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Mars Attacks!
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Mars Attacks! is a 1996 comedy science fiction movie by Tim Burton based on the popular card series Mars Attacks. It was released in 1996 by Warner Bros.
The film combines the storyline and tone of a B-movie spoof with the budget of a blockbuster movie. It features an ensemble cast, and is highly dependent upon special effects. The soundtrack by Danny Elfman makes extensive use of the theremin (an instrument the composer previously used in Pee-wee's Big Adventure).
The film received mixed reviews from US critics, though it was more popular in Europe.
ith other Burton movies, the subject under scrutiny is not only the present, but the mass culture of his own suburban childhood.
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Encyclopedia
Mars Attacks! is a 1996 comedy science fiction movie by Tim Burton based on the popular card series Mars Attacks. It was released in 1996 by Warner Bros.
The film combines the storyline and tone of a B-movie spoof with the budget of a blockbuster movie. It features an ensemble cast, and is highly dependent upon special effects. The soundtrack by Danny Elfman makes extensive use of the theremin (an instrument the composer previously used in Pee-wee's Big Adventure).
The film received mixed reviews from US critics, though it was more popular in Europe.
Cast
- Jack Nicholson as President James Dale: President of the United States, husband of Marsha Dale, father of Taffy Dale. Seeks to gain relations with the Martians. He is persuaded to be peaceful by his advisers and is dismayed that the Martians are not peaceful in return. He is later impaled by a Martian flag while trying to plead for clemency and peace.
- Jack Nicholson as Art Land: Las Vegas property developer, husband of Barbara Land. Not concerned by the invasion, being more concerned by the well-being of his investors. He is killed during the Las Vegas invasion when his hotel is destroyed with him and his investors inside.
- Glenn Close as First Lady Marsha Dale: First Lady of the United States, wife of James Dale, mother of Taffy Dale. She seems to be most interested in her husband's power. She is disgusted by the Martians, so that in discussions of their evil intentions she often agrees with General Decker. She is killed by a falling chandelier when the Martians invade the White House.
- Annette Bening as Barbara Land: Ex-alcoholic, wife of Art Land. She likes the Martians at first, but changes her mind after the Martian massacre in the Nevada desert. After the massacre, she resumes alcoholism. During the Las Vegas invasion, she escapes the city with Cindy and Tom in one of Art's private planes.
- Pierce Brosnan as Professor Donald Kessler: the handsome Chairman of the National Academy of Astronautics, adviser to President, who is in love with Nathalie Lake. He thinks the Martians are friendly, and therefore cannot explain why they are not being friendly as he thought they would. Like Nathalie Lake, he is one of the victims of the Martians' experiments. He presumably drowns along with Nathalie after the spacecraft they are riding in crashes into water.
- Danny DeVito as Rude Gambler: A lawyer who joins Barbara's group, but becomes disheartened with them after they get lost. He encounters a Martian and attempts to negotiate with it. The Martian initially seems to be intimidated and back down; but when the gambler offers the Martian his Rolex watch, the Martian immediately incinerates him with a green ray-gun.
- Martin Short as Press Secretary Jerry Ross: White House Press Secretary. Cares solely about the President's media image and is very friendly to prostitutes who work near the White House. The Martians take advantage of this later in the movie. He possibly dies after having a finger bitten off and being smacked on the head with a bronze statue by a Martian girl. If he did survive, his fate is unknown.
- Sarah Jessica Parker as Nathalie Lake: Reporter for Today in Fashion, she is Jason Stone's girlfriend and also in love with Donald Kessler. She is slightly dim-witted. The Martians seem to have an attraction to her, but her head is exchanged with that of her dog in the Martians' experiments. She presumably drowns along with Donald after their spacecraft crashes into water.
- Michael J. Fox as Jason Stone: Reporter for GNN, boyfriend of Nathalie Lake and therefore resentful of Donald. Jason is incinerated by a green ray-gun while trying to save Nathalie. His severed hand was later used in the Martians' experiments.
