Disneyland: The Movie - MISSION TO MARS

In recognition of Walt Disney Pictures' new film, TOMORROWLAND, more or less "based" on the futuristic themed land in Disney theme parks, I'm taking a look back at the films based on or inspired by Disneyland attractions.

MISSION TO MARS
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Thriller
Released 10 March 2000
Directed by Brian De Palma
Starring: Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielsen, Jerry O'Connell, Peter Outerbridge, Kavan Smith, Jill Teed, Elise Neal, Kim Delaney
Rated PG for sci-fi violence and mild language.
114 minutes

Officially, MISSION TO MARS is not specifically based on the now-closed Disneyland attraction, Mission to Mars.  However, it is a Disney production that shares a name with a Disneyland attraction, and it's an opportunity to talk about this weird film.
Mission to Mars, the attraction, was closed at Disneyland in 1992, but used to stand where Redd Rocket's Pizza Port replaced it in 1998 with the newly redesigned "New Tomorrowland", and a characteristically tail-finned rocket ship associated with the old attraction still stands in front of the Pizza Port.  Even before it was Mission to Mars, the attraction was among the very first to open with the Disneyland Park in 1955, when it was called Rocket to the Moon, a then scientifically-inspired simulation of how human astronauts would travel to the Moon, 14 years before the Apollo 11 mission would in fact land the first human on the Moon.  The attraction was refurbished as Flight to the Moon in 1967, but by 1975, the Moon was an outdated destination.  The attraction was redesigned in collaboration with NASA as Mission to Mars, a simulation of how human astronauts might travel to Mars, simulating G-forces and screens displaying the views "outside" the spacecraft.  When the attraction closed in 1992, it was initially planned to be redesigned as ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, an attraction geared toward older park guests in which a teleportation experiment accidentally materializes a monstrous alien.  The lights would go out and a "technician" would be heard being killed by the beasts, followed by liquid spraying into guests' faces (like blood), and the loose alien could be felt breathing behind them.  Finally, technicians would drive it back into the teleporter, where it explodes.  Perhaps it was for the best that ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter didn't open in Disneyland, because it did open in Walt Disney World, where it was controversial for being tonally inconsistent with the family-friendly Disney Parks.  In Walt Disney World, it was closed after 8 years of operation, and replaced by the similar but much more benign Stitch's Great Escape! in 2003.

Image via Yesterdayland.com

Although the Mission to Mars attraction is not a cited source of material for the 2000 film MISSION TO MARS, the film is basically what an actual adaptation of the ride would be- it's pretty much all there in the title.  Directed by Brian De Palma, it takes place in the year 2020, as the first manned mission to the planet Mars is about to launch, led by Luke Graham (Don Cheadle), who, with his Earthbound friends, Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise) and Woody Blake (Tim Robbins), has fantasized about this mission ever since childhood.  McConnell had been the frontrunner to lead the mission, but discontinued his training when his wife became terminally ill, so now he is left to watch his friend realize their lifelong dreams without him.  Once on Mars, however, Graham and his team are attacked by a mysterious force in the form of a swirling vortex, ending the mission with catastrophic results.  A rescue mission is launched with Blake in command, who insists they be joined by McConnell, and together they go to find their friend on Mars, and find him they do.  Graham has been left marooned on Mars, but during his time there, he's made significant discoveries with implications for mankind's understanding of their place in the universe.

There are some interesting ideas in MISSION TO MARS, but it fails in most respects.  There's a cliche in Hollywood that movies centered around the planet Mars are box office poison, a notion that Disney is largely responsible for thanks to big budget bombs like MISSION TO MARS, MARS NEEDS MOMS and JOHN CARTER, although the another standout Mars-based box office failure is Warner Bros.' RED PLANET, a thriller released the same year a MISSION TO MARS only eight months later.  Directed by Brian De Palma, the New Hollywood auteur noted for voyeuristic and lurid thrillers like CARRIE, SCARFACE and THE UNTOUCHABLES, MISSION TO MARS is his largest film to date, estimated to cost $100 million.  In turn, it only grossed $110 million worldwide (considering for approximately half the gross being taken for exhibitors, then accounting for production, marketing and distribution costs, a movie costing $100 million ought to bring in at least around $250 million).
It borrows from other space travel movies, most notably APOLLO 13 and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, but the plot itself is fairly thin, with much of the film made up of the perilous action involved with landing on Mars, and then the perilous action involved with being on Mars.  Don Cheadle, whose career was on the rise thanks to his work with directors like Steven Soderbergh and Paul Thomas Anderson, is Luke Graham, who it is noted has been reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island with his son before going into space, finds his experience marooned on Mars paralleled by Ben Gunn's marooning in the book, but despite planting the idea early in the film, the payoff is comically halfhearted.  When the rescue mission arrives on Mars, he's crazed at first and attacks his friends, but after a brief scuffle followed by a shave, Graham is back to his regular old self, explaining what he's learned from the Martians.  Wouldn't it have made more sense and been more fun to have a severely mentally frayed Don Cheadle talking about Martians and living on Mars without cheese for years?  Robert Louis Stevenson did it better.

Tim Robbins is doing his best Bill Paxton impression, which is waste of a good Tim Robbins, and Jerry O'Connell is basically a more annoying version of Kevin Bacon's character from APOLLO 13.  Gary Sinise is fine, although the script (shared between Jim Thomas, John Thomas and Graham Yost) doesn't do him many favors.  The whole thing comes to a great big WTF conclusion when a very dated special effect reveals the origins of life on Earth, and it's not as interesting as it is dumb.
Some of the action is good, mainly the big Mars sandstorm that attacks astronauts in the manner of THE MUMMY, but the emotional stakes aren't there when they ought to be, and the characters are often aggravating.

Image via Yesterdayland.com

Officially, MISSION TO MARS is not connected to Disneyland's Mission to Mars, but there is a brief moment with a necklace that closely resembles the spaceship design of the Disneyland attraction.  Also, they go to Mars, so there's that.
Top 3 of MISSION TO MARS 

1. Cyclone on Mars- The concept is stolen from THE MUMMY, but it's pretty cool anyway, plus an astronaut gets spun around so fast that his limbs rip off right onscreen before his body flies away in pieces.  I have absolutely no idea why this movie is rated PG with some of the gore it shows.
2. Floating Blood- More gore, when a pebble-sized meteorite goes through Jerry O'Connell's hand, out of which floats gobs of CGI blood in the zero-gravity environment.  It's kind of cool and gross.
3. Crazy Don Cheadle- It doesn't last nearly long enough, but a wild-eyed Don Cheadle with a scraggly beard and wielding a rock pick does a body good.

All images via The Walt Disney Company, unless otherwise noted.