After Mission: Impossible, Brian De Palma accepted a second mission that took the technological wizard beyond the realms of anything he'd ever done before ­ his first foray into sci-fi. "I'd never directed science fiction before," says De Palma, "so the problem of shooting outer space or a planet nobody's ever seen gave me a whole new canvas with which to work. I tried to avoid all the clichés of science fiction movies and to take a new approach to this fantastic story."

It starts with Commander Luke Graham (Don Cheadle) leading a crew of men on a voyage to the red planet, only to see them wiped out by a sentient, Dune-like sandstorm. A quartet of colleagues, including Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise), and husband-and-wife space-ace team Woody Blake and Terri Fisher (Tim Robbins and Connie Nielsen), set out to rescue him. On arrival they find Graham wigging out in his survival tent, attempting to solve a conundrum posed by a giant "object" ­ but his attempts to crack the code threaten to unearth more mysteries than they solve.

of Alfred Hitchcock, De Palma certainly isn't afraid to show his affection for classic science fiction movies. The story draws heavily on 2001: A Space Odyssey, while references to well-known sci-fi movies abound throughout. De Palma says he was particularly influenced by the 1950s movie Destination Moon, which
persuaded him to attempt a high level of scientific accuracy in his own space opera.

"I was struck by how authentic that film looked," he says. "What we've tried to do is to make Mission To Mars as authentic as possible. The film is all the more exciting because you feel like it's extremely real. The various things that happen to the Mars One and Two crews in this film all come out of the physics of what could happen in the situations presented in the story. So, it is realistic and extremely authentic."

As with all of De Palma's work, Mission To Mars is a highly cinematic film, using situations, rather than dialogue, to drive the story. Exploiting the opportunities weightlessness, De Palma has devised some ingenious scenarios to push the story forward. A stand-out sequence shows the crew trying to locate a hole by letting loose some liquid food and watching it make its way through the spacecraft. But the special effects are well integrated into the plot, and this is more than a CGI showcase.

"Our astronauts are great explorers, and get themselves into a lot of difficult situations," says De Palma. "Through their ingenuity, they manage to extricate themselves. It's a very heroic, positive movie, which I think is very much in line with the times."

Richard James Havis