- Rod Steiger as General Decker: US Army General. He does not trust the Martians, assumes the worst of their intentions, and wants to destroy them. He is proven right and is ultimately shrunk to a tiny size by the Martian leader and crushed.
- Tom Jones as himself: Famous real-life singer, who assists Byron, Cindy, and Barbara during their escape from Las Vegas, as he knows how to fly planes.
- Lukas Haas as Richie Norris: Lives in Perkinsville, Kansas. He is often ostracized by his family, but loved by his grandmother. When he heads to the retirement home to save her, he inadvertently discovers the Martians' weakness, thereby saving the world.
- Natalie Portman as Taffy Dale: Daughter of James and Marsha Dale. She does not seem to care about the Martians at all, until they invade. She survives the invasion by unknown means and appears to develop a crush on Richie.
- Jim Brown as Byron Williams: Former heavyweight champion who organizes a fight with the Martians in order to distract them while Tom, Barbara, and Cindy escape. While it initially appears that he was overwhelmed by the many Martians, he makes a heroic appearance in the end.
- Lisa Marie as Martian Girl: A Martian disguised as a young woman, who tricks Jerry Ross into letting her into the White House. After killing Rusty, the First Dog, and taking the president hostage, she is momentarily distracted by a parakeet and is shot dead by several Secret Servicemen.
- Sylvia Sidney as Florence Norris: Lives in Perkinsville. A family outcast who helps her grandson Richie save the world with her music, which kills the Martians.
- Christina Applegate as Sharona: Billy Glen's girlfriend, lives in the trailer diagonally across from the Norris's. After Billy Glen is killed, she finds a new boyfriend. Later the two are possibly incinerated by a green ray-gun while making love. Either that, or they were both killed or badly injured when a Martian robot smashes their trailer into the Norris' trailer.
- Joe Don Baker as Mr. Norris: Father of Billy Glen and Richie. Very proud of Billy Glen, who may be his favorite at Richie's expense. He objects to Richie trying to save Grandma Norris, but is killed or badly injured along with his wife when a Martian in a robot smashes their trailer into Sharona's trailer right after Richie leaves.
- Pam Grier as Louise Williams: Ex-wife of Byron, mother of Cedric and Neville. Washington D.C. bus driver. She is more worried about her sons' rebellious behavior than the Martians, until they start attacking. She may have remarried Byron after the events of the film, as they still have strong feelings towards each other.
- Paul Winfield as Lt. Gen. Casey: U.S. Army Lieutenant General who thinks the Martians would most likely be peaceful. He is sent to greet their ambassador in Nevada. He is incinerated by a red ray-gun, making him the first human victim to die at the hands of a Martian.
- Jack Black as Billy Glen Norris: U.S. Army Soldier, volunteers for Martian detail in the Nevada desert. Brother of Richie Norris and appears to resent Richie. He is incinerated by a red ray-gun while trying to surrender to a Martian. After his death, he is called an American hero as he was holding an American flag at the moment of his death.
- Brian Haley as Secret Service Agent Mitch: Bodyguard of President Dale, who remains with him throughout the film. At one point during the Martian invasion, he is shot in the arm with a red ray-gun, yet only suffers a fracture. Later on, he is incinerated by a green ray-gun while defending President Dale.
- O-Lan Jones as Sue Ann Norris: Mother of Billy Glen and Richie. Wife of Mr. Norris. She also seems to favor Billy Glen over Richie. She is killed or badly injured along with her husband when a Martian in a robot smashes their trailer into another.
- Ray J as Cedric Williams: Brother of Neville, son of Byron and Louise. He is rather rebellious. He helps protect the President with a ray-gun that he stole from a dead Martian.
- Brandon Hammond as Neville Williams: Brother of Cedric, son of Byron and Louise. Like Cedric, he is rebellious. He also helps protect the President with a ray-gun that he stole from a dead Martian.
- Jerzy Skolimowski as Dr. Zeigler: Inventor of the translator device. Present in Nevada the during first contact between Martians and humans. His fate is unknown, but given his close proximity to the Martians at the time and the large amount of death and destruction that took place, it is strongly implied that he was killed by the Martians.
