Robinson Crusoe On Mars

Robinson Crusoe On Mars (1964)

11 corrected entries

(3 votes)

Correction: In fact a 'Meteroid' (sic) is nothing like the thing we see - a 'meteoroid' is a piece of space debris that impacts on the Earth's surface. Whatever it was, it was superhot, perhaps from entering the Martian atmosphere, so it was glowing. As for the whooshing sound, there is sound in space in the sci-fi universe - it is artistic license.

Corrected entry: The aliens have interstellar travel capacity, use remote controlled mining equipment, and are in general very technically advanced. Why do they use inefficient (if expendable) humanoid slaves for mining?

Correction: Because humans aren't as inefficient as you make us out to be. There are some tasks that can't be finessed by a machine, and are in fact better done by hand. Besides which they are aliens, and don't necessarily have the same ideas and processes of thought that we do.

Corrected entry: When Mars' two moons are shown in the scene after he eats the cooked sausages, they are both shown as spheres like our own moon, a "best guess" by the background painter. We now know from NASA photos that they are actually both jagged and irregular shaped moons.

Correction: Mariner 9 took the first close up shots of Mars' moons in 1971. The movie was made in 1964 using the best available data at the time; as such, this cannot be considered a mistake, unless you're seriously suggesting that they should have gone back, years later, and reshot the relevant scenes to take the new data into account.

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: There are a lot of scenes with fire burning on Mars. Even back in 1964, scientist knew that the martian atmosphere was mostly carbon dioxide and fire doesn't burn in CO2.

Larry Koehn

Correction: This is science fiction, not reality. If the Martian atmosphere was represented accurately, Crusoe would be dead within seconds of landing.

Corrected entry: Paul Mantee mentions that the orbiting spaceship has all that he needs to stay alive. If so, why did he and Adam West eject to land on Mars? They were worried about the craft's orbit decaying, but it stayed up all the time until Mantee exploded it. Someone's suggested it would decay faster if they stayed on, but orbital decay is due to atmospheric drag and not due to adding mass to the ship. Their mass is insignificant in relationship to the velocity of the ship.

Larry Koehn

Correction: They used up their remaining fuel to avoid a meteor, so the main concern is fear of another collision course without fuel to move out of the way.

Bishop73

Corrected entry: The trailer for this movie states that a trip to Mars is at a distance of 70 million "astro" miles. I have heard of nautical and statute miles but astro?

Larry Koehn

Correction: The trailer states it, the film doesn't. Not a movie mistake.

Corrected entry: Mantee takes great strides in covering his tracks on Mars when he realizes he may not be alone because he find a buried human with shackles on the arms of the skeleton. He later sees a spaceship near the horizon landing, and he thinks it is from Earth to save him. The crafts lands in a zig-zag pattern; yet, he landed his craft straight down. The human skeleton near his cave plus the strange landing of the craft should have brought his guard up, but instead, he gets excited and heads over to the landed craft the next day.

Larry Koehn

Correction: He is alone on Mars, millions of kilometers from home. Realistically, he has no hope of rescue, and cannot survive for long in this hostile environment. He sees another space ship landing, and he goes a bit nuts. I would too. Character mistake.

Corrected entry: Breathing the air on Mars was a big problem throughout the film because there was so little of it. With that in mind, why was Mona the Monkey never seen suffering like Paul Mantee?

Larry Koehn

Correction: Because Mona is a capuchin monkey and she needs about a twentieth of the oxygen a human needs. If a human can breathe the atmosphere with slight difficulty, as our hero can, a capuchin monkey would have no problems at all.

Corrected entry: Because the escape slave "Friday" has shackles on his arms, the aliens can home in on him and create great pain through the bracelets. The second half of the film, the aliens are constantly after him. Why are the aliens worried about an escaped slave on a hostile planet who won't live very long after they leave?

Larry Koehn

Correction: You are trying to second guess the motivations of a non-existent race of aliens from outer space. Perhaps losing a slave was a huge social disgrace? Maybe slaves were enormously valuable? Maybe this particular slave was wanted for committing some terrible crime (on their standards)? Maybe Princess Threena was secretly in love with him and wanted him back? Maybe he's a perfect organ donor match for King Throg's ailing son and heir?

Corrected entry: Mantee plants an American flag outside the cave he stays in. For a thin martian atmosphere, that flag was mighty robust.

Larry Koehn

Correction: This is science fiction, not reality. If the Martian atmosphere was represented accurately, Crusoe would be dead within seconds of landing.

Corrected entry: Paul Mantee had to blow up the orbiting Earth spacecraft as he watched it from the surface. Why could we hear it explode when it is outside the martian atmosphere and within a second after pressing the detonation button?

Larry Koehn

Correction: Because in the science fiction universe sound not only travels in a vacuum, it travels at the speed of light. If you doubt that, watch the Death Star explode - we see it from millions of kilometers away but we still hear the sound at the same time as we see the explosion, and all this in the vacuum of outer space. There are too many other examples to list here.

Continuity mistake: Mantee finds a pool of water after falling through a hole. He gets in nude, but you can see him wearing tan-colored trunks during the close-ups. However, the far away shots do show him naked.

Larry Koehn

More mistakes in Robinson Crusoe On Mars

Draper: Friday, you're gonna learn English if I have to sit on your chest for two months.

More quotes from Robinson Crusoe On Mars
More trivia for Robinson Crusoe On Mars

Question: For someone stranded on Mars for several months, Mantee's hair and sideburns seem remarkably well-groomed, even, and trimmed! (He could have cut his hair with his knife, but wouldn't it have looked more shaggy and uneven than it does)?

Answer: In the movie before he discovers his water supply and watches the survival video, he is shown grooming himself and shaving.

More questions & answers from Robinson Crusoe On Mars

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