Line #2 Film/TheLastDaysOnMars


1	[[quoteright:189:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lastdaysonmarsdvd.jpg]]
2	''The Last Days on Mars'' is a 2013 science fiction film directed by Creator/RuairiRobinson and starring Creaator/LievSchreiber
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4	The movie follows a group of astronauts who are about to return from a 6-month mission to UsefulNotes/{{Mars}} when they are afflicted by a biological agent that turns them into zombie-like creatures.
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7	!!Tropes:
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9	* ApocalypticLog: Campbell leaves this one for the rescue crew at the end of the film.
10	* AFatherToHisMen: Captain Charles Brunel.
11	* AssholeVictim: ZigZaggedTrope with Kim. While she is very much deserving of the "asshole" title (read the {{Jerkass}} entry below), she did try her best to help find a solution to the zombie problem, couragously fights off the infected to save her team and what gets her killed is not karma but Irwin being too much of a DirtyCoward to try to help her when she was attacked.
12	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: A side-effect from the zombification is that the zombies can act normally on the Martian atmosphere without space suits.
13	* BolivianArmyEnding: The film ends with Campbell stranded in Martian orbit, unable to reach the spaceship to Earth (but still having enough fuel to make the lander fall into re-entry, which he will do if he needs to commit suicide), with enough supplies within the lander to live on until a rescue ship arrives (if one is sent)... and he is possibly infected with the zombie virus. He reports all of these facts to Earth and the movie cuts while he's awaiting their decision.
14	* BrokenFaceplate: PatientZero staggers back to the expedition base, [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat somehow surviving a fall that should have killed him or punctured his spacesuit]]. As he's dragged out of the airlock, a crewman takes off his helmet and we're shown the hole in the faceplate just before the FacialHorror of his dessicated features is revealed, and he attacks the crewman as an enraged alien fungus-infected zombie. Later a ZombieInfectee pulls off her space helmet to stop a colleague rescuing her. He tries to put the helmet back on, but sees the faceplate has been smashed. Later he comes across a member of the relief team dead in his spacesuit, after hearing their SoundOnlyDeath. The final version is when the SoleSurvivor has to headbutt another infected victim, [[TheEndOrIsIt raising the possibility that he also might become infected]].
15	* CaptainObvious: Irwin acts as this as Kim is struggling to explain what has happened to [[spoiler: Marko and Dalby]].
16	--> '''Kim:''' "[[spoiler:Marko and Dalby]] are dead. They couldn't have survived it. But they're still moving."
17	--> '''Irwin:''' You're not making sense. If they're moving they have brain function. If they have brain function they're not dead, Kim."
18	--> '''Kim:''' "I'm not a ''fucking idiot'' Irwin, I know!"
19	* ColdEquation: Campbell, Irwin, and Rebecca escape the Mars expedition base in the solar-powered land Rover, but as it's night the Rover doesn't have enough power to reach the landing zone where the rescue mission's DropShip will pick them up. They could walk the rest of the way, but their infected colleagues are coming after them and Rebecca has been wounded in the leg. She's a suspected ZombieInfectee, so Irwin suggests they leave her behind. Campbell refuses, but then Irwin remembers there's another Rover nearby they can use instead. The TakeAThirdOption trope is defied however when Irwin steals the Rover after unsuccessfully trying once more to persuade Campbell to abandon Rebecca.
20	* CoolCar: The two Aurora Rovers.
21	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Not a smart trope to follow when dealing with zombies.
22	* DirtyCoward: Irwin. Leaves Kim to die when she is attacked by the zombies, wants to leave behind Lane at the moment she is suspected to be a ZombieInfectee (and will not allow someone to check him and see if he's not infected himself), steals the second Rover after trying unsuccessfully to convince Campbell to leave her behind, and charges head-on into the rescue crew's landing site with several zombies right behind him that kill the whole crew, with the intent of being rescued or taking the transport lander himself.
