Watch the video to see things only adults notice in Mars Attacks!
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00:00The 1996 sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks is a movie for the kid in all of us, but if you watched
00:06it when you were an actual kid, you may have missed out on some of the cleverest parts.
00:12Fortunately, we're here to guide you through them all.
00:15If there's one thing that Hollywood loves, it's scouring every medium known to man for
00:20established ideas, whether they're from books, TV shows, comics, games, toys, or other movies.
00:26So which of these inspired Mars Attacks?
00:29As the opening credits inform us, it's based upon Mars Attacks, a property of the Topps
00:34Company.
00:35In case you need help interpreting that description, Mars Attacks is one of the very few movies
00:40that was adapted from a line of trading cards — and these weren't just any old trading
00:44cards.
00:45In 1962, Topps released a series of cards with art by veteran pulp fiction artist Norman
00:50Saunders, which were based on drawings by Golden Age comic artists Bob Powell and Wally
00:55Wood.
00:56Saunders was hired after Topps got the idea from Wood's cover for an issue of the comic
01:00book Weird Science.
01:01Wood was no stranger to controversy after working on Tales from the Crypt, which was
01:06so horrifying that it landed his bosses in front of a Senate subcommittee.
01:12History repeated itself in the Mars Attacks card's violence-delighted children and horrified
01:17parents, who demanded that Topps pull them from the shelves.
01:20But the memory still lingered with a generation of kids, and the movie adaptation recreates
01:25several images directly from its inspiration, including the herd of flaming cows that opens
01:31the film.
01:32Director Tim Burton and screenwriter Jonathan Gems have made no secret that they rotted
01:37their brains out watching hundreds of sci-fi movies in their youths.
01:41As a result, attentive audiences might recognize several scenes inspired by the drive-in flicks
01:46of the 50s and 60s in Mars Attacks.
01:49When Sarah Jessica Parker as Natalie tries to describe the Martians' flying saucer, the
01:53best she can come up with is a giant hubcap.
01:57That's likely a reference to legendarily terrible director Ed Wood, as it's been speculated
02:02that he used hubcaps as flying saucers in Plan 9 from Outer Space.
02:07That would have been on Burton's mind, as he'd just made the biopic Ed Wood a few years
02:11earlier.
02:12Another notable reference occurs when the Martians abduct Professor Kessler and experiment
02:17on him by lopping off his head and keeping it alive with a headband attached to a series
02:21of metal rods and discs.
02:23Trash cinema fans may recognize that apparatus from The Brain That Wouldn't Die, which was
02:28featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
02:32There's also a reference to a more prestigious movie, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove,
02:36which satirized the Cold War by portraying America's leaders as a bunch of bloodthirsty
02:41crackpots.
02:42Mars Attacks features an homage to Strangelove's famous war room, which Burton renders even
02:47more cartoonish in his version.
02:49We will win!
02:50The Eagle will be triumphant!"
02:54The connections between Mars Attacks and sci-fi B-movies are fairly obvious, but Burton also
02:59had some other, bigger-budget movies in mind.
03:02In the 70s, producer Irwin Allen hit it big with the blockbuster disaster flicks The Poseidon
03:07Adventure and The Towering Inferno.
03:09They combined ensemble casts of major stars with spectacular disaster effects.
03:15Burton called them celebrities-getting-killed movies.
03:18Soon, imitators were everywhere, from Earthquake to Avalanche to the Airport series, which
03:23inspired the classic parody Airplane.
03:26Mars Attacks spoofs the Allen formula by featuring a huge cast of celebrities whose characters
03:32each react to the disaster in their own way.
03:35The actors on screen were some of the biggest stars of the time, like Michael J. Fox, Sarah
03:40Jessica Parker, Glenn Close, and the then-current James Bond, Pierce Brosnan.
03:45There are also plenty of stars from decades earlier, like Jack Nicholson, Joe Don Baker,
03:52and singer Tom Jones as himself.
03:55The cast seems even more star-studded now, as the likes of Jack Black, Natalie Portman,
04:00and Ray J were mostly unknown at the time, but looking back now, they're some of the
04:05biggest names in the movie.
