20th Century Fox has released a 3-minute trailer for Ridley Scott’s Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain and Kristen Wiig-starring space film, The Martian. The previously-released teaser (which was actually longer than 3 minutes) began with a summarizing bit of philosophizing on Damon’s part. His stranded character asserted in voiceover that “every human being has the basic instinct to help each other out,” then discussed various forms of rescue mission that are far more banal than lifting someone from Mars. But since, meanwhile, the camera panned across the surface of the Red Planet, and since the film is called The Martian, obviously a Martian rescue mission was in store.
The new trailer skips the introductory words, and jumps right to the action, with Damon noting that at some point, everyone will say, “This is it. This is how I end.” But while some accept that, others “get to work” — which is exactly what he does.
In the vein of other space movies that take terrifyingly extreme notions of isolation and try to humanize them with relatable humor — recall Sandra Bullock towards the end of Gravity muttering “I hate space” — Matt Damon’s stranded character decides he’s going to live “on a planet where nothing grows” and upon a particular victory, he says for no one to hear, “In your face, Neil Armstrong.”
Back on Earth, when people finally get a signal from him, the aforementioned rescue mission is launched — behind NASA’s back. Interestingly (or just repetitively), both Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon were in Interstellar, in which Damon was also a stranded astronaut. For Wiig, however, “space drama” is a whole new context. The film is based on the best-selling novel by Andy Weir.
Watch the trailer: