Ghosts of Mars (2001) on Netflix
In 2176, Lieutenant Melanie Ballard and a squad of police officers travel to the mining outpost Shining Canyon on Mars to bring back the convict Desolation Williams. The town appears deserted.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb4.9/1062,489 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes22%
Trailer
Plot summary
By 2176 Mars has been terraformed into an Earth-like world whose matriarchal society centers on the city of Chryse, with outposts linked by trains. Lieutenant Melanie Ballard travels with a squad of police officers to the mining settlement Shining Canyon to retrieve the convicted felon James 'Desolation' Williams. The team includes Captain Helena Braddock, Sergeant Jericho Butler and the rookie officers Bashira Kincaid and Michael Descanso. The settlement seems deserted. In the jail Braddock finds three people who appear to have sealed themselves into a cell, among them the science officer Arlene Whitlock, and Ballard and Butler come across disoriented miners. When Ballard and Braddock patrol the town, Braddock disappears, and Butler offers to look for her.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ghosts of Mars (2001)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Michelle Yeoh, Franka Potente and Famke Janssen were the first choices for the role of Melanie Ballard, but they turned it down. Courtney Love was originally cast but left the project, and Natasha Henstridge replaced her at the suggestion of her boyfriend, Liam Waite.
- Much of the film was shot in a New Mexico gypsum mine, where the pure white gypsum had to be dyed with gallons of food coloring to recreate the red Martian landscape.
- Jason Statham was originally going to play Desolation Williams, but he was replaced by Ice Cube because the producers needed some star power for the part, and Statham instead played the character of Jericho Butler.
- Ghosts of Mars was the last film John Carpenter directed before he stopped making features for years: he did not return until The Ward in 2010.
