[Ed note: Caution - spoilers!]
The teaser takes the form of an in-universe "video diary" showing Watney and the rest of the crew of the fictional Ares 3 mission preparing to leave for their trip to Mars on the spacecraft Hermes. Somewhat presciently, it starts out with Watney briefly struggling to set up a video camera—something he’ll likely be doing with great regularity once he finds himself marooned on Mars.
After a brief introduction, Watney introduces the other members of the Ares 3 mission, including mission commander Lewis (played by Jessica Chastain, who along with Damon recently starred in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar). The video is overlaid with pop-up factoids and Twitter-like interjections and trending topics from the public, some of which contain nods to other works of science fiction (when German astronaut Vogel first appears, played by Norwegian Aksel Hennie, one tweet asks "Vogel has to be the #synthetic right"—a reference to Ridley Scott’s Alien).
We've been fortunate to have a couple of decent Sci-Fi movies like Gravity and Interstellar the last couple years. Let's hope this follows in those footsteps.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gman003 on Sunday June 14 2015, @02:50AM
I recognize the joystick they used in the cockpit set - it's a Warthog HOTAS flight stick, a replica of the A-10's stick. The yellow stickers were a giveaway - the stick ships in two parts, the base and the stick itself, the arrows are there to make sure you don't screw it in backwards and bend the pins (it's a six-pin Mini-DIN joining the two, the little grey disk under the main stick is where it screws together). It's pretty pricey for just a regular joe but Hollywood can afford to drop $500 on a simple prop (or rather, $1000 - they used two sticks, instead of the stick+throttle combo you normally get.
And yes, I have used mine for both Kerbal and Orbiter, so it's definitely at least plausible as a spacecraft control system, although I think I'd prefer the throttle panel to a second stick.
Anyways, I haven't read the book but both it and the movie seem pretty interesting. I'll have to check at least one of them out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:04AM
Who is Matt Damon?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday June 14 2015, @02:51AM
No, no, no. That's not how you do this. You maintain your class and dignity and don't get tacky.
Sheeit, at least disguise this as a "Soylent Review" and have a motherfucker pretend to analyze it and throw in a couple bad points. At least that way it will generate curiosity rather than hate-mail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:01AM
Who is Matt Damon?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:03AM
Fuck if I know. Didn't he play Spock in that Star Trek remake nobody gave a fuck about?
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:29AM
Who, indeed.
https://youtu.be/BUa5oHgYV2k [youtu.be]
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:34AM
I don't get it. Why did you link to a video of Winston Churchill?
(Score: 4, Funny) by mhajicek on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:33AM
Isn't he the little guy that sorts hot molecules from cold ones?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 5, Funny) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 14 2015, @11:59AM
Wait, he's taking my job? ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by VortexCortex on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:50AM
Matt Damon.
Who is Matt Damon?
Matt Damon! [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:06PM
He's that puppet in "Team America"
Matt...Damon...
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @03:35PM
Who is Matt Damon?
It's the automated subroutine that throws up the "Welcome!" screen after you've logged into Windows 7.
Oh, wait... that's Doormat Daemon. Sorry!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by K_benzoate on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:24AM
The Martian is the hot new sci-fi novel that we are all reading or have read recently--at least those of us who care about such things. Since this is a "nerd" news site it's a safe bet most of us here are sci-fi fans and would be interested in seeing this movie and the trailer. It doesn't look like an ad to me.
I don't have any hope that it'll be as good as the novel, and I don't like the casting, but I'll probably still see it. Do read the book if you like that sort of thing, it's great.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:31AM
It also pertains to all the "Colonize Mars Now!" hype, and the "How You're Going To Die On Mars" article.
And space potatoes.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @02:51AM
Who is Matt Damon?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:19AM
This guy [gawker.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:41AM
Just like Gravity and Interstellar. Feminist or Boycott! Men do not belong in Space. Men belong in Prison.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:46AM
Don't you usually sign your comments with "-- gewg_"?
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Sunday June 14 2015, @09:21AM
Obviously you never saw the films.
The only way you could consider Gravity to be even remotely "feminist" is if you looked past the stereotyped "emotionally crippled & hysterical woman needs to be talked through life by the calm, attractive, funny guy who nobly sacrifices himself for the greater good" plot and judge it entirely on having a female protagonist employed as a (crappy) scientist/astronaut (traditionally "male" career).
As for Interstellar: the protagonist is a self-sacrificing (if profoundly self-centered) man, and the only women present for more than a scene or two are his wife, his emotionally damaged daughter, and two obviously red-shirted astronauts/explorers, one of which is near-suicidally driven to reunite with her boyfriend. Again, the only way that's "feminist" is if you count only that his daughter becomes a scientist for a scene near the end and that two other women are scientist/astronauts.
Seriously, trolls, can't you at least TRY to sound reasonably intelligent or like you aren't pulling random crap out of your asses?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:18PM
The only way you could consider Gravity to be even remotely "feminist" is if you looked past the stereotype
So, from what I can tell, feminism is an ideology that claims women are victims and seeks more funds and advantages for women. Isn't this isn't just stereotypical Traditionalism with another feel-good name?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @06:54PM
That says a lot about who's been defining feminism for you, and very little about how actual feminists operate in the actual world.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 14 2015, @11:53AM
Space is the hardest to escape prison of all!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Monday June 15 2015, @04:49AM
Riddick: I'm sure God has his tricks, but getting out places no one else can, that's one of is mine
(Score: 2) by No Respect on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:48AM
I thought Gravity was awful apart from the special effects.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Sunday June 14 2015, @08:30AM
Same here on both counts. I thought that the only people that actually liked Gravity were the ones with the mysterious ability to shut their brains completely off during a film or whenever discussion of it came up, given it was terrible from both the scientific/logical AND plot/character-writing angles.
(Score: 1) by drgibbon on Sunday June 14 2015, @11:49AM
Yeah, I couldn't understand the hype around it at all. I went to the cinema to see it and I was ready to leave well before it ended. Visually stunning sure, but that's all. I would have preferred it as a pure space 15 minute short (and if there had to be people, no talking). The characters and the story were painfully banal. However it is true that the great majority of people loved it (which I find puzzling), so who knows.
Certified Soylent Fresh!
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday June 15 2015, @02:00AM
I really liked Gravity, but maybe that's because my expectations of Science Fiction movies are really low.
At least it wasn't people in space fleeing from some sort of monster.
Also, when I heard they were making Asimovs "I Robot" I thought, "Wow, that could be really thoughtful" but of course we know how that ended up don't we?
(Score: 1) by Tangaroa on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:29AM
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:58AM
Have Kevin Smith write and direct it and I'll buy a ticket.
compiling...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @06:16AM
Every film with Matt Damon must now involve him somehow stranded alone and dying on an alien planet. Even Good Will Hunting 2.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @07:44AM
Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season [youtube.com] came out years ago buddy.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 14 2015, @09:35AM
I'm stranded on earth you insensitive clod! with a lot of hairless monkeys in suits. ;)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ThG on Sunday June 14 2015, @08:30AM
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 14 2015, @09:38AM
The Martian | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX [youtube.com]
(oops, no copyright trolls will jump out of your screen by watching this clip)