Red Planet

Dir: Antony Hoffman

2000

***

1995’s Apollo 13 represented a re-entry of the space travel genre into the mainstream. Based on the factual happenings aboard the real space capsule, advances in special effects made a realistic adaption possible and many similar films followed. Three years later in 1998, Michael Bay released Armageddon, very much a fantasy space story that clung to the coat-tails of Apollo’s success. Apollo 13 was serious drama while Armageddon was entertaining nonsense, a middle ground was needed and indeed desired. The year 2000 saw two films attempt this, Brian De Palma’s very un-Brian De Palma style film Mission to Mars and Antony Hoffman’s Red Planet. Both films explored the idea of human kind making that first bold journey to the planet Mars, something that back in 2000 we thought we’d probably do relatively soon, or at least think about. Neither film did well, I actually liked both, even though I will admit they were full of faults. They’re a little too good to be considered guilty pleasures in all fairness and actually space films haven’t got that much better since. Red Planet has many different styles. It starts off like an early neon Luc Besson version of Alien, before becoming something entirely different. It’s got some pretty heavy hitters, including Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore and Terence Stamp, all who are on good form. The film is set in 2056 where earth is going through an ecological crisis, due to pollution and overpopulation. Automated missions have already sent algae to the planet, our crew are to be the first visitors with a mission to oversee the first stage of terraforming Mars for human benefit. Things go wrong. It actually ticks all the boxes it sets out to tick, it is successful as an action film, is a genuine contender when it comes to being a thriller and could be considered a fine horror film too. It has everything you could want from a sci-fi space film, other than believable science and scenarios (although how fire is depicted in space was applauded by the experts and the Mars Pathfinder did indeed use airbags to land), but compared to Armageddon it looks like a documentary. It’s very easy to watch and there are some nice little details that I think deserve respect. I loved how they incorporated the Mars Pathfinder Lander and Sojourner Rover and made them integral parts of the story, I love the cast, even though they didn’t like each other and I also love the little space titbits thrown into the script and plot, such as Simon Baker’s character being named Chip Pettengill, after astronomer Gordon Pettengill who was well known for his research observing Mercury from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rice, Carrie-Anne Moss’s character being named Kate Bowman after 2001: A Space Odyssey’s Dave Bowman and in the scene where she sends her report back to earth on the condition of the HAB, she states the situation is Tango Uniform, correct phonetic slang for ‘tits up’. The big star of the show though is AMEE (Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion), a robot panther/dog that was built to check out the planet at high speeds. During the crash landing, AMEE accidently goes wrong at switches to kill mode, which is utterly ridiculous but lots of fun to watch. However, the film is remembered for Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore’s behind the camera spat, whereby Kilmer complained about Sizemore’s peripheral treatment (the producers flew in an exercise machine for him on request) and Sizemore threw a weight at him. They refused to be on set together, so many of their scenes were shot using body doubles – which is far more ridiculous than anything featured in the film’s plot. Sizemore punches Kilmer in the chest hard on screen which made the final cut of the film (Sizemore defended this by stating that he was instructed by a producer not to punch him in the face) and people spoke more of this than the actual film itself. Most of the cast have disowned the film and Antony Hoffman didn’t direct again for another fourteen years, and even then it was only a short film. The film also received criticism for having the same soundtrack to 2000’s Pitch Black, as composer Graeme Revell, who scored both films, used the same music and hoped no one would notice. I personally think it’s an incredibly strong directional debut. I like silly space films and this had everything you could want from one. Better than Mission to Mars anyway.