| Mars Attacks! | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Tim Burton |
| Written by | Jonathan Gems |
| Based on | Mars Attacks byTopps |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Suschitzky |
| Edited by | Chris Lebenzon |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 106 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $80–100 million |
| Box office | $101.4 million |
Mars Attacks! is a 1996 Americanscience fictionblack comedy film[2] directed byTim Burton, who also co-produced it withLarry J. Franco. The screenplay byJonathan Gems was based on theToppstrading cardseries of the same name. The film features anensemble cast consisting ofJack Nicholson (in adual role),Glenn Close,Annette Bening,Pierce Brosnan,Lukas Haas,Sarah Jessica Parker,Martin Short,Michael J. Fox,Rod Steiger,Tom Jones,Natalie Portman,Jim Brown,Danny DeVito,Lisa Marie, andSylvia Sidney in her final film role.
Alex Cox had tried to make aMars Attacks film in the 1980s before Burton and Gems began development in 1993. When Gems turned in his first draft in 1994,Warner Bros. commissioned rewrites from Gems, Burton, andScott 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 theMars Attacks! marketing campaign. Filming took place from February to June 1996. The film was shot inCalifornia,Nevada,Kansas,Arizona, andArgentina.[not verified in body]
The filmmakers hiredIndustrial Light & Magic to create the Martians usingcomputer animation after their previous plan to usestop motion supervised byBarry Purves fell through because of budget and time limitations.Mars Attacks! was released theatrically byWarner Bros. Pictures in the United States on December 13, 1996, to mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its comedic satire of 1950s sci-fi B movies, but criticisms for its dark humor. The film grossed approximately $101.4 million in box-office totals, which was seen as aflop.Mars Attacks! was nominated for theHugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and earned multiple nominations at theSaturn Awards. It has achievedcult classic status over the years.
On the planetMars, aMartian spaceship gathers hundreds of other ships and travels toEarth.President James Dale, along with his aides, addresses the United States concerning this historic event. Several days later, the President's science aides set up afirst-contact meeting with the Martians inPahrump, Nevada, as Dale watches the development on television with his wife Marsha and his daughter Taffy. Using atranslation machine, the Martian ambassador announces that his race has"come in peace". In response, a hippie releases a dove as a symbol of peace, causing the ambassador to shoot it before ordering the other Martians to massacre most of the attendees at the event, including General Casey, news reporter Jason Stone, and young private Billy-Glenn Norris. Talk-show host and Jason's co-worker and girlfriend Nathalie Lake and her pet chihuahua, Poppy, are captured by the Martians in the process.
Thinking that the Martians assumed that the dove was a symbol of war, Dale tells Professor Donald Kessler to renegotiate with the Martians, whose ambassador later requests to address theUnited States Congress. At this meeting, the Martians annihilate most of Congress and, despite begging the ambassador to stop, Kessler is knocked unconscious and taken aboard their ship. Kessler's head is disembodied and animated as part of the Martian's experiments, who have also switched around Nathalie and Poppy's heads onto their bodies. Back on Earth, General Decker fails to persuade Dale to retaliate with nuclear warfare.
After a failed attempt to assassinate Dale using a disguised Martian, the Martians declare war and invade Earth in droves, starting withWashington, DC, and quickly spreading around the globe. As they attack theWhite House, the U.S.Secret Service evacuates Dale, but Marsha is crushed to death by a chandelier while Taffy is separated 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 Martianmothership, but that proves futile, and the Martians continue destroying Earth, defacing and vandalizing world landmarks. Eventually, the Martian ambassador 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. The Martian ambassador seemingly agrees to a truce with Dale, but then uses a gadget disguised as a hand to assassinate him.
As the Martians ravageLas Vegas, Byron Williams, a former world-champion boxer turned casino employee, leads a small group of survivors consisting of Barbara Land, singerTom Jones, and Byron's co-worker waitress Cindy to escape the city with a small two-engined plane. As soon as they enter the plane, the group discover a large platoon of Martians (along with the ambassador) stationed there, as they are preparing to take off. Byron creates a diversion by challenging the Martians to a fistfight. While he succeeds in killing the ambassador, Bryon is outnumbered and overwhelmed by the other Martians, but Jones, Barbara, and Cindy escape.
