--- title: Cost of Rescuing Matt Damon in Movies description: Most of us are too busy cheering on the search party to take the time to consider just how much rescuing a character would actually cost. canonical: https://time.com/4162254/cost-of-rescuing-matt-damon/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-28T19:11:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:48.272Z og:title: Rescuing Matt Damon's Characters Has Cost More Than $900 Billion og:description: That's nearly a trillion dollars og:url: https://time.com/4162254/cost-of-rescuing-matt-damon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte865b758bb6d5a81/698876f53c1639f20045b59c/matt-damon-rescue-cost.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "The Martian" Press Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rescuing Matt Damon's Characters Has Cost More Than $900 Billion twitter:description: That's nearly a trillion dollars twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte865b758bb6d5a81/698876f53c1639f20045b59c/matt-damon-rescue-cost.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rescuing Matt Damon's Characters Has Cost More Than $900 Billion ## Video: The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces [Watch (HLS stream): The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xe99vdU4.m3u8) (4:45)  _Published 2010-01-11. Steven James Snyder, Techland's resident movie geek, outlines the top 5 most under-rated sci-fi movies of all time_  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 28, 2015 7:11 PM UTC  Matt Damon at 'The Martian' Press Conference at the Ritz Carlton on September 11, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario. Matt Damon at 'The Martian' Press Conference at the Ritz Carlton on September 11, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario.Vera Anderson/WireImage  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 28, 2015 7:11 PM UTC When someone in a movie needs saving, most of us are too busy cheering on the search party to take the time to consider just how much rescuing that character would actually cost. But when a member of the [Quora community](https://www.quora.com/How-much-money-has-been-spent-attempting-to-bring-Matt-Damon-back-from-distant-places) recently posed that question about [Matt Damon](http://time.com/4144233/2016-golden-globes-nominees/), an actor who often plays [characters in need of aid](http://time.com/4066689/the-martian-tweets-true-story/), user [Kynan Eng](https://www.quora.com/profile/Kynan-Eng) decided to figure it out. Based on estimated fictional costs, Eng calculated that [over $900 billion has been spent](http://time.com/money/4162246/matt-damon-character-rescue-costs/?xid=homepage) “attempting to bring Matt Damon back from distant places.” Here’s how he broke it down among Damon’s films: _“Courage Under Fire_ (Gulf War 1 helicopter rescue): $300k _Saving Private Ryan_ (WW2 Europe search party): $100k _Titan A.E._ (Earth evacuation spaceship): $200B _Syriana_ (Middle East private security return flight): $50k _Green Zone_ (US Army transport from Middle East): $50k _Elysium_ (Space station security deployment and damages): $100m _Interstellar_ (Interstellar spaceship): $500B _The Martian_ (Mars mission): $200B TOTAL: $900B plus change” That’s nearly a trillion dollars spent on saving one person. Although he did give us _Good Will Hunting_, so we suppose it’s worth it. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4162254/cost-of-rescuing-matt-damon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4162254/cost-of-rescuing-matt-damon/"},"headline":"Rescuing Matt Damon's Characters Has Cost More Than $900 Billion","datePublished":"2015-12-28T19:11:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:48.272Z","description":"That's nearly a trillion dollars","url":"https://time.com/4162254/cost-of-rescuing-matt-damon/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","Matt Damon","Interstellar"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte865b758bb6d5a81/698876f53c1639f20045b59c/matt-damon-rescue-cost.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte865b758bb6d5a81/698876f53c1639f20045b59c/matt-damon-rescue-cost.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"The Martian\" Press Conference","caption":"Matt Damon at 'The Martian' Press Conference at the Ritz Carlton on September 11, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario.","creditText":"Vera Anderson/WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4162254/cost-of-rescuing-matt-damon/","name":"Rescuing Matt Damon's Characters Has Cost More Than $900 Billion"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces","description":"Steven James Snyder, Techland's resident movie geek, outlines the top 5 most under-rated sci-fi movies of all time","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xe99vdU4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-01-11T22:26:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xe99vdU4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4162254/cost-of-rescuing-matt-damon/","duration":"PT4M45S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4162254/cost-of-rescuing-matt-damon/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```