Ridley Scott’s film The Martian, based on a 2011 novel (also called The Martian) written by ex-software engineer Andy Weir, deserves all the plaudits it has so far received. It’s beautifully shot, with the vast arid landscapes of the red planet and it’s less than clement Martian dust storms alone making it compelling viewing from start to finish. Matt Damon, (Mark Watney) playing the stranded astronaut, balances nonchalance, humor, and extremes of raw emotions with aplomb, while back down on our fair planet the tenacity of plausible scientists working to get Damon out of his fix is also played admirably.

Perhaps one criticism in terms of storyline might be the hands-across-the-world finale, which was arguably a tad bathetic and ill-conceived for a film acknowledged for its realism. For two reasons: one that live news feeds of an astronaut, or astronauts, with a very good chance of being blown to pieces or cast into infinite space is an event-too-far even for ethically dubious news media. And the second reason is that it’s hard to believe thousands of British and Chinese people in London and Beijing jumping for joy when they find out the mission has, predictably, been accomplished.

The Martian is rather predictable a la Hollywood, but it doesn’t really matter. The science is always fascinating and educative, while a $110 million budget paid for some startling visual special effects. The film is not quite as wondrous as the other epic space movie of recent times, Interstellar, but it’s a beautifully made logical relative of its metaphysical cousin. If Matt Damon was lost in another dimension in Interstellar, in The Martian he’s very much down-to-earth.

Looking real on Mars

For what The Martian might at times lack in imagination it gives back ten-fold in scientific plausibility, as many critics have pointed out. NASA have congratulated the film for its factual elements saying that it is, “Already developing many of the technologies that appear in the film.”

Some of these NASA current projects include the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), a self-contained living environment; space-farming; water recovery; spacesuits suitable for Mars; a Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle and space batteries for long-lasting electrical power. When will all this be used? NASA says they are planning on sending humans to Mars in the 2030s, adding the caveat, “But there are many milestones to accomplish to ensure that astronauts come back to Earth safely.” I’m not sure they have the cash, either.

Dr. Robert Zubrin, an aerospace engineer and Mars expert said in The Guardian that he had some misgivings about the film’s believability, stating that gravity was something the movie didn’t quite get right: the astronauts would be very light even wearing heavy spacesuits and so wouldn’t have to exert themselves as they often did in the film. He also said the storms that plagued the lost astronaut just wouldn’t happen on Mars. Besides this, and the small matter of collecting human shit, Zubrin seems fairly content that many of the things we saw in the film, on Mars and on Earth, could quite possibly happen.

Looking dated on Earth

The year that The Martian takes place in has become a point of speculation, with the creators of the film purposely leaving that detail out. We now know the year is 2035, and author Weir has acknowledged this as the truth.

Herein lies a problem with The Martian. Some of the computer technology in the film isn’t much different from what we are using now. In fact, some of it, including the bulky laptops, look quite dated for 2015, never mind 2035. It’s unlikely that in 2035, given how fast tech evolves (even aesthetically) that TV monitors, telephoto lenses and smartphones, will look very similar to the way they do now.

It’s also doubtful that we’ll be communicating using headphones with mics, or that things such as gesture recognition technology won’t have inserted itself into our lives. It’s understandable that the creators didn’t want to get too techie, because that could have harmed the film’s credibility. Back to the Future style imaginings would have seemed quite tacky in the face of other efforts to see a realistic future. Nonetheless, twenty years is a long time in the tech industry.

As has been pointed out already, The Martian shows us that two decades from now people are still using what look like the iPhone 6, and GoPro cameras from the present day. There isn’t really anything remotely as futuristic-looking as some of the new mobile devices such as Microsoft’s Surface tablets or the iPad Pro – and a twenty year old Surface Pro 4 could have really come in handy at many points during the film for a beleaguered group of scientists.

Another great help to the crew and the guys at mission control might have been an augmented reality headset, such as the HoloLens which NASA intends to send to the International Space Station this year. Remotely guiding astronauts to do the right thing, which will be part of HoloLens’ job in space (as well as being used to view images of Mars), is a large chunk of the film. Finally the astronauts, including a constantly ailing Watney, don’t seem to have embraced health-tracking wearable technology.

The lack of realistic futuristic computer technology does not, however, take anything away from the film. It must have been a difficult decision for the creators, obviously aware of the changes in tech in twenty years, not to provoke us with odd-looking gadgets. They probably made the right decision to concentrate on the bigger picture, but you can bet in twenty years’ time we’ll be talking about how The Martian also got a lot of little things wrong.

Photo credit: Foxmovies