# The Martian film - seen it thread. Unboxed spoilers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095 "2015-09-30T23:46:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/461 "2015-11-13T15:43:09Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Many people are caught off guard by the British pronunciation of Ralph. Huh. That’s a new one on me despite all the Brits I’ve known. I just thought Ralph was never a British name like never seeing Nigel in the US. (Now someone in Wyoming will probably tell me about his brother Nigel.) Never knew Rafe was actually Ralph. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/462 "2015-11-13T15:55:12Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Never knew Rafe was actually Ralph. Yeah, say that fast five times. :dubious: This forum requires that you wait 60 seconds between posts. Please try again in 1 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/463 "2015-11-13T16:27:16Z")
I’m not sure all British Ralphs pronounce their name as Rafe, but it was certainly common for a certain period. The hero of Gilbert and Sullivan’s _H.M.S. Pinafore_, Ralph Rackstraw, is a “Rafe.” Perhaps one of our Brit Dopers can tell us if the pronunciation is still common. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/464 "2015-11-13T16:29:25Z")
But there _is_ also the name Rafe spelled Rafe, isn’t there? ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/465 "2015-11-13T17:51:22Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > But there _is_ also the name Rafe spelled Rafe, isn’t there? Well, the Closed Captions on “Last Tango In Halifax” spelled Rafe that way, which surprised me when I saw it. Then I figured it was a nickname for Rafael or something. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/466 "2015-11-13T19:31:29Z")
The British actor Ralph Fiennes pronounces it “Rafe,” too. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Would a greenhouse on Mars have to have a particular kind of window/skylight material to let in some kinds of radiation, and keep out others, for maximum safe growth? > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Hmm? > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Should the gravity and heat waves described by Edgar Rice Burroughs be kept out of a Martian greenhouse? Not sure what you mean. Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/467 "2015-11-13T21:05:59Z")
In Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom books (_A Princess of Mars_, etc.), the Martians are described as having special prisms that break light up into nine colors instead of the Earthly seven, with the last two being used for antigravity devices and… something else (atmospheric processing, I think?). Which doesn’t make any sense at all, but then, that was the usual result when Burroughs tried to be scientific. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/468 "2015-11-14T00:01:15Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > The British actor Ralph Fiennes pronounces it “Rafe,” too. Huh. It took me long enough to learn that “Fiennes” is pronounced “Fines.” Now this! And Brits complain about _our_ English? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/469 "2015-11-14T03:23:01Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Huh. It took me long enough to learn that “Fiennes” is pronounced “Fines.” Now this! And Brits complain about _our_ English? They invented a language they cannot speak. That is rather brazen of them, actually. Very British, indeed. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/470 "2015-11-14T20:19:56Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I’m not sure all British Ralphs pronounce their name as Rafe, but it was certainly common for a certain period. The hero of Gilbert and Sullivan’s _H.M.S. Pinafore_, Ralph Rackstraw, is a “Rafe.” > > Perhaps one of our Brit Dopers can tell us if the pronunciation is still common. No, it is not common. But it is posh. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/471 "2015-11-14T21:00:22Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I’m not sure all British Ralphs pronounce their name as Rafe, but it was certainly common for a certain period. The hero of Gilbert and Sullivan’s _H.M.S. Pinafore_, Ralph Rackstraw, is a “Rafe.” Also Sara Crewe’s father in **A Little Princess** is named Ralph, at least in the novel. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/472 "2015-11-17T19:09:16Z")
A little late to this thread, I just saw the movie Saturday. One little physics hiccup I noticed was in the ship when someone would “swim” down the core to head into the outer ring, which was rotating to simulate gravity. I saw this twice that I can remember. As soon as the swimmer would near one of the tubes in the core, they would be sucked in as if there were an actual gravitational field sucking them into the ring; they never touched the walls at all. This could be explained if there were air suction doing it, but I think more likely that the concept of how rotational motion simulates gravity was misunderstood. > [@Chronos](#): > > Speaking of the ethics: How many other people died of preventable causes while Watney was stranded? And how many of them could have been saved, for the same amount of expense as it took to save that one man? I think one of the ethical issues is that this guy had heroically volunteered for a high-risk mission and I think there was some feeling that the world owed it to him to bring him back. “You’re there for us to we’re going to take care of you.” > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > ETA: I don’t remember a character named Ryoko or one that looks like Naomi Scott. Maybe she got edited out? I think she was one of the crew’s wife back home (Martinez? I don’t remember seeing it in the film). There was a shot in the trailer of her with a toddler on the ship’s monitor (oddly, it had a voiceover from Watney mentioning his family at the moment this shot was shown, but it wasn’t \*his \*family). Doesn’t seem to be named in the book. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/473 "2015-11-17T19:31:18Z")
