The power of the written word is never so evident as when compared to a film based upon it.
But sometimes a well-crafted and measured film can capture the essence of a novel.
The Martian, a 2015 film directed by Ridley Scott, based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir, achieves this rare feat.
The novel is a tautly written thriller that pays homage to simple intelligence, ingenuity and the power of science. Science, after all, is what ultimately saves Mark Watney, the botanist-mechanical engineer stranded on Mars.
The film honours this theme and remains true to the narrative and character.
The story opens with a powerful windstorm that forces the Ares 3 landing crew to abandon its mission to Mars.
During the transit from their habitat to the ascent vehicle, Mark is struck by flying debris that punctures his spacesuit and disables the suit’s bio-sign monitor so he appears to be dead.
But he isn’t dead and when he regains consciousness he realizes his crew has abandoned him. He is completely alone with no means to even signal earth that he is alive. All he needs to do now is re-establish communications, find a source of food and survive in a harsh, unforgiving environment that brooks no margin for error, human or otherwise.
Mark, the wise-cracking mission engineer and fix-it guy, uses his intelligence and sheer grit to steadfastly confront and hurdle one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after another and keep himself alive.
The protagonists, in both the film and novel, share the same sardonic, snarky sense of humour, even in the face of death-defying odds. This not only rounds out the character but helps advance the story and quell the terror of being utterly alone and dying a marooned death.
Mark’s solutions to food and life-support problems are credible. The author laces the narrative with enough technical details to satisfy die-hard science fiction fans and general audiences alike. And the hero’s proactive nature and fierce determination to survive drives and escalates the story to a heart-stopping conclusion.
NASA announced it found water on Mars four days before the film opened. This certainly heightened interest in the film, the novel and the red planet itself – the next frontier of space exploration.
Other titles that explore life on Mars include the classic The Martian Chronicles (1977) by Ray Bradbury and Theodore Judson’s The Martian General’s Daughter (2008), which despite its pulp fiction title is actually one of the most erudite and intriguing novels set on Mars you will read.
These and other titles are available at your Okanagan Regional Library branch. Visit www.orl.bc.ca. Peter Critchley is a reference librarian with the Vernon branch of the Okanagan Regional Library.