Rescuing Matt Damon's Characters Has Cost More Than $900 Billion

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 recently posed that question about Matt Damon, an actor who often plays characters in need of aid, user Kynan Eng decided to figure it out. Based on estimated fictional costs, Eng calculated that over $900 billion has been spent “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.

Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com.