As Alien taught us, in space, no one can hear you scream. They also can’t hear you critique. But when astronauts land back on terra firma, the one major complaint they tend to hurl at astronaut-based sci-fi flicks involves undergarments… or, the lack of proper representation.
As part of her promotion for Ridley Scott’s The Martian, co-star Jessica Chastain sat with NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who served as a consultant on the film. They were asked by Yahoo Movies about possible flaws in the finished feature, to which Dyson explained:
They should be wearing… maximum absorbency garments, or MAGs for short. You know them as diapers. And they’re a reality in space travel. And some movies omit this very important garment.
So when Sandra Bullock peels off her space suit in Gravity to reveal sexy, form-fitting boy shorts (in the image at the top of this story), you are telling me that’s Hollywood taking creative liberties to sell more tickets?! Or, when Ripley – the goddess of all things sci-fi – wanders around her craft and strips down to barely-there cotton panties, this is INACCURATE?
Space travel doesn’t sound so exotic anymore. Lord knows what NASA would have to say about Alice Eve’s gratuitous Star Trek Into Darkness scene:
Jessica Chastain has a very valid reason, as part of this conversation, as to why studios don’t strive for realism when it comes to the clothing that is found underneath a space suit. She yells Yahoo:
We don’t want to see Matt Damon in a diaper.
Preach, sister. You do, however, see his bare ass. So there’s that. Here are Chastain and Dyson digging into the diaper discussion.
The Martian got off to a very strong start at the box office on Thursday night, opening to an impressive $2.5M in tickets sold. While it’s possible that the storm affecting the East Coast could reduce the film’s overall performance, strong reviews and powerful word-of-mouth likely will continue to keep The Martian near the top of the box office charts for weeks to come. With or without space diapers.
