Mars Attacks!: Difference between revisions
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A bizarre 1996 Science Fiction film (based off an old trading card series by Topps) by [[Tim Burton]] that depicted an invasion on the planet Earth by gleefully destructive Martians. Notable for its all-star ensemble cast, including [[Jack Nicholson]], Lukas Haas, Annette Bening, Jim Brown, Pierce Brosnan, [[Sarah Jessica Parker]], Glenn Close, Martin Short, [[Michael J. Fox]], [[Jack Black]], [[Natalie Portman]]
Was not very popular with critics or audiences at the time of its release, probably because they didn't get the joke. Has now become a cult favorite of the movie viewers community.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Accidental Hero]]: Florence, or {{spoiler| at least her choice of music}}.
* [[Achilles' Heel]]: See [[Brown Note]] below.
* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: Fortunately, the Malignant [[Plot Tumor]] giant bugs didn't make the jump.
* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The film was based on a series of rather gruesome trading cards from the 1960s.
* [[Affably Evil]]: See "[[Blatant Lies]]".
* [[Affectionate Parody]]: 1950's science fiction B movies.
* [[Aliens Are Bastards]]: ''Funny'' bastards, too. Why they're being such bastards is never explained, which is [[Don't Explain the Joke|probably]] for [[
* [[Alien Hair]]: "Tenctonese."
* [[Alien Invasion]]
* [[Aliens Speaking English]]: Massive aversion.
* [[Aliens Steal Cattle]]: Parodied in the opening scene.
* [[All
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: And does!
** Though ''awesomely'' subverted with {{spoiler|Byron.}}
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* [[Asshole Victim]]: Billy-Glen, Jason and Lann.
* [[Berserk Button]]: The Martians really don't like birds.
* [[Big "Shut Up!"]]: The President, when General Decker tries to get him to order a nuclear strike on the Martians.
* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: General Casey is the first human to die when the aliens attack. Later in the film, Byron Williams makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] and fights the aliens off so Barbara, Tom Jones and a co-worker can escape in Barbara's plane. When they fly over, it looks like the aliens have beaten him to death. {{spoiler|It turns out he was [[Only Mostly Dead]] and makes a triumphant return to Washington D.C. to reunite with his family.}}
* [[Blatant Lies]]: The Martians yelling "Don't run! We are your friends!" as they are chasing humans with a big freaking disintegrator ray.
** Although what they were actually saying may have been entirely different; the alien translator machine never working right was sort of a [[Running Gag]]. It's also possible that the Martians realized this and chose to cart it around because they thought it was funny.
* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: The Martians, period.
* [[
* [[Brown Note]]: The aliens are defeated by {{spoiler|the playing of the Slim Whitman song "Indian Love Call."}}
** Probably a [[Homage]] to ''[[War of the Worlds]]'', in which the rampaging aliens are defeated by a similarly minor effect (germs), and possibly to ''[[Attack of the Killer Tomatoes]]'', in which the tomatoes are slain by a suspiciously similar song.
* [[Celebrity Survivor]]: Fashion [[Talk Show]] host Natalie Lake, singer Tom Jones ([[As Himself]]), and last but not least, Byron Williams, [[
* [[Cheese
* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: The kids are seen early in the movie shooting the aliens in a video game. Guess what happens later on? {{spoiler|During their field trip in the White House they are attacked and they save the day by taking some Martian guns and saving the president. Whether this is good or bad thing is your decision.}}
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Florence Norris (possibly due to senility and/or dementia), and Barbara.
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*** This didn't surprise her, since she always feels ignored anyway.
** Martian Girl chews nitrogen-based gum to survive in Earth's atmopshere... which is almost 80% nitrogen.
*** Then again, this is a spoof of the 50s SF films that frequently made this kind of mistake, and may have been done deliberately -- especially as the compound she's "breathing" is described as "NO2" -- which is actually nitrogen dioxide.
* [[Dirty Coward]]: Billy-Glen, during the first Martian attack, quite stupidly charges at one with intent to kill it. He hit the magazine release by mistake. He then picks up an American flag and shouts "I surrender!" {{spoiler|He dies anyway, but since no one heard what he actually said, he's honored as an American hero. This fuels his trailer trash parents' blatant favoritism of him over his less aggressive, smarter brother.}}
* [[Disaster Movie]]: [[Played for Laughs]].
