In 2011, author Andy Weir took a bet on himself and self-published his debut novel, The Martian, online.
The book subsequently became a bestseller, which was in turn adapted as a film by director Ridley Scott in 2015.
However, The Martian is about to depart its current streaming home now that the tenth anniversary has passed.
It’s also Watch With Us‘ pick for the underrated movie on Netflix that you need to watch before it leaves in January 2026.
Matt Damon Carries Most of ‘The Martian’ By Himself
Matt Damon leads the movie as Dr. Mark Watney, and he is the first human to live on Mars — although not by choice. An accident during a manned mission to Mars leaves Mark marooned on the red planet after his crew believes him to be dead. That forces Mark to come up with ways to live long enough for a second manned mission to arrive in four years.
Damon has no one to play off except himself for most of the movie. Mark records video logs for a record of his time and as a way to communicate with Earth. This turned out to be a brilliant way for the film to use Damon to explain Mark’s actions and a showcase of his natural charisma. Keeping the audience focused on a single character like that is very difficult, and Damon pulled off everything that the movie required of him. He’s also very dryly funny at times. For his role in the film, Damon was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars.
The Rest of the Cast Is Also Impressive
As impressive as Damon is, he didn’t do it alone. Scott surrounded him with an incredible lineup, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Mackenzie Davis, Benedict Wong and Donald Glover as officials and scientists at NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Jessica Chastain has a secondary leading role as Melissa Lewis, the commander of the Ares III space mission, who had to leave Mark behind. Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Michael Peña and Aksel Hennie play the rest of the Ares III crew.
Aside from Damon himself, Chastain gets one of the film’s best subplots as Melissa wrestles with her guilt for leaving Mark behind while also taking daring steps to save him. Down on Earth, Ejiofor, Daniels and Bean are given a lot to do as their characters clash over how to make a rescue attempt. Ridley couldn’t ask for a better cast of supporting actors for this film, and they’re all terrific in their roles.
The Science Behind ‘The Martian’ Is Largely Real
Weir painstakingly made sure that the science behind The Martian was sound when writing the novel. That was one of the aspects that attracted such a passionate following for the book. For the film, Scott also consulted with scientists to ensure that The Martian was as scientifically accurate as possible.
There are, however, certain dramatic liberties that were taken to support the story of the film. For example, dust storms on Mars aren’t nearly as violent as the one that stranded Mark on the planet. And Mars’ soil probably wouldn’t be usable for Mark’s impromptu potato farm. Other science fiction films have had much bigger leaps in logic than the ones made here. And the result is that The Martian is a very entertaining movie that deserves to be remembered far beyond its 10th anniversary.
The Martian is streaming on Netflix.