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:
Exactly! The Martian was a very comfortable read, just a dude trying to survive against ridiculous odds through his own ingenuity, while the world works together to assist him. It's such a positive, enjoyable story.
The audiobook version of The Martian was fantastic since it was iirc mostly audiologs in the first place