Due to the 21-century ecological crisis on Earth, for twenty years humankind has been terraforming Mars as its new home by sending atmosphere-producing algae to its surface.

When oxygen levels mysteriously begin decreasing before the sensors died, Mars-1 is sent to investigate, under Mission Commander Kate Bowman with a crew consisting of egotistical co-pilot Ted Santen, science officer Bud Chantilas, mechanical systems engineer Robby Gallagher, and two civilians: bioengineer Quinn Burchenal, and terraforming expert Chip Pettengill.

Bowman remains on board in order to manually launch the crew to the planet's surface and the automated habitat (HAB 1), and manages to eject the flames of a ship-wide fire into the vacuum of space and power up the ship before communicating with Houston.

As he slowly begins to asphyxiate, Gallagher decides to die quickly and opens his helmet, only to discover that Mars's atmosphere contains oxygen, more than the failed terraforming would have produced.

Bowman tells them to hike to Kosmos, a failed Russian probe 100 km away, and launch themselves by fitting into the rock sample container, but later gives Gallagher the bad news: the space will barely hold two passengers.

Burchenal deduces that the nematodes have been eating the terraforming algae and excreting oxygen, and he captures a few in a sample vial as they could possibly be Earth's salvation.

Gallagher discovers the Russian probe's battery is dead, and right before the Mars-1 enters communication blackout he tells Bowman to leave, and that he should have kissed her when he had the chance.

5 at the North American box office behind Charlie's Angels, Little Nicky, Men of Honor and Meet the Parents, making $8.7 million USD in its opening weekend.

"[12] However, in his positive three thumbs up (of four) review, Roger Ebert said that he "like[s] its emphasis on situation and character" and that he's "always been fascinated by zero-sum plots in which a task has to be finished within the available supplies of time, fuel and oxygen".

He notes that "like in 1950s sci-fi, the story's strong point isn't psychological depth or complex relationships, but brainy scientists trying to think their way out of a box that grows smaller every minute.

"[13] The music for Red Planet was composed by Graeme Revell, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Kipper, Joe Frank, William Orbit, Rico Conning and Melissa Kaplan with performances from Graeme Revell, Peter Gabriel, Emma Shapplin, Sting, William Orbit, Melissa Kaplan and Different Gear vs.