'The Martian' tells the story of storm facing self-stapling explosion-
triggering potato-farming rover-driving disco-dancing lander-hacking hexadecimal-
speaking iron-Manning astronaut Mark Watney, and seems to be grounded in real
life true-to-fact science. But how much of what we see is really possible?
Let's size up the Martian in 11 elements. Number one the crew are forced to leave
Mars because of a huge dust storm. This might be the biggest lie in the movie.
There is absolutely no way a storm on Mars would ever cause this much damage,
or even any damage really other than moving some dust around. There just isn't
a lot of atmosphere on Mars. Even the strongest winds would feel about as
powerful as a gentle breeze on earth. It's not enough to fly a kite in let
alone make a Matt Damon-kebab from a flying piece of metal. Using his own
fertilizer, Watney is able to grow spuds in the soil. You need to let your
droppings compost for several weeks and rinse the salt out of the Martian soil
before planting. After that you're in business. A bigger question is whether
Watney could survive on a diet of mostly potatoes for 500+ days.
Watney produces water from hydrazine.
The chemistry checks out, but it's also totally unnecessary.
There's already water up there frozen beneath the surface. It's just a matter
of extracting it. And right before this movie premiered, NASA announced they'd
even found liquid water on Mars. Use a radioisotope thermoelectric generator to
heat the rover. RTGs are mainly used to generate power in remote locations but
they also give off plenty of heat so your rover is going to be nice and
toasty. And while they do contain radioactive material they're also very
safe. In fact NASA astronauts have flown with RTGs on all of the moon
missions. Establish communications with earth by hot-wiring Pathfinder.
Unlike everything else in the movie Pathfinder is really on Mars right now
and has been there since 1997. Trouble is, after operating for a few months
it stopped working completely and no one knows exactly why. It could just have a
dead battery like the movie says, or some other part could be damaged or broken. So
until mark Watney goes up there we probably won't find out.
"YES!!" The position of the Hab, Watney, and Pathfinder can be mapped on this
photo of the planet's surface.
This might be a photograph of Mars but it definitely does not show the actual
spot on Mars where pathfinder landed or where the have and want me are supposed
to be. It's just a random picture that this cafeteria guy is really attached to:
"Hey, come on man, what are you trying to do!?"
A breach in the airlock sends Watney flying.
De-compression is possible but it wouldn't work like this or be nearly
this powerful. For starters, air would be flowing out not in. Like everything
else in the Hab, Watney would be sucked towards the open and not thrown away from it.
And there's just not enough force involved to lift Watney off the ground.
Patch a hole in your helmet using only tape. Is there anything duct tape
can't do? The hardest part here would be ripping the tape with those awkward
astronaut gloves. Potato plants die when exposed to the air?
Average temperature on Mars is minus sixty Celsius, minus 80 Fahrenheit. A lot colder
than it gets in Idaho. Survive a space launch in an open-air capsule.
The atmosphere on the surface of Mars is already very, thin which means by the
time you're going fast enough to need protection your past most of the air
anyway. Watney cuts his glove and "Iron Man"s his way to rescue.
This one's hard to say. It would be really, really tricky to control the direction you fly.
And, you need a very precise cut and a lot of oxygen moving super fast to
create enough thrust to overcome the 12 meters-per-second you need to meet up
with Jessica Chastain in the middle of space.
Final scores for 'The Martian'.
How scientifically accurate is this movie? Very accurate. Most of what we
see is real and possible, though a few parts are completely made up. There are
other huge challenges to Watney's mission, like solar radiation and
microgravity, but the movie ignores these problems so we will too.
How does this movie look and feel from a production standpoint? Good but not great.
The visual effects on Mars are awesome, but zero gravity stuff looks terrible!
You can easily see where the actors were suspended by cables and their movement
between sections looks really off. You can't just magically change directions!
How does this movie rate for entertainment value?
Awesome. It's a fun story in a great ride. There's a good balance of humor and
science, even if Watney overcomes one too many obstacles for the film to feel like
a completely plausible story. So it's a pretty accurate movie it has some
beautiful visuals and it's really fun to watch, even though we're still a long
ways from a real mission to Mars. Sorry Watney.
How did you like 'the Martian'? What did you think of our review? Could you live
on Mars for 500 days, or eat potatoes for every meal?
Finally, what movie should we fact check next? Tell us in the comment section
below. Thank you for watching and remember: "I'm a botanist."