 novel of the same name by Andy Weir. The official logline for The Martian reads as follows, “An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and can survive until a potential rescue.” While most sci-fi movies set in outer space carry a degree of intensity and even horror, The Martian is much more focused on the survival story of Damon’s Mark Watney protagonist and oddly becomes a feel-good movie by its end.
Watney is unintentionally left behind on Mars after a dangerous storm separates him from his crew, consisting of Chastain’s Melissa Lewis, Michael Peña’s Rick Martinez, Sebastian Stan’s Chris Beck, and Kate Mara’s Beth Johanssen. After being struck by debris, the crew presumes that Watney is dead and is forced to leave him behind. Watney miraculously survives the storm and makes it back to the crew’s surface habitat or “Hab” where he is able to recover. Cut off from his crew and the entire planet, Watney, a botanist, must focus on creating a sustainable food supply and survive long enough to make contact with NASA and be rescued.
The Martian Was The Perfect Follow-Up To Interstellar’s 2014 Sci-Fi Success
Damon plays two very different astronauts in the outer space blockbusters
While
Interstellar
uses theoretical physics to accelerate its story,
The Martian
is a much more universally accessible film, relying on Damon’s charisma and positive attitude to keep its momentum going.
While The Martian is not based on a true story, the film has received praise for being one of the most scientifically accurate sci-fi and outer space movies ever made. This is similar to Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, a film in which Damon also appeared in a surprise cameo as a cowardly astronaut named Dr. Mann. Interestingly, Oscar-winning actress Jessica Chastain also had crucial roles in both The Martian and Interstellar, playing astronaut commander Melissa Lewis in the former and the adult version of Murph in the latter. Interstellar was a great launching pad for Damon before starring in The Martian one year later.
Both The Martian and Interstellar are set in the not-so-distant future, allowing both Scott and Nolan to dive into their respective futuristic visions of space travel while still maintaining cutting-edge scientific authenticity. The Martian is set in the year 2035 and Interstellar takes place in 2067. While Interstellar uses theoretical physics to accelerate its story, The Martian is a much more universally accessible film, relying on Damon’s charisma and positive attitude to keep its momentum going. The Martian is much more straightforward and traditionally structured than Interstellar, which is basically a one-of-a-kind cinematic achievement, making it very easy to watch and get into.
Why The Martian Is Still Ridley Scott’s Biggest Box Office Hit Of His 45-Year Career
Damon is a major pull and space movies were booming in the 2010s
Scott has been nominated for the Best Director Academy Award four times, with The Martian earning him his most recent nomination. While it may be a surprising fact, The Martian is the highest-grossing movie of Scott’s directing career by a wide margin, earning $630 million worldwide against a production budget of $108 million. In second and third place are his 5-time Oscar winner Gladiator ($458 million worldwide) and Alien prequel Prometheus ($403 million worldwide).
Adjusting for inflation, Gladiator would have earned $836.5 million by today’s standards, which is strangely almost identical to the adjusted box office total of The Martian ($836 million). At any rate, Damon is a major box office draw and the magnificence of Interstellar certainly gave The Martian a great opportunity at the 2015 box office. It was the tenth highest-grossing movie in a historic year at the movies, led by Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ $2 billion total.