Jason Statham's 2001 Sci-Fi Movie Is The Closest He's Come To A Western (And He Should Really Fix That)

Ghosts of Mars is still the closest Jason Statham has come to fronting a Western – which is something he needs to fix. Ghosts of Mars was Statham’s first action role, with the sci-fi chiller casting him as a Martian cop in the year 2176. Statham was actually in line for Ghosts of Mars lead role, but since he only had a handful of credits, Sony cast Ice Cube as they wanted a bigger name. Sadly, this John Carpenter movie quickly bombed on release in 2001, doing little for Statham’s career and sending its director into semi-retirement.

Jason Statham action movies have become such a staple in the last 20 years that it’s hard to recollect a time he wasn’t kicking bums on the big screen. Ghosts of Mars was an important step in Statham’s career trajectory and one of only a handful of horror-adjacent movies he’s appeared in. The movie is another instance of Carpenter sneaking a Western into a sci-fi/horror premise, just as he did with Escape from New York, They Live and Vampires.

Ghosts Of Mars Is The Closest Jason Statham Has Come To A Western

An alternate тιтle could be “Rio Bravo on Mars”

Carpenter frames the settling of Mars by mankind as analogous to the American frontier. It’s a harsh desert landscape that is inherently unfriendly to settlers, who have to travel from outpost to outpost via train. Despite Ghosts of Mars being set in the future, the tech is surprisingly lo-fi. There are no spaceships or laser guns, with Statham’s crew being armed with modern-day sH๏τguns and ᴀssault rifles. Ghosts of Mars might be missing horses and stetsons, but it’s a Western in just about every other way.

Just like ᴀssault on Precinct 13, the movie is a riff on Howard Hawks’ classic Rio Bravo, where a misfit crew has to defend a police station from attack. Carpenter trades out the attacking Native American tribes of old-timey Westerns with hordes of possessed miners, who eschew guns in favor of swords, axes and – most creatively – saw blades. Even Ghosts of Mars heroes speak in a highly stylized, Howard Hawksian manner. Carpenter could take the same basic setup and move it from Mars to the Old West without much effort.

… despite playing a key role, Jason Statham isn’t Ghosts of Mars’ leading man.

From its themes to its setting, Ghosts of Mars is the nearest both Carpenter and Statham have come to a traditional Western. Hell, it even ends with an old-school train attack sequemce. Of course, the sci-fi trappings and chintzy look of the film distract from its Western feel. There’s also the fact that, despite playing a key role, Statham isn’t Ghosts Mars’ leading man. He’s the right-hand man to Natasha Henstridge’s Ballard, and in keeping with his pre-stardom status, Statham’s character meets a grim end long before the credits roll.

Jason Statham Would Be A Natural Fit For A Proper Western Movie

Jason Stetson, anyone?

There are Statham movies like Homefront or Wild Card that have some Western-style themes, but he has yet to appear in an “Oater” of his own. In a 2011 Time interview, Statham confirmed he’s a fan of the genre “I love westerns. It’s guys being guys,” and named Butch Cᴀssidy and the Sundance Kid as one of his favorite movies to Rotten Tomatoes. Ghosts of Mars is cheesy fun and Statham is a natural scene stealer, but the movie was made before he came into his own as a star. His screen persona just hadn’t been refined yet.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Ghosts of Mars was never designed to be a third Snake Plissken movie, nor was it ever called Escape from Mars.

If he had another go at Ghosts of Mars, not only would Statham definitely play the lead, but he’d give a much more confident performance. On the same token, it really shouldn’t be his sole foray into Western terrority. It would be great to see Statham lead a new take on The Magnificent Seven, or bring his own style to an action Western like The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Sure, he’d have to drop the martial arts and soften the British accent, but it would be worth the price of a ticket to see him riding a horse and firing revolvers at the same time. Ghosts of Mars, for all its Western leanings, doesn’t scratch that itch in the same way, which is why he needs to saddle up and give the genre a proper try.

Source: Time, Rotten Tomatoes