Red Planet (2000)

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Two White House invasion pictures, two asteroid hitting the earth pictures, two dueling magician pictures, two volcano pictures, two Columbus discovers America pictures, and the twin film list goes on and on. Add to this list the two Mars pictures of 2000. Releasing thematically similar mega-expensive films within a few months of one another sometimes ends sadly: case in point: Mission to Mars (budget $100 million according to boxofficemojo.com), released in March 2000, barely broke even worldwide. Red Planet (budget $80 million) released in November 2000, flopped at $33 million worldwide—even though it is a far superior Mars movie to Mission to Mars.

Red Planet has a better script, better characters, better effects, better suspense, better science. It doesn’t insult the audience by pitching worn-out, cliché ideas. Neither does it pad the movie with pointless subplots and long scenes that go nowhere. This film is about the exploration of Mars; and does it quite well. The location shooting in Jordon and Australia works marvelously, being pleasantly subtly different from the Death Valley, Utah, and Arizona locations usually used to represent Mars. AMEE the robot character is exciting and skillfully rendered. I was constantly amazed at how its limbs and torso could contort while never looking remotely digital or artificial.

Of course I have quibbles, primarily that Mars’ atmosphere—regardless of the stated reasons—would be so high in oxygen that the landing team could remove their helmets. And I could have done without the trumped up drama between Santen and Pettengil. For me this degree of intensity was mainly a distraction and not at all interesting dramatically.

One can only wonder: how Red Planet would have fared if it had been released before Touchstone’s Mission to Mars?
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The location shooting in Jordon and Australia works marvelously.

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The beginning narration by Commander Bowman is grim and totally pessimistic. She tells us that by 2050, all the earth’s resources are depleted, and the governments have teamed up to determine if Mars could be a new home for humankind. For twenty years humankind seeds the planet with algae, with the intention of creating more oxygen. For a while it worked, but suddenly the algae started dying off, and nobody knows why. A Mars mission is engineered to find out why the algae had died. A crew of six joins the Mars ship that is already in orbit around the earth. They leave orbit and we see some vignettes of life aboard the Mars ship during its six-month voyage. The mission includes a robot called AMEE (Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion) that has two modes, military and exploration. The voyage is presented realistically in terms of duration, so that radio messages would be delayed about ten minutes due to the great distance between the craft and Earth.

Carrie-Anne Moss as Commander Bowman.

The six-month cruise is smooth as glass, but as soon as they attain orbit around Mars, a giant solar flare creates havoc, overloading and shorting out nearly all systems aboard the ship. Bowman orders the other five crew members to leave the ship and land on Mars while she tries to minimize the damage. During deployment, AMEE’s compartment is separated and falls to the ground. The crew’s landing craft is not the standalone craft we are used to, but instead is covered by large balloons to ease impact (which was the preferred landing method used by NASA’s small rovers). However, fate dictates that Santen, the pilot, overshoots the preferred landing spot by a great distance resulting in the balloon-covered craft

The landing craft is covered by large balloons to ease impact.

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rolling and rolling, and then plummeting over one mighty cliff after another so that their decent is horrific, far worse than was anticipated. Chantilas’ spleen is damaged as a result and there is nothing anybody can do except leave him behind. The other four’s goal is to find the supply craft that was supposed to be waiting for them some distance off. Their oxygen is limited, so it is imperative they find the ship. They locate a small disabled U.S. rover and cannibalize it for a small radio and tiny solar panel. Gallagher tries to communicate with Bowman, but knows it is unlikely since the frequency the radio uses hasn’t been used for fifty years.

Exiting the spacecraft.

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Classically pragmatic, the command center slowly but surely comes up with methods to get the Mars craft operational again. The landing team is able to navigate well enough, only to find the supply craft completely destroyed. Morose, they try to make themselves comfortable for the end that is only about an hour away. Santen wanders over to the edge of a cliff to check out the awesome view. Pettengil joins Santen, but Santen is obnoxious and provokes Pettengil to the point that he hits Santen—who falls off the cliff and we see him fall for a vast distance. It was clearly an accident, but for the rest of the movie, Pettengil is guilt-ridden and deeply troubled. He tells the other team members that Santen committed suicide, jumping off the cliff ’s edge.

They all have mere minutes of oxygen remaining; mere minutes before they all die. Gallagher’s is the first and he chokes and suffers so greatly that he opens his helmet—only to discover that the Martian air is breathable. They all doff their helmets, agreeing that their salvation is a mystery. Meanwhile, Bowman has lost the landing party and Control considers them as “end mission” since everything has gone wrong for them. Soon Control notifies Bowman that a radio telescope has picked up Gallagher’s message. Also meanwhile, Gallagher has lost patience with the radio and is about to throw it away when it squawks and he hears Bowman’s voice. Soon it is decided that an old Russian craft, which is a few hundred km away, could be jury-rigged to send them up to orbit for Bowman to scoop up. 

AMEE has found the crew but is working in military mode (rather than exploration mode) and tries to kill them one by one. She pounces on Burchenal, the biologist, breaking a rib, then dashes off. Now burdened with an injured man, they keep on toward the Rus- sian craft. A storm as large as Montana is headed their way. They dig a hole in the snow for shelter. Gallagher says that the Russian craft can only hold two people.

AMEE in military mode.

When Gallagher and Burchenal awaken, they discover that Pettengil has stolen the radio and is running for the Russian craft because he fears he will be left behind. Gallagher and Burchenal catch up with him and find that he has been mutilated and killed. Burchenal tears the radio out of Pettengil’s dead hand and they continue on. Shortly afterwards they encounter a large patch of algae—and also the reason it has been disappearing. The algae is being eaten by an insect like creature that emits oxygen as a waste product, more and faster than algae alone. Burchenal, the biologist is fascinated to find what is likely indigenous life on Mars and puts a few of the bugs into a sample tube, but his injury begins to bleed causing the insects to swarm all over him. Knowing he is about to be eaten alive, he throws the tube to Gallagher and uses a flare to blow himself up.

Gallagher, prodded by Bowman, eventually finds the Russian probe, and Bowman talks him through the steps to make it work. AMEE makes an appearance and threatens Gallagher, then leaves. Just as Gallagher has readied his bus for transport, its battery power fades. Gallagher remembers that AMEE is powered with an atomic battery. He tricks AMEE, grabs her battery, gets into the rock return drawer, ignites the engines with AMEE’s battery, and shoots into orbit a few kilometers from the Mars ship. Bowman launches herself from the launch bay, pulls Gallagher out of the Russian craft, gets him back into the ship, and we learn that a romance had been kindled in the two.

 

Red Planet (2000)

USA. Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment. C. 2.35:1. 107m

CREW: Director Antony Hoffman. Story Chuck Pfarrer. Script Chuck Pfarrer, Jonathan Lemkin. Story Chuck Pfarrer. Producers Bruce Berman, Mark Canton, Jorge Saralegui. Executive Producers Andrew Mason, Charles J.D. Schlissel. Score Graeme Revell. Director of Photography Peter Suschitzky. Production Designer Owen Paterson. Editors Robert K. Lambert, Dallas S. Puett. Casting Lora Kennedy. Special Visual Effects Cinesite, Digital Domain, Rhythm & Hues, Rising Sun Pictures, Flash Film Works, Digital Filmworks, Pixel Magic, Hammerhead Productions, Illusion Arts, Metro- light Studios, Grant McCune Design.
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CAST: Gallagher Val Kilmer. Bowman Carrie-Anne Moss. Burchenal Tom Sizemore. Santen Benjamin Bratt. Pettengil Simon Baker. Chantilas Terence Stamp.

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