re: #352 Dark_Falcon

Not after The Martian, where Damon plays the ultimate ‘Purple’ character. Think about it: His character, Mark Watney, has the self-reliance and devotion to duty that decent conservatives value and seek to teach, he has the science skills dear to the hearts of decent liberals, and he has the resourcefulness and creativity that the decent of both parties treasure.

The only people who don’t like the Mark Watney character are Luddites who hate space exploration and Creationists who hate botany’s role in the development of science of genetics and from there the vindication of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

Unfortunately if the situation happened in real life I would expect that multiple editorials would be produced that the government should not expend the funds to attempt to rescue one man from Mars.

(Spoiler alert - for the book at least)

Not to mention the *massive* whining that would break out in certain circles regarding cooperation with the Chinese space program in regards to letting them be the booster for a care package. The Chinese would be certain to sample the package and steal US strategic secrets regarding the composition of protein bars.