i love love loved how the martian novel ended. mark doesn't do it alone. he's not a hero who flies out to hermes and rescues himself. after a year and a half of lonely survival he has to (he gets to) surrender and put his life in his friends' hands. they don't throw him a line and tell him to grab it, it's not distant and impersonal like an escape pod docking to a rescue ship. beck gets to go out there and bring him home. when mark sees beck coming down to him he has a startle response, like it's been so long since he's seen another person that his body recoils in fear. it's important that the rescue is so personal. beck holds on to mark with his own hands and tethers their bodies together and carries him back to the ship and mark's only orders are to relinquish himself to being saved
