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Ridley Scott’s film is based on Andy Weir’s 2011 novel “The Martian.” Matt Damon plays the botanist and engineer Mark Watney. The story is fiction and simplifies some things, such as the force of a storm in the thin Martian air. But it is told so that every single stage remains easy to follow. That is exactly why it is so well suited to showing the Power of Proximate Objectives at work in a hopeless situation.
Alone and presumed dead
Situation
The crew of the Ares III mission is exploring the Martian surface when a severe dust storm blows in. During the hasty departure, Watney is struck by debris. The crew believes he is dead and flies to its mother ship, the Hermes. Watney wakes up injured, alone, with no connection to Earth. The next mission, Ares IV, is not due to land for four years, at a crater far away.
Link to the principle
The distant goal is clear: survive until help arrives. But it is so far away that it only paralyzes. The food will not last even a fraction of that time. If you look only at the four years, you give up.
Food first
Situation
Watney does the math. Then he sets his first goal: enough food. He plants a potato field inside the habitat, using Martian soil, the crew’s waste and water that he extracts from leftover rocket fuel. The film shows how he works his way forward step by step, recording every solution in his video log.
Link to the principle
The proximate objective is attainable and clarifies the situation. A harvest extends the time Watney has. Only then does it make sense to think about further steps.
Then the connection
Situation
Back on Earth, a NASA employee spots traces of Watney’s activity on satellite images. Watney himself sets the next goal: contact. He drives the rover to the old Pathfinder probe, which has been sitting on Mars for decades, and gets it working again. Through it, he is soon able to exchange text messages with Earth.
Link to the principle
Every proximate objective you reach opens up new room to act. With the connection to Earth, Watney is no longer alone with his problems. Hundreds of experts can now think along with him.
Setbacks
Situation
One of the habitat’s airlocks blows out. The explosion destroys the potato field. On Earth, a supply probe is built in great haste. Because safety inspections are skipped, the rocket breaks apart shortly after launch. Watney is facing starvation again.
Link to the principle
Proximate objectives don’t protect you from setbacks. But they make it easier to start over. Watney doesn’t have to solve the whole problem again at once, just the next one. At the same time, the failed launch shows what happens when you try to skip a step under pressure.
The last step
Situation
An astrodynamicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposes not to let the Hermes return to Earth but to slingshot it around Earth and send it back to Mars. The crew agrees. Meanwhile, Watney drives to the Ares IV landing site, strips the ascent vehicle down to make it lighter and launches into orbit. In a risky maneuver, the commander, Melissa Lewis, brings him on board.
Link to the principle
In the end, many proximate objectives, once reached, add up to a rescue: food, connection, journey, launch, rendezvous. None of them alone would have been enough. Together they form the path that no one could see at the beginning.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- When the situation seems hopeless, don’t ask about the whole path; ask about the next solvable problem.
- First solve the problem that buys you the most time.
- Use every goal you reach to bring more people and resources into play.
- If a step fails, start again with the next solvable problem.
- Don’t skip checks under pressure.
Summary
“The Martian” tells how a man survives a situation that cannot be mastered as a whole. Mark Watney breaks it down into proximate objectives, from the first potato harvest to the launch of the ascent vehicle. Each goal he reaches changes the situation and makes the next one possible.
Sources
- The Martian, U.S. 2015, directed by Ridley Scott, screenplay by Drew Goddard, starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain.
- Andy Weir: The Martian. New York: Crown 2014 (first self-published 2011).