04:07Two more stars of Mars Attacks pay tribute to yet another movie genre.
04:11In the 70s, Hollywood woke up to the potential of African-American audiences with a flood
04:16of low-budget, action-packed movies that were dubbed Blaxploitation.
04:21Two of the genre's biggest stars were Pam Greer and Jim Brown, who appear in Mars Attacks
04:26as ex-husband and wife Byron and Louise.
04:29Greer got her start as a switchboard operator at the low-budget studio AIP before director
04:33Jack Hill got her in front of the cameras, resulting in cult classics like Coffee and
04:38Foxy Brown.
04:40As for Brown, before he started acting, he earned spots in both the pro and college football
04:44halls of fame for his career as a running back for the Syracuse Orange Men and then
04:49the Cleveland Browns.
04:51He parlayed his gridiron success into an acting career in both Blaxploitation and prestigious
04:56studio films, including the war classic The Dirty Dozen.
05:00Even though Greer and Brown ran in similar circles, Mars Attacks was actually their first
05:05movie together when it arrived in 1996.
05:08But it wouldn't be their last, as that same year they teamed up with several other Blaxploitation
05:13icons for original gangstas.
05:15"...me, Byron Finn, heavyweight champion of the world!"
05:24A major reason that Mars Attacks is so much fun is thanks to Tim Burton's deeply idiosyncratic
05:31filmmaking.
05:32You can see the fingerprints of his style everywhere.
05:35Natalie Portman as the president's bored, morbid daughter, for example, could be the
05:39twin sister of Lydia from Beetlejuice.
05:42Burton also puts his trademark curlicue design over everything, from the Martian spy's dress
05:48to the gangplank on the saucer, which unfolds like the Curly Hill in The Nightmare Before
05:53Christmas.
05:54Burton also made sure to take some of his closest collaborators along for the ride.
05:58Sarah Jessica Parker had just worked with him on Ed Wood, while Sylvia Sidney had played
06:02the caseworker in Beetlejuice.
06:04Fresh off of Batman Returns, Danny DeVito shows up as a sleazy gambler, and the Martian
06:10spy is even played by Burton's then-girlfriend Lisa Marie.
06:13There are also plenty of familiar names behind the camera, like Colleen Atwood, who's designed
06:19costumes for nearly all of Burton's movies, and composer Danny Elfman, who's worked on
06:24almost every Burton film as well.
06:27Tim Burton is known for creating timeless on-screen worlds that exist somewhere out
06:31of sync with reality, and that holds true in Mars Attacks.
06:34As you'd expect from a tribute to 50s sci-fi and 70s disaster movies, Mars Attacks is temporarily
06:41all over the place.
06:42The military is all decked out in Vietnam War-era uniforms and gear, and at one point,
06:48a general talks on a walkie-talkie the size of a blimp, even though cell phones had been
06:52on the market for years when the movie came out.
06:55The hippies who greet the Martian landing are 60s flower children, while the Martian
06:59assassin hides her enormous cranium under a 50s-style beehive hairdo.
07:04Lucas Haas' Richie looks like he could have walked out of a 90s Smashing Pumpkins concert,
07:09and as for Sarah Jessica Parker, her hair and fashion sense couldn't possibly be any
07:14more 60s.
07:16Neither could her TV studio, with its groovy, polka-dotted papasan chairs and a can of the
07:20discontinued soft drink Tab on the table.
07:24For the most part, Mars Attacks is the farthest thing from subtle, but it does actually contain
07:29a few subtle details that you'll need an adult-sized attention span to catch.
07:34For instance, when Michael J. Fox as TV reporter Jason Stone goes out to cover the Martian
07:38landing with his partner Natalie, he's sporting a very silly-looking tie covered in donuts.
07:43That accessory isn't just there to make him look silly.
07:46When the Martian commander delivers his first message to the people of Earth on TV, he moves
07:50his hand in a circle.
07:52One character recognizes it as the international sign of the donut.
07:56So it's not a stretch to think that Jason's trying to make a good impression on the one
08:00thing he knows for sure the Martians like.
