# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/141 "2015-10-06T21:24:01Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Not to mention all advanced surgery. And pretty much any Coast Guard search and rescue mission. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/142 "2015-10-06T21:27:50Z")
Several days after I posted my initial thoughts, I have an additional observation. Obviously, they had to cut some stuff, of the film would have been far too long. But what they cut shifts the focus of the story somewhat. Watney says “I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this” but then does little science onscreen. We lose the complex series of steps by which he created water. We lose how he had to engineer the Mars excursion vehicle to carry extra solar panels. We lose how he had to invent devices for navigating on the surface of Mars. And so on. All of this makes him a lot less ingenious than in the novel. The book is the story of one man’s survival in the face of incredible odds. The film is the story of a daring rescue. I still think it’s a fine movie, but it might have been better still with other choices. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/143 "2015-10-06T21:48:00Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > OTH, where the hell did he get all that Oxygen, the water and food is explained, but he is on Planet for what? 18 months? And he spends a lot of it in the Rover, which would not have had enough to last him. He would have got \*some \*oxygen from the potato plants. Would this have been enough to live on? I don’t know, but I suppose it made a contribution. > [@Chronos](#): > > One other thing I noticed: Absolutely none of the previews attached to the movie were for anything remotely resembling science fiction. is there genuinely no SF coming up, or did Hollywood fall into the trap of thinking that since this movie was good, it couldn’t possibly be science fiction? When I saw it, there was a preview for the next Bond movie. That’s science fiction, right? > [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > And can anyone confirm my impression that, bar the ubiquitous use of go-pros there was virtually no product placement. The grape juice was grape juice, the sugar was sugar, the laptops had labels and tape all over them. Even at the end Watney’s coffee cup didn’t have a name on it. My imagination? Every time they showed a computer screen, it had the [Cisco logo](http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4a4a4bdc14b9b907000e1b8b-480/cisco-logo.jpg)in one corner. > [@Malthus](#): > > I can’t agree that this makes sense. We know they had laptops and we know they had earphones - they use them in the work. Music these days takes up exactly zero measurable “weight” - right now, I’m carrying around literally hundreds, maybe _thousands_ of hours of music on my iPhone in my pocket. I assume computers in the future won’t grow less capable of storage. You’re missing the point that this was just the stuff that was left behind after an evacuation. I’m sure they had a lot more entertainment back on the ship. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/144 "2015-10-06T21:53:54Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Absolutely stupid yet funny thing heard while leaving the cinema… “how did Sean Bean survive” [I beat him to it.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18261037#post18261037) ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/145 "2015-10-06T21:54:07Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > But what they cut shifts the focus of the story somewhat. Watney says “I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this” but then does little science onscreen. We lose the complex series of steps by which he created water. We lose how he had to engineer the Mars excursion vehicle to carry extra solar panels. We lose how he had to invent devices for navigating on the surface of Mars. And so on. The movie included him talking about making water by burning hydrogen, a scene of him getting the hydrazine from the MAV remains, a scene of him building his fume hood and drip-feeder, a shot of the hydrazine separating on the catalyst, using the crucifix and a soldering iron to get a flame, the resulting condensation on the walls… That’s _a lot_ of chemistry for a mainstream movie. Even the scene in Apollo 13 doesn’t actually show the engineers building their CO2 filter adapter. Because that sort of problem solving is pretty boring to watch. Actual problem solving is hard to film. Progress can be shown with a montage (which they did several times). A solution can be explained (but you’ve got to limit that or it becomes a lecture). Individual setbacks can be shown. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/146 "2015-10-06T22:07:30Z")
Agreed that there was \*some \*bits showing his brilliance, but very briefly, and nowhere near the detail 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:** [October 7, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/147 "2015-10-07T01:34:01Z")
I was impressed enough that they actually show him doing calculations on screen. Had you asked me a month ago when Hollywood would ever make a movie that did that, I would have confidently answered “Never”. EDIT: Oh, and I don’t think that the question “Why do space instead of other worthwhile stuff?” is unanswerable. Rather, I think it’s worth answering. Which we can’t do unless the question is asked first. It would have been an opportunity to preach about _why_ the space program is worthwhile. ---
**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:** [October 7, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/148 "2015-10-07T01:47:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > EDIT: Oh, and I don’t think that the question “Why do space instead of other worthwhile stuff?” is unanswerable. Rather, I think it’s worth answering. Which we can’t do unless the question is asked first. It would have been an opportunity to preach about _why_ the space program is worthwhile. Forgive me, but are you one of the guys who insists on robot exploration instead of astronauts? ---
**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:** [October 7, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/149 "2015-10-07T01:51:28Z")
Werner Herzog could never have made this film. He’s famous for insisting on the “Voodoo of Location.” > [@scr4](#): > > (The rest of the movie was wrong about what the atmosphere can do - the air is so thin, it shouldn’t be able to blow things around like that, let alone blow the makeshift canvas cover inwards while the HAB is pressurized.) Andy Weir, the book’s author, has admitted he knows this is true but fudged it because he needed the crisis. > [@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 don’t think I would have wanted the film to dwell on that excessively, but it would have been interesting for at least one of the characters to mention it. > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > That is an argument for doing away with the space program altogether. :dubious: > [@Peremensoe](#): > > Not to mention all advanced surgery. > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > And pretty much any Coast Guard search and rescue mission. Hell, it’s an argument to commit suicide, because how much good stuff going to you could be used to help someone more needy? > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > He would have got \*some \*oxygen from the potato plants. Would this have been enough to live on? I don’t know, but I suppose it made a contribution. Again, he had an oxygenator that made oxygen from carbon dioxide. As long as that did not break down, he had an endless supply. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/150 "2015-10-07T02:21:23Z")