* [[Disintegrator Ray]]
* [[Distinguished
* [[Disturbed Doves]]: Subverted.
* [[Donut Mess
* [[The Dragon]]: The Martian Ambassador, wearing a red cloak. He leads the attack at the desert, blows up Congress, and even enters into fisticuffs with Byron at the end of the movie. He takes orders from the [[Big Bad|Martian Leader]], wearing a purple cloak (and pictured above).
* [[Dreadful Musician]]: See [[Brown Note]] above.
* [[Dude, Where's My Respect?]]: Jason Stone can't comprehend his vapid girlfriend somehow managing to outdo him: her show was contacted before his with the news that the President was cutting into everyone's airtime, and later, Donald Kessler appears on her show to discuss the Martians. She's on a ''fashion'' show. Even Natalie's dog won't listen to him.
* [[Dueling Movies]]: Came out the same year as ''[[Independence Day]]''. It lost. In fact, their initial plan was to do ''[[Dinosaurs Attack!]]''<ref>the ''much'' [[Bloodier and Gorier|more graphic]] card series Topps put out in the 80's as a [[Spiritual Successor]] to "Mars"</ref>, but they thought it would wind up being associated with ''[[Jurassic Park]]''. Oops.
* [[Easily
* [[Eenie Meenie Miny Moai]]: They make for good bowling pins.
* [[Emergency Presidential Address]]: This is parodied in the President's address to the U.S. after the Martians destroy Congress, in which he assures the public that a "very real response" will be coming "soon."
* [[Evil
* [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Executive Meddling]]: Averted. Burton was told he absolutely could not kill off Jack Nicholson's character, the President. So what does he do? {{spoiler|[[Exact Words|He casts Nicholson in TWO roles and kills off both of them!]]}}
* [[Falling Chandelier of Doom]]: How {{spoiler|First Lady Marsha (Glenn Close)}} dies. {{spoiler|It was her much-cherished Nancy Reagan chandelier, too.}}
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* [[First Contact]]
* [[For the Evulz]]: Did the Martians really even ''have'' a reason for disintegrating the humans? According to the [[Novelization]]... {{spoiler|nope. They simply like to kill things}}.
* [[Friend to All Living Things]]: Tom Jones, apparently. Either that, or he's secretly a [[Disney Princess]].
* [[General Ripper]]: General Decker, who turns out to be absolutely right.
* [[Granola Girl]]: Annette Bening's character.
* [[Hand Signals]]: When the Martians invade the senior citizen center where Richie's grandmother is staying, one of them silently beckons a large [[Disintegrator Ray]] device forward so it can destroy her.
* [[Helium Speech]]: The Martian leader. {{spoiler|With an absorbed ''nuclear blast''.}}
* [[
* [[Homage]]: To ''Earth vs. The Flying Saucers'' and ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]''.
** The final scene on the Capitol steps to the final scene in ''[[Star Wars]] Episode IV [[A New Hope]]''. Becomes incredibly [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] because Natalie Portman went on to play Queen Amidala in the prequel trilogy, where she plays the same role in paying homage to the same scene.
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* [[Humans Are Diplomats]]: Humans try to make peace every chance they get, [[All for Nothing|for all the good that does.]]
* [[I Know Mortal Kombat]]: Kids practicing rail shooter games give them a leg up when they happen upon some real ray guns from a fallen Martian warrior.
* [[Intended Audience Reaction]]
* [[Ivy League for Everyone]]
* [[Improvised Weapon
* [[Jerkass]]: Every single fucking Martian. And many humans, especially Danny DeVito's character, the President, and Barbara's husband (the last two played by [[Jack Nicholson]]). The president is perhaps simply clueless.
* [[Jerkass Has a Point]]: General Decker was quite right to not trust the Martians, but this gets subverted when he pleads to use nuclear warheads that turn out to be useless. [[Fridge Logic]] comes into play when you realize, had the President listened to Decker and used the warheads much earlier, the Martians would've probably invaded much faster.
* [[Juggling Loaded Guns]]: When a soldier runs screaming towards a rifle, points it at a Martian - and hits the magazine release. Possibly justified because said soldier is played by Jack Black.
* [[Kill
* [[Large Ham]]: Danny DeVito's character. "Rooollexx!"
* [[Last Kiss]]: Donald and Natalie.
