Matt Damon’s 91% Rotten Tomatoes Sci-Fi Epic Is Leaving Netflix—Stream It Before It Disappears
Time is running out to stream The Martian: Ridley Scott’s acclaimed sci‑fi adventure starring Matt Damon, boasting a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, blasts off Netflix in early January.
Quick heads-up: Ridley Scott's The Martian is about to cycle off Netflix. If it has been sitting in your queue since forever, this is your nudge.
When it leaves
According to What's on Netflix, The Martian is scheduled to be removed from Netflix after January 1. Translation: you have through January 1 to stream it before it vanishes in the usual licensing shuffle.
What it is (and why people love it)
Released in 2015, The Martian adapts Andy Weir's novel with a screenplay by Drew Goddard. It follows NASA botanist-astronaut Mark Watney, who gets stranded on Mars after a brutal storm forces his crew to abort the mission and assume he's dead. He isn't. He has to science his way through a planet with no patience for human error while NASA scrambles a rescue and his crewmates push for a risky return plan.
"As a piece of sweeping populist entertainment, The Martian is a great success, despite a couple of issues that perturb throughout."
That take comes from Vague Visages, and it lines up with the broader consensus: the film sits at 91 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 385 critic reviews.
Cast
- Matt Damon as Dr. Mark Watney
- Jessica Chastain as Commander Melissa Lewis
- Chiwetel Ejiofor as Vincent Kapoor
- Kristen Wiig as Annie Montrose
- Jeff Daniels as Theodore "Teddy" Sanders
The receipts
It was a legit hit: seven Oscar nominations, plus more than $630 million worldwide at the box office (per Box Office Mojo).
The bottom line
The Martian is one of Scott's easiest crowd-pleasers: smart, funny, and relentless in a way that still plays. If you're going to watch it on Netflix, do it before it slips away after January 1.