While going to rescue his grandmother, Florence, Billy-Glenn's brother Richie discovers the Martians' weakness: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 accept their fate as the Martian spaceship they are on crashes into the ocean. In the aftermath, Barbara, Cindy, and Jones emerge from a cave with some wild animals to see dozens of crashed Martian ships inLake Tahoe. Taffy awards Richie and Florence theMedal of Honor. Byron, who survived the Martian brawl, arrives in Washington, DC, to reunite with his former wife Louise and their two sons Cedric and Neville, as the devastation is being cleaned up.
The cast also includesJoe Don Baker andO-Lan Jones as Richie's parents Glenn Norris and Sue-Ann Norris, andJack Black as his older brother Billy-Glenn Norris.[3]Christina Applegate appears as Sharona, Billy-Glenn's girlfriend and trailer-park lover.Pam Grier plays Byron's former wife, Louise Williams, while Janice Rivera plays his assistant, Cindy, andRay J andBrandon Hammond play his children, Cedric Williams and Neville Williams.Jerzy Skolimowski plays Doctor Zeigler, the developer of a Martian-language translator.John Roselius plays Stone's supervisor at GNN, whileMichael Reilly Burke andValerie Wildman play fellow reporters.Steve Valentine plays the television director for Nathalie's talk show.Paul Winfield andEnrique Castillo, respectively, play General Casey and the Hispanic colonel who greet the aliens in Nevada.Frank Welker voices the Martians.[4]
In 1985,Alex Cox pitched the idea of a film based on theMars Attacks trading-card series as a joint production toOrion andTriStar Pictures. He wrote three drafts over the next four years, but was replaced byMartin Amis before Orion and TriStar placedMars Attacks! inturnaround.[5]
In 1993,Jonathan Gems, a screenwriter who had previously written multiple unproduced screenplays for director Tim Burton, approached the director andpitched the idea of turning bothMars Attacks andDinosaurs Attack! into films.[6] While both Gems and Burton realized that aDinosaurs Attack! film would be too similar toSteven Spielberg'sJurassic Park (1993),[7][8] Burton believed that aMars Attacks! adaptation could function like a1970s disaster picture with an ensemble cast; Gems and he consequently rented a copy of the filmThe Towering Inferno (1974) and watched it for inspiration. In a later interview, Gems explained: "After seeing that [movie] it all came to me fairly quickly. And, in about a week, I had it roughed out: the story and the characters. And when I finished it, I realized it was inevitably going to be – it couldn't help being – a portrait of America because, following theIrwin Allen formula, I'd sketched out a range of different characters from different walks of life and placed the action in different locations – in this case: California, Nevada, Kansas, New York, Mount Rushmore, and Washington, D.C."[9]
Burton, who was busy preparingEd Wood (1994), believed thatMars Attacks! would be a perfect opportunity to payhomage to the films ofEdward D. Wood Jr., especiallyPlan 9 from Outer Space (1959), and other1950s science-fiction B movies,[6] such asInvaders from Mars (1953),[10]It Came from Outer Space (1953),[8]The War of the Worlds (1953),Target Earth (1954),Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), andEarth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956).[6]
Burton setMars Attacks! up with Warner Bros. and the studio purchased thefilm rights to the trading-card series on his behalf.[11] 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.[12] After turning in numerous drafts, the studio grew frustrated with Gems after insisting he remove the film's cold open, specifically "the cows on fire"; they demanded there be no burning cows, but Gems contends he could not devise another sequence (albeit anything Burton and he could agree improved on his initial "barbecue bovines" prologue). When Gems' latest script revision still included burning cows, the studio dismissed him; prior to leaving the project, Gems recommended the writing duo behind[13]Ed Wood,Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski,[6] as his replacement(s).[14] Alexander and Karaszewski worked on the film through July 1995, focusing the characters and making the tone less satirical – they rewrote the third act, incorporating the military and a finale that mirroredIndependence Day (1996), according to Gems.[15]
Gems eventually returned to the project, writing a total of 12 drafts of the script (well over 90% of the finished shooting script).[16] Although he is credited with both the screen story and screenplay ofMars Attacks!, Gems dedicates hisnovelization of the movie to Burton, who "co-wrote the screenplay and didn't ask for a credit".[6] Warner Bros. was dubious of the Martian dialogue and wanted Burton to add subtitles, but he resisted.[17] 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, leaving only Paris, London, and the Taj Mahal. "Bear in mind, this was way beforeIndependence 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."[12] Further discussing the differences betweenMars Attacks! andIndependence Day, Gems stated, "Independence Day is more like a movie calledFail Safe andMars Attacks! is likeDr. Strangelove", in that both films had a similar story, but with different tones.[18]
