'Ghosts of Mars' at 25: Are we any closer to living on the Red Planet? We asked the experts

In August 2001, filmmaker John Carpenter said "Boo!" and unleashed " Ghosts of Mars " on the world.

While not one of Carpenter's most revered works, it's still a neat sci-fi horror movie in which Mars has been terraformed – 84% terraformed to be exact – and inhabited by humans.

Plus, it has Jason Statham and Ice Cube in it, so it's automatically 99% better than all other movies ever made.

Now, the action takes place at Shining Canyon, a remote mining outpost on Mars that has a gritty wild west/Mad Max-ness vibe; it's cold, harsh, and so so so so soooooo dusty – not exactly a dream home location.

Then there's the whole "scary horde possessed by ancient extraterrestrial evil spirits trying to kill you" thing.

But let's remove the spooky elements and put them aside for one second, and really consider the possibility of actually living on Mars.

It's been 25 years since the movie was released, so how much closer are we to calling the Red Planet our new home? (Image credit: Screen Gems) Chief Scientist at the Planetary Society, Dr.

Bruce Betts , isn't optimistic.

"I don't think we're in a position to do global terraforming due to the technology and lack of resources.

The papers indicate now you have only a tiny fraction of carbon dioxide, and then there's just the political and economic reality of it.

Any method I've ever heard of is really outrageously expensive over time, and you would have to have multi-year, multi-generational support for programs at a high level.

You'd have the whole world having opinions on whether you could or should do it.

Then there's also the planetary protection agreements that many countries have agreed to.

But the lack of carbon dioxide is the showstopper, really." Even in the movie, they're still 10 years away from having air like we do on Earth.