Red Planet (2000)

Astronauts search for solutions to save a dying Earth by searching on Mars, only to have the mission go terribly awry.

Director:

Antony Hoffman

Writers:

Chuck Pfarrer (story), Chuck Pfarrer (screenplay),

Stars:

Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Val Kilmer	...	Robby Gallagher
Carrie-Anne Moss	...	Cmdr. Kate Bowman
Tom Sizemore	...	Dr. Quinn Burchenal
Benjamin Bratt	...	Lt. Ted Santen
Simon Baker	...	Chip Pettengill
Terence Stamp	...	Dr. Bud Chantilas
Jessica Morton	...	Website Fan
Caroline Bossi	...	Website Fan
Bob Neill	...	Houston Control (voice)

Storyline

In the near future, Earth is dying. A new colony on Mars could be humanity's only hope. A team of American astronauts, each a specialist in a different field, is making the first manned expedition to the red planet and must struggle to overcome the differences in their personalities, backgrounds and ideologies for the overall good of the mission. When their equipment suffers life-threatening damage and the crew must depend on one another for survival on the hostile surface of Mars, their doubts, fears and questions about God, man's destiny and the nature of the universe become defining elements in their fates. In this alien environment they must come face to face with their most human selves.

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Plot Keywords:

mars | environment | future | nature | algae | 

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Taglines:

They Didn't Find Life On Mars. It Found Them.

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Genres:

Sci-Fi | Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence, brief nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [pl] Warner Bros. [ca]

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 November 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mars

Filming Locations:

Boral Quarry, Prospect, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£330,391 (UK) (1 December 2000)

Gross:

ESP 352,430,702 (Spain) (29 June 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was originally titled "Alone". During pre-production the title was changed to "Mars", changed again to avoid confusion with Mission to Mars, and finally changed to "Red Planet".

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Goofs

The two moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, are so small that they don't block enough light to cast shadows on the Martian surface.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Commander Kate Bowman: [narration] By the year 2000 we had begun to over populate, pollute, and poison our planet faster than we could clean it up. We ignored the problem for as long as we could. But we were kidding ourselves. By 2025, we knew we were in trouble. And began to desperately search for a new home - Mars.
Commander Kate Bowman: For the last 20 years we've been sending unmanned probes with algae, bio-engineered to grow there and produce oxygen. We're going to build ourselves an atmosphere we can breathe. And for 20 ...

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Crazy Credits

In the credits, Pettengill is spelled Pettengil (one "l").

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Connections

References 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

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Soundtracks

"A Thousand Years"
Written by Sting and Kipper
Published by Magnetic Publishing Ltd.
Administered by EMI Blackwood Music, Inc./Diverse Music Ltd.
Administered by BMG Songs, Inc.
Performed by Sting
Courtesy of A&M Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

A really great film!

Looking at the other comments i think people really have a hatred to sci-fi films at the mo. I know that Mission to Mars was bad, i'd be the 1st to admit that......but that doesn't mean that all other sci-fi films are going to be bad. Last year we had Pitch Black which i thought was okay.........and we had Red Planet.

Red Planet came with a reasonably large budget, a really superior cast to Mission to Mars and absolutely great special effects. The main story line in itself is not ground breaking, but the sub plots within the film give the film its real grip!

A crew of 4 astranauts and 2 science officers agree to board a mission into building a new home on mars through the aid of making it a breathable atmosphere through the aid of planting algae.

Then in comes your usual suprises, the spacecraft that their in hits critical conditions causing them to land on Mars earlier than they wanted to and therefore building a storyline of what they are going to do to get back to earth.

The sub plot involving the crews relationship between pentigill who was a last minute choice for the mission is excellent. Simon Baker plays the character excellently and you never know wether to trust him or hate him. The special effects on the robot AMEE were outstanding aswell, this created the suspence part of the film.

I gave this film 9/10 because i love sci-fi and i thought that it was well acted and had a really decent storyline.