"Red Planet"Soundtrack Lyrics

"Red Planet — Music From the Original Motion Picture" – Album Guide to Tracks and Key Scenes

Overview

What does a Mars survival story sound like when the mission splits between science and panic? Arrival — adaptation — rebellion — collapse: Red Planet stages that arc with a hybrid album that fuses Graeme Revell’s brooding electronics and choral embers with marquee needle-drops (Peter Gabriel, Sting, Different Gear vs The Police). It’s a 2000 time capsule where electronica meets operatic drama, then slams into crunchy “remix culture” swagger.

On record, the set plays like a pressure curve. Revell’s cues (“Mars Red Planet,” “Crash Landing”) sketch oxygen-thin dread and machine pulse; soprano Emma Shapplin’s features (“The Inferno,” “Canto XXX,” “The Fifth Heaven”) cut in like sirens over red dust; Peter Gabriel’s “The Tower That Ate People (Red Planet Remix)” drops industrial sinew; Sting’s “A Thousand Years” brings a slow, haunted heartbeat. The sequencing puts pop and aria side by side with underscore — a late-’90s/early-’00s soundtrack move that doubles the film’s contrast between sterile ship and hostile landscape.

Distinctive? The album is a proper compilation — score cues and songs — issued by Pangaea/Ark 21. The result feels less like wallpaper and more like a stitched-together survival diary where each style signals a different layer of the mission: human breath, machine logic, and mythic warning.

Genres & themes in phases. Phase 1 (arrival): industrial/IDM + baroque-opera — awe and omen. Phase 2 (adaptation): ambient electronica — procedure, problem-solving. Phase 3 (rebellion): percussive hybrids — panic, fracture, predator vs. crew. Phase 4 (collapse/acceptance): elegiac pop — the long exhale after loss.

How It Was Made

Composer Graeme Revell steered the score, producing an album that integrates vocal spotlights (Emma Shapplin; Melissa Kaplan) with instrumental cues. The commercial release arrived via Pangaea/Ark 21 Records, collecting ten main tracks and two bonuses: a Steve Osbourne–remixed “Tower That Ate People” and the club-leaning Different Gear vs The Police take on “When the World Is Running Down (You Can’t Go Wrong).” Several editions appeared internationally with consistent core sequencing.

The film credits list Revell as composer, with additional contributions/performances from Peter Gabriel, Sting (with Kipper), William Orbit/Strange Cargo (Joe Frank, Rico Conning), and vocalist Melissa Kaplan. Contemporary reviews noted how the album cross-cuts genres rather than issuing a separate “songs” disc — a choice that mirrors the movie’s split personality (quiet systems checks → sudden chaos).

Tracks & Scenes

“The Tower That Ate People (Red Planet Remix)” — Peter Gabriel
Where it plays: Tied to the film’s Mars arrival/awe beat and used prominently in marketing; the remix’s grinding synths and siren-like sweeps punch through establishing visuals and early descent energy (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Announces menace with a dance-industrial edge — technology as threat and thrill.

“The Inferno” — Emma Shapplin (music by Graeme Revell)
Where it plays: A ritual-feeling prelude over mission imagery and system checks; the operatic vocal threads a liturgical tension into the sterile ship soundscape (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Human voice vs. machine hum — the cue frames survival as spiritual trial.

“A Thousand Years” — Sting
Where it plays: Used as a reflective montage/transition piece: stargazing math, log entries, the weight of distance (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: A slow, meditative pulse that gives the film its lone stretch of romantic melancholy — the cost of the mission.

“When the World Is Running Down (You Can’t Go Wrong)” — Different Gear vs The Police
Where it plays: A brief needle-drop that surfaces as the mission’s optimism frays; a club-slick chant riding over screens and status chatter (non-diegetic/source-adjacent).
Why it matters: The lyric — end-times pragmatism — is on-the-nose for a dying Earth story.

“MontokPoint” — Strange Cargo (William Orbit / Rico Conning / Joe Frank)
Where it plays: Planetfall glide and terrain surveying; glassy textures over red-horizon panoramas (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Ambient clarity that sells the “alien beautiful” before things break.

“Canto XXX” — Emma Shapplin (music by Graeme Revell)
Where it plays: Mid-film ordeal passages and aftermath lulls; aria lines hang like frost in thin air (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Dante’s echo — moral weight inside survival calculus.

“Crash Landing” — Graeme Revell
Where it plays: The title tells it — impact, scramble, triage (score; non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Revell’s percussion and low synth bind the movie’s best action geography.

“Dante’s Eternal Flame” — Melissa Kaplan & Graeme Revell
Where it plays: A later, eerier breath — wind-chill voice over dwindling options and red-black horizons (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Gives the film a haunted, mythic aftertaste.

Also credited in-film: The Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown” (briefly), plus Sting’s “When the World Is Running Down…” in the Different Gear vs The Police remix — short, scene-specific uses aligned with shipboard/tech ambience.

