B.A.D. Reviews The Martian

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I tend to cry at inspirational or hopeful or triumphant moments in movies. I must have cried a hundred times during The Martian. I wanted to pump my fist a dozen times, I wanted to stand up and cheer, I wanted to applaud wildly (I try to be a courteous moviegoer, though, so I kept my effusive exclamations to myself). The Martian entertained me - it’s fun and and it’s funny - and The Martian moved me. But more than anything else, The Martian reminded me that humans can be great, that we can work together to do great things, and that sometimes the greatest thing we can do is help out another person.

In the 1960s we, as a nation, had a will to conquer space. That will has eroded over the last few decades. The Martian is the sort of movie that can reignite that will, that can capture the imaginations of a generation and remind them that the human adventure cannot end within the atmosphere of this planet, that we can and should continue out to discover and learn and experience new things. There’s a whole universe of firsts waiting for us.

The dreamers behind The Martian will hopefully inspire the doers. But The Martian will do more than swell the ranks of astronaut candidates and astrodynamics students. It reminds us that the problems we face today - global warming, drought, famine - are surmountable. If we come together with a will to solve these problems we can do it, and we can bring humanity to the next level. All we have to do is have the courage to science the shite out of it.

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