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Mars Attacks! is a 1996 American comic science fiction film directed by Tim Burton, who also co-produced it with Larry J. Franco. The screenplay, which was based on the trading card series of the same name, was written by Jonathan Gems. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Jack Nicholson (in a dual role), Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Pam Grier, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Lisa Marie, and Sylvia Sidney in her final film role.

Plot[]

A spaceship is seen departing from Earth and returning to Mars, where it gathers hundreds of other Martian ships and heads back to Earth. U.S. President James Dale (Jack Nicholson), along with his aides, addresses the United States concerning the historic event. Several days later, the President's science aides set up a first contact meeting with the Martians in Pahrump, Nevada, as Dale watches the development on television with his wife Marsha (Glenn Close) and his daughter Taffy (Natalie Portman).

Using a translation machine, the Ambassador of Mars announces that they "come in peace". When a hippy releases a dove as a symbol of peace, the Ambassador shoots it before he and the other Martians massacre most of the people at the event, including General Casey (Paul Winfield), news reporter Jason Stone (Michael J. Fox), and young private Billy-Glenn Norris (Jack Black), before capturing chat-show host and Stone's co-worker and girlfriend Nathalie Lake (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her pet chihuahua, Poppy.

Thinking that the Martians assumed that the dove was a symbol of war, Dale tells Professor Donald Kessler (Pierce Brosnan) to renegotiate with the Martians, whose ambassador later requests to address the U.S. Congress. At this meeting, the Martians massacre most of Congress. Kessler begs the Martian ambassador to stop, but is knocked unconscious and taken aboard their ship, where he is later shown with his body dismembered and his disembodied head remaining animated. General Decker (Rod Steiger) tries to persuade Dale to retaliate with nuclear warfare, but he refuses.

After a failed attempt to assassinate Dale in which a disguised Martian is killed, the Martians invade Earth in droves, starting with Washington, D.C. and quickly spreading around the globe. As they attack the White House, the U.S. Secret Service evacuates Dale, but Marsha is crushed to death by the Nancy Reagan chandelier and Taffy is separated from them during the chaos. After the President of France is assassinated by the Martians that night, the U.S. government attempts a nuclear attack on the Martian mothership, but that proves futile and the Martians continue destroying Earth and start defacing and vandalizing world landmarks. Eventually, the Martian leader and two other Martians breach the bunker where Dale has been taken and reduce Decker to the size of an insect before killing him. The Martians kill everyone else in the bunker except for Dale, who makes an impassioned speech in an attempt to plead for peace and his life. The Martian leader appears to be moved by the speech and seemingly agrees to a truce with Dale, but then uses a gadget disguised as a hand to kill him.

As the Martians ravage Las Vegas, Byron Williams (Jim Brown), a former world champion boxer turned casino employee, leads a small group of survivors consisting of Barbara Land (Annette Bening), Tom Jones, Byron's co-worker waitress Cindy, and a rude gambling lawyer (Danny DeVito) to an airfield in the hope of flying a small jet to safety. They barely make it there, losing the lawyer in the process (who was killed by a Martian), but discover a large group of Martians (along with the ambassador) stationed there as they are preparing to take off. Byron creates a diversion by challenging them to a fistfight. While he succeeds in killing the ambassador, he is outnumbered and overwhelmed by the other Martians, but Tom, Barbara and Cindy manage to escape.

While going to rescue his grandmother, Florence, Billy-Glenn's brother Richie (Lukas Haas) discovers that the Martians' heads explode when they hear Slim Whitman's "Indian Love Call". Richie and Florence then drive around town, using the song to kill Martians, and broadcast the song on a local radio station. Thereafter, armed forces broadcast the song around the globe, killing the Martian leader and most, if not all, of the other Martians. Nathalie and Kessler's disembodied heads kiss while the Martian spaceship they are on crashes into the ocean, killing both of them.

In the aftermath, Barbara, Cindy, and Jones emerge from a cave with some wild animals to see dozens of crashed Martian ships in Lake Tahoe. Taffy awards Richie and Florence the Medal of Honor. Byron, who survived the Martian brawl, arrives in Washington, D.C. to reunite with his former wife Louise and their two sons Cedric and Neville as the devastation is being cleaned up.

