Red Planet story
Red Planet is a 2000 science fiction action film directed by Antony Hoffman, starring Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Tom Sizemore. Synopsis: A pioneering team of astronauts are sent to Mars as a prelude to colonization, as the Earth is dying from an ecological crisis.
20 total · 4 major · 16 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| colonization of Mars | major | The central premise of the story is that the Earth was dying and the founding of a colony of Mars was the only hope for humanity. |
| ecological destruction | major | The story is set a near future where Earth is in a state of ecological crisis and the only hope for humanity lies in the founding of a colony on Mars. |
| human vs. technology | major | The protagonists were stalked by the advanced, but non-sentient military robot AMEE as they trekked across the surface of Mars. |
| speculative terraforming | major | A key element of the plot is that humanity had seeded Mars with atmosphere-producing algae as the first stage of terraforming the planet. |
| autonomous weapons system | minor | The anthropomorphic, autonomous military robot AMEE went haywire and started stalking the protagonists. |
| choosing who dies and who lives | minor | The three marooned astronauts were faced with the prospect of deciding which two of them would blast off to safety - the third man would me left behind on the surface of Mars to die. |
| faith vs. science | minor | The aging surgeon Bud Chantilas was of the mind that science "couldn't answer any of the really interesting questions" and had begun "searching for God" in his old age. The geneticist Quinn Burchenal challenged him on this point. |
| fusion power | minor | A reference to the MARS-1 spaceship being powered by a "helium nuclear power cell" suggests it ran on fusion power. |
| human overpopulation | minor | It was stated in the opening narration that the Earth had become overpopulated by the year 2000. |
| human vs. speculative environment | minor | Much of the film concerned the provision-less protagonists as they walked across the surface of Mars to reach an old Russian probe's sample-return module which they would use to launch themselves into orbit and to safety. They overcame a violent ice storm among other things along the way. [planet with unbreathable atmosphere] |