The Last Days on Mars (2013)

A group of astronaut explorers succumb one by one to a mysterious and terrifying force while collecting specimens on Mars.

Director:

Ruairi Robinson

Writers:

Sydney J. Bounds (short story), Clive Dawson (screenplay)

Stars:

Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai

4 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Liev Schreiber	...	Vincent Campbell
Elias Koteas	...	Charles Brunel
Romola Garai	...	Rebecca Lane
Olivia Williams	...	Kim Aldrich
Johnny Harris	...	Robert Irwin
Goran Kostic	...	Marko Petrovic
Tom Cullen	...	Richard Harrington
Yusra Warsama	...	Lauren Dalby
Patrick Joseph Byrnes	...	Flight Commander Ellis
Lewis Macleod	...	Infected Voices (voice)

Storyline

On the last day of the first manned mission to Mars, a crew member of Tantalus Base believes he has made an astounding discovery - fossilized evidence of bacterial life. Unwilling to let the relief crew claims all the glory, he disobeys orders to pack up and goes out on an unauthorized expedition to collect further samples. But a routine excavation turns to disaster when the porous ground collapses and he falls into a deep crevice and near certain death. His devastated colleagues attempt to recover his body. However, when another vanishes, they start to suspect that the life-form they have discovered is not without danger.

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Plot Keywords:

mars | astronaut | zombie | alien infection | mission | 

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Taglines:

The search for life is about to end.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

UK Ireland

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 2013 (UK)

Also Known As:

Last Days on Mars

Filming Locations:

Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£7,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$4,608 (USA) (6 December 2013)

Gross:

$23,838 (USA) (10 January 2014)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Film Institute (BFI), Irish Film Board, Qwerty Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

May 2012: Olivia Williams replaces Sally Hawkins, who has to drop out due to personal commitments.

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Goofs

When the crew are out on the surface of Mars you can clearly see blue sky and clouds reflected in their helmet visors.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rebecca Lane: First big one of the season.
Vincent Campbell: Yep. It's heading right for base.
Rebecca Lane: It's gonna mess up Kim's dig. She's not gonna like that.
Vincent Campbell: Yeah, well, I don't like it much either.
Rebecca Lane: There's a surprise. Lighten up, Vince, a bit of dust never hurt anyone.
Vincent Campbell: It's not the dust I'm worried about.

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Soundtracks

Blue Skies Are Around The Corner
Written by Ross Parker & Hugh Charles
Performed by Jack Hylton

User Reviews

Unfairly underrated SF movie.

I would usually score this an 8, but at the time of my posting it scored a 5.5 which makes no sense to me.

You would never know by watching it, but this is a low budget movie (about 10% of what Oblivion cost to make). I stumble by accident on this movie and given the quality of most SF stories today I was not expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised.

The special effects are impressive for low budget movie, although they are not essential to the story line. It is a dark SF story (like Alien), but does not follow your typical Hollywood ending (which I always like), but is my guess why it gets panned in the reviews.

I story line is strong, I didn't find myself say "come on!" during this movie once (which is rare for me in SF pictures), that is not to say there are no moments, that are a little bit of a stretch, but all in all a good ride.

Just so you know, I also Ejoyed Moon, Sunshine and Prometheus (I would only give Oblivion a 7, it was okay but very predictable, and about 8 "come on!" moments)

As for this, if you haven't enjoyed a SF horror in a while, I think you will be entertained by this...