Red Planet (film)
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| Red Planet | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical Poster |
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| Directed by | Antony Hoffman |
| Produced by | Bruce Berman Mark Canton |
| Written by | Chuck Pfarrer Jonathan Lemkin |
| Starring | Val Kilmer Carrie-Anne Moss Benjamin Bratt Tom Sizemore |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Cinematography | Peter Suschitzky |
| Editing by | Robert K. Lambert Dallas Puett |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | 6 November 2000 |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $75,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Red Planet is a 2000 science fiction film directed by Antony Hoffman.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Earth is in a state of crisis due to severe pollution and overpopulation. Automated missions have seeded Mars with atmosphere producing algae as the first stage in terraforming the planet.
When the oxygen quantity produced by the algae inexplicably lowers, the crew of Mars-1 must find out why, and continue their mission of making the red planet suitable for human colonization.
On the way to Mars, the crew plays cards and drinks lab-made alcohol while getting to know one another. A few notable discussions about science and spirituality occur: Burchenal, the genetics expert (Tom Sizemore), is a staunch atheist. Aging scientist and surgeon Chantillas (Terence Stamp) is more philosophical, having realized long ago that "science could not answer any of the really interesting questions." Maintenance technician and "space janitor" Gallagher (Val Kilmer) acts as Chantillas' protege, meanwhile flirting with the beautiful but no-nonsense ship's commander, Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss).
Soon the ship arrives, but a solar flare disrupts several key systems. This complicates their orbit and forces Bowman (Moss) to stay behind and make repairs while the others disembark for the planet's surface. Their first goal is to locate an automated habitat sent years earlier to manufacture food and oxygen in preparation for the crew's arrival.
The landing craft is damaged on entry into the Martian atmosphere, veering off course and making a rough landing quite far from their intended landing zone near the habitat. In the process, they lose track of "AMEE," (Autonomous Mapping Evaluation and Evasion) a scout robot on loan from the military, and Chantillas is mortally injured. With limited oxygen supplies, Chantillas asks the crew to leave him behind and complete the mission--a noble death befitting any good stoic.
Bowman, in the meantime, must deal with various disasters on the ship, including a zero-gravity fire and numerous computer and systems failures.
The disheartened men make the long walk to the automated habitat, only to find it inexplicably destroyed. With only minutes of air left, each man contemplates his impending demise.
Burchenal (Sizemore) and Gallagher (Kilmer) rest, to conserve as much air as possible. Pettengill (Simon Baker) and Santen (Benjamin Bratt) wander off to see as much of Mars as they can before they die. They come to a vast canyon. Admiring the view, they each discuss their impressions of their situation.
Pettengill despairs his fate and laments the failure of the crew. Santen, a military man, regards the mission as a technical success, since everything that went wrong was beyond human control. With death looming, the argument turns into a scuffle, and Pettengill accidentally pushes Santen into the canyon. Even more distraught, Pettengill returns to Burchenal and Gallagher to await death. He tells them that Santen jumped off a cliff.
With nothing to lose, Gallagher opens his face-plate and takes a breath--discovering to his great surprise that Mars has a breathable atmosphere containing oxygen. The three survivors of the landing crew are safe for the moment, although the guilt-ridden Pettengill is almost dismayed, now realizing that Santen would have survived if he had not pushed him into the ravine.
But even with limitless air, the crew is still stranded on the surface and unable to communicate with the mothership in orbit. At this point, AMEE returns to the crew, and the three men realize that the robot is damaged and tries to remove its positioning system before it breaks down. Of course, this threatens the robot's survival, causing her to activate her dormant military programming. From this point forward, the killer robot stalks the landing party as they make their way across the Martian surface.
Eventually Gallagher is able to construct a makeshift radio using parts gathered from the Mars Rover brought by the 1997 Pathfinder mission, and uses it to contact Bowman on Mars-1. She instructs the men to make their way to an old Russian probe and use its sample-return system to launch themselves into orbit. The only problem is that the men must make a long trek across the harsh Martian surface to get to it.
The three men begin walking, occasionally talking to Bowman, and reporting some strange findings on the surface. There are patches of algae left over, but little explanation of why it had entirely disappeared in some regions.
Pettengill's behaviour is increasingly erratic, but this does not stop Gallagher and Burchenal from getting into some philosophical discussions. During one, Burchenal (Sizemore) remarks that as a genetic designer, he is a realist. "I write code," he says. He does not have time to take "the easy way out" by falling back on religious or spiritual explanations of natural events. Gallagher (Kilmer) counters, noting that spirituality is not a cop-out or a rejection of science, but a recognition of its limitations with regard to human problems: "it takes more than just intelligence to live a spiritual life." Val Kilmer's character is carrying on the thread of the film started earlier by Chantillas back on the ship.
Things get complicated when Bowman warns of an approaching storm-front, and the three travellers take shelter in a small cave. Here Gallagher passes on his message from Bowman that the Russian probe they hoped to escape on can only fit two people. Pettengill, guilt-ridden and worried that the others will leave him behind, cracks and runs away with the radio in the middle of the blizzard, only to be cut down by the rogue AMEE.
When the storm is over, the two remaining crewmen recover the radio and continue on their way, but they make a startling discovery. Pettengill's corpse is infested with insect-like creatures, feeding on his dead flesh. The men capture one, and carry it with them on their journey. They also use a flare, and discover that the little insects seem to "pop" when exposed to heat.
Burchenal and Gallagher resume their journey. Along the way, they come to a large field covered in algae, and that's when Burchenal realizes what's been happening. It seems that the insect-creatures are some form of native Martian life that lay dormant until a food source, such as the algae, arrived and took root. The insects eat the algae, producing oxygen as a byproduct, accounting both for the breathable atmosphere, and for the tendency of the bugs to explode when exposed to flame.
Unfortunately, Burchenal makes this realization just as he's being swarmed by the bugs, which will eat anything. He passes his suit (with its collected data, oxygen stores, and sampled bug) to Gallagher, and lights a flare. Rather than be eaten, he ignites the bugs, causing a chain reaction that burns off the remaining algae and much of the atmosphere in a region large enough to be seen from orbit.
Gallagher now treks on his own to the Russian lander, where he must make his preparations and await a final confrontation with AMEE, before launching himself into space. Once again low on air, Gallagher's only chance is to get close enough to Mars-1 to be rescued by Bowman.
They return the sample to Earth, and although the mission is a disaster, it provides crucial information about Mars that will no doubt greatly enhance further colonization efforts. The sample insect itself may hold the solution to the dire situation on Earth, due to its nature of eating anything and producing oxygen as a byproduct.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Val Kilmer | Gallagher |
| Carrie-Anne Moss | Bowman |
| Tom Sizemore | Burchenal |
| Benjamin Bratt | Santen |
| Simon Baker | Pettengill |
| Terence Stamp | Chantilas |
[edit] Notable aspects of the film
Red Planet was a box office bomb, grossing $18 million against an estimated budget of $75 million. Fans praise the science of the film, a solid extrapolation of present-day knowledge regarding Mars and the technology required to get there. Red Planet also features one of the more realistic portrayals of a zero-gravity fire in a Hollywood film.
Some fans can forgive the cheesier aspects of Red Planet because of the obvious ecological and philosophical message of the film--i.e. technology cannot solve all of our problems. This comes through clearly in the initial premise (overpopulated and polluted Earth), the dependence of the crew on their equipment, the killer robot (technology gone awry), and of course in the philosophical dialogues of the characters (science is not the only source of knowledge and truth).
