Podcast Summary: How Did This Get Made? – John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars LIVE! w/ Nick Kroll (Recorded Live at Largo, Oct 31, 2025)

Episode Overview

In this lively and hilarious live episode, Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas are joined by special guest Nick Kroll to break down John Carpenter's infamous sci-fi bomb “Ghosts of Mars” (2001). Recorded on Halloween at Largo in Los Angeles, the crew dissects the movie’s bizarre choices, nonsensical plotting, strange production history, unexpected cult status, and more, all through their signature blend of sharp wit and genuine confusion. Audience questions, deep-dive factoids, and impromptu musical numbers make this a rollicking dissection of “the best of the worst.”

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. First Impressions & Movie Premise

• The hosts marvel at the film's awkward title (“double plurals!”) and recap the plot as a Martian police unit encountering possessed miners on Mars, with layers of unnecessary flashbacks.
• Paul (02:44): “It is a movie that takes place in 2176, when a Martian police unit is sent to pick up a highly dangerous criminal at a remote mining planet. Upon arrival, the cops find that the post has become a charnel house… what the fuck is a charnel house, IMDb?”
• June (05:05): “This is a movie ... that has flashbacks inside of flashbacks inside of other characters’ flashbacks. This shit is fucking impossible.”
• They joke about the Criterion Channel hosting the film and director Luca Guadagnino including it in his top 10 of the 21st century, to universal disbelief.

2. Critiquing the Film Structure and Logic

• Frequent complaint: “Ghosts of Mars” is told through a confusing frame narrative of flashbacks within flashbacks, making following the plot nearly impossible.
• Ridiculous transportation scenes (slow trains/vehicles) are lampooned by June and Nick:
  • June (13:15): “...in this future, we have the technology to go to Mars, but we don’t have the technology to make trains go faster than four miles an hour?”
  • Nick (14:09): “Is this a gravity issue?”
• Inconsistent use of oxygen breathers on Mars.
  • June (15:01): “Oxygen goggles does sound like a Bob Ducca malady.”

3. Production Oddities & Behind-the-Scenes Trivia

• Guest Nick Kroll brings research, including having texted cast member Clea DuVall.
  • Nick (27:29): “She said she had a blast making it: two months in the desert. Great night shoots. John Carpenter didn’t like to start before 11am.”
• John Carpenter himself composed the soundtrack, gathering rock/metal musicians, which leads to bemusement at the film’s relentless guitar score.

4. Themes & Social Commentary (or Lack Thereof)

• The hosts wrestle with the matriarchal society setup, ultimately learning from an audience member that Carpenter only included it to justify potential makeouts between Natasha Henstridge and Pam Grier.
  • Audience (51:58): “John Carpenter says the reason he made it a matriarchal society was just because he wanted to set up Natasha Henstridge and Pam Grier making out at some point.”
• Attempts to parse whether the film addresses colonization, Native American themes, ghosts as metaphor, etc.
  • June (42:27): “They're basically like, Mars isn’t theirs anymore, it’s ours. ... I’m rooting for the ghosts, but also—?”

5. Costuming & Character Choices

• Obsession with Natasha Henstridge’s pristine sweater (“my company made all the sweaters for the movie”—a real Amazon review read by Paul at [68:44]):
  • June (20:49): “She has just been in knife fights with ghost human mutants…her sweater is pristine.”
• Jokes about Jason Statham’s thinning hair and his “first on-screen kiss.”
  • Paul (22:56): “What a great choice for Jason Statham to be like, ‘no, get this peach fuzz out of here…’”

6. Plot Holes, Absurdities, & Unintended Comedy

• Why do characters keep killing possessed people, knowing it only releases the ghosts?
  • June (26:43): “Whoever’s in front of them, just killing people, letting all the ghosts loose. Contain them. Contain the ghosts!”
• Debate about the “ghost cam” and whether Martian ghosts are actually just wind that possess anyone nearby.
• Extended riffing on the grotesque and impractical head-on-a-stick visual motif.

7. Audience Participation & Second Opinions

• Audience questions elicit reveals:
  • The Big Bad is literally called “Big Daddy Mars.”
  • The original star was supposed to be Courtney Love, but she dropped out after her boyfriend ran over her foot.
• Musical “second opinion” (61:59):
  • Jason (Song): “Everything is exploding / Now it's a standoff and Pam Grier’s head on a spike / And this town’s looking like an abattoir / ‘Cause that rolling red mist, baby, we're the ghosts of Mar.”

