The conversation centers on a second promotional trailer that has surfaced, featuring authoritative voiceover declaring that "for 25 years, the government has concealed evidence of a lifelike formation on Mars." The trailer reportedly uses actual Viking mission imagery of the Cydonia face rather than the stylized version created for the film. This is remarkable given that NASA had full script approval and was intimately involved in the production from the beginning.
Hoagland theorizes that De Palma, whose late brother Bruce was deeply involved in hyperdimensional physics research connected to Cydonia, may have deliberately embedded coded references to real Mars anomaly research throughout the film. Art appeals to listeners to send him a copy of the controversial trailer, while both men wrestle with whether this represents a genuine crack in NASA's longstanding silence or an elaborate marketing ploy.
Key Moments
NASA had script approval on Mission to Mars: Hoagland reports that producer Tom Jacobson confirmed in print interviews that NASA was not merely a consultant on Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars but had script approval - every line vetted by the agency before being committed to film. Hoagland frames this as the level of control the DOD typically demands when its assets appear on screen.
The second trailer reads NASA the riot act: Hoagland reads, verbatim, the new Mission to Mars trailer text obtained by entertainment writer David Giamarco: 'For 25 years, the government has concealed evidence of a lifelike formation on Mars... On March 10th, the conspiracy will be exposed.' The accompanying imagery is not De Palma's stylized alien-grey face but the actual NASA Viking image of Cydonia.
Two endings - and Kubrick re-cut 2001 on a train: Hoagland speculates De Palma may be off in hiding secretly editing an alternate ending now being shipped to theaters, and cites the precedent of Stanley Kubrick re-editing 2001: A Space Odyssey on the train between the New York and Los Angeles premieres after critics didn't get the first cut. Reports De Palma talked publicly months earlier about filming two endings.