A severe dust storm forces Commander Lewis to abort the Ares 3 mission and order the crew toward the MAV.

Watney is struck by a flying communications dish antenna during the storm and disappears into the dust.

Commander Lewis searches on foot for Watney until the MAV is at risk of tipping, then launches without him.

Watney regains consciousness after the storm, reaches the Hab, and realizes he is stranded alone with no communications.

Watney devises a plan to farm potatoes in seeded Martian soil, using crew waste as fertilizer.

Satellite analyst Mindy Park notices deployed pop-up tents and cleaned solar cells and concludes Watney must be alive.

NASA publicly announces to the entire world that Mark Watney is alive on Mars.

Watney sets out on a three-week rover journey to retrieve the long-abandoned Pathfinder probe from the Martian surface.

Watney reactivates Pathfinder and establishes direct two-way communication with NASA and JPL for the first time.

A sandstorm tears the Hab airlock loose, deflating the structure and freezing the entire potato crop.

The Iris resupply probe, launched without proper inspection, is destroyed in flight due to a dangerous load imbalance.

The Hermes crew unanimously votes to execute the Rich Purnell maneuver and goes off course to return to Mars.

While modifying the rover, Watney accidentally sends a power surge through Pathfinder, permanently severing his contact with NASA.

Watney strips the Ares 4 MAV of its life support and controls, then launches into Mars orbit.

Beck performs an untethered spacewalk and pulls Watney free of the MAV, bringing him safely aboard the Hermes.

Pool 1 traces the most pivotal events of The Martian, from the storm that strands Watney on Mars to his dramatic rescue. It follows the core arc: Watney's abandonment, his invention of a potato farm, NASA's discovery that he is alive, and the establishment of communication through the Pathfinder probe. A series of catastrophes — the destruction of the potato farm and the failure of the Iris resupply probe — force increasingly drastic solutions. The international cooperation behind the Rich Purnell maneuver gives Watney a new path home, while the loss of communication with NASA leaves him to complete his 3,200-kilometer journey alone. The story culminates in Watney's white-knuckle launch from Mars and a nail-biting rescue by the Hermes crew.

The headline story of Mark Watney's survival and rescue from Mars.

Watney inventories all supplies and calculates he has 300 days of food but needs to survive over 1,400 sols.

Watney attempts to extract hydrogen from MDV hydrazine fuel and accidentally fills the Hab with an explosive atmosphere.

Watney discovers the Hab atmosphere is 64% hydrogen and retreats to the rover to avoid an explosion.

Watney successfully burns off the hydrogen trapped in the Hab and restores his potato farming operation.

Watney excavates the buried radioactive RTG heat source to power his rover during extended test drives.

NASA leadership decides not to inform the Hermes crew that Watney is alive while they are still operating the ship.

Navigating by Mars's moon Phobos, Watney locates the Pathfinder site and names a nearby unmapped crater the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Watney and NASA develop an ASCII code system using the Pathfinder camera to exchange full written messages.

During his first detailed exchange with Venkat Kapoor, Watney learns the Hermes crew still believes him dead.

Watney receives an email from his university informing him that growing crops on Mars means he has legally colonized it.

Mitch Henderson defies NASA leadership and secretly sends the Rich Purnell rescue plan directly to the Hermes crew.

Watney re-excavates the RTG, seriously injures his back, and spends a week soaking in a homemade hot bath to recover.

Each Hermes crew member contacts their loved ones before committing to extending their mission by 533 days.

The Chinese resupply probe successfully launches and docks with the Hermes as the ship passes Earth.

Watney drops solar cells and cameras at intervals across the surface to map the dust storm, then detours 540 km south to evade it.

Pool 2 highlights the secondary but essential events that shaped Watney's survival and NASA's rescue effort. On Mars, Watney navigates a hydrogen explosion crisis, excavates a radioactive heat source, and loses communication with Earth at a critical moment. Back at NASA, bureaucratic decisions — including hiding Watney's survival from his own crew — complicate the mission at every turn. Physicist Rich Purnell's rescue plan is hatched and secretly forwarded to the Hermes against direct orders, while China's last-minute probe donation gives the mission a fighting chance. Watney's ingenuity in mapping and evading a dust storm on his trek to the Ares 4 MAV ultimately keeps the rescue timeline intact.

The resourceful problem-solving and behind-the-scenes decisions that kept Watney alive.

Watney discovers that blood from his wound sealed the breach in his spacesuit, which is what saved his life.

Watney finds Rick Martinez's wooden cross among the crew's belongings and uses it to start a fire for water production.

Watney discovers Commander Lewis's data sticks loaded with 1970s television shows and disco music during his downtime.

NASA chief Teddy Sanders approves satellite imagery of the Ares 3 site after two months of refusing Venkat Kapoor's requests.

The Pathfinder antenna moves to acquire a signal, and Watney realizes for the first time that NASA knows he is alive.

The Hermes crew learns Watney is alive; Commander Lewis is deeply shaken by guilt over having left him behind.

Trapped in the damaged airlock after the Hab collapses, Watney briefly considers giving up before forcing himself to start problem-solving.

Watney uses burning arm hair and a static charge to locate the tiny airlock leak, then patches it with duct tape.

Teddy Sanders decides to skip safety inspections on the Iris probe in order to meet the critical launch window.

Watney composes farewell letters to each Ares 3 crew member, asking Martinez to check on his parents if he does not survive.

During an EVA at Marth Crater, Watney notices a haze in the air and realizes he has driven into a dust storm.

Watney drives off an invisible ridge on the Martian surface and the entire rover rig rolls and comes apart.

Watney arrives at the Ares 4 MAV site and re-establishes contact with NASA, confirming the Hermes resupply was successful.

The Hermes crew discovers Watney's MAV is 68 km off course and decides to detonate a bomb inside their own ship to close the gap.

Against Commander Lewis's orders, Beck instructs Vogel to release his safety tether so he can drift freely to reach Watney.

Pool 3 traces the key revelations and emotional turning points that give The Martian its deeper dramatic weight. It begins with the quiet miracle that saved Watney's life — his own blood sealing his breached suit — and follows the small but consequential discoveries that sustained him, from a crewmate's wooden cross to a commander's pop culture data sticks. NASA's bureaucratic machinery is revealed as both obstacle and lifeline, culminating in a fatal decision to skip safety inspections on the Iris probe. On Mars, a moment of near-hopelessness in the ruined airlock tests Watney's resilience before his long rover journey faces its final crises. The pool closes with the Hermes crew's most desperate gamble — deliberately bombing their own ship — and Beck's decision to untether himself in open space to bring Watney home.

The pivotal discoveries, emotional shifts, and desperate decisions that defined Watney's ordeal.