Set in the year 2020, Stranded depicts the first crewed mission to Mars, organized by an international consortium of space agencies. Unlike the high-action space operas of the era, the film presents a grounded, almost claustrophobic vision of the near future where space travel is a grueling, resource-limited endeavor. The mission meets with disaster upon arrival, forcing the crew to make impossible ethical choices about survival and the preservation of oxygen, reflecting a future defined by scientific pragmatism and the harsh realities of Newtonian physics.

On Earth, the geopolitical landscape is implied to be one of fragile collaboration. The mission is not the product of a single superpower but a joint effort involving the United States and European nations, suggesting a shift toward multilateral space exploration. While the film focuses primarily on the Martian surface, Earth remains a distant, bureaucratic lifeline that is ultimately unable to provide a timely rescue, highlighting the extreme decoupling of colonies from their home planet due to the vastness of space.

The film’s 2020 setting predicted a level of Martian exploration that has not yet been achieved by human crews, though its depiction of robotic precursors and modular landing craft aligns closely with actual mission architectures proposed by NASA and SpaceX. Its primary divergence is the discovery of ancient, geometrically complex structures on Mars, moving the narrative from hard science into speculative alien contact. Despite its technical accuracy regarding life support and transit times, the film's 20-year timeline for a manned landing proved overly optimistic compared to the real-world 2020s, which saw a focus on robotic rovers rather than human boots on the ground.