Red Planet - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Red Planet or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Red Planet

[kenzi]

Sound effects supervisor Dane Davis had earned a reputation for achieving the impossible, or at least the very difficult. After having created a totally immersive sound environment for 'The Matrix' (1999), for which he won both American and British Academy Awards and an MPSE Golden Reel, Davis was ready for a new challenge with 'Red Planet' (2000).

[darrell]

The most complex part of the spaceship was the flight deck where Navy Lieutenant Commander Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) spends most of her time and from which all the functions of the ship are controlled. "It was some flight deck," commented Moss. "I've never seen so many switches and dials. It all looked real to me! It makes it so much easier to play the character when your surroundings are so life-like. My character spends a lot of time alone on the ship while the others are down on Mars. After a while I felt quite claustrophobic confined in this small deck and it really made me think about the pure and simple danger of an astronaut's life."

[harry]

Director Antony Hoffman commented on the film saying: "I like the idea that this story is likely to happen at some point in tune. There are, in fact, projects in the works to determine whether Mars could one day become an inhabitable planet, should the Earth become so toxic that we can no longer live on it."

[elmer]

Throughout the film, sound effects supervisor Dane Davis grappled with the subtleties of atmosphere and relative levels of oxygen, as do the astronauts themselves. By creating a scrupulously realistic soundtrack, Davis placed the viewer into the helmets of the astronauts, breathing their air, and hearing what they would be hearing, a technique that evoked intimacy and heightened the drama. "The movie is about claustrophobia and suspense," he explained. "It's about being abandoned in a hostile environment."

[addison]

During the scene where AMEE skulks about, looking for the crew, the same music is played as in Pitch Black (2000) when Riddick leads the survivors of a ship crash across a barren planet. Both films were scored by Graeme Revell.

[alyssa]

Kate Bowman was named after Dave Bowman, one of the main characters from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

[kenzi]

Meg Ryan was offered the role of Kate Bowman.

[bryan]

Of the AMEE robot, special effects supervisor Thomas J. Smith said: "We have animators who move it around in the scenes, tracking actual camera movements, and a crew of compositors making sure that the variables like lighting are consistent," Smith explained. "Ultimately the actors seem to be moving naturally within the plates with AMEE. It can cross behind objects or people."

[addison]

One of visual effects supervisor Jeffrey A. Okun biggest challenges on this movie was bringing the highly sophisticated robot AMEE to life. "AMEE needed a personality and needed to interact with the human characters in a believable way," Okun explained. "It couldn't be a hunk of metal."

[jessie]

Like many others working on the movie, production designer Owen Paterson previous film had been the groundbreaking blockbuster, 'The Matrix' (1999), for which he also designed a spaceship. "That was a cross between a hovercraft and a spaceship," he said. "Although that too was set in the future, the design was entirely different. Our ship in 'Red Planet' is incredibly sleek. I like to think it's something NASA would be proud of!".

[alyssa]

Only Santen's first name is mentioned in the film. All the rest are to be found in the DVD extras.

[jamie]

The most complicated wardrobe design that costume designer Kym Barrett had to work on in the movie was the space helmets. She said: "They needed to contain active communication systems so the cast could hear the director. They also needed a cooling fan system to keep the visors from fogging and to help the cast feel that they weren't about to suffocate. We fine-tuned them by trial and error."

[addison]

Many of the Mars scenes were filmed in Wadi Rum, Jordan, a desert valley several miles long.

[wesley]

In her report back to Earth, Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) refers to the state of HAB as being "tango uniform". This is phonetic military slang for "tits up", meaning dead or destroyed.

[phyllis]

AMEE stands for Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion.

[gabriel]

Pettengill's (Simon Baker's) name was probably inspired by astronomer Gordon Pettengill, who did much research observing Mercury from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.

[stephanie]

The Mars Pathfinder Lander and Sojourner Rover not only appear, but are also critical to the plot. The Russian Mars probe may also be a subtle dig to Russia's less than stellar record with Mars missions.

[javier]

Director Antony Hoffman worked closely with production designer Owen Paterson to design the look of the film's spaceship and shuttle. "Antony always made it very clear that he wanted a spacecraft that was based on hard science but at the same time was something that had never been seen before, something entirely unique," noted Paterson. To achieve that, the production created some fairly complex shapes and spheres to give the ship a unique structure. "We did also talk to NASA in great detail about contemporary engineering and how different things like engine and fuel systems might affect the spacecraft. I was very pleased with what we were finally able to achieve. We built a very engineered, very contemporary space craft that was quite striking in its design."

[stephanie]

At any given time, as many as forty people were working together on the AMEE robot scenes, with visual effects supervisor Jeffrey A. Okun involved in all stages. Overall, he likened the process to composing music, another art form with which he's familiar. "In a film like 'Red Planet' you can feel a rhythm," he said. "There's a dynamic that is very similar to music."