Yeah, that was the wife of one of the astronauts. After they decide to go with the Purnell maneuver, they all call home to tell their loved ones that their business trip got extended and they’d be a little late coming home. And the swimming through the ship looked fine to me. It looked like they were grabbing onto handholds to start down into the tubes. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/474 "2015-11-18T15:02:52Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I know this isn’t GQ, but… cite? [Citation](http://keyeslifesafety.com/liquid-oxygen-transfilling/). Quote: “The reason liquid oxygen is so dangerous, is if it were to be spilled, then any combustible material it comes into contact with will immediately ignite.” In thermo lab in college, we were given an extensive training session in handling LOX. The most memorable point: Don’t spill it on the floor, the vinyl tiles will burn! The force of impact would be enough to trigger a fire. Sugar is a lot more flammable. Again, why is Kapoor staying near the mock rover??? Anything that comes in can be trivially routed anywhere in the world. It’s as if the Internet, phones, etc. don’t exist in that one location. All that he needed to do was to see it, understand what the situation was and leave. The boffins can take care of the rest. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/475 "2015-11-18T15:09:35Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Again, why is Kapoor staying near the mock rover??? My take: His own emotional support. By being as close as physically possible to all the astronauts, and the Pathfinder mission specialists brought back from retirement or layoff, he feels he’s doing as much as anyone can to work the problem. Communication is just smoother when it’s face to face, too. It isn’t rational, but it doesn’t have to be. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/476 "2015-11-18T17:22:10Z")
That’s how I took it, as well. Scientists can be (almost?) as superstitious and irrational as anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/477 "2015-11-24T12:05:26Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Yes, Vogel was German in the film too. The e-mail was labeled “Our Children” in English in the movie, but I figured that was because non-German-speaking moviegoers might not know what “Unsere Kinder” meant. Or maybe it being in English was a clue to Vogel that something was up but the movie did not go into it. I am positive that the email attachment was called “Unsere Kinder” in the movie. I haven’t read the book, so I wasn’t recalling it from there. It was definitely in German. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/478 "2015-12-07T17:15:01Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Would a greenhouse on Mars have to have a particular kind of window/skylight material to let in some kinds of radiation, and keep out others, for maximum safe growth? Still no direct answer to this question here, but I’m listening to the audiobook now. Watney says that the fabric of the Hab acts as a shield against EM radiation. His potato crop’s only source of light is from NASA-provided grow lights. ---
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/479 "2015-12-07T17:35:50Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > My take: His own emotional support. By being as close as physically possible to all the astronauts, and the Pathfinder mission specialists brought back from retirement or layoff, he feels he’s doing as much as anyone can to work the problem. Communication is just smoother when it’s face to face, too. It isn’t rational, but it doesn’t have to be. No in universe reason. If he goes back to Houston, and really did he need to go to JPL in the first place, then there is nothing but text on a screen and possible the need for more characters that kind of dangle out there on their own. Kapoor acts as a storytelling device, and helps to shorthand some of the person-rover-person communication stuff. Notice once that is done, he moves back to Houston. The movie really did do an excellent job of translating the book to a new medium and even improved in a few spots. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/480 "2015-12-09T01:25:58Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > …Vogel was definitely German in the movie. The book spelled it out, while in the movie his space suit carried an EU flag patch and he spoke with a German accent. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …Not an EU flag, but a German one. > > [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](http://i.imgur.com/S9fKd1J.jpg) > [http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Martian-Mission-Guide-Chris-Beck-Alex-Vogel-Evacuation-Exercise.jpg](http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Martian-Mission-Guide-Chris-Beck-Alex-Vogel-Evacuation-Exercise.jpg) > [The Martian Movie photos and movie stills: Image](https://40.media.tumblr.com/ef8a7b60165f75db52a0cc5f0c84f664/tumblr_npkz87WJUz1uwbmnzo1_500.jpg) > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Huh. Coulda sworn I saw an EU flag. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’m a flag guy and always tend to notice them. Never saw an EU flag in the movie myself. Just heard, in the audiobook, mention of Vogel having an EU flag on his spacesuit’s arm. But it was definitely German in the movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095.md?page=25)