Mars Attacks!(1996)
Warner Bros. Dec 13, 1996
Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor.
Release Details
Original Release | Dec 13, 1996 | Wide
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Box Office Results
2026-10-25T14:30:49.518Z
Results
$9,384,272
$37,781,197
$63,600,000
$101,381,197
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Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: DTS,Dolby Digital,SDDS
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States, United Kingdom
Language: English,French
Summaries
Plot Summary
- May 10th, 1996. Earth is visited by a massive fleet of thousands of flying saucers from Mars. President of the United States James Dale (Jack Nicholson) addresses the people of the United States.General Decker wants to go to war, but General Casey argues that there is no conclusive evidence of the aliens visiting with hostile intentions. Donald Kessler the scientific advisor also argues that an advanced civilization, by definition, is not barbaric. Jerry Ross (Martin Short) is Dale's Press Secretary, who is shown to hire prostitutes to satisfy his sexual desires.Talk show host Nathalie Lake (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her boyfriend, news reporter Jason Stone (Michael J. Fox), attempt to capitalize on the developing story with an interview with Dale's scientific advisor Professor Donald Kessler (Pierce Brosnan) on May 11th, which is unexpectedly interrupted by a broadcast from the Martian leader. Kessler admits to Nathalie that he has feelings for her.As the Martians prepare to land outside Pahrump, Nevada, on May 13th numerous people around the country react, including donuts shop employee Richie Norris (Lukas Haas) and his older brother Billy-Glenn (Jack Black), flamboyant casino operator Art Land (Jack Nicholson) (owner of the Galaxy casino) and his hippie wife Barbara (Annette Bening), divorced ex-boxer Byron Williams (Jim Brown) and his former wife Louise (Pam Grier), and Byron and Louise's children Cedric (Ray J) and Neville (Brandon Hammond).Billy volunteers for the army. Richie is asked by his parents to drop his grandmother to her retirement home.Byron works as a prop in a casino in Vegas and Louise is a public bus driver in Washington DC. Byron is looking to take leave to go back to his family in Washington.Barbara is a climate activist and believes that the Martians have come to save the planet.Against the advice of the hawkish General Decker (Rod Steiger), Dale chooses to greet the Martians as foreign dignitaries, ordering military officer General Casey (Paul Winfield) to welcome them to Earth. General Casey never really voices any opinion, and just stands there waiting for things to happen to him, which has been the secret to his success.Billy-Glenn, a private in the US Army, is among the soldiers who volunteers to accompany Casey as he greets the Martians in Nevada. The Government had developed a translator to help in communicating with the Martians.Despite the translated message from the Martian ambassador stating that the Martians "come in peace", the ambassador sees a hippie release a dove into the air and kills it with his ray gun. The Martians then turn on the assembled crowd and attack them with their ray guns, killing Casey, Jason, and Billy-Glenn, and abducting Nathalie and her pet chihuahua Poppy.Kessler convinces Dale that the Martians' attack in Nevada may have been the result of a cultural misunderstanding, and Dale agrees to let the Martian ambassador address Congress after the Martians issue a formal apology for their actions. Meanwhile, the Martians are shown to be laughing maniacally on their flying saucers, while conducting experiments on the captured humans and other life forms.Once again, the Martians turn on the assembled humans, massacring most of Congress and abducting Kessler. While Nathalie and Kessler are held captive in the Martian mothership, the Martians switch Nathalie and Poppy's heads and reduce Kessler to a disembodied head.Dale still refuses to launch nuclear weapons at the Martians, even though General Decker insists that they are already at war.Dale narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a Martian disguised as an attractive blonde woman (Lisa Marie), who infiltrates the White House by seducing and killing his press secretary, after he mistakes the Martian for a prostitute and gives her entry into the White House.Following the assassination attempt, the Martians commence a full-scale invasion of Earth, attacking major cities throughout the world. When Martian soldiers overrun the White House, First Lady Marsha (Glenn Close) Dale is killed by a falling chandelier as President Dale escapes to the PEOC. Cedric and Neville were at the White House as part of a public tour, and they pick up the alien guns and start shooting back to allow the President to escape.Art is killed when the Martians destroy his casino in Las Vegas.In Las Vegas, Barbara prepares to flee to Tahoe in Art's private plane and offers to let Byron accompany her. They are joined by Byron's co-worker Cindy (Janice Rivera) and guest singer Tom Jones, who offers to pilot the plane.Meanwhile, Richie abandons his parents Glenn (Joe Don Baker) & Sue-Ann (O-Lan Jones) in their mobile home and goes to his grandmother Florence's (Sylvia Sidney) retirement home to escort her to safety, leaving his parents to be killed by a Martian piloting a giant robot. At the retirement home, the Martians' brains explode when they hear Florence's record of Slim Whitman's yodeling on "Indian Love Call", revealing one of their only weaknesses.Eventually, Martian soldiers breach Dale's secure bunker, crushing Decker after reducing him to minuscule size with a shrink ray, then leveling their weapons on everyone else in the bunker, causing many to be killed while others flee the bunker, leaving Dale the last alive in the room. He makes an eloquent, impassioned speech exhorting the Martians to make peace with humanity, but the now teary-eyed Martian leader kills him with a fake-hand-prank device after offering a handshake.Barbara, Byron, Cindy, and Jones reach Art's plane, but find the runway overrun by a group of Martians led by the Martian ambassador. To buy time for his companions to escape, Byron steps forward to challenge the ambassador to a boxing match and beats him to death before being seemingly overrun by Martians as the plane takes off. Around the world, the Martians are defeated as humans play "Indian Love Call" to destroy them, resulting in Kessler, Nathalie and Poppy's death as the ship they are on crashes.In the aftermath of the war with the Martians, the Dales' teenage daughter Taffy (Natalie Portman) awards the Medal of Honor to Richie and Florence. In Washington, D.C., Byron-who survived his encounter with the Martians-walks up to Louise's home to greet his family. In Tahoe, Barbara, Cindy, and Jones emerge unharmed from a cavern.
Storyline
- It is a normal day for everyone, until President of the United States James Dale (Jack Nicholson) announces Martians have been spotted circling Earth. The Martians land and a meeting is arranged, but not everything goes to plan, and the Martians seem to have other plans for Earth. Are they just misunderstood beings or do they really want to destroy all of humanity? — Film_Fan A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale (Nicholson) receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation. The Martians decide to attack our planet and devastate everything. Why? Because it's fun. They enjoy killing people and destroy buildings. They even play bowling with the statues at Easter Isles and pose for photos in front of temples as they are blowing up. Will somebody find a way to stop them or will everyone die in the war with these short, big-brained aliens? — Chris Makrozahopoulos
