The History of Mars Movies

A look at the history of Mars movies

Matt Damon may be The Martian, but he isn’t the first. At least not as far as cinema is concerned. That bright red dot in the sky has inspired sci-fi filmmakers to tell tales of human endurance and alien invasions for decades. Tales of terror, tales of whimsy, blockbusters and bombs alike have been set on, near or in the shadow of Mars, and as we look to the future – as The Martian would have us do – it obviously behooves us to consider the past as well.

Take a look back through the other end of the telescope, and zero in on the many motion pictures about Mars with this handy timeline of the Mars movies, past and present. Some are classics, some are nearly forgotten, and all of them would never exist without that bauble in the firmament.

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Invaders from Mars (1953)

The great William Cameron Menzies directed this eery horror story, about a young boy who witnesses a flying saucer land behind his house, and finds himself helpless as the martians take over the minds of everyone in town. Surreal production design and one of the most disturbing endings in movie history make Invaders from Mars a creepy classic.

The War of the Worlds (1953)

Byron Haskin's big budget blockbuster adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi novel pulls out all the stops, showing an entire world devastated by Martian weaponry on a large, studio system scale, decades before the disaster genre and alien invasion genres, as we know them, became popularized.

The Angry Red Planet (1959)

Shot in about nine days, but boasting ambitious visual effects anyway, Ib Melchior's The Angry Red Planet finds a crew of astronauts fending off carnivorous plants and giant monsters on Mars, before discovering that - to the Martians - they are the invaders. The movie was a success in 1959, but contemporary audiences are probably more familiar with the iconic poster than the actual film.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)

An astronaut, stranded on Mars, struggles to survive using leftover technology to cultivate air, water and food in a film that tries to be 100% scientifically accurate. It sounds like The Martian, but Byron Haskin's Robinson Crusoe on Mars predates Ridley Scott's film by about 50 years. Alas, the science itself is now dated, and the late-in-the-film inclusion of aliens is implausible (at best), but Robinson Crusoe is a sci-fi classic anyway. And it's got one of the best theme songs in movie history.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

Considered one of the worst movies ever made - and with good cause - Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is the mindbogglingly stupid story of the time Martians kidnapped Santa Claus to cheer up their kids, and accidentally snatched up a couple of human cherubs in the process. Embarrassing visual effects, terrible dialogue and the world's most annoying Christmas song may have ruined the film, but they did eventually make great fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Mars Needs Women (1967)

1960s teen heartthrob Tommy Kirk, playing a martian for the second time (after Pajama Party, of all things), travels to Earth to procure fertile women for his dying species in this cheap-o TV movie, which is barely watchable but still has one of the most memorably silly titles in sci-fi history. Kirk would later call it "undoubtably one of the stupidest motion pictures ever made" in an interview with Filmfax magazine.

Capricorn One (1977)

The crew of the Capricorn One never get to Mars in Peter Hyams' clever thriller, but instead get forced to fake the mission on a film set before realizing that it's better publicity for NASA if they don't make it home alive. The great cast includes Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Sam Waterston, Hal Holbrook, Telly Savalas, and yes, even O.J. Simpson.

Invaders from Mars (1986)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper remake Invaders from Mars, emphasizing gross-out makeup effects and otherwise simply getting out of the original story's way. Fortunately, Hooper knew when to leave well enough alone: the last scene is still as freaky as ever.

Spaced Invaders (1990)

A squad of martians mistake the classic War of the Worlds radio drama for an actual invasion, and rush to the Midwest to lay waste to mankind in Patrick Read Johnson's nutty comedy. Solid makeup and visual effects can't quite compensate for the dumb story, but Spaced Invaders has developed a small cult following over the years.

Total Recall (1990)

Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi classic, based on the Philip K. Dick story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, finds a working class Arnold Schwarzenegger unable to vacation on Mars, and buying memories of the vacation instead. What happens next is either a thrilling adventure about aliens, corruption and three-breasted space prostitutes, or a tragic psychotic break. Verhoeven lets the audience decide for themselves, but however you interpret Total Recall, it's a stunning accomplishment filled with unforgettable scenes and visual wonders.

Mars Attacks! (1996)

Released only five months after the blockbuster alien invasion epic Independence Day, which took the idea more or less seriously, Tim Burton's madcap and cynical big-budget comedy Mars Attacks had a hard time finding an audience. Eventually, some folks came around to this over-the-top mixed bag, in which a mostly terrible human race gets slaughtered en masse by bug-eyed mischief makers who skeletonize half the species and lay waste to our landmarks like impish vandals instead of frightening conquerors.