Cast[]

Uncredited[]

  • Jim Beatty as Reporter
  • John Bradley as Reporter
  • Colleen Ann Brah as Tom Jones Show Girl
  • Greg Bronson as Businessman at Newsstand
  • Robert Buckingham as Congressman
  • JoAnn Bush as Cleopatra Cocktail Waitress
  • Mac Canepi as Desert Landing Spectator
  • George Cheung as Chinese Investor
  • Page Dreher as Spectator
  • Maria Celeste Genitempo as Spectator
  • Geri Gilmore as Old Hippy Lady
  • Matt Gulbranson as Army Officer
  • Roger Jackson as Translator Device (voice)
  • Anthony Kopczynski as Congressman
  • Walt G. Ludwig as Tank Gunner
  • Walter Ludwig as Navy-Band Member
  • Johnny Mansbach as Tourist
  • Stephanie Masoner as Gambler/Martian Ambassador
  • Scott McKinley as Reporter
  • Bob Pepper as Attacked Citizen
  • Kelly Lynn Richards as Washington DC Tourist
  • David Sherrill as Lt. Col. Swenson
  • William Victor Skrabanek as Congressman
  • Alexandra Smothers as Cleopatra Cocktail Waitress
  • Jay So as Gambler
  • Jay Michael Suttles as Desert Spectator
  • Edward Tubbs as Desert Landing Spectator
  • Carl Washington as White House Tourist
  • Don Winsor as Policeman

Production[]

Development[]

In 1985, Alex Cox pitched the idea of a film based on the Mars Attacks trading card series as a joint-production to Orion and Tristar Pictures. He wrote three drafts over the next four years, but was replaced by Martin Amis before Orion/Tristar placed Mars Attacks in turnaround.

Jonathan Gems, who had previously written multiple unproduced screenplays for director Tim Burton, came up with his own idea for a Mars Attacks film in 1993. The writer pitched both concepts of Mars Attacks and Dinosaurs Attack! to Burton, who both decided that Dinosaurs Attack! would be too similar to Jurassic Park (1993). Burton, who was busy preparing Ed Wood (1994), believed that Mars Attacks! would be a perfect opportunity to pay homage to the films of Edward D. Wood, Jr., especially Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), and other 1950s science fiction B movies, such as Invaders from Mars (1953), It Came from Outer Space (1953), The War of the Worlds (1953), Target Earth (1954), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956).

Burton set Mars Attacks! up with Warner Bros. and the studio purchased the film rights to the trading card series on his behalf. The original theatrical release date was planned for the summer of 1996. Gems completed his original script in 1994, which was budgeted by Warner Bros. at $260 million. The studio wanted to make the film for no more than $60 million. After turning in numerous drafts in an attempt to lower the budget, Gems was replaced by Ed Wood writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.

Gems eventually returned to the project, writing a total of 12 drafts of the script. Although he is credited with both the screen story and screenplay of Mars Attacks!, Gems dedicates his novelization of the movie to Burton, who "co-wrote the screenplay and didn't ask for a credit". Warner Bros. was dubious of the Martian dialogue and wanted Burton to add closed captioning subtitles, but he resisted. Working with Burton, Gems pared the film's 60 leading characters down to 23, and the worldwide destruction planned for the film was isolated to three major cities. Scenes featuring Martians attacking China, the Philippines, Japan, Europe, Africa, India, and Russia were deleted from the screenplay. "Bear in mind this was way before Independence Day (1996) was written," Gems commented. "We had things like Manhattan being destroyed building by building, the White House went and so did the Empire State Building. Warner Bros. figured all this would be too expensive, so we cut most of that out to reduce the cost." Howard Stern claimed that the film's climax, where an attack by Martians was thwarted by playing Slim Whitman songs to them, was originally created by him when he worked at WNBC in 1982, in a sketch named "Slim Whitman vs. The Midget Aliens From Mars." As Burton listened to the sketch while being interviewed by Stern, he dismissed it as mere coincidence.

Casting[]

The decision to hire an A-list ensemble cast for Mars Attacks! parallels the strategy Irwin Allen used for his disaster films, notably The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974). Jack Nicholson, approached for the role of the President, jokingly remarked that he wanted to play all the roles. Burton agreed to cast Nicholson as both Art Land and President Dale, specifically remembering his positive working relationship with the actor on Batman.

Susan Sarandon was originally set to play Barbara Land before Annette Bening was cast. Bening modeled the character after Ann-Margret's performance in Viva Las Vegas (1964). Hugh Grant was the first choice for Professor Donald Kessler, a role which eventually went to Pierce Brosnan. Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Stockard Channing were considered for First Lady Marsha Dale, but Glenn Close won the role. In addition to Nicholson, other actors who reunited with Burton on Mars Attacks! include Sylvia Sidney from Beetlejuice (1988), O-Lan Jones from Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Danny DeVito from Batman Returns (1992), continuing Burton's trend of recasting actors several times from his previous works.

