According to one source*, what astronaut Mark Watney had to do to survive alone on Mars was quite accurate.
I hope you were not expecting to stay away from spoilers in the opening line. The plotline is pretty basic, though. A mission is interrupted by a storm and one of the members is struck by debris. The rest of the crew leaves him for dead and starts back home. The astronaut who was left behind was (surprise!) not dead, and must survive until the next mission comes. Through a few acts of heroism on Earth and in space, the original crew ends up going back and rescuing Watney in the nick of time. Everyone lives.
As far as the story goes, I was pleased by the lack of helpful coincidences. To quote one of Pixar's "22 Rules of Storytelling," "Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great;
coincidences to get them out of it are cheating." The one that comes to
mind is his ability to find the original probe sent to the red planet, but even then he has
to go through so many obstacles to actually reap a benefit, it almost cancels
out. The rest of the time random stuff happens, either to his benefit or
hindrance, it is often due to a logical sequence of events. Hurrah for logic.
(Also, there is an
amazing amount of science in this film. Science is the best. And logic. And outer space. I think I have discovered a bias in my film critiquing...)
There was also a marvelous amount of plot turns and twists. While I suspected the "Space
Pirate/Mars Colonizer/First Man Alone on a Planet" protagonist Mark Watney would
surely live until the end (due in large part to the peppy disco soundtrack), I
did begin to wonder how. Enough continued to go wrong that it kept the
development interesting.
Along with the
soundtrack, the witty dialogue and comradely banter kept the film from being
too dark. It could have gone in a much more serious direction, surely, but
remained securely in the comfortable space between a purely fun movie and one that you would never
want to watch again.
*My roommate, although she knows people who know people, if
you know what I'm saying, so I trust her.
I hope you were not expecting to stay away from spoilers in the opening line. The plotline is pretty basic, though. A mission is interrupted by a storm and one of the members is struck by debris. The rest of the crew leaves him for dead and starts back home. The astronaut who was left behind was (surprise!) not dead, and must survive until the next mission comes. Through a few acts of heroism on Earth and in space, the original crew ends up going back and rescuing Watney in the nick of time. Everyone lives.