As we continue to get deeper and deeper into August, we can expect the quality of movies coming to cinemas to severely dip. The great thing about this film season, however, is that it also provides us an early look at the amazing stuff on the way. Case in point, we now have this brand new trailer for Riley Scott’s The Martian.
Based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir, The Martian begins on Mars, where a harsh storm on the planet’s surface causes a team of astronauts to depart the Red Planet earlier than expected. While this exit is happening, however, the team’s botanist, Mark Watney (Matt Damon), gets hit by a piece of debris and is left for dead. What the folks at NASA don’t realize is that Watney is still alive, and, more importantly, willing to do anything it takes to try and make it back home.
This information shouldn’t be treated as spoiler, mind you, for as Watney explains in the above trailer, he knows that it’s going to take years for NASA to reach him – if they even KNOW that he survived and can receive his rescue beacon – which means that he is going to have to create a sustainable environment on an inhospitable planet so that he can stay alive, not go insane, and hopefully be ready if and when a rescue mission arrives. How will he manage this? In probably the film’s most memorable line, he plans to "science the shit" out of the situation.
Yeah, The Martian isn’t your father’s science-fiction story. It moves fast and loose, and is supposedly brimming with attitude and humor. But it’s also in excellent hands. Sir Ridley Scott, of course, helmed such seminal sci-fi titles as Alien and Blade Runner, and returned to the genre with the uneven (though beloved in certain circles) Prometheus. The Martian looks like it has the potential to be an intelligent but energetic ride, and at the very least, Matt Damon is having a blast commanding the camera.
The cast surrounding him, however, is exquisite. Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Michael Pena, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Donald Glover all appear in Ridley Scott’s The Martian. In fact, the studio released an amusing "Meet the Cast" type video, which explored the astronauts who are part of this mission. Watch it here and get a good idea of the personalities that will color this movie.
The Martian arrives in theaters on October 2nd.