08:03But even if that interpretation is correct, it probably doesn't matter as far as Jason
08:08or anyone else is concerned.
08:10The Martians pretty quickly make it clear that they're not interested in making new
08:14friends when they open fire on the crowd.
08:16Natalie grabs Jason's hand in the hopes of getting to safety, but then she finds out
08:20that his hand is all she's grabbed, as the Martians have vaporized the rest of him.
08:26Mars Attacks is rated PG-13 for sci-fi fantasy violence and brief sexuality.
08:31And while kids may delight in the over-the-top violence, a lot of the more suggestive material
08:36is likely to go right over their heads.
08:39For instance, Martin Short appears as presidential press secretary Jerry Ross, who we see cruising
08:44around Washington in a limo just before the Martian landing.
08:47He chats up some scantily-clad ladies on a street corner who ask him if he's interested
08:51in a date.
08:53Kids might imagine he's about to buy them dinner, but adults should have no trouble
08:57recognizing the ladies as street-walking sex workers.
09:00The Martians are obviously paying attention as well, since they send their assassin to
09:05pose as a sex worker herself so that Jerry will let her into the White House.
09:09And it's hard to imagine even the youngest viewers misunderstanding the situation when
09:13Jerry jumps on her with his tongue waggling and knocks her onto the heart-shaped bed in
09:18his secret seduction room.
09:20And if you pay close attention to the dialogue, there's another inside joke for the adults
09:24in the audience, especially the baby boomers and history buffs.
09:28Jerry describes the hidden bedroom as the Kennedy Room, named after President John F.
09:33Kennedy, who was infamous for his many alleged extramarital affairs, including one with superstar
09:38Marilyn Monroe.
09:40Sam Greer's character Louise has her hands full raising her two sons, Cedric and Neville,
09:45while working full-time as a bus driver.
09:47One day on her route, she drives past the arcade and sees her boys happily shooting
09:51at video game aliens when they're supposed to be at school.
09:55She then yanks them out of the arcade and disciplines them in front of a whole bus of
09:58passengers for wasting their time playing games when they're supposed to be learning.
10:02Do you think it's smart to catch them?
10:03Huh?
10:04Do you?
10:05Do you?
10:06Huh?
10:07Huh?
10:08No!
10:09No, no, mom, because it's dumb.
10:10You're gonna flunk and you're gonna go to jail."
10:11Later, though, when Cedric and Neville are on a school trip at the White House, they
10:13get ambushed by some real-life Martians.
10:16They steal some of the invaders' ray guns and start firing away just like they did while
10:20playing the arcade game.
10:22They equip themselves well against the actual Martians, even saving the president's life.
10:27Kids may not recognize the underlying message here, but it's a fantasy that plenty of them
10:32have probably had at some point.
10:34You see, despite their mom's worries, Cedric and Neville didn't rot out their brains at
10:39the arcade.
10:40Instead, they learned the skills that made them heroes in real life.
10:45The invading aliens seem completely unstoppable for most of Mars' attacks as they obliterate
10:50all of Earth's armies.
10:52But the plucky Richie finally finds an unexpected solution when he discovers that his grandmother's
10:57yodeling music makes the Martians' heads explode, and he then starts broadcasting it
11:03around the world.
11:04For kids, that probably seems like just an appropriately silly way to take out a very
11:09silly threat, but the well-read adult may recognize the twist from a classic alien invasion
11:14story.
11:15In H.G. Wells' 1897 novel The War of the Worlds, the Earth's military forces are similarly
11:21helpless against a Martian invasion.
11:24Then one day, the Martians have all dropped dead, slain by bacteria that they were unprepared
11:29to handle.
11:30As it turns out, the Martians' immune systems are vulnerable to the diseases that humans
11:34have learned to take for granted.
11:36The aliens in Mars' attacks are equally vulnerable to Earth's infections, but in this case, they're
11:41infected by earworms, as Slim Whitman's yodel on Indian Love Call ends up being the key
11:47to Earth's victory.
11:49In this wonderful tribute to mid-century kitsch, is there any better ending than a decades-old
11:54Broadway song saving the day?
11:56"'What's killing him?'
11:59I think it must be my music."