Mars Attacks! Poster, Plot, Development, Casting, Filming, Visual effects, Release, Critical analysis, Awards, and Trailer

Mars Attacks! is a 1996 comic science fiction film directed by Tim Burton and based on the cult trading card series of the same name. The film uses elements of black comedy, surreal humour and political satire, and is also a parody of multiple science fiction B movies. Mars Attacks! stars an ensemble cast, which includes Jack Nicholson, Lukas Haas, Annette Bening, Jim Brown, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Glenn Close, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Jack Black, Natalie Portman and Danny DeVito.

Director Tim Burton and writer Jonathan 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 Warners spent another $20 million on the Mars Attacks!’ marketing campaign. Filming lasted from February to June 1996.

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

Martians begin to surround Earth with an array of flying saucers. James Dale, the President of the United States, addresses America. The message attracts attention within the news media in New York City, employees and common goers at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel, and a trailer trash family in Perkinsville, Kansas. The Presidential scientific aides are able to set a meeting with the Martians in Pahrump, Nevada.

The Martians announce they have “come in peace” by way of a universal translator. But after a hippie releases a dove (as a symbol of peace), the Martians begin to kill the humans that have gathered. Believing the meeting to be a “cultural misunderstanding”, President Dale has Professor Donald Kessler resume negotiations with the Martians. The two species decide to have a Martian ambassador address the United States Congress. However, the event goes wrong once more, leading to the total incineration of Congress.

General Decker tries to convince President Dale to take revenge by nuclear warfare, but Dale refuses. After a mysterious Martian assassin disguised as a woman enters the White House and unsuccessfully attempts to kill the President, the invaders start their full-scale invasion of Earth. They descend upon the planet, destroying international landmarks, and end up killing Dale. Richie Norris, a teenage boy from Kansas, inadvertently discovers the Martians’ deadly weakness (the noise of Slim Whitman’s song, “Indian Love Call”) after rescuing his grandma from a retirement home. Both Richie and his grandma are awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroic efforts. Humans begin cleaning up the Martians’ destruction in an attempt to improve their lifestyle. Richie, in particular, believes everyone should start living in tipis.

Cast

The Martian ambassador incinerates the United States Congress.

* Jack Nicholson as
o James Dale: President of the United States, who only wants peace and friendship with the Martians. He is later impaled by a Martian flag while trying to plead for clemency and peace.
o Art Land: An idiotic Las Vegas real estate developer who is not concerned by the invasion, being more concerned by the well-being of his investors. He is also the husband of Barbara.
* Lukas Haas as Richie Norris: Often ostracized by his family, but loved by his grandmother. When Richie heads to the retirement home to save her, he inadvertently discovers the Martians’ weakness, thereby saving the world.
* Annette Bening as Barbara Land: Recovering alcoholic wife of Art who is interested in New Age philosophy.
* Jim Brown as Byron Williams: Former heavyweight champion who organizes a fight with the Martians in order to distract them from Tom, Barbara, and Cindy’s escape. Byron is ultimately overpowered when the Martians gang up on him, but manages to survive.
* Pierce Brosnan as Donald Kessler: Charming British anatomy professor. He thinks the Martians are friendly, and therefore cannot explain why they are not being friendly as he thought they would. Kessler is captured by the Martians, his head removed but kept alive as part of the Martians’ experiments.
* Sarah Jessica Parker as Natalie Lake: Talk show host for Today in Fashion. She is Jason’s girlfriend and also in love with Donald Kessler. The Martians exchange her head with that of her chihuahua in their experiments. Natalie presumably drowns along with Donald after their spacecraft crashes into water.
* Sylvia Sydney as Florence Norris: A family outcast who helps her grandson Richie save the world with her Slim Whitman music.
* Glenn Close as Marsha Dale: President Dale’s wife and First Lady of the United States, who is killed by a falling chandelier when the Martians invade the White House.
* Pam Grier as Louise Williams: Washington, D.C. bus driver who is concerned over her sons’ rebellious behavior. She is also Byron’s ex-wife; they attempt to reconcile their relationship.
* Martin Short as Jerry Ross: White House Press Secretary who is killed after allowing a disguised Martian, whom he believes to be a prostitute, in the White House.
* Rod Steiger as General Decker: Warmonger United States Army General who does not trust the Martians, and assumes the worst of their intentions by wanting to start a nuclear war. Decker is proven right, but is ultimately shrunk to a tiny size by the Martian leader and squashed while protecting President Dale.
* Tom Jones as Himself: Famous Las Vegas singer who assists Barbara, Byron, Cindy and the Rude Gambler’s escape from the city after the Martians attack.
* Michael J. Fox as Jason Stone: Network news anchor for GNN. Although he is jealous of his girlfriend Natalie’s show, Jason loves her very much and attempts to save her from the Martians before being incinerated.
* Joe Don Baker and O-Lan Jones as Mr. Norris and Sue-Ann Norris: Trailer trash husband and wife couple and the parents of Richie and Billy-Glen; they hold the aggressive Billy-Glen as an American hero and Richie as the black sheep of the family.
* Jack Black as Billy-Glen Norris: Richie’s brother; a US Army soldier who is killed by the Martians in the siege at Nevada after his gun clip malfunctions.
* Ray J and Brandon Hammond as Cedric and Neville Williams: Rebellious sons of Byron and Louise. They help the President escape from a Martian attack at a White House tour when they steal two Martian rayguns.
* Natalie Portman as Taffy Dale: Daughter of President James Dale and First Lady Marsha. She does not care much about the Martians at first, until they invade and kill both her parents. She survives the invasion through unknown means and develops a crush on Richie.
* Paul Winfield as Lt. General Casey: Is sent as the American ambassador in Nevada and becomes the first human victim of the Martians.
* Danny DeVito as Rude Gambler: Obnoxious lawyer vacationing in Las Vegas who is incinerated by a Martian after failing to negotiate over a Rolex wristwatch.
* Lisa Marie as Martian Girl: Mysterious Martian assassin sent to kill President Dale. She is momentarily distracted by a parakeet and then shot dead by several Secret Servicemen.
* Brian Haley as Mitch: Obedient Secret Service Agent who sacrifices himself for President Dale’s life. At one point during the Martian invasion, he is shot in the arm with a red raygun, yet only suffers a fracture.
* Janice Rivera as Cindy: Waitress at the Luxor Las Vegas Hotel. Terrified by the Martians, she escapes from the city with Barbara, Byron, Tom Jones and the Rude Gambler.
* Christina Applegate as Sharona: Billy-Glen’s girlfriend.
* Jerzy Skolimowski as Dr. Zeigler: Inventor of a Martian Translator device. Present in Nevada during first contact between Martians and humans.
* Barbet Schroeder as Maurice: President of France who attempts to negotiate with the Martians. He is killed once he believes to have reached an agreement.
* Frank Welker as the voice of the Martians, whose language is made up entirely of repeated use of the word “Ack”.
* Roger L. Jackson as the voice of Dr. Zeigler’s poorly-made Martian Translator device.

