Mars

Mars is an actual planet and is located in the Milky Way Galaxy in the Sol system. It is the fourth planet from the sun and is often referred to as the "Red Planet". It is the closest planetary mass near to the planet Earth. Mars takes its name from Mars, the God of War from Greek and Roman mythology, who is also known by his Hellenistic name, Ares. Aside from Earth, Mars has been featured in more science fiction multimedia projects than any other actual planet.

In fiction

 * Escape from Mars: In the 1999 television movie, Escape from Mars, a NASA research team from the mid 2010s attempts the first manned space flight to Mars. The trip is wrought with peril and complications stemming from everything between computer malfunctions to personality clashes.


 * Santa Claus Conquers the Martians: In the 1964 B-movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, the people of Mars have established a rigid social-economic atmosphere where their children are raised in strict observances of education and tradition, bereft of any sense of carefree fun. Observing Earth’s mythological figure Santa Claus, a Martian family decides that this is just the sort of individual required to break their children free from a generations-long paradigm. To this end, they decide to abduct Kris Kringle and ferry him back to Mars where he will be forced to administer gifts and kindness to Martian children.


 * Red Planet: In the 2000 film Red Planet, excessive pollution and overpopulation threatens to make Earth of the year 2056 unlivable, so a mission is set underway to terraform the planet Mars. During the journey, the team of scientists discovers evidence of a Martian form of insect. After great hardship and several deaths, they theorize that research on the insects may hold the key towards repairing the ecological damage done to the planet Earth. The mission


 * Species: In the 1998 movie Species II, a manned space mission to Mars, in which an astronaut named Patrick Ross is infected with alien DNA and brings it back to Earth, where it eventually takes host in a woman's body, giving birth to an alien creature of the same race as Sil.


 * Total Recall: Mars is the primary setting for the 1990 sci-fi/action movie Total Recall. In the film, an unscrupulous industrialist named Vilos Cohaagen maintains a monopoly on Mars and searches for a mythological alien artifact that will create a breathable atmosphere on the planet. Cohaagen wants to destroy the device as it will threaten his control over the human and mutant colonists living on the planet. A construction worker from Earth named Douglas Quaid finds himself siding with the Martian resistance against Cohaagen, even though there is evidence suggesting that Quaid is actually Cohaagen's number one enforcer. In the end, Quaid maintains his loyalty to the rebels and finds the device, creating a breathable atmosphere on Mars.


 * War of the Worlds: War of the Worlds is an 1898 novel written by H.G. Wells, which chronicles a Martian invasion of the planet Earth. The book has been adapted several times in film and television, most notably the 1953 sci-fi film War of the Worlds by Byron Haskin and the 2005 film version of War of the Worlds by Steven Spielberg. There has also been a low-budget version of War of the Worlds, also released in 2005 as well as its sequel, War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave, released in 2008. Although the original story has very little to do with the planet itself, it does present the Martian race and the technology available to them. War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave actually takes place on Mars.

Films that feature

 * Species II (1998)