Matt Damon To ‘Science The S**t’ Out Of Surviving Mars Stranding In ‘The Martian’ Movie

If you need someone to solve complex equations on a chalk board, Matt Damon is your man (Good Will Hunting). He also makes a great spy and assassin (Bourne Identity). But for all his talents, like being able to renovate a zoo (We Bought a Zoo), he has a penchant for getting stranded on distant planets. It happened in Interstellar and in the upcoming movie, The Martian, Damon once again finds himself a long way from Earth with little chance of survival. What's a Boston native turned actor to do?

Science the s**t out of the situation, of course. It's his only option after a fierce storm results in Damon's character, astronaut Mark Watney, getting left behind on Mars and presumed dead. With enough supplies to last just 31 days, he both has to figure out a way to get in touch with NASA and sustain himself for several years.

"I have no way to contact NASA or my crew mates, but even if I could it would take four years for another manned mission to reach me, and I'm in a [habitat] designed to last 31 days. So, in the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option -- I'm gonna have to science the s**t out of this," Watney proclaims in a video journal.

The challenge for Watney is in figuring out how to grow enough food to last four years, and do it on Mars, a planet where nothing grows. It's a plot that's based on a best selling novel of the same name by Andy Weir. In addition to Matt Damon, the movie also stars names like Jessica Chastain, Kristin Wiig, Jeff Daniels, and Michael Peña.


While the overall plot of surviving in outer space and trying to return to Earth is similar to Gravity, the two movies are vastly different. Whereas Gravity mostly takes place in space, it appears The Martian will be mostly grounded on Mars.

The Martian opens on November 25, 2015, a day after Thanksgiving.