“The right stuff”—the measure of an astronaut’s mental and physical readiness for space travel—is a phrase that has long been in the cultural lexicon. We wanted to leverage this for The Martian and give audiences an authentic look at the crew’s assessment process. Our story unfolds in a NASA Psych Evaluation laboratory and is set shortly after the Ares 3 crew has completed a 10-day isolation test. Complementary data viz highlights individual crewmembers and a range of psychometrics.

Despite much of the film’s marketing materials having a darker tone that focused on the survival elements of the story, The Martian has a very human tone that oscillates between humor and drama. “The Right Stuff” was explicitly designed to capture this element and introduce each crew member’s personality.

“The Right Stuff” was shot on set as The Martian was being filmed. We worked on a punchy, agile script, with room for improvisation and worked with each actor as they were available in between shooting scenes for the feature film.

The short film was launched across multiple social channels with support from NASA, real-life NASA astronauts (Buzz Aldrin, Michael J. Massimino, etc.), 20th Century Fox, and the cast (Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Aksel Hennie, Kate Mara, etc). It was augmented by a feed of additional character content and mission content.

“The Right Stuff” generated millions of views and social impressions. The public and press reactions were overwhelmingly positive, describing it as “a perfect characterization” of each astronaut in the film, and praising the “absolutely stellar” cast. Comical moments like Mark Watney’s (Matt Damon) Aquaman rant and Rick Martinez's (Michael Peña) irreverent responses made the video an unforgettable short.

The Martian went on to become one of the biggest pop culture events of 2015, opening at #1, becoming the second-highest Fall opening of all-time and Ridley Scott’s most successful movie ever.