8. Final Reviews & Recommendations

• All the hosts agree: do not recommend watching the movie (“I absolutely hated watching this movie”—June, 70:29).
• Recurring theme: the movie can only be enjoyed as a companion to its own absurdity, or as preparation for the episode.
• Nick Kroll recommends listening to the Blank Check episode on this movie, not actually watching it.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the movie’s confusing structure:

• Jason (05:05): “This is a movie, maybe the first movie we’ve ever done that has flashbacks inside of flashbacks inside of other characters’ flashbacks. This shit is fucking impossible.”

On its legitimacy as a Criterion film:

• June (05:43): “I think I can say this is the very first time for the podcast that I’ve watched a movie on the Criterion Channel.”

On Matriarchies in Space:

• Paul (12:24): “Mars has been terraformed and it has a matriarchal society, which doesn’t seem to play into much of anything else in the film.”

On the Ghosts’ Motivation:

• June (55:13): “Why do they want to put so many heads on sticks? … That’s so extra of them.”

On Production Design:

• June (30:24): “The tunnel that seemed like it was very nicely designed also just had, like, a nice aesthetic to it.”

On the DVD Review:

• Paul reading review (65:42): “My disc of this movie got jammed in the DVD player, but it still played the other movies…so I’m keeping that one in case this movie gets jammed. Five stars, Ghost of Mars.”

On the film’s supposed comedy:

• Paul (72:26): “I feel like what John Carpenter will say is, ‘You didn’t get it. This is a comedy.’ I guess I had to make the jokes bigger. And that, I’m paraphrasing, but that’s what he is saying.”

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:31 – Show proper begins
• 04:44 – Introduction of Ghosts of Mars, plot rundown, Criterion/Guadagnino bit
• 10:01 – Nick Kroll joins the panel
• 12:47 – Discussion of the matriarchal society and questionable exposition
• 13:09 – Extended “slow trains” and Martian infrastructure riffing
• 15:01 – Oxygen goggles, “breathers” confusion and dental hygiene digression
• 20:30 – Henstridge’s sweater; character costuming
• 22:56 – Jason Statham’s hair and “first on-screen kiss”
• 24:05 – Escape from New York sequel urban legend debunked
• 26:43 – Why do they keep killing the possessed?
• 27:29 – Clea DuVall on filming, Carpenter’s nocturnal production habits
• 34:00 – Martian fish orca flashback sequence riffing
• 42:27 – Themes of colonization, “rooting for the ghosts”
• 51:38 – Audience Q&A: matriarchy origin, Courtney Love casting, “Big Daddy Mars”
• 61:59 – “Second Opinions” musical number (Jason Mantzoukas)
• 70:29 – Final verdicts: unanimous “no” to watching
• 72:26 – John Carpenter “it was meant as a comedy” theory

Additional Fun

• Audience Costume: Jafar comes in cosplay with a “hand bra,” referencing the movie’s costume weirdness ([51:38]).
• Impromptu Song: Jason performs a “Bruce Springsteen” style summary of the movie’s plot ([61:59]).
• Production Factoid: Courtney Love was the original cast for the lead, dropped last minute due to foot injury ([52:21]).
• Review Readings: Hosts read surreal Amazon reviews, including one from “my company made all the sweaters for this movie” ([68:44]).
• Running Gag: Obsession with the quality and persistence of Natasha Henstridge’s sweater.
• Shower Loneliness: June discusses decorating her shower and listening to podcasts in there ([17:04]).

The Panel’s Final Take

• Ghosts of Mars is an incoherent, joyless, but inadvertently hilarious mess with endlessly odd and lazy filmmaking choices. The comedy of the hosts is far superior to the comedy (intentional or not) in the film itself.
• Paul: “It looks like something you’d see at a theme park stunt show. Waterworld’s stunt spectacular is way better than this.”
• June: “Absolutely hated watching this movie. I had to set timers to take breaks. Suffering all the way through.”
• Nick: “I can’t recommend this movie, but I can recommend the Blank Check episode talking about it.”
• The hosts suggest: Skip the movie, enjoy the podcast.

For Listeners Who Haven’t Seen the Movie

This episode offers everything a fan of bad movies or comedic critique could want: wild tangents, sharp insight, production gossip, gleeful evisceration, and genuine confusion. Even if you haven’t seen “Ghosts of Mars”—and you really don’t need to—you’ll be thoroughly entertained by the panel’s fabulous mix of sarcasm and sincere engagement with cinematic absurdity.

Episode Length: ~79 minutes
Special Guest: Nick Kroll
Notable Audience Interaction: Yes
Rewatch Required by Hosts: No!

“So much to unpack in John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars. Would you recommend it? I’ve watched it twice.” – Paul Scheer (70:18)
“No.” – June Diane Raphael and the entire panel (70:29)