10 Best Movie Screenplays Since 2010

Sci-Fi - Drew Goddard

Based on the best-selling novel by Andy Weir, the story follows Mark Watney's impossible attempt to survive having been abandoned on Mars (kinda unfortunate, wouldn't you say) and the subsequent attempt to retrieve him.

It's heart-warming, unique and a terrific blend of the sci-fi, blockbuster and self-contained thriller genres. The problem with scripts like these are often the inevitable ennui associated with having only one character on screen for such a long time-Castaway, Lost at Sea, Buried, Phone Booth, Open Water-they can be hit and miss. Add to this that the only way Watney can survive is to do lots of maths, grow vegetables and keep updates on a video log and it's not exactly the most edge-of-your-seats stuff.

But the script succeeds because it has both heart and execution in spades. Goddard injects some much-needed humour into the story, asking not so much how would somebody survive on Mars but how would somebody live? How would they entertain themselves alone on a distant planet? With dance music of course! With mad forays in a dune-buggy and with an irreducible hope in humanity.

The overwhelming theme is one of hope and optimism-The Martian proves it takes the heart as much as the head to survive and it asks us whether it's worth going back for Watney at all with all the logistical and financial problems the rescue entails?

In the end we, the audience, and they, NASA, decide it is. We can't leave any man behind, no matter how far away they are. Thankfully Ridley Scott does justice to the script and the film knocked the premise out of the park.