Yawn to Mars

I recently watched both Red Planet and Mission to Mars, two movies that came out in the same year, about the same topic and are both REALLY bad for totally different reasons.

Why did I bother? I couldn’t tell you. I find myself watching a lot of movies in HD that I would normally skip.

Red Planet completely failed to create an interesting plot and Mission to Mars came off like, in classic Brian DePalma fashion as a rip-off of another film, in this case Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I know there has been a lot of interest in Mars over the last ten years or so and both of these movies had a fantastic opportunity to capitalize on the momentum Mars has gained (which is probably why they were made in the first place). And frankly I think it could be made into an interesting story.

Lets face it, from a location standpoint, Mars is a pretty boring place, once you get there isn’t like there is a whole lot to do. If your story is going to take place on the red planet then you pretty much have to invent some sort of alien to create conflict.

My advice to anyone thinking about making another Mars film? Its not the destination, its the journey. Take Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, a perfect thriller that just happens to place in space, one of my favorite movies of 2007. Or take Apollo 13 and the drama surrounding a failed attempt to reach the moon.

If I were to write a screenplay about Mars and would focus on the attempt to get there, not set 50 years in the future, but say next year. We know what space exploration was like 40 years ago during the space race, it is well documented in based-on-real-events movies, but what about today? I know relatively little about modern day space exploration.

And frankly I’m curious. If they could send a bunch of guys to the moon before we had computers, I wonder what would be possible today.

What would a modern day trip to Mars look like? What are the risks with traveling so far away from home? What purpose would it serve humanity? What are the political and technological ramifications or another space race? What character conflicts would arise from the crew during the nine months getting there? or the nine months getting back?

It wouldn’t be easy to offer answers to each of these questions in an interesting way, but I believe it could be done. I would have the story span multiple timelines, told from each of the characters perspectives, providing a fact-based account of the backstory. Focusing less on the flight itself, but perhaps about the challenges leading up to the journey.

As far as creating conflict, that should be pretty easy, as I’m sure there are a hundred reasons why not to go to Mars. You pick one and go with it.