Tolkien References Project: The Martian (2015)

I am not really sure why I recently went for a rewatch of The Martian (Opens in a new window), the film adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2011 novel (Opens in a new window).

Maybe it’s Matt Damon, maybe it’s Sean Bean - maybe I’m a sucker for an interesting science fiction premise: an astronaut stranded on Mars - and how do we get him home?

Imagine my surprise when I stumbled over a short passage in the film with a Tolkienian background.

Yup.

Project Elrond.

Community (Opens in a new window) | Chicago Fire (Opens in a new window) | Firefly Lane (Opens in a new window) | Scrubs (Opens in a new window) | Gilmore Girls (Opens in a new window) | House M.D. (Opens in a new window) | Marvel (Opens in a new window) [public] | Minions & More, volumes 1 + 2 (Opens in a new window) | Brooklyn 99 (Opens in a new window) [public] | Loudermilk (Opens in a new window) | Lucifer (Opens in a new window).

And here is the script version.

ANNIE What the hell is “Project Elrond?”

VINCENT I had to make something up.

ANNIE “Elrond?”

MITCH (realizing) Because it’s a secret meeting.

ANNIE How do you know that? Why does “Elrond” mean “secret meeting?”

BRUCE The Council of Elrond. From Lord of the Rings. It’s the meeting where they decide to destroy the One Ring.

ANNIE I so quit right now. TEDDY (entering) If we’re calling something Project Elrond, I would like my codename to be “Glorfindel.”

ANNIE Oh my god I hate every one of you.¹

Now, whoever came up with the casting ideas deserves to be praised in all eternity…

Why?

Because Bruce is Sean Bean.

Sean Bean says: “The Council of Elrond. From Lord of the Rings. It’s the meeting where they decide to destroy the One Ring.“

I was there, people. I was there a gazillion films ago! 😅

Am I ten years late with this? Sure. But who cares?

This is the Tolkien References Project.

As many of them as possible.

[And yes: I know that this is rather probably a film reference, not a book reference. But there you go. It’s the 21st century.]

1. h/t Script Slug (Opens in a new window). ↩