23	* DistressSignal: Campbell tries twice, once at the base he's sabotaged by the Richard zombie, and [[spoiler:succeeds on the second try once in orbit, potentially crossing over into ApocalypticLog.]]
24	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Everyone dies except Campbell, who is probably infected and is left contemplating his fate alone in the lander while waiting to hear back from mission control.]]
25	* FingerTwitchingRevival: Almost all of the zombies perform this.
26	* FictionalCounterpart: The ISC (International Space Commission) replaces NASA in the film.
27	* FightingFromTheInside: DiscussedTrope, but finally averted: the one person who seemingly tries this (Brunel) was probably long dead by the time the "fighting" reflex appeared (which makes it just that, a reflex), and the vaccine given to him to help with the fighting is completely useless against the infection (at best, the substance stuns the zombie for a moment). Lane expresses awareness when reanimated even after committing suicide but can't resist the hunter and rage, managing only to passively lay limp long enough to let Campbell repeatedly smash her head in with a rock.
28	* GlorySeeker: Needless to say that Kim is ''very'' pissed about discovering no life forms in her entire duration on Mars. Heavily implied with Marko's actions, as well--keeping the information of his discovery secret so he alone could get credit for it.
29	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Brunel]] distracts one of the zombies to buy Kim enough time to get into a suit and exit the habitat. It results in him getting stabbed and later succumbing to the virus.
30	* HeroicWillpower: Averted to hell and back with every single infected that tries-Brunel was DeadToBeginWith when his body seems to try to fight the infection (see above on "FightingFromTheInside"), Irwin spends his last moments before succumbing being a panicky, raging mess trying to recall his daughter's name (so he could record a goodbye message), Lane only keeps her sanity long enough to [[DrivenToSuicide try to check out on her own terms]]... to no avail.
31	* HorrorHunger: Those infected like Brunel initially suffer from incredible thirst, which only gets worse once they die and turn into zombies. The fungus zombies are motivated by an extreme thirst for water, attacking the crew for theirs as seen near the end when one is kneeling over one of the landing crew and "drinking" out their intestines.
32	* IceQueen: Kim Aldrich.
33	* ItCanThink: These zombies are able to use power tools and explosives. How to open doors elude them, of course.
34	* IOweYouMyLife: Campbell's reluctance to abandon Lane is explained when a flashback scene shows she stopped Campbell from killing himself during an attack of claustrophobia, when he tried to open the airlock door on the spaceship bringing them from Earth.
35	* {{Jerkass}}: Kim's teammates think she is one. [[DrJerk She certainly doesn't have a problem making them believe that]], at the beginning.
36	* JerkassHasAPoint: Jim makes a habit of it during the entire movie. Marko broke the base team's regulations. To clarify, they had to document every finding they had in the main database and Marko deliberately withheld his discovery (which due to being kept a secret led to his unfortunate death) to hog all the glory, which Kim pointed out. [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown Which was after Marko died]].
37	* [[LetMeAtHim Let Me At Her]]: Richard has to be held back by crew members after Kim nonchalantly blames him for [[spoiler: Marko's]] death and shows no remorse about it. Like many other examples, [[JerkassHasAPoint she has a point,]] given he let Marko boss him around and even listened to him when told to pretend he didnt hear the orders from base that the digsite was offlimits.
38	* LudicrousPrecision:
39	-->Aurora Mars Mission 2\
40	Mission duration: 6 months\
41	Mission Time Remaining: \
42	19 hours\
43	59 minutes\
44	16 seconds...\
45	15 seconds...\
46	14 seconds...
47	* MadeOfIron: Every. Single. Zombie. Of the various that are repeatedly and ''[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally]]'' beaten up on-screen, only ''one'' dies this way (and one other is ThrownOutTheAirlock before we can see if it's dead or just stunned). Interestingly, Vincent at one point discusses [[CarFu running them over repeatedly with the buggy]], but the people he's talking to are afraid that doing this will just make the buggy's batteries run out ''and still not kill the zombies''.
