For now though, let's talk about the man's 2000 science-fiction film Mission To Mars, a movie that (according to that aforementioned 2016 documentary) he was brought into at the last moment, to the point that the movie already had its cast and finished script set into place, leaving him without much to do. The plot of the movie itself concerns astronaut Luke Graham (Don Cheadle) being one of a few Earth humans that are living on Mars, with Luke's good buddy Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise) leading a crew of other Earth humans that keep tabs on Luke and his comrades in the sky in a satellite floating out in space.
Disaster befalls Luke and his crew when they try to investigate a possible water source on Mars, which awakens some kind of sand monster that kills all of the Mars astronauts save for Luke, who manages to get a transmission to Jim and the other people aboard the satellite informing them that he's in trouble. Now it's up to Jim, husband and wife duo Woody Blake (Tim Robbins channeling Bill Paxton in his performance here), Terri Fisher (Connie Nielsen) and Phil Ohlmyer (Jerry O'Connell) to go on a rescue mission to Mars to save Luke and find out what exactly killed the rest of his crew, which could lead them to a discovery that reshapes their entire view of human nature.
The best part of Mission To Mars comes in its first act as it establishes the characters and the individual dynamics they have. Surprisingly, the cast actually plays off each other well, the dialogue isn't awful and I appreciate that legitimate friendship instead of contrived conflicts underpin the group. There isn't an asshole in the bunch, no one that's surely and going out into space for glory, instead, they're all buddies here. Don Cheadle is particularly good at giving off a warm-hearted and fun presence that makes his character instantly likeable, and truth be told, I could have watched a whole movie of these guys and gals just bouncing off each other in space.
But more conflict enters the story eventually and that's when Mission To Mars stumbles, Once it's established that it's up to our four leading astronauts to go out on their own on a rescue mission to save Luke, reasonably entertaining character interactions get replaced by more trite plot points and unimaginative "suspenseful" set pieces, including one set just outside Mars atmosphere where one member of the crew gets stranded just out of the crews reach that goes on forever. Once they get on the planet, Luke's mentally deteriorated condition after being stranded on Mars all by his lonesome for a whole year enters and leaves the plot in quick fashion, another weird plot detail.
Speaking of weird plot details, the final twenty or so minutes that try to widen the scope of Mission To Mars by introducing aliens that can help explain the origins of organic life on Earth is a bold storytelling decision but it doesn't quite work, it just feels like it comes out of nowhere. It's a bizarre and gutsy enough plot detour for me to at least give the trio of screenwriters for Mission To Mars credit for trying something different, but it doesn't quite work in its execution. It's another element in the last two-thirds of Mission To Mars that just falls flat, which is disappointing considering how nice the first act was. Oh, one last thing; while Mission To Mars doesn't feel like much of a Brian De Palma movie, I did notice he got to slip in one of those split diopter shots he loves so much!
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