* [[Little Green Men]]
* [["London, England" Syndrome]]: In one scene ''Tom Jones'' comments that he saw another character box "...in Cardiff, Wales once." Jones, being a native Welshman, would probably just say "Cardiff" in real life. Surprising he didn't pick up on this one, really.
** [[Justified Trope|He was talking to Americans.]] Most people outside the UK don't even know if Wales is even its own country, let alone the name of its cities.
*** [[Aliens in Cardiff|My, how times change]] (and become [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]).
* [[Losing Your Head]]: Donald and Natalie's heads are severed. Donald's survives in a jar on hanging wires. Natalie's is [[Mix
* [[Mix
* [[Monumental Battle]]
* [[Monumental Damage]]: Bowling with Moai, carving their heads in Mount Rushmore, blowing up Congress, attempting to crush Boy Scouts with the Washington Monument...
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* [[Mood Motif]]: Parodied.
* [[My Brain Is Big]]
* [[Nuke
* [[Opposites Attract]]: Pierce Brosnan's brainy (if ridiculously utopian) scientist and Sarah Jessica Parker's airhead fashion show host.
* [[Pistol
* [[Poor Communication Kills]]
* [[The Power of Rock]]: See [[Brown Note]] above.
* [[Prop Recycling]]: [[Jeff Dunham]] fans, Achmed the Dead Terrorist's eyes are an old, spare pair of martian eyes from this movie.
* [[
* [[Raygun Gothic]]: The Martians' ships and equipment, [[Captain Obvious|including the rayguns]].
* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: The last shot of the film, in which Tom Jones apparently summons a bunch of woodland creatures like he was [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]].
* [[Roofless Renovation]]
* [[Rule of Perception]]
* [[Rushmore Refacement]]
* [[Schizo
* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: A heroic example. Richie deciding to go save his grandmother Florence from the nursing home during the alien invasion. His parents tell him to forget about her and call her a nut and then criticize him again for not being like his {{spoiler|dead}} brother, at which point Richie decides enough is enough and goes anyway, {{spoiler|avoiding certain death.}}
* [[Sedgwick Speech]]
* [[Selective Obliviousness]]: Art Land selling the investors on building his casino while the Martians blow up real estate all around them.
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* [[Shout
* [[Stab the Salad]]
* [[Stripped to
** Possible [[Fridge Brilliance]] with the color effect: the Martians may be keeping score.
* [[Stupid Scientist]]: The Scientist figures the Martians are peaceful. He was wrong.
* [[Swiss Cheese Security]]: The underground Presidential hiding place.
▲* [[This Is Sparta]]: "It's ME! Byron WILLIAMS! [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|HEAVYWEIGHT! CHAMPION! OF THE WORLD!]]"
* [[Thoroughly Mistaken Identity]]: Grandma Norris, who calls both of her grandsons "Thomas".
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Virtually all humans, who continue trusting the Martians after they've consistently vaporized their most important dignitaries.
* [[Two Out of Three
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* [[Unexpected Successor]]: {{spoiler|The President's daughter, played by Natalie Portman.}}
* [[Universal Translator]]: The humans build one before formally meeting the Martians. Subverted in that it doesn't really work (or the Martians are intentionally spouting gibberish half the time just for the fun of it).
* [[The
* [[Violence Is the Only Option]]
* [[Viva Las Vegas]]: A washed-up boxer, a compulsive gambling lawyer, a huckster casino developer, copious showgirls, and Tom Jones.
* [[The War Room]]: And a really cool-looking one at that.
* [[Weaksauce Weakness]]: See [[Brown Note]] above.
* [[We Come in Peace, Shoot
* [[Why Couldn't You Be Different?]]: Richie's parents make it blatantly clear that are very ashamed of him for not being like Billy-Glen.
* [[Why We Can't Have Nice Things]]
* [[The Worf Barrage]]: See [[Nuke
* [[Your Head Asplode]]: {{spoiler|The Martians when they hear the [[Brown Note]].}}
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* [[Child Soldiers]]: The required age to join the army in defeating the Martians is 13 and up.
* [[Deconstruction]]
* [[Enemy Mine]]: Even the
* {{spoiler|[[Earthshattering Kaboom|Mars-Shattering Kaboom]]}}
* [[No Name Given]]: Averted. The warlike Martians are called Gnards and the peaceful, intellectual ones are called Paecs.
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[[Category:Hugo Award]]
[[Category:Mars Attacks]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Cult Classic]]
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