Mars Attacks! is a 1996 American science fiction film directed by Tim Burton and written by Jonathan Gems. Based on the cult trading card series of the same name, the film uses elements of black comedy and political satire, and is a parody of science fiction B movies. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, and Danny DeVito, with Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, Natalie Portman, Rod Steiger, Michael J. Fox, and Christina Applegate in supporting roles.
Burton and Gems began development for Mars Attacks! in 1993, and Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to the trading card series on Burton's behalf. When Gems turned in his first draft in 1994, Warner Bros. commissioned rewrites from Gems, Burton, Martin Amis, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski in an attempt to lower the budget to $60 million. The final production budget came to $80 million, while Warner Bros. spent another $20 million on the Mars Attacks! marketing campaign. Filming took place from February to November 1996. It was famous for the quirky alien laugh, which was created by reversing the sound ducks make when they quack.
The filmmakers hired Industrial Light & Magic to create the Martians using computer animation after their previous plan to use stop motion, supervised by Barry Purves, fell through because of budget limitations. Mars Attacks! was released on December 13, 1996 to mixed reviews from critics. The film grossed approximately $101 million in box office totals, which was seen as a disappointment. Mars Attacks! was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and earned multiple nominations at the Saturn Awards.
Plot[]
When Martians surround Earth with an armada of flying saucers, President James "Jimmy" Dale addresses America concerning the historic event. People around the country follow the story, including news anchors in New York, employees and guests at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel in Nevada and a trailer trash family in fictional Perkinsville, Kansas. The President's science aides set up a first contact meeting with the Martians in Pahrump, Nevada.
Using a universal translator, the Martians announce they have "come in peace." However, when a hippie releases a dove as a symbol of peace, the Martians shoot it down and attack the army and gathered crowd. General Casey, Jason Stone, and Billy-Glenn are among those killed. Thinking that the reason for this is a "cultural misunderstanding," President Dale has Professor Donald Kessler continue negotiations with the Martians, whose ambassador is invited to address the United States Congress. At this meeting, the Martians massacre most of the members of Congress and retreat to their saucer. Kessler begs for the Martian ambassador to stop, but he is knocked out and taken aboard their ship.
General Decker tries to convince President Dale to retaliate with nuclear warfare, but the president refuses. A Martian assassin, disguised as a beautiful woman, enters the White House and unsuccessfully attempts to assassinate Dale. After the unsuccessful attempt on his life, the Martians then begin a full-scale invasion, in which they destroy Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Washington Monument, the Easter Island Moais, Mount Rushmore – replacing the stone president heads with Martian heads, and other locations.
Meeting with the ambassador one more time to plead for peace, the ambassador goes to shake hands with President Dale but the ambassador's hand comes off and crawls on President Dale, and then stabs him to death. Meanwhile, Richie Norris, a Kansas teenager, discovers that the Martians heads explode when they hear Slim Whitman's "Indian Love Call". He and his grandmother drive around town, using the song to destroy the Martians. The military hears about the recording and broadcasts it around the globe and into space, killing most of the Martians and causing the few remaining survivors to flee Earth.
Richie and his grandmother are later awarded the Medal of Honor by the only surviving member of the government, the President's teenage daughter, Taffy, at a ceremony including a Mariachi band playing The Star Spangled Banner on the steps of the ruined United States Capitol.
Cast[]
- Jack Nicholson as President James Dale and Art Land
- Glenn Close as First Lady Marsha Dale
- Annette Bening as Barbara Land
- Pierce Brosnan as Donald Kessler
- Danny DeVito as Rude Gambler
- Lukas Haas as Richie Norris
- Jim Brown as Byron Williams
- Sarah Jessica Parker as Natalie Lake
- Sylvia Sidney as Florence Norris
- Pam Grier as Louise Williams
- Martin Short as Jerry Ross
- Rod Steiger as General Decker
- Tom Jones as Himself
- Michael J. Fox as Jason Stone
- Joe Don Baker and O-Lan Jones as Mr. Norris and Sue-Ann Norris
- Jack Black as Billy-Glen Norris
- Ray J and Brandon Hammond as Cedric and Neville Williams
- Natalie Portman as Taffy Dale
- Paul Winfield as Lt. General Casey
- Lisa Marie Smith as Martian Girl
- Brian Haley as Mitch
- Christina Applegate as Sharona
- Jerzy Skolimowski as Dr. Zeigler
- Barbet Schroeder as Maurice
- Frank Welker as the voice of the Martians
- Roger L. Jackson as the voice of Dr. Zeigler's translator.
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 and 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." Further discussing the differences between Mars Attacks! and Independence Day, Gems stated, "Independence Day is more like a movie called Fail-Safe and Mars Attacks is like Dr. Strangelove", in that both films had a similar story, but with different tones. 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.
Title sequence[]
The movie's opening sequence, which depicts the saucers leaving Mars and flying to Earth, "measured some 5,000 frames long and was created almost entirely by computer graphics. While the first shot showing a lone reconnaissance ship leaving earth was handled by ILM, the tour de force sequence’s remaining 12 shots were all done by Warner Digital...On Mars, irises open over the craters dotting the craggy surface, emitting hundreds of thousands of saucers that assume battle formations and head for Earth."
Soundtrack[]
The film's music was composed by Danny Elfman. The soundtrack was released on March 4, 1997 by Atlantic Records.
Track listing[]
All music is composed by Danny Elfman (except "Indian Love Call", performed by Slim Whitman and "It's Not Unusual", performed by Tom Jones).
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.
Gallery[]
