Like the previous film Luna produced by Klushantsev, the film Mars was created at the intersection of educational science films and science-fiction. It consists of seven pieces, which tell (based on scientific understanding of the 1960s) of the physical conditions on planet Mars, the possibility of life on Mars and what forms it might take, of Martian canals and "seas" of the Red Planet. In addition, the film includes the director's fantasy hypothetical forms of life on mars, and of the exploration and colonization of Mars in the near future.

The film explores the theories put forward by Soviet and foreign scientists regarding the origin of the Sun and the planets of the Solar System, and discusses research into celestial bodies using spacecraft.