This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite
Plot Overview
Mankind's exodus from a
dying earth is delayed when the remotely terrafarmed O2 levels on Mars take a dive. A
rushed troubleshooting mission is cobbled together from the
world's second best scientists & their subs, flying an untested
spaceship during solar maximum. Captain of the Mars–1 is
Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) ex-Navy. When the men have trouble
following her orders, she pulls rank. When that doesn't work, she
pulls gender (“Ladies first.”) Robby Gallagher (Val
Kilmer) is a mechanical systems engineer who flirts with her but
demurs to kiss the plain Jane space jockey. Dr. Quinn Burchenal (Tom Sizemore) is
one of the world's leading bio-engineers somewhere down the
list. The crazy co-pilot is Lieutenant Ted Santen (Benjamin Bratt.)
Chip Pettengill (Simon Baker) is a terrafarm expert
without a clue what devastated the crop. Dr. Bud Chantilas (Terence Stamp) is the
chief science officer who has given up on science as, “I
realized science couldn't answer any of the really interesting
questions. So, I turned to philosophy.” He's like a bush
Marine in a Webb war novel:
He was an accomplished musician, capable of playing several instruments well. He had seen the Marine Band when it was on tour during his prep-school days, and had remembered the quality of its performance. He decided to enlist in the Marine Band, as a compromise to all competing emotions.Dr. Chantilas has as much chance as anybody answering the big questions.The recruiter could not guarantee the Marine-Band on a two-year enlistment, which was the maximum Goodrich would sign for. “It all depends,” smiled the recruiter, “on the needs of the Corps. But if you're good—”
“Oh, yes,” Goodrich assured the Sergeant. “I'm very good.”
“Then you've got just as much chance as anybody else!”
Which, of course, was zero, equally shared. (91)
The six month journey to Mars orbit
is boringly routine. Guys flirt in passing with the captain in the
shower room. They brew homemade hooch in the lab. They spar in
a storage bay with a defanged military robot.
Gallagher's father had warned him
going to Mars would be “heading for trouble.” Their
troubles were: cosmic, terrain, personal, TU HAB-1, dead
battery, lack of supplies, equipment failure, guerilla robot, War
of the Worlds bugs, depleted oxygen, and uncoordinated radios.
Ideology
The relentless action lends itself to comparison with
one of Kenny Rogers's songs concerning a chance encounter with
“The Gambler” on a train bound for nowhere. He offered
his fellow passenger the advice that “the secret to surviving
is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep.” The
refrain of the song goes:
You've got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, Know when to run. You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
This wisdom of the gambling man's repertoire is old as the hills and was passed on by a raconteur, Agur in Proverbs 30:1, whose four metaphors offered the same life advice as did Rogers's Gambler. That we find in, (Proverbs 30:29-31) “There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.”
We have Agur's “lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any,” and we have Rogers's “know[ing] when to hold 'em.” In our movie when an astronaut needs a high voltage source to jump start engine ignition to lift off from Mars, he lures the belligerent robot (“They took away her knife, but inside she's all Green Beret”) to relieve it of its power source in mano a mano combat.
We have Agur's “king, against whom there is no rising up,” and we have Rogers's “Know[ing] when to fold 'em.” A king who knows when to give in to his subjects doesn't experience any uprising. The captain stays behind in the crippled ship to manually launch the escape pod containing her crew when auto-launch is kaput.
We have Agur's
“he goat also” and we have Rogers's “Know[ing]
when to walk away.” The remaining crew (reluctantly) walks
away from any corpse or mortally wounded member who'd slow them down.
We have Agur's “greyhound” and Rogers's “Know[ing] when to run.” It's a mad dash for the escape pod when the call goes out to abandon ship.
The gambler gave the advice:
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
Their very survival is often in doubt, but they still give some care to completing the mission.
Production Values
“” (2000) was directed by Antony Hoffman. The script was written by Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin. It stars Val Kilmer, Carrie Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore and Frank Langella. The acting all holds up pretty well. Carrie-Anne Moss makes a very good ship commander. Terence Stamp holds his own as a philosophizing scientist.
MPA rated it PG–13 for sci-fi violence, brief nudity and language. The technology involved both voice recognition and hands-on controls. It had a good feel. The computer special effects are sweet. It boasts a mysterious & suspenseful musical score by Graeme Revell. And it has a colorful—though dark at times—cinematography by cameraman Peter Suschitzky. Filming location for the surface of planet Mars was Coober Pedy, South Australia, Australia. Could have fooled me. Runtime is 1¾ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
The characters grope after God and find, “God works in mysterious ways.” This one has a very tense plot—after it gets going—and for frights I've always been partial to lurking, out-of-control robots. This is good sci-fi drama, not too weighted down with cabin fever romance. For sci-fi buffs and action aficionados.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action flick. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Rogers, Kenny. Songwriter Don Schlitz. “The Gambler.” Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Pub. LLC. Web.
Webb, James. Fields of Fire. Copyright © 1978 by James Webb. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1978. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org