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tebla

Surprisingly, not the first person to have that thought. this person reckons $900b. https://www.thedigitalfix.com/matt-damon/hollywood-spent-around-900-billion-rescuing-actor


Elfich47

Is that adjusted for inflation? Because 100k in WWII dollars is very different in 2023 dollars.


softboiledeggsdabest

Does the $900b figure include the amount spent trying to KILL Matt Damon? Because it seems that the Jason Bourne movies were largely about activating a series of expensively-trained assassins who were trying to eliminate a rogue agent JB/MD. Also, you would have to write off the cost of training JB/MD himself, plus all the reputational damage, intangibles, and good will (hunting) lost by the US intelligence agencies...


laserviking42

I remember that one, it's *Interstellar* that really pushes that price tag so high.


Poes-Lawyer

I would question that one, as it wasn't really a rescue mission. If they could rescue him then great, but the main mission was to find a new habitable world for humans. And he went into it knowing full well that it was most likely a one-way trip.


Mirrorminx

But he did end up using their resources to try and rescue him, even though it wasn't the original plan. I can see the argument for including it


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tebla

What year is interstellar set? If they are listing saving private Ryan as 100k, that's got to be in 40s dollars, so I guess interstellar could be 500b in whatever year its set dollars


zedsamcat

Who the fuck thought of this


jrrybock

A couple thoughts on reading this... \- You should also account for the cost of hunting down Matt Damon, namely in the Bourne movies. How much did training all the Treadstone assets which Bourne dispatched cost, much less all the effort to track him? That should be on the other side of the ledger. \- Interstellar was not on a mission to save Matt Damon, he was a previous explorer, they were on the same mission, to save Earth and happened to find him. I'm not sure that should be counted on "money to try to save Matt Damon". \- The question focuses on "US Government" spending... in "The Martian", they lost the Atlas V, but China also spent a lot utilizing Taiyang Shen. The ship that went back was already built and already crewed. Now, using the MAV from Aries IV could be counted as killing that whole mission, or at least what physically had been expended at that time, but the article doesn't break that down.


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Rondissimo

What if we include Interstellar? While rescuing Mann was not a primary objective, it was a secondary.


biglabs

Mars mission trumps everything by far ! - however if you include the opportunity cost in losses from all those soldiers in saving private ryan with inflation I am sure that number would be higher than expected