- Janice Rivera as Cindy: Waitress at a Las Vegas casino. Not much is known about her, but it is made clear that the appearance of the Martians and their intentions frighten her. She is also close friends with Byron and objects to him staying behind to distract the Martians, fearing that he would be killed. She escapes Las Vegas with Tom and Barbara.
- Barbet Schroeder as Maurice, the French President: President of France, who appears to be unaware of the invasion and attempts to negotiate with the Martians, believing he has reached an agreement until the Martians begin shooting their ray-guns. He is incinerated by a red ray-gun off-screen.
Style and movie references
As with other Burton movies, the subject under scrutiny is not only the present, but the mass culture of his own suburban childhood. Although nominally set in the present day, the film contains numerous anachronistic references to the style of the 1950s science fiction B-movies, of which it is a parody. The film's tone is similar to that of the trading card series, depicting exaggerated comic violence with an intense and often garish color scheme.
The plot is fairly simple but contains unusual variations on the normal Martian-invasion movie. The premise is that Martians have arrived at Earth and that the President of the United States, James Dale (played by Jack Nicholson), seeks to gain maximum public relations points by establishing a friendly relationship with them. The Martians reject these overtures and proceed to wreak havoc with their spectacular red and green death-ray guns, which reduce their victims to red or green skeletons. The Martians also toy with Professor Kessler's assumption that advanced civilizations are peace-loving by repeatedly arranging meetings for peace treaties and then massacring the humans involved. They use this tactic to wipe out both the United States Congress and the National Assembly of France.
As in the film The War of the Worlds, a simple weapon is ultimately found to counter the alien invaders: in this instance it is the playing of a piece of yodeling music, "Indian Love Call" by Slim Whitman, which causes Martian brains to explode. This is similar to another parody of B-movies, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, in which the killer tomatoes were defeated by playing the song "Puberty Love" by Ronny Desmond. Similarly, in the third season episode of the The Twilight Zone entitled Hocus-Pocus and Frisby (airdate April 13, 1962), a badly played harmonica allows the protagonist to escape his alien captors.
There is a brief clip of Godzilla destroying Osaka (from Godzilla vs. Biollante) played aboard the Martian ship. Like many products of Earth, the Martians question what it is they are seeing.
The film is considered to have some similarities with Independence Day, an alien-invasion movie released a few months earlier by rival studio 20th Century Fox, in that Mars Attacks! plays for comedy everything that Independence Day plays with relative seriousness. For example, where Independence Day has a sequence of epic-style destruction of major cities across the world, Mars Attacks! has the aliens using Easter Island as a bowling alley, carving their own faces in Mount Rushmore, toppling the Washington Monument onto boy scouts in Washington, D.C. (a deliberate parody of a similar scene in the 1956 B-movie Earth vs. the Flying Saucers), and melting the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, and Big Ben. Other similarities include:
- Enthusiastic humans who eagerly await the aliens' arrival, only to be mercilessly slaughtered in the initial attack;
- Scenes of frantic escapes from the White House;
- The death of the First Lady (in this case, Marsha Dale, played by Glenn Close) is crushed under Nancy Reagan's chandelier during the President's chaotic escape from the White House);
- The U.S. President's reluctance to use a nuclear weapon against the invaders and agreeing to do so after much destruction and persuasion. In both cases, the weapon proves futile.
Because Mars Attacks! was released only a few months after Independence Day, the films were finished close to the same time. The similarities are thus thought coincidental.
In a manner similar to that of Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove, Nicholson plays more than one role: he plays both the President and a Las Vegas real estate speculator. For the latter role he sports sunglasses, a cowboy hat, and buck teeth that make him almost unrecognizable. Nicholson's double role was the result of a joke with director Tim Burton when Nicholson was cast and Burton had asked Nicholson which role interested him, to which Nicholson replied "All of them!". As a result, Burton permitted Nicholson to perform the double role of Art Land and President Dale.
See also
External links
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