Filming[]

The originally scheduled start date was mid-August 1995, but filming was delayed until February 26, 1996. Director Tim Burton hired Peter Suschitzky as the cinematographer, because he was a fan of his work in David Cronenberg's films. Production designer Thomas Wynn (A Beautiful Mind, Malcolm X) intended to have the war room pay tribute to Dr. Strangelove (1964). During production, Burton insisted that the art direction, cinematography and costume design of Mars Attacks! incorporate the look of the 1960s trading cards.

On designing the Martian (played by Burton's girlfriend Lisa Marie Smith) who seduces and kills Jerry Ross (Martin Short), costume designer Colleen Atwood took combined inspiration from the playing cards, Marilyn Monroe, the work of Alberto Vargas and Jane Fonda in Barbarella (1968). Filming for Mars Attacks! ended on June 1, 1996. The film score was composed by Burton's regular composer Danny Elfman, to whom Burton was reconciled after a quarrel that occurred during The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), for which they did not co-operate in producing Ed Wood (1994). Elfman enlisted the help of Oingo Boingo lead guitarist Steve Bartek to help arrange the compositions for the orchestra.

Visual effects[]

Tim Burton initially intended to use stop motion animation to feature the Martians, viewing it as a homage to the work of Ray Harryhausen, primarily Jason and the Argonauts. Similar to his own Beetlejuice, Burton "wanted to make [the special effects] look cheap and purposely fake-looking as possible." He first approached Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, to supervise the stop motion work, but Selick was busy directing James and the Giant Peach, also produced by Burton. Despite the fact that Warner Bros. was skeptical of the escalating budget and had not yet greenlit the film for production, Burton hired Barry Purves to shepherd the stop motion work. Purves created an international team of about 70 animators, who worked on Mars Attacks! for eight months and began compiling test footage in Burbank, California. The department workers studied Gloria Swanson's choreography and movement as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard for inspiration on the Martians' movement.

When the budget was projected at $100 million (Warner Bros. wanted it for no more than $75 million), producer Larry J. Franco commissioned a test reel from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the visual effects company he worked with on Jumanji. Burton was persuaded to change his mind to employ computer animation, which brought the final production budget to $80 million. Although Purves was uncredited for his work, stop motion supervisors Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders, who would later collaborate with Burton on Corpse Bride, received character design credit. Warner Digital Studios was responsible for the scenes of global destruction, airborne flying saucer sequences, the Martian landing in Nevada and the robot that chases Richie Norris in his pickup truck. Warner Digital also used practical effects, such as building scale models of Big Ben and other landmarks. The destruction of Art Land's hotel was footage of the real life nighttime demolition of the Landmark Hotel and Casino, a building Burton wished to immortalize.

Soundtrack[]

Main article: Mars Attacks! (soundtrack)

Reception[]

Release and box office[]

Warner Bros. spent $20 million on the movie's marketing campaign; together with $80 million spent during production, the final combined budget came to $100 million. A novelization, written by screenwriter Jonathan Gems, was published by Puffin Books in January 1997. The film was released in the United States on December 13, 1996, earning $9.38 million in its opening weekend. Mars Attacks! eventually made $37.77 million in U.S. totals and $63.6 million elsewhere, coming to a worldwide total of $101.37 million.

The film was considered a box office bomb in the U.S., but generally achieved greater success both critically and commercially in Europe. Many observers found similarities with Independence Day, which also came out in 1996. "It was just a coincidence. Nobody told me about it. I was surprised how close it was," director Tim Burton continued, "but then it's a pretty basic genre I guess. Independence Day was different in tone – it was different in everything. It almost seemed like we had done kind of a Mad magazine version of Independence Day." During the film's theatrical run in January 1997, TBS purchased the broadcasting rights of the film.

Critical reception[]

Mars Attacks! drew mixed responses from critics. Based on 82 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 54% of the reviewers enjoyed the film, with an average score of 5.97/10. The critical consensus reads: "Tim Burton's alien invasion spoof faithfully recreates the wooden characters and schlocky story of cheesy '50s sci-fi and Ed Wood movies – perhaps a little too faithfully for audiences." By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 52/100 from 19 reviews. Roger Ebert observed the homages to the 1950s science fiction B movies. "Ed Wood himself could have told us what's wrong with this movie: the makers felt superior to the material. To be funny, even schlock has to believe in itself. Look for Infra-Man (1975) or Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) and you will find movies that lack stars and big budgets and fancy special effects but are funny and fun in a way that Burton's megaproduction never really understands."

