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What Ridley Scott Has To Say About the Science In "The Martian"
An anonymous reader writes: Sciencemag has an interview with the people behind the movie The Martian. Director Ridley Scott, author Andy Weir, and Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science and an adviser on the film talk about the technology and the science in the movie. Scott says: "Almost immediately [after] I decided to do it, we started to have conversations with NASA about process, the habitats, the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), the suits and everything. And they sent us pictures, almost like photographs, of what they hoped it would all be. If there had been anything in [the screenplay] that actually was suspect—they are not shy—they would have said so."
Science is good, even when it is delivered in the cinema, where it is likely to garner some youthful adherents.
Who among you was not inspired in youth by some not-too-realistic science fiction movie?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
just because Nasa would point out things that are wrong it doesnt mean he must change things to reflect 100% reality, it is not a documentary it is a movie that also have the job to capture the peoples interest, and by people I mean the majority of us and not just some nitpickers
People didn't expect Gravity to do as well as it did. This paved the way for Interstellar and The Martian. There is a big market for these kinds of movies that was untapped for quite a while, and its finally getting quite a few good developments.
While its just a movie, and a lot of it is drama oriented, a key in all these movies is that they limit their plot choices via science to some extent. A lot of recent sci-fi movies decided to use science as a dues ex to do whatever the hell they wanted instead, which removes the focus from the science entirely and turns it into just an action movie in space. Its a very different approach that produces very different results, and in my opinion, good results. I like movies that make you think.
The hype is because the book on which the film is based is very good and apparently the director - this time - is actually making a movie based on the book rather than simply copy the name of the book and taking from his ass a completely different story.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Since when did "science fiction" need to be scientifically accurate I must have missed that memo.