#MovieFailMondays: The Martian (or, How Movies Can Teach You About Logical Fallacies and Help You Ace the LSAT)
Each week, we analyze a movie that illustrates a logical fallacy you’ll find on the LSAT. Who said Netflix can’t help you study? 🎥📖
Since we covered Gravity a few weeks ago, we figured we should also cover its sequel, The Martian.
Released initially as a serial, and then as a novel in 2011, Andy Weir’s Castaway in Space (you know that’s how it was sold in Hollywood) tells the harrowing tale of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded on Mars in the aftermath of an intense Mars-storm. After seeing Watney (played by Matt Damon) hit by a piece of debris, his fellow astronauts (played by Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Shaw, Jessica Chastaine) leave him on the red planet for dead. Their long, slow trip home is relegated to a B plot, though Kate Mara does get more screen time than she did in a movie where she was one of the titular Fantastic Four.
If this was a Tarantino film, Watney would find his way back to Earth and go on a revenge killing spree, taking out the astronauts who left him behind, and, probably, all of NASA. I’d go see it.
But, since it was written by a computer scientist who grew up with an astrophysicist father, instead we get a 2-hour science lecture that somehow manages to keep us on the edges of our seats – probably because Drew Goddard and Ridley Scott removed all of the calculations Watney used to keep himself alive.
The movie has been generally lauded for a large amount of scientific accuracy. And surely I’m not going to nitpick a science fail instead of a logic fail, right, dear audience?
Oh, how little you know me. In this case, the science fail is also a failure of logic.
One of the biggest threats to Watney – one that he mentions throughout the movie – is the lack of atmosphere on Mars; there’s nothing to keep the radiation out or the heat in – no air to breath. It even plays a pivotal role in the climax of the film.
And yet, somehow, the entire movie kicks off with a terrifying storm that has hurricane-level winds and almost wrecks their ride home.
Huh?
You can’t have it both ways, The Martian! Either the atmosphere is thick enough to generate devastatingly powerful winds, or it’s too thin to create any of the problems presented in the film.
Which flaw is this related to?
Well, audience, by glossing over this detail in our suspension of disbelief, we committed a comparison flaw. We knew there was almost no atmosphere on the planet – all of the pretty scientists told us so! But we also know storms on Earth can do some major damage. Despite knowing that Mars and Earth are different, we carried our beliefs about storms on Earth with us on our cinematic journey to Mars.
On the LSAT, be careful when the exam tries to get your knowledge of one thing to apply in a situation it claims is analogous. There are usually significant differences between these things being compared, and this will often be used on the exam to create a flawed argument. It also shows up in incorrect Inference-question answers, so be careful when considering an answer that compares two things. 🎥📖
Matt Shinners is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in New York City. After receiving a science degree from Boston College, Matt scored a 180 on his LSAT and enrolled in Harvard Law School. There’s nothing that makes him happier than seeing his students receive the scores they want to get into the schools of their choice. Check out Matt’s upcoming LSAT courses here!