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Mars Attacks! is all 1990s cynicism and disbelief, mocking the conventions that Independence Day takes seriously. This all sounds clever enough but in truth, Mars Attacks! is not as much fun as it should be. Few of its numerous actors make a lasting impression and Burton's heart and soul is not in the humor". Desson Thomson from The Washington Post said "Mars Attacks! evokes plenty of sci-fi classics, from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) to Dr. Strangelove (1964), but it doesn't do much beyond that superficial exercise. With the exception of Burton's jolting sight gags (I may never recover from the vision of Sarah Jessica Parker's head grafted on to the body of a chihuahua), the comedy is half-developed, pedestrian material. And the climactic battle between Earthlings and Martians is dull and overextended."

Richard Schickel, writing in Time magazine, gave a positive review. "You have to admire everyone's chutzpah: the breadth of Burton's (and writer Jonathan Gems') movie references, which range from Kurosawa to Kubrick; and above all their refusal to offer us a single likable character. Perhaps they don't create quite enough deeply funny earthlings to go around, but a thoroughly mean-spirited big-budget movie is always a treasurable rarity." Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader praised the surreal humor and black comedy, which he found to be in the vein of Dr. Strangelove and Gremlins (1984). He said it was far from clear whether the movie was a satire, although critics were describing it as one. Todd McCarthy of Variety called Mars Attacks! "a cult sci-fi comedy miscast as an elaborate, all-star studio extravaganza."

Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B" on a scale of A+ to F.

Awards[]

Mars Attacks! was on the shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects nomination, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose Independence Day, Dragonheart and Twister instead. The film was nominated for seven categories at the Saturn Awards. Danny Elfman won Best Music, while director Tim Burton, writer Jonathan Gems, actor Lukas Haas, costume designer Colleen Atwood and the visual effects department at Industrial Light & Magic received nominations. Mars Attacks! was nominated for both the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film (which went to Independence Day) and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

Trivia[]

  • The film had been billed as a B-movie that starred many A-list actors. All the A-list actors were killed off in the film with the exception of Annette Bening.
  • The Martian firearms emitted either green or red rays, an inside joke to it being a Christmas film.
  • The Martians were entirely CGI. However, one actress played a live-action Martian; Lisa Marie (Burton's girlfriend at the time). She was the prostitute disguise of the Martian assassin, and wore two wigs to make her hair look like a gigantic bouffant. Her dress was so smooth and tight that she had to be sewn into the dress each day, and the wig she wore actually left a scar on her head. She did say that despite all of this, she enjoyed working on the film.
  • The film continues Burton's tradition of recycling cast members from previous films. Sylvia Sidney had been in Beetlejuice, Danny DeVito in Batman Returns, O-Lan Jones in Edward Scissorhands. It is one of the few Burton films where Johnny Depp did not appear. Jack Nicholson, who had starred in Batman, was approached by Tim Burton into working with him again on the basis that he could select any role he wanted. Nicholson jokingly remarked "All of them!" To somewhat oblige the joke, Burton agreed to give a dual role to Jack Nicholson, the sleazy Art Land and the upright President James Dale.
  • Before filming started Elfman and Burton put aside their differences so Elfman was happy to score the film.
  • While there weren't too many people who liked it when it first came out, many people call it a Burton classic.
  • Before Nicholson took on the role, Michael Keaton was reportedly considered for the role of Art Land, the sleazy Vegas land developer. Whether by coincidence or design, Nicholson's performance of Land resembles Keaton's Beetlejuice character, including the little dance Land does just before the Martians destroy the hotel.
  • The destruction of Art Land's hotel made use of enhanced footage of the demolition of the real-life Landmark Hotel.

Videos[]

External links[]

  Burton films
Features

Pee-wee's Big Adventure ·' Beetlejuice · Batman · Edward Scissorhands · Batman Returns · The Nightmare Before Christmas (film) · Ed Wood · Mars Attacks! · Sleepy Hollow · Planet of the Apes · Big Fish · Charlie and the Chocolate Factory · Corpse Bride · Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street · Alice in Wonderland · Dark Shadows · · Frankenweenie · Big Eyes · Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children · Dumbo ·

Other

The Island of Doctor Agor · Doctor of Doom · Stalk of the Celery Monster · Luau · Vincent · Hansel and Gretel · Frankenweenie · Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp · James and the Giant Peach ·Batman Forever · Batman & Robin · The Jar · Conversations with Vincent · The World of Stainboy · Kung Fu · Mannequin · Bones · Here With Me · 9 · Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter · Alice Through the Looking Glass


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