7 Science Facts That Ruin Your Favourite Movies (But 2 That Make It All Better)

3. The Martian: There Was Literally No Other Way To Start It

The Martian's impressively clean bill of science health will, unfortunately, be forever marred by the inclusion of a dust storm capable of blowing a rocket over and sending an astronaut flying a good 20 feet. Despite the film's meticulous attention to detail, that just wouldn't happen in the thin Martian atmosphere but, according to Ridley Scott, the alternative was so much worse.

Andy Weir, Ridley Scott, and NASA were all aware of the implausibility of the storm but, despite all three wracking their collective brains, could not come up with a better alternative. Turns out that Mars, whilst inhospitable, is just not that cinematically dangerous, or exciting.

Apparently, the alternatives they did come up with were so terrible that even NASA said "f**k it, it's just a movie."

What was the alternative?

"I can't remember," said Scott, "it was so boring."

This is all getting to be a bit of a downer, so how about some good news from the world of science?