Audience members are worryingly asking if The Martian is a true story

Ridley Scott’s The Martian, based on a very well-researched book by Andy Weir, is being praised for its scientific accuracy, with even astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson commending it.

Astronaut Mark Watney’s experiments are so convincing that a scary amount of people seem to think it’s based on a true story, and that a man genuinely got stranded on Mars.

Matt Damon is stranded on Mars in ‘The Martian’ (Twentieth Century Fox)

This comes in spite of man never having come remotely near setting foot on the planet (yet), and extensive coverage of the very much un-manned Mars rover in recent months.

In addition to asking Google about the ‘true story’, a few audience members have been asking their friends about it, as rounded up by BuzzFeed:

Though very much not a true story, Nasa did collaborate with The Martian’s filmmakers.

We recently spoke to its screenwriter Drew Goddard, who was determined to keep in the book’s scientific detail and not dumb the movie down.