RocketMan (1997)

Made during the (incredibly brief) period when studios thought that Harland Williams would be the next big comedy sensation, a period that ended upon the release of RocketMan, this broad comedy from director Stuart Gillard (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III) stars Harland Williams as a lovable kook who farts in his spacesuit. Nearly 20 years later, that fart is all most people remember about the film.

My Favorite Martian (1999)

Made at the tail-end of the 1990s fad in which studios turned mid-20th century sitcoms into feature-length comedies, to mixed success (at best), My Favorite Martian starred Christopher Lloyd as an alien comes to live with Jeff Daniels and does silly things with visual effects. Compared to The Addams Family and The Brady Bunch Movie, this one probably deserves its place at the bottom of the barrel.

Mission to Mars (2000)

In 2000, one of the big stories in Hollywood was that there were two big budget Mars movies coming out in the same year: Mission to Mars and Red Planet. Both were disappointments, critically and financially, but Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars was a more ambitious attempt at serious science-fiction that arguably fell even flatter as a result. Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins and Don Cheadle headlined the cast, the great Ennio Morricone supplied the score, and the plot was a weird mishmash of disaster movie mechanics and surprise revelations about human DNA... or something like that. 

Red Planet (2000)

Compared to Mission to Mars, Anthony Hoffman's Red Planet was a more straightforward and, arguably, more effective thriller. Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt and Simon Baker play astronauts stranded on Mars with - get this - a homicidal high-tech robot, and they have to figure out a way to survive long enough for Carrie-Anne Moss to rescue them from space. One of the keys to their survival is a plot point that would eventually be recycled in Ridley Scott's The Martian, 15 years later.

Ghosts of Mars (2001)

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars is an ambitious and unwieldy outer space western about a matriarchal future society that colonizes Mars but then has to fend off the spirits of the original inhabitants, who possess mankind and go kill-crazy. A strange premise and an offbeat cast - including Ice Cube as the deadliest man in the universe, and Jason Statham as just some dude - make Ghosts of Mars watchable, but this disappointing film sent the acclaimed filmmaker into near-retirement. He's only directed one feature since: the underrated 2010 haunted insane asylum thriller The Ward.

Doom (2005)

The influential first-person shooter Doom made the transition to the big screen with Andrzej Bartkowiak's sci-fi thriller, which abandoned the whole "gateway to Hell" premise and replacing it with some nonsense about the human genome being unmapped in 2046 (even though it was completely mapped two years before Doom came out). Whatever. This dumb Aliens knockoff was swiftly forgotten despite a cast that included Dwayne Johnson and Karl Urban, and a nifty centerpiece action centerpiece sequence from the game's first-person perspective.

Mars Needs Moms (2011)

For some reason, Robert Zemeckis thought it would be a good idea to produce a $150 million sendup of Mars Needs Women, in which the Martians very specifically needed Moms. The ugly animation and disastrous box office for Mars Needs Moms - it's one of the biggest financial failures in movie history - dealt the deathblow to Zemeckis's plans for future motion-capture animated movies, included a remake of Yellow Submarine.

John Carter (2012)

Oscar-winning animated director Andrew Stanton (WALL-E) made his live-action debut with John Carter, an ambitious sci-fi spectacular based on the classic stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. An adaptation had been in the work for decades, during which time many aspects of John Carter of Mars had been mined by Star Wars and Flash Gordon. Concerns about the budget led many industry pundits to declare John Carter a bomb before it even came out, but although Stanton's film failed to make its money back, the reviews were mixed, and many critics praised the film's ambition, score, action sequences and heroic female lead, played by Lynn Collins. But after the box office failures of both Mars Needs Moms and John Carter, Hollywood developed a serious stigma against movies about Mars, which may or may not end after the release of...

The Martian (2015)

Based on the best-selling novel by Andy Weir, and directed by sci-fi luminary Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner), The Martian stars Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars, forced to use hard science to survive in the unforgiving terrain. Written by Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods) and co-starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Chastain and Jeff Daniels, the film received rave reviews after its premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and seems likely to break the losing streak of Mars movies at the box office, possibly even setting the stage for a revival. But only time will tell.

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