Tolkien References Project: The Martian (2015)

I am not really sure why I recently went for a rewatch of The Martian (Si apre in una nuova finestra), the film adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2011 novel (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Chicago Fire (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Firefly Lane (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Scrubs (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Gilmore Girls (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | House M.D. (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Marvel (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [public] | Minions & More, volumes 1 + 2 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Brooklyn 99 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [public] | Loudermilk (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Lucifer (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