Mars Express is a smart and stylish addition to the sci-fi noir canon

By Andrew Webster , an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

Mars Express is a futuristic detective story about the autonomy of synthetic beings — which is to say, it’s the latest in a long line of sci-fi influenced by Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner. But while its premise may be familiar, the movie makes up for it with style and energy. The debut feature from director Jérémie Périn, Mars Express features absolutely stunning 2D animation, a fully realized world, and a pulse-pounding story that kept me guessing right until the end.

It’s set in 2200, a point in time when Earth is described as a “slum for the unemployed,” while Mars has become somewhat better... at least for the rich, who live in what’s best described as a futuristic vision of the suburbs under a protective dome with bright screens that mask the outside world. Complicating the social dynamics are synthetic life-forms, which come in various flavors. There are typical robots used to do menial and service jobs, with some humans fighting to liberate them and one megacorporation trying to phase the machines out in favor of organic versions. Meanwhile, there are also “backups,” androids with the memories and personalities of deceased humans, who must follow a strict set of Isaac Asimov-like rules.

The movie follows a pair of private investigators: Aline and her cybernetic partner, Carlos (a backup who died years ago in a war). They end up taking a job to find a missing university student, which — in the grand tradition of these stories — pulls them into a much bigger mystery involving the fate of all synthetic beings and, since we’ve become so dependent on them, humanity as well. I won’t spoil too much, but Mars Express does an excellent job of steadily ramping up. It starts out as a seemingly simple missing persons investigation, but as Aline and Carlos learn more, it becomes something much more elaborate due to an event called “the takeover” that eventually shifts the tone, giving it a more philosophical note.

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