“The movie “Mission to Mars” sort of explains this as the reason Mars went dead, although it was most likely just the loss of its magnetic field.”
Went dead?
Mars once had earth-like conditions with water and an atmosphere. At some point, however, the atmosphere escaped into space and the water froze. They think it’s because the core of Mars solidified, causing its magnetic field to fail, and the solar wind did the rest. But it was also hit by a big asteroid. The Hellas impact basin is the 2nd largest in the solar system.