The Martian - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Martian or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Martian

[nora]

Watney's comments on space piracy make more sense in the novel. In the film, he remains in contact with NASA throughout the journey to the Ares IV MAV, and is therefore given implicit permission to make use of the MAV rather than comandeering it as a technical act of piracy. In the novel, he loses radio contact with NASA prior to reaching the MAV, making it impossible to receive any permission to use the vehicle, thereby making his claim of being a space pirate much more valid.

[bernard]

The suits in the film use a very complex and actual functioning lighting system.

[steve]

The name of the missions to Mars are named Ares. In real life, NASA was developing launch vehicles called Ares I and Ares V, for the crew and cargo of the Constellation Program. The program was canceled in 2010 and replaced by the Space Launch System with more lift capability.

[melinda]

This is the second movie containing the word 'Martian' in the title and starring Jeff Daniels after My Favorite Martian (1999).

[harry]

Sol is a Latin word for sun.

[wesley]

In the DVD Extras the credits for the program, ReFocused, show it was made in 2045.

[harry]

Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio were the only two 2016 Best Actor Oscar nominees who were also given nominations for Best Male Performance for the 2016 MTV Movie Awards for The Martian (2015) and The Revenant (2015), respectively. DiCaprio took home both awards.

[janice]

When Teddy tells Bruce via teleconference that they need to finish the Iris probe in three months, one of the JPL staff in the front row scribbles the word NO in block letters and holds it up to Bruce in protest.

[carl]

In the novel, Mark Watney also displays a markedly tasteful dislike for disco music.

[gerald]

All of the exteriors on Mars were shot inside the Korda Studios in Etyek, Hungary. Production designer Arthur Max: "We built it in Budapest in the Korda Studios, which has the biggest - the reason we went there was because it has the biggest stage in the world currently. It's as big an area as the advanced stage in Pinewood, the previous record holder. But it's 20-odd feet higher. So we also could then put up the biggest green screen in the world, a four-walled green screen. It was enough space to do a big Martian landscape, drive our rover around at speed, reset, go right around, build our habitat and later put our ascent vehicle legs." [Variety 2015]

[kenzi]

For the Iris-1 probe launch, footage of an Atlas V 541 Mars Science Laboratory is shown lifting off. The in-flight breakup is footage of a Delta 3614 that broke up in flight carrying the GOES-G satellite in 1986. The difference is obvious in the blue color of the core booster and the evenly spaced solid rocket motors around its circumference. No Atlas V vehicles have broken up in flight.

[miriam]

Kate Mara's sister, Rooney Mara, appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) for David Fincher, director of [Alien 3](/category/4043/Alien) (1992). Noomi Rapace, who played her role in the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), also appeared in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) prequel, Prometheus (2012).

[riley]

According to Neil deGrasse Tyson this "may be the first SciFi blockbuster - ever - in which nobody dies."

[michele]

At the end of the movie when Mark Watney is in the lecture hall, the motto inscribed on the floor is "Per ardua ad astra", a Latin phrase which means "Through hardships to the stars", "A rough road leads to the stars" or "To the stars through difficulties". As well as being the motto of several air forces and institutions around the world, it is the motto inscribed on the Apollo 1 memorial plaque.

[tom]

Matt Damon was willing to lose a massive amount of weight for the scene towards the end of the movie but Ridley Scott forbade it. Damon had already done it once, while filming Courage Under Fire (1996), but this had seriously compromised his health, and he had to be under medical supervision for a long time afterwards. For The Martian, a body double was used instead.

[ray]

At approximately 1:50:50, Sebastian Stan's character is discussing interception speeds and what he can and cannot do, and he says "(Anything faster than) 10 m/s is like jumping on a moving train", which is exactly what his character did in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), shortly before his "death" in that movie.