The oxygenator wasn’t working that hard anyway, supporting only 1 human instead of 6. Sure, the film could have been more melodramatic with some more “We’ve got to save this man, whatever it takes” stuff, but that was pretty much implicit throughout. The issue of balancing a numerical risk analysis vs. following an imperative fundamental to human nature got covered very adequately IMHO with the debate about adopting the Rich Purnell Maneuver. ---
**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:** [October 7, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/151 "2015-10-07T02:37:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **carnivorousplant** : > > Forgive me, but are you one of the guys who insists on robot exploration instead of astronauts? No, I am not. I think that manned spaceflight is worthwhile. And I think that when people ask why it’s worthwhile, that that’s a valuable opportunity to explain why. And on another topic, the oxygenator would have been hardly needed at all. If the potato plants were producing enough biomass to feed him, then they were also producing enough oxygen to keep him breathing, too. More than that, actually, since the plants were also producing some biomass that he wasn’t eating. The oxygenator would only be needed to make up for the preserved rations he was eating, plus however much got wasted in leaks and the like. Similarly, once he got the farm established, he should have been producing nearly enough water for the potato plants himself, without needing further use of the hydrazine contraption. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/152 "2015-10-07T02:41:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And on another topic, the oxygenator would have been hardly needed at all. If the potato plants were producing enough biomass to feed him, then they were also producing enough oxygen to keep him breathing, too. More than that, actually, since the plants were also producing some biomass that he wasn’t eating. How do you figure that? ---
**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:** [October 7, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/153 "2015-10-07T02:54:49Z")
Photosynthesis: carbon dioxide + water -\> oxygen + carbohydrates Respiration: Oxygen + carbohydrates -\> carbon dioxide + water It’s the same equation, just with the arrow reversed. Thus, if the carbohydrates match up, then the oxygen and water will also match up. ---
**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:** [October 7, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/154 "2015-10-07T12:36:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Photosynthesis: carbon dioxide + water -\> oxygen + carbohydrates > Respiration: Oxygen + carbohydrates -\> carbon dioxide + water > > It’s the same equation, just with the arrow reversed. Thus, if the carbohydrates match up, then the oxygen and water will also match up. Anyone have the math on that? It seems like a hell of a lot of potatoes, and he traveled quite a distance to the other spacecraft. ---
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/155 "2015-10-07T13:19:00Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Okay, scratch that. He _did_ use everyone’s shit, because now I remember he was complaining about the particular stinkiness of Johanssen’s output. That’s when he was wearing the nose stoppers. > > The shit was all packaged, so maybe that protected it? And labeled with each astronaut’s name – were they going to take it back to Earth and run tests on it? I read the book just recently, and the only reference ever made to shit that I recall was Watney using his own fresh stuff. There was nothing about him retrieving any from a packaging system like that. My recollection from the book was that he only used his own shit because he knew he couldn’t get ill from bacteria that was already living in his body. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/156 "2015-10-07T13:52:56Z")
No, in the book he used everyone’s because it had been outside and therefore any pathogens had been killed by lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures. He used it for biomass only. His freshly created shit was the only stuff that had living organisms. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/157 "2015-10-07T14:00:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And on another topic, the oxygenator would have been hardly needed at all. If the potato plants were producing enough biomass to feed him… I don’t think they were. Remember that he had quite a bit of food to begin with. He was eating a diet of part potato and part NASA food. The potatoes alone weren’t enough. ---
**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:** [October 7, 2015, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/158 "2015-10-07T14:10:07Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I don’t think they were. Remember that he had quite a bit of food to begin with. He was eating a diet of part potato and part NASA food. The potatoes alone weren’t enough. The astronauts were to fix Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner together with “real food” for some social work together reason. Like astronauts need that. But I digress. Say, three potatoes for each crew member; 18 potatoes. Let’s round it up to 20 to easily calculate. How man eyes does a potato have? Say ten, again to make it easy. Assuming everything sprouts, he began with 200 plants. ---
**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:** [October 7, 2015, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/159 "2015-10-07T15:02:15Z")
If things had gone according to plan, he’d have been getting approximately three times as much from potatoes as from the freeze-dried food they brought with them. So yeah, they weren’t completely meeting his dietary (or oxygen) needs, but they represented the bulk of it. ---
**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:** [October 7, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095/160 "2015-10-07T16:16:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If things had gone according to plan, he’d have been getting approximately three times as much from potatoes as from the freeze-dried food they brought with them. So yeah, they weren’t completely meeting his dietary (or oxygen) needs, but they represented the bulk of it. In the book, he had a large supply of multivitamins to meet his nutritional needs, but he needed calories, which the potatoes provided. I don’t think the movie mentioned the vitamins. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-film-seen-it-thread-unboxed-spoilers/733095.md?page=9)