Mars Terraforming Movie

[ChocolateChipCharlie]

Hello Gang-

The other day I was thinking of a movie I saw when I was very young, probably as a Sunday afternoon movie that my dad was watching or something.  It was about a scientist who wants to terraform Mars and make the atmosphere livable for humans (I think it was Mars, anyway...).  Now my brain is going to be unhappy until I find out what it was.

My memory on this is very hazy, but I remember at the end (SPOILER ALERT!!!) when the terraforming happens and everyone at NASA or wherever is celebrating.  Then they see video taken from a probe that shows a bunch of creatures that look like dinosaurs lying dead on the Mars surface.  Their atmosphere is now deadly to them, and they die instantly.  All the scientists are devastated that they have done this.

That's all I've got.  I think this movie was from the 70s or maybe early 80s.  Could have been a made-for-TV movie, or even an episode of a show like Outer Limits.  I think it was a movie though.

I tried IMDB with no luck and even ran down a Wikipedia list of "Terraforming in Popular Culture", with no luck.

And no, it's not The Wrath of Khan, or any other Star Trek movie.  And not Total Recall either.   

Any help would be greatly appreciated.   

[JaseSF]

I suspect a TV anthology series (there's lots of em) or it could even be a Sci-Fi TV series of yesteryear. The ending does sound like a Rod Serling Twilight Zone style twist ending...but I don't recall any T Zones like that off the top of my head.

I did find the following "Mars in Fiction" in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_in_fiction

Not sure but maybe that'll help you out.

[Dave M]

This sounds a little like something I saw on PBS, except it was Venus, and the dead things just looked like plastic tubing that they spray painted. It was just kind of a brief dramatization in the middle of something more documentary-like.

[ChocolateChipCharlie]

I suspect a TV anthology series (there's lots of em) or it could even be a Sci-Fi TV series of yesteryear. The ending does sound like a Rod Serling Twilight Zone style twist ending...but I don't recall any T Zones like that off the top of my head.

I did find the following "Mars in Fiction" in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_in_fiction

Not sure but maybe that'll help you out.

I thought about Twilight Zone but I remember it being in color, so I doubt it's a Rod Serling TZ anyway.  My dad was always the remote hog and he has always had a thing for TZ/Night Gallery.  If we were watching something, he was probably the one who put it on.  I wish I could remember more about it.  It seems like the lead scientist character was somebody famous but I can't get a fix on him in my head.  I keep picturing Richard Dreyfus in Close Encounters, and that's not it.  It definitely has a 70s/early-80s look to it when I picture it in my head.

Dave- I do remember the dead things looking somewhat like plastic tubing, but I'm pretty sure it was Mars because I remember it being red.  It's an old memory though, so I could be misremembering.  Or maybe I dreamed it up completely.  It was before we had cable so PBS would have been one of maybe 4 or 5 viewing options at the time.

I think it's got to be one of those movies that will just click with someone who's seen it, because I can't find a whole lot of promising leads online.

[ChocolateChipCharlie]

I asked my brother about this and he said he was trying to think of this movie just the other day - weird!

He had some more details that I had forgotten/wrong.

His memory says that it was in fact Venus and not Mars - I'm willing to stipulate that since I can't find any candidate movies about Mars terraforming.

He also remembers there being a scene after what I remember being the end - he remembers the end involving an Earth scientist in a space suit on Venus exploring after they terraform it, splashing Venus "water" on his face, then turning over a rock to find strange writing on it and saying something like "we never imagined they were intelligent".

Does this help jog anyone's memory?

[sideorderofninjas]

If Venus, it sounds like Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women or Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet.  However, neither of those movies aren't connected with have any terraforming plans.  Both of them end with raining and finding some evidence of an intelligent civilizations...

[ChocolateChipCharlie]

If Venus, it sounds like Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women or Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet.  However, neither of those movies aren't connected with have any terraforming plans.  Both of them end with raining and finding some evidence of an intelligent civilizations...

Both of those movies look like futuristic sci-fi type movies.  I'm not sure if I made this clear in my original posts, but the movie I am thinking of takes place in either the present or the near future - or at least, the present or near future as perceived in the 70s or early 80s.  I don't remember there being a lot of really advanced, futuristic technology or anything.

Terraforming was a central piece of the plot of the one I am thinking of - thanks for the suggestions though!

[Glypodont]

I have no idea what you're looking for, but I CAN prove that you weren't making it up.
Here's two replies to a Boing Boing article (boingboing.net/2008/07/24/postapocalyptic-book.html) that reference the film you're looking for:

Closer to the content of this show, however, I also remember a miniseries or one-off we saw in class, where we (fictionally) sent a probe to terraform Venus. I'm sure it was to teach us how conditions were different on other planets. At the end of the show, it had an Outer Limits-like twist, where it was discovered there had been an intelligent civilization living on it, which the terraforming had destroyed. I think the beings had been silicon-based. Anyway, would like to find that, too.

I too have been searching for that PBS movie about terraforming Venus and accidently killing the native inhabitants. I do remember that the name for the mission was called "Project Sabre." I also remember the hero scientist arguing with his fellow eggheads about wrapping the space probe in "acid resistant plastic!" Maybe that can help in your search. I still havn't found anything...yet!

[Swamp Possum]

Did anyone ever figure out what the movie was?  I have the same partial memory of the scene where the rock was turned over with the writing on the back. 

[316zombie]

it's called mindslaughter, released under the series name "the universe and i" that was produced by the kentucky education board(? i think i have the producer wrong?).
  i have it on a collection of educational shorts and saw it in school!
SOLVED!

[ChocolateChipCharlie]

it's called mindslaughter, released under the series name "the universe and i" that was produced by the kentucky education board(? i think i have the producer wrong?).
  i have it on a collection of educational shorts and saw it in school!
SOLVED!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! That's it! Thank you!!! I had given up on ever finding it when it seemed like the folks here were stumped.

And it's on YT! Definitely remember the scene at the end with all the dead worms made from plastic drain piping!

https://youtu.be/ZVj2mgrTtU8

[RCMerchant]

it's called mindslaughter, released under the series name "the universe and i" that was produced by the kentucky education board(? i think i have the producer wrong?).
  i have it on a collection of educational shorts and saw it in school!
SOLVED!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! That's it! Thank you!!! I had given up on ever finding it when it seemed like the folks here were stumped.

And it's on YT! Definitely remember the scene at the end with all the dead worms made from plastic drain piping!

https://youtu.be/ZVj2mgrTtU8

That amazing.