Ghosts of Mars
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| John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars | |
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| Directed by | John Carpenter |
| Produced by | Sandy King |
| Written by | John Carpenter Larry Sulkis |
| Starring | Ice Cube Natasha Henstridge Jason Statham Pam Grier Clea DuVall Joanna Cassidy |
| Music by | John Carpenter |
| Distributed by | Storm King Screen Gems |
| Release date(s) | 24 August 2001 (Theater) 4 December 2001 (DVD) |
| Running time | 98 min (1:38) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$28,000,000 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Ghosts of Mars (also known as John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars) is a 2001 movie directed by John Carpenter, which in its basic themes is similar to his earlier film, Assault on Precinct 13.
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[edit] Plot
Set in the second half of the 22nd century, in the year 2176, the film depicts Mars as a planet that has been 84% terraformed, allowing humans to walk on the surface without wearing pressure suits. The story concerns a police officer, Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge), second in command of a small team sent to pick up and transport a prisoner named Desolation Williams (Ice Cube). Arriving at the remote mining town where Williams is being held, Ballard finds virtually all of the people missing. She learns that the miners had discovered an underground doorway created by an ancient Martian civilization. When the door was opened it released "ghosts", disembodied spirits who possessed the miners.
Violence ensues, as the possessed miners commit acts of death and destruction, as well as self-mutilation. Ballard must fight off the attacking miners, escape the town, and destroy the ghosts, if possible. Unfortunately, her intentions are complicated by the fact that killing a possessed human merely releases the Martian spirit to possess another human. The team eventually decides to explode a nuclear reactor to kill the human hosts. Ballard's crew is eventually wiped out by the miners, leaving only her and Williams. Not wanting the authorities to blame the massacre on her, he handcuffs Ballard to her bed and escapes the train, leaving her to return home. While she recuperates at a hospital, the possessed miners attack the city. Williams returns and teams up with Ballard to fight the alien zombies.
[edit] Production
Although Mars has a day/night cycle almost identical in length to Earth's, most of the movie is set at night. Mars is shown only once in the daytime, in a flashback when a scientist describes how she found and opened a "Pandora's Box", unleashing the alien spirits.
Much of the movie was filmed in a New Mexican gypsum mine. The pure white gypsum had to be dyed with thousands of gallons of biodegradable red food dye to recreate the Martian landscape.
[edit] Details
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- Originally Courtney Love was cast to play Ballard, but after her foot was accidentally run over by her boyfriend's ex-wife, she had to be replaced by Natasha Henstridge.[citation needed]
- Jason Statham was originally cast to play Desolation Williams.[citation needed]
- Jason Statham was originally up for the role of Pvt. Cooper in the British horror movie Dog Soldiers, but instead he opted to do Ghosts of Mars. The role of Cooper was taken by Scottish Actor Kevin McKidd.[citation needed]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Ghosts of Mars at the Internet Movie Database
- Ghosts of Mars at Metacritic
- Ghosts of Mars at theofficialjohncarpenter.com
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