More Stories
	Red Planet Stars Get Spacey
	Cast, Crew Deny Reports of Bad Blood on 'Red Planet'
	Australia Provides Martian Stand-In
	Related Links
	Red Planet

Somebody has to find out what happened, so NASA sends a hastily assembled spaceship – with the rather disturbing name of "Medea" – to investigate. Six mismatched astronauts are along for the ride, including no-nonsense mission commander Kate Bowman (played by Carrie-Anne Moss in the movie) and "space janitor" Robert Gallagher (Val Kilmer).

Bad day at Red Rock

Everything goes wrong, of course. A massive solar flare mangles the Medea, forcing most of the crew to attempt an immediate landing on Mars. The landing also goes badly, killing one crewman and stranding everyone else with just enough air to get to the habitation module dropped in an earlier unmanned mission.

Once they arrive at the module, they discover that it too has somehow been destroyed. Fortunately, Gallagher defiantly opens his helmet just in time to discover that – surprise surprise! – the atmosphere of Mars is actually breathable. There is much wonderment.

Unfortunately, air is only one of the crew’s problems. They have no food, no water, no radio, no way home and the surface temperature of Mars drops to -160 degrees Fahrenheit at night. What they do have is Gallagher, who is resourceful as only a man played by Val Kilmer can be.

Gallagher solves the radio problem with a little help from a certain world-famous space probe, and NASA soon has a way home for the crew: a failed Russian sample rocket. If Gallagher and his fellow explorers can make the 100-kilometer hike and fix the rocket in the 23 hours before Bowman has to blast for home in the Medea, they’ll survive.

It’s a tough hike, made even tougher by the fact that the cute exploration robot in the lander has gone berserk, reverted to its original military programming and is now stalking and killing the crew. The usual adventure movie things happen: one character turns Coward, another makes the Ultimate Sacrifice, Manly Philosophy is Discussed and the inevitable Strange Alien Life Which Explains the Oxygen Level is discovered.

Why? Because the plot says so!

On an A to B to C level, the plot makes sense. Events follow logically after each other, and the characters take reasonable actions based on their knowledge of the situation. That in itself puts Red Planet a few light-years ahead of Mission to Mars or Battlefield Earth.

It also helps that Telep is a decent writer. The descriptions and dialogue hang together, and the screenplay he’s working from even has a touch of wit to it. Hopefully one character’s remark that Mars looks a lot like Coober Pedy -- where Red Planet was filmed -- will make it onto the screen.

Behind the basic plot, however, is a morass of questions and contradictions. Why does the robot still have military programming buried under its regular programming? Why would NASA launch 2,200 terraforming missions in 28 years without one manned mission?

Never mind getting there – what’s keeping Val Kilmer’s warm smile from freezing off when he walks around with his face exposed in –160 degree air? And isn’t it convenient that the story ignores the fact that Mars is well below freezing even during the daytime?

As for the Inevitable Alien Life, it’s fairly primitive -- a welcome touch of realism a few short months after Mission to Mars and the Great Face -- so how is it intelligent enough to stalk our heroes? Where is it getting the energy to pour oxygen into the atmosphere and move so fast?

The best you can say about this story’s science is that it’s slightly less ridiculous than most Mars movies. It may even pass muster with the typical American audience – but that says more about our country’s willful ignorance than the movie’s intelligence.