The decision to hire anA-listensemble cast forMars Attacks! parallels the strategy Irwin Allen used for hisdisaster films, notablyThe Poseidon Adventure (1972) andThe Towering Inferno (1974).[6] Jack Nicholson, approached for the role of the President, jokingly remarked that he wanted to play all the roles.[19] Burton agreed to cast Nicholson as both Art Land and President Dale, specifically remembering his positive working relationship with the actor onBatman.[6]
Susan Sarandon was originally set to play Barbara Land beforeAnnette Bening was cast.[19] Bening modeled the character afterAnn-Margret's performance inViva Las Vegas (1964).[8]Hugh Grant was the first choice for Professor Donald Kessler, a role which eventually went toPierce Brosnan.[20]Meryl Streep,Diane Keaton andStockard Channing were considered for First Lady Marsha Dale, butGlenn Close won the role.[19] In addition to Nicholson, other actors who reunited with Burton onMars Attacks! include Sylvia Sidney fromBeetlejuice (1988), O-Lan Jones fromEdward Scissorhands (1990), and Danny DeVito fromBatman Returns (1992), continuing Burton's trend of recasting actors several times from his previous works.[21]
Roger L. Jackson, best known as the voice ofGhostface in theScream film franchise, makes an uncredited appearance as the voice of the Martian translator device. His performance inMars Attacks! helped him get the audition forScream.[22]
The originally scheduled start date was mid-August 1995, but filming was delayed until that fall.[20] Director Tim Burton hiredPeter Suschitzky as thecinematographer because he was a fan of his work inDavid Cronenberg's films.Production designer Wynn Thomas (A Beautiful Mind,Malcolm X) intended to have the war room pay tribute toDr. Strangelove (1964).[23] During production, Burton insisted that theart direction,cinematography, andcostume design ofMars Attacks! incorporate the look of the 1960s trading cards.[10]
On designing the Martian (played by Burton's girlfriendLisa Marie Smith) who seduces and kills Jerry Ross (Martin Short), costume designerColleen Atwood took combined inspiration from the playing cards,Marilyn Monroe, the work ofAlberto Vargas, andJane Fonda inBarbarella (1968).[24] Filming forMars Attacks! ended on June 1, 1996.[25] Thefilm score was composed by Burton's regular composerDanny Elfman, to whom Burton was reconciled after a quarrel that occurred duringThe Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), for which they did not co-operate in producingEd Wood (1994). Elfman enlisted the help ofOingo Boingo lead guitaristSteve Bartek to help arrange the compositions for the orchestra.[6]
Tim Burton initially intended to usestop-motion animation to feature the Martians,[8] viewing it as an homage to the work ofRay Harryhausen, primarilyJason and the Argonauts. Similar to his ownBeetlejuice, Burton "wanted to make [the special effects] look cheap and purposely fake-looking as possible."[6] He first approachedHenry Selick, director ofThe Nightmare Before Christmas, to supervise the stop-motion work, but Selick was busy directingJames and the Giant Peach, also produced by Burton. Even though Warner Bros. was skeptical of the escalating budget and had not yetgreenlit the film for production, Burton hiredBarry Purves to shepherd the stop-motion work. Purves created an international team of about 70 animators, who worked onMars Attacks! for eight months[8] and began compiling test footage inBurbank, California.[6] The department workers studiedGloria Swanson's choreography and movement asNorma Desmond inSunset Boulevard for inspiration on the Martians' movement.[8]
When the budget was projected at $100 million[25] (Warner Bros. wanted it for no more than $75 million),[6] producer Larry J. Franco commissioned a test reel fromIndustrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company he worked with onJumanji. Burton was persuaded to change his mind to employcomputer animation, which brought the final production budget to $80 million. Although Purves was uncredited for his work,[8] stop-motion supervisors Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders, who would later collaborate with Burton onCorpse Bride, received character design credit.[6] Warner Digital Studios was responsible for the scenes of global destruction, airborne flying saucer sequences, the Martian landing in Nevada and therobot that pursues Richie Norris in hispickup truck. Warner Digital also used practical effects, such as buildingscale models ofBig Ben and otherlandmarks. The destruction of Art Land's hotel was footage of the real-life nighttime demolition ofthe Landmark Hotel and Casino, a building Burton wished to immortalize.[21]
| Mars Attacks! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | March 4, 1997 | |||
| Recorded | 1996 | |||
| Genre | Soundtrack | |||
| Length | 46:44 | |||
| Label | Atlantic Records | |||
| Producer | Danny Elfman | |||
| Danny Elfman chronology | ||||
| ||||
The film's music was composed and produced byDanny Elfman, conducted byArtie Kane and performed by theHollywood Studio Symphony. The soundtrack was released on March 4, 1997, byAtlantic Records.
