In the year 2176, Mars has been 84% terraformed, allowing humans to breathe partially on the surface. Lieutenant Melanie Ballard and her team are dispatched to the remote mining outpost of Shining Canyon to retrieve the notorious prisoner James "Desolation" Williams.

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001) is a sci-fi horror film set in the 22nd century on a colonized, terraformed Mars. The story centers on a Martian police unit tasked with transporting a dangerous criminal, which quickly devolves into a desperate fight for survival against miners possessed by the spirits of ancient Martian warriors.