Notes & Trivia

• Peter Gabriel’s “The Tower That Ate People” appears here in a dedicated Red Planet Remix by Steve Osbourne.
• Emma Shapplin’s Latin/Italian-text arias were composed/produced in collaboration with Revell specifically for the film’s soundworld.
• Different Gear vs The Police’s 2000 club single is folded in — a rare case of a then-current remix living on a major studio sci-fi OST.
• The album was issued on Pangaea/Ark 21 with international variants; critics called it an “eclectic” fusion of house/rock/opera/underscore.
• The film’s music credit lists contributions/performances from Sting, Peter Gabriel, William Orbit/Strange Cargo, and Melissa Kaplan alongside Revell.

Music–Story Links

Industrial groove → arrival awe. Gabriel’s remix casts the first Mars visuals as a machine ritual — wonder with teeth.

Aria → moral weight. Shapplin’s “Inferno”/“Canto XXX” recast survival beats as pilgrimage; when plans fail, the music grieves first.

Ambient glass → the thin-air high. “MontokPoint” stretches the horizon and buys the movie a breath before the next crisis.

Pop elegy → human scale. Sting’s “A Thousand Years” reframes the plot from mission to memory — people, not hardware.

Reception & Quotes

The film landed with mixed-to-negative reviews, but the album drew curiosity for its genre splicing. Reviews at the time highlighted the unlikely stack — Gabriel industrial, Orbit ambient, Shapplin operatic, Revell’s cold-steel pulse — and how it plays better as a listen than the movie’s box-office suggests. As Filmtracks notes, the compilation’s sequence shows Revell using vocal colors as thematic signposts.

“Eclectic… house music, souped-up classic rock, Italian opera and modern underscore — often combining within the same cue.” Movie Music UK

“A hybrid album whose contrasts are its point.” Contemporary soundtrack reviews

Interesting Facts

• The album’s core ten tracks run ~46 minutes; common editions add Gabriel’s remix and the Different Gear vs The Police single.
• Gabriel later anthologized the Red Planet Remix on his digital compilation Flotsam and Jetsam.
• Sting’s “A Thousand Years” originates from his 1999 album Brand New Day and was licensed into the film/OST.
• William Orbit’s Strange Cargo cut (“MontokPoint”) brings sleek UK electronica into the Martian mix.
• Regional CD pressings list Pangaea/Ark 21 catalogue numbers; some territories note Colosseum/Varese distribution links for Revell collectors.

Technical Info

• Title: Red Planet — Music From the Original Motion Picture
• Year: 2000
• Type: Various-artists compilation with original score by Graeme Revell
• Primary composer/producer: Graeme Revell (album produced with Paul Haslinger; orchestrations by Tim Simonec)
• Featured artists: Peter Gabriel; Sting (with Kipper); Emma Shapplin; Melissa Kaplan; Strange Cargo (William Orbit, Joe Frank, Rico Conning)
• Label/Release: Pangaea / Ark 21 Records — commercial CD and digital, November 2000 (regional variants exist)
• Notable inclusions: “The Tower That Ate People (Red Planet Remix)”; “A Thousand Years”; “When the World Is Running Down (You Can’t Go Wrong)” (Different Gear vs The Police)
• Film credits: Music by Graeme Revell; film stars Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore; director Antony Hoffman
• Availability: Catalogued on Discogs; full album track list mirrored by multiple soundtrack databases and label listings

Questions & Answers

Who composed the original score for Red Planet?

Graeme Revell. The commercial album mixes his cues with songs by Peter Gabriel, Sting, and others.

What’s the industrial track everyone remembers?

Peter Gabriel’s “The Tower That Ate People (Red Planet Remix),” created for the film’s campaign/album.

Is Sting on the album and in the film?

Yes — “A Thousand Years” appears on the OST and is used in the film as a reflective needle-drop.

Why does the soundtrack feel so varied?

It’s intentionally hybrid: opera-tinged vocals, ambient electronica, industrial pop, and Revell’s suspense writing.

Where can I see the trailer frame references?

The official trailer (used in the figures here) is hosted on YouTube and shows the descent/planetfall beats the album underscores.

Canonical Entities & Relations

Sources: Discogs (master & releases); Movie Music UK; Filmtracks; SoundtrackINFO; Sting.com discography; Wikipedia (film page); Peter Gabriel song entry; Ark 21/Pangaea listings; YouTube trailer (Warner Bros. channel).

As Filmtracks notes, the album’s sequence juxtaposes vocal features with Revell’s underscore; according to Sting’s official discography, the OST includes “A Thousand Years” and the Different Gear vs The Police remix; as SoundtrackINFO/Discogs show, the commercial release was issued on Pangaea/Ark 21 in November 2000.

November, 19th 2025