Development

Jonathan Gems, who had previously written multiple unproduced screenplays for director/producer Tim Burton, came up with the idea of doing a film adaptation of the Mars Attacks trading card series in 1993. The writer then pitched both the concepts of Mars Attacks and Dinosaurs Attack! to Burton, and they decided that Dinosaurs Attack! would be too similar to Jurassic Park (1993); thus they went to work on Mars Attacks!. 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. Martin Amis also was hired for rewrite work, but he later explained that although he “rather liked [the film], it contained not a word I wrote”.

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 relented. 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.”

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). Warren Beatty was the original choice for the role of President Dale, but dropped out. Paul Newman replaced him, but then considered playing another role. In the event, Newman left over concerns about the film’s violence. Jack Nicholson was cast as the President, and convinced Burton to let him play Art Land as well.[8] Burton agreed, specifically remembering his positive working relationship with the actor on Batman (1989).

Susan Sarandon was originally set to play Barbara Land[8] before Annette Bening was cast, who modeled the character after Ann-Margret’s performance in Viva Las Vegas (1964). Hugh Grant was the first choice for Professor Donald Kesler, which eventually went to Pierce Brosnan. Meryl Streep 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), Sarah Jessica Parker (who signed on before reading the script) from Ed Wood (1994) and Danny DeVito from Batman Returns (1992).

Filming

The original start date was to take place in mid-August 1995, but filming for Mars Attacks! did not begin 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 (1962). 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 then girlfriend Lisa Marie) who seduces 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 written/composed by Burton regular Danny Elfman, who experienced creative differences with the filmmaker during The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Because of this, they did not work together on Ed Wood (1994), but reconciled for Mars Attacks!. 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 (1962). Similar to his own Beetlejuice (1988), Burton “wanted to make look cheap and purposely fake-looking as possible.” He first approached Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), to supervise the stop motion work, but Selick was too busy with James and the Giant Peach (1996). Despite the fact that Warner Bros. was skeptical of the escalating budget (Mars Attacks! also had yet to be greenlighted by the studio), 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 (1950) for inspiration on the Martians’ movement.
The Martians were created using computer-generated imagery from ILM.

When the budget was being 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 (1995). 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 (2005), 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 night-time demolition of The Landmark Hotel and Casino, a building Burton was fond of and wanted to immortalise.

Release

To promote Mars Attacks!, Warner Bros. spent $20 million on the marketing campaign. Coinciding with the $80 million spent during production, the final and combined budget for Mars Attacks! came to $100 million. A novelization, written by writer 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 US totals and $63.6 million elsewhere, coming to a worldwide total of $101.37 million.

The film is considered a box office bomb, but achieved greater success both critically and commercially in Europe than it did in America. 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 Mars Attacks!’ theatrical run in January 1997, USA Network purchased the broadcasting rights of the film.

Critical analysis

Mars Attacks! also drew mixed responses from critics. Based on 56 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 46% of the reviewers enjoyed the film, with an average score of 5.6/10. Mars Attacks! was more balanced with the 15 critics in Rotten Tomatoes’ “Top Critics” poll, receiving a 33% approval rating and a 5.2/10 score. 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 (1962), 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 humour 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.”

Awards

Mars Attacks! was almost nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences choose 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.