Not necessarily. As a society, we spend a lot more on Hollywood storytelling than we do on space exploration. And certainly more than a mission to Mars would cost.
iirc (from the talk) a mission to Mars will cost a few trillion dollars (I forgot the exact figure, but somewhere between $1T and $10T). That's a lot more than Hollywood storytelling.
Maybe with current technology. But as technology continues to advance things will continue to get cheaper. What costs a trillion dollars today could cost a couple billion dollars in a not so distant future
...if you ignore inflation :)
Technology does not advance in a vacuum (pun intended). When you say that you are ignoring that the technology advanced because some of those trillions were spent in research, even though the research has more goals than enabling a manned mission to Mars.
Really? I've never heard a figure that high. I think the estimates currently are about $50B, spread out over 10 years or so.