People Think Moon Landings Were A Hoax But "The Martian" Is Real
An Alarming Number Of People Think “The Martian” Is A True Story, BuzzFeed
“The Martian, the new movie by Ridley Scott starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars, is being rightly praised for its fairly accurate portrayal of science. But maybe it was too realistic, because an alarming number of people out there have come away from the film thinking it is based on a true story.”
Sheila Jackson Lee
“In 1997, while on a trip to the Mars Pathfinder operations center in California, Jackson Lee confused the planet Mars with Earth’s own moon, asking whether the Pathfinder had succeeded in taking a picture of the flag planted on Mars by Neil Armstrong in 1969.”
“You! What planet is this?” 🙂
BuzzFeed, Keith? Thanks for the update 🙂
H. L. Mencken is supposed to have said that, “nobody every went broke underestimating the American public.” Remember that 17% of the country believes in witches. Sometimes it gives me pause…
don’t forget the 45% that believe in ghosts
There’s a dreadful possible result of so many people assuming THE MARTIAN’s a documentary:
when this many people in our culture believe that “first-manned-flight-to-Mars” has already been done, just how easy will it be to get them interested in making it _actually_ happen? Why would they support (or even find credible) efforts by NASA (or any private investor) to make this possibility into reality, when they can just smugly reassure themselves that it is ALREADY real — and that, therefore, any _actual_ first-manned-Mars-mission efforts must be a pointless hoax?
I’m more concerned with the results of future missions, and how they will be perceived. For people who do _not_ think _The_Martian_ is real, will the real thing seem disappointing? The quality of the images and video will be poor in comparison to a movie, the cinematography and directing abysmal, and the plot will be dull and will drag out over two years. As entertainment (which, I’m afraid, is a main public interest in spaceflight) the real thing isn’t impressive compared to a good movie.
On the other hand, I have friends who believed “Apollo 13” was NOT based on a true story until I set them straight.