There is a body of films that are set on the planet Mars. In the late 19th century, people erroneously believed that there were canals on Mars. Into the early 20th century, additional observations of Mars fed people's interest in what was called "Mars fever".[1][2] One of the earliest films to be set on Mars was the short film A Trip to Mars (1910), which was produced by one of Thomas Edison's film companies.[3] In the 1920s through the 1960s, more films featured Mars or extraterrestrial Martians. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Mariner program and the Viking program revealed new scientific details about Mars that showed little prospect for life. The Guardian said, "These disappointing discoveries changed the place of Mars on humanity's mental map. Films began to reflect this." Films such as Total Recall (1990) and Red Planet (2000) focused more on the colonization of Mars by humans.[1]
The Guardian, reporting on the release of John Carter (2012), said, since 1995, six films featuring Mars performed poorly at the box office.[1]Wired, reporting on the release of The Martian (2015), said prior films set on Mars—Red Planet, Mission to Mars (2000), and The Last Days on Mars (2013)—were "notable flops" that were the most recent in a "dismal track record of Mars movies".[4]
The Atlantic called The Martian "the subgenre's newest and best entry", citing the positive reviews and strong box office returns on opening weekend. It said, "Many films seek to dramatize the Red Planet’s harsh landscape as a romantic frontier, but The Martian is one that actually succeeds."[5]
List of films
The following films are listed alphabetically. The list can be sorted chronologically by clicking the diamond shape which follows the word "Year":
After a mission to Mars results in a mysterious shuttle disappearance, mission controller Mackenzie “Mack” Wilson and an AI named ARTI discover a potentially alien cube on Mars that teleports to Earth, leading to revelations about the shuttle disaster, humanity's fate, and Mack's own identity within a cosmic intrigue.[6]
A team of astronauts on a space station leave on the first mission to Mars.[10] The commanding officer gradually suffers a mental breakdown as the mission proceeds, prompting divided loyalties within the crew.
On a mostly terraformed Mars, a team of police officers search for missing miners and discover that they have been possessed by spirits from an ancient Martian civilization.[8]
At the beginning of the film, the sole survivor of a human mission to Mars is recovered by a second rocket ship, but a monster stows away on board for the trip back to Earth.[14]
A young man is in love with a woman and must impress government officials to marry her. To do this, he travels to Mars with this best friend, and they are accompanied by a stowaway.[3]
On the first human mission to Mars, a crew member discovers fossil evidence of bacterial life. When contact is lost with him, the rest of the crew investigates and learns that there is still life on the planet.[9]
The animated sci-fi noir thriller is set on a colonized Mars in the 23rd century, where private investigators Aline Ruby and Carlos Rivera are tasked with solving interconnected cases involving missing persons and rogue androids.[16]
A human mission to Mars goes awry, and an astronaut is presumed dead and left behind on the planet by his crew. He fights to survive in the harsh environment and to signal to others that he is still alive. Upon discovering his signal, NASA, scientists all around Earth, and his crew members collaborate to find a way to rescue him.[9]
In the science-fiction romantic comedy, two college students sneak onto a space shuttle to a terraformed Mars to be with their significant others, with the film's third act taking place on Mars.[18]
In a modern-day update of the 1912 novel A Princess of Mars, the direct-to-DVD film features former U.S. ArmysniperJohn Carter being transported to Mars and becoming involved in a conflict among its inhabitants.[19]
Rocketship Expedition-Moon is accidentally hurtled beyond Luna on a trajectory towards Mars. Ship and crew touch down briefly on the Red Planet, where they encounter the survivors of a nuclear war.[9]
The first mission to Mars is accompanied by a reporter that does regular television reports. The commander of the mission is discovered to have been infected by a group against the mission. He survives and in the last scene he sees something on the surface of Mars that is not shown to the audience.[21]
In the science fiction horror film, the beginning shows a human mission to Mars in which alien ooze infects the first American man to walk on Mars. The astronaut unknowingly brings the infection back to Earth, where it spreads to others.[22]
The animated science fiction film, one of several in the Starship Troopers franchise, features a demoted general stationed on Mars who has to train poorly-performing troopers. The military has to confront alien bugs that decide to target Mars.[24]
Loosely based on the Philip K. Dick story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", a man recovers the memory of being a secret agent and travels to Mars to figure out his true identity.[8]
The short film, 4 minutes in length, stars a professor who uses an antigravity powder to float to Mars, where he encounters aggressive trees and a giant creature. The creature then sends him back to Earth, but the powder spills and the whole laboratory flies in the sky.[3]
In the superhero film mainly set on Earth, the superpowered being Dr. Manhattan exiles himself to Mars after being accused of causing cancer in those in his company.[25]
A rocketship crew is stranded on Mars, and they travel through a ruined civilization before they find a yellow road that leads to a Martian city and a wizard who can help them.[3]
The Expanse, a 2016 television series featuring a colonized solar system in which Earth and an independent Mars compete for the resources of the asteroid belt
Mars, a 2016 six-part docudrama television miniseries by National Geographic
^M. Keith Booker, Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Cinema (2020), p. 275, stating that a "monster-on-Mars theme (clearly moving into the territory of the horror film), is something of a throwback to the Martian exploration films of the 1950s, as is the ultraviolent Doom (2005), a video-game adaptation".
