The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Jack Nicholson (in a dual role), Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J.

Fox, Pam Grier, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Lisa Marie, and Sylvia Sidney in her final film role.

Talk show host Nathalie Lake and her boyfriend, news reporter Jason Stone, interview Dale's scientific advisor Professor Donald Kessler on the developing story, but are unexpectedly interrupted by a broadcast from the Martian leader.

As the Martians prepare to land outside Pahrump, Nevada, people around the country react, including donut shop employee Richie Norris and his older brother Billy-Glenn, flamboyant casino operator Art Land and his hippie wife Barbara, divorced former boxer Byron Williams and his ex-wife Louise, and Byron and Louise's children Cedric and Neville.

Dale survives an assassination attempt by a Martian disguised as an attractive blonde woman, who infiltrates the White House by seducing and killing his press secretary.

Following the failed assassination attempt, the Martians commence a full-scale invasion of Earth, attacking major cities throughout the world.

At the retirement home, the Martians' heads explode when they hear Florence's record of Slim Whitman's yodeling on "Indian Love Call", revealing one of their only weaknesses.

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 overrun by Martians as the plane takes off.

In the aftermath of the war with the Martians, the Dales' teenage daughter Taffy awards the Medal of Honor to Richie and Florence.

Other notable actors to appear in the film include Willie Garson as Corporate Guy, John Roselius as GNN Boss, Michael Reilly Burke and Valerie Wildman as GNN Reporters, Rebecca Broussard as a Hooker, Steve Valentine as TV Director, Enrique Castillo as Hispanic Colonel, John Finnegan as Speaker of the House, Gregg Daniel as Lab Technician, and J. Kenneth Campbell as a Doctor.

In 1985, Alex Cox pitched the idea of a film based on the Mars Attacks trading card series as a joint production to Orion and TriStar Pictures.

He wrote three drafts over the next four years but was replaced by Martin Amis before Orion and TriStar placed Mars Attacks in turnaround.

adaptation could function like a 1970s disaster picture with an ensemble cast; he and Gems consequently rented a copy of the film The Towering Inferno (1974) and watched it for inspiration.

[10] 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 couldn't devise another sequence (albeit anything he and Burton could agree improved on his initial "barbecue bovines" prologue).

[12] Alexander and Karaszewski worked on the film through July 1995, focusing the characters and making the tone less satirical – they re-wrote the third act, incorporating the military and a finale that mirrored Independence Day (1996), according to Gