The Chinese come to the rescue of NASA and the movie literally concludes with one of the American heroes fist-bumping a Chinese astronaut on a joint mission back to Mars. It's a sad reminder of how bad the new cold war has become in just a few years.
2015: :wholesome: We can explore space together! :solidarity:
2022: President Xi is going to invade Taiwan at any moment LAUNCH THE NUKES NOW! :guts-rage:
:sadness:
Wait did the film even acknowledge that
No. Sci-fi nerd writers are less jingoistic than the US government and probably weren't even aware of the fact.
Sometimes, sometimes it's the other way.
iirc they have a line in the book about keeping the talks between space agencies, as the governments of both would just get caught up in politics