‘The Martian’ Balances Scientific Accuracy with a Compelling Story

The new movie The Martian opens today, starring Matt Damon as Mark Watney, an astronaut who's stranded on Mars. He has to resort to some pretty extreme engineering tactics to survive.

The movie's based on the novel by the same name by Andy Weir, both of which might strike a chord here in Houston, a city full of engineers and, of course, home of the Johnson Space Center. One such engineer is Raymond Wagner, who writes about science in the movies for Alamo Drafthouse’s Birth.Movies.Death. magazine.

He talks with Michael Hagerty about the difficulty of balancing scientific accuracy with compelling narrative, and begins with an interesting way of describing the movie.

MORE:
A Scientist’s Look at The Martian (Raymond Wagner, Birth.Movies.Death., Oct. 1, 2015)
Cast From The Martian Compares Notes With NASA Astronauts (News 88.7, Sept. 15, 2015)