‘The Martian,’ and dealing with (human) life on Mars

It's hard to imagine Ridley Scott casting someone else other than Matt Damon to play Mark Watney, the astronaut and botanist who spends more than a year stranded on Mars in "The Martian."

Damon conveys such stoic good humor even in the face of overwhelming odds. Left behind when his captain and crew are forced to abandon the new Mars base in the middle of a ferocious sand storm, Damon's Watney is first faced with the stark reality that any rescue attempt or supply rocket won't get back to him until he's long since starved to death. But as he takes stock of his situation and his surroundings, his confidence and survival instinct kick into high gear. He works out the math and figures out a way to ration his supplies — and more ingeniously — grow enough rows and rows of potatoes in a makeshift organic farm to keep him fed until the next ship can return.