All music is composed byDanny Elfman (except "Indian Love Call", written by Otto A. Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II and Rudolf Friml, performed bySlim Whitman and "It's Not Unusual", written by Les Reed and Gordon Mills, performed byTom Jones).
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Introduction" | 1:40 |
| 2. | "Main Titles" | 2:22 |
| 3. | "First Sighting" | 1:26 |
| 4. | "The Landing" | 6:01 |
| 5. | "Ungodly Experiments" | 0:53 |
| 6. | "State Address" | 3:06 |
| 7. | "Martian Madame" | 3:02 |
| 8. | "Martian Lounge" | 2:54 |
| 9. | "Return Message" | 2:17 |
| 10. | "Destructo X" | 1:17 |
| 11. | "Loving Heads" | 1:20 |
| 12. | "Pursuit" | 2:55 |
| 13. | "The War Room" | 1:31 |
| 14. | "Airfield Dilemma" | 2:05 |
| 15. | "New World" | 1:45 |
| 16. | "Ritchie's Speech" | 3:09 |
| 17. | "End Credits" | 3:53 |
| 18. | "Indian Love Call" | 3:08 |
| 19. | "It's Not Unusual" | 2:00 |
| Total length: | 46:44 | |
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.[26] Anovelization, written by screenwriterJonathan Gems, was published byPuffin Books in January 1997.[27] The film was released in the United States on December 13, 1996, earning $9.38 million in its opening weekend and ranking in second place at the box office belowJerry Maguire.[28]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.[29]
The film was considered to be abox-office bomb in the U.S. but generally achieved greater success both critically and commercially in Europe.[30] Many observers found similarities withIndependence 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 aMad magazine version ofIndependence Day."[6] During the film's theatrical run in January 1997,TBS purchased the broadcasting rights of the film.[31]
The film received mixed responses from critics. Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 55% based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 6.00/10. The website's 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 littletoo faithfully for audiences."[32] OnMetacritic, the film received a score of 52 based on 19 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[33]
Roger Ebert observed thehomages to the 1950s science fictionB 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 forInfra-Man (1975) orInvasion 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 mega production never really understands."[34]
Kenneth Turan of theLos Angeles Times wrote that "Mars Attacks! is all 1990s cynicism and disbelief, mocking the conventions thatIndependence 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".[35]Desson Thomson fromThe Washington Post said "Mars Attacks! evokes plenty of sci-fi classics, fromThe Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) toDr. Strangelove (1964), but it doesn't do much beyond that superficial exercise. Except for Burton's jolting sight gags (I may never recover from the vision of Sarah Jessica Parker's head grafted onto the body of achihuahua), the comedy is half-developed, pedestrian material. And theclimactic battle between Earthlings and Martians is dull and overextended."[36]
Richard Schickel, writing inTime magazine, gave a positive review. "You have to admire everyone'schutzpah: the breadth of Burton's (and writer Jonathan Gems') movie references, which range fromKurosawa toKubrick; 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."[37]Jonathan Rosenbaum from theChicago Reader praised thesurreal humor andblack comedy, which he found to be in the vein ofDr. Strangelove andGremlins (1984). He said it was far from clear whether the movie was a satire, although critics were describing it as one.[38] Todd McCarthy ofVariety calledMars Attacks! "acult sci-fi comedy miscast as an elaborate,all-star studio extravaganza."[39]
Jonathan Palmer reviewedMars Attacks forArcane magazine, rating it a 7 out of 10 overall, and stated that "When, eventually, the martians start getting their comeuppance, I was reminded of Winston Smith's experience in the early cinema scene in1984, but I ignored that thought and just sat back to enjoy the carnage."[40]
Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B" on a scale of A+ to F.[41]
Mars Attacks! was on the shortlist for theAcademy Award for Best Visual Effects nominations, but theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selectedIndependence Day,Dragonheart, andTwister instead.[42] The film was nominated for seven categories at theSaturn Awards. Danny Elfman wonBest Music, while director Tim Burton, writer Jonathan Gems, actor Lukas Haas,costume designer Colleen Atwood and thevisual effects department atIndustrial Light & Magic received nominations.Mars Attacks! was nominated for both theSaturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film (which went toIndependence Day)[43] and theHugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.[44]
Apark management video game based on the series titledMars Attracts will release in 2025.[45]
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