Carbon Costume

Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) is the unfortunate protagonist of both the book and the film The Martian. A sand storm leaves him stranded on Mars when the rest of his crew has reason to believe he’s dead. It becomes his mission to survive until they come back and rescue him.

While a full astronaut’s suit might seem like the most obvious costume for Mark Watney, it’s not his most iconic outfit from the film. That honor belongs to the clothes he wears while terraforming the inside of his habitat so he can grow crops.

The outfit is very simple and consists of light grey slip on shoes, grey cargo pants, a blue henley, and an official NASA sweatshirt in navy. Safety goggles and blue gloves can be added to recreate specific scenes when he was working with the soil. To really round out the costume, though, you’ll want to bring a few potatoes with you. And maybe some ketchup. Because Mark Watney will be the first to say that potatoes are always better with ketchup.