Bring him home. Cast astray on the Red Planet where help is only 140,000,000 miles away – depending on the alignment between Mars and our own planet at any given time – it is Matt Damon’s wayward botanist Mark Watney who will serve as the primary character in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, and today brings a pair of intense new TV clips documenting how his mission went awry in the first place.
With nothing but a handful of GoPros for company, Damon’s stranded astronaut must engineer a way of contacting the Ares-3 to signal that he is, in fact, still alive. Awestruck, the crew set about making the return trip to Mars in order to rescue the man they left behind. On Watney’s end, he’ll be left dealing with the unforgiving, sun-scorched hills of the martian terrain, not to mention figuring out the small matter on growing edible food on a planet that supports anything but.
Scott’s latest venture into the genre is a decidedly more realistic affair than his films of old. Adapted from Andy Weir’s best-selling novel of the same name, The Martian is a powerful and emotional drama. Couple this with the film’s ensemble cast – Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Sebastian Stan, Kate Mara, Donald Glover, Sean Bean, Mackenzie Davis and Michael Pena all star in the sci-fi picture – and you have a dark horse emerging ahead of this year’s awards circuit.
Toronto International Film Festival will welcome Ridley Scott’s The Martian for its world premiere, before the director’s next adventure in sci-fi storytelling touches down on October 2. For now, you can feast your eyes on the intense new clips below.
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return.