48	* MegaCorp: The Aurora Mission 2 is sponsored by several fictional conglomerates (Pangalactic, SAV, Kasamna, Total, Flutzair Schumach and Meurot), whose logos appear on the rovers and habitats.
49	* TheMedic: Dalby. She proves her dedication to her trade, becoming absolutely distraught when she is forbidden from [[spoiler: descending into the Martian crevice to check if Marko is alive]].
50	* MultinationalTeam: The Aurora Mission 2 is comprised of five Brits, an American, a Canadian and a Russian.
51	** The ISC itself is implied to have members from China, Japan and Bangladesh also, given the selection of flags displayed on the rovers.
52	* NotUsingTheZWord: The word "zombie" is not mentioned once in the film.
53	* NoodleIncident: The film starts when the crew is at the end of its mission and only 19 hours from leaving Mars. Details of the past 6 months are not focused on, however it is implied the mission has been fruitless in finding forms of life.
54	* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]]: Once the menace is even remotely identified, Kim treats it with much more pragmatism and level-headedness than her colleagues. She quickly acknowledges that the infected are dead and won't come back to their senses, when [[spoiler:Brunel]] dies she expects him to return as a zombie and premptively restrains him, and when a zombie comes close she quickly gathers bottles of antiseptic to stun it. [[spoiler: She still dies, but only because of Irwin's cowardice.]]
55	* ParasiteZombie: The zombies appear to be infected by some sort of Martian fungal organism. They're mindless and ultra-violent, which seems to be for the purpose of spreading the infection as much as possible before their bodies break down completely.
56	* PerpetualMotionMonster: Averted. By the end of the film it's shown that in less than a day the zombies have decayed to the point of being inert, motionless fungus-sprouting corpses. Only Kim, the most recently killed and turned, is still active when the rescue party arrives. Too bad one zombie is still enough to kill them all.
57	* ProductPlacement: Archos touchscreens are used to control the Aurora Rovers.
58	** InUniverse example. It is implied the Aurora Mission 2 was sponsored by several fictional companies, given the presence of their logos on the bases and rovers.
59	* RecycledInSpace: It's a zombie film takes place on Mars instead of Earth.
60	* SoundOnlyDeath: The DropShip crew.
61	* SoundtrackDissonance: The astronauts are playing "Blue Skies Are Around The Corner" by Jack Hylton (because they'll be heading back to Earth soon) as a menacing Martian dust storm bears down on them.
62	* SurvivalHorror: This movie follows some of the more basic tenets of the trope, especially in that the zombies are very hard to stop (and [[DeathWorld the environment of Mars]] doesn't helps in any way) and thus the best solution is to run away.
63	* ThisIsADrill: A zombie uses a drill to attack a fellow crew member.
64	* ThrownOutTheAirlock: Campbell does this to an infected Irwin after knocking him out. It is also implied that Campbell tried to kill himself in this same manner some time in the past, probably on the way from Earth.
65	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The movie takes place in the 2040's.
66	* ViralTransformation. Those infected with the Martian agent become incredibly violent and able to breathe the Mars atmosphere. Their skin turns dark grey and mottled, and communication is reduced to terrifying screeching.
67	* WeaksauceWeakness: Being a bacterium, antibiotics neutralize the infection. When thrown onto the face of a zombie, it dissolves their flesh and causes them to scream. [[spoiler:Ultimately averted when the bacteria develops a resistance in short order, neutralizing the zombie for maybe 20 minutes.]]
68	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Campbell has become afraid of dark enclosed spaces as a result from the extended periods of isolation (spaces like, say, the spaceship that will take him to Earth). Therefore it is only fitting that he is chosen to crawl through a tunnel to the abandoned habitat to reach communication equipment.

Context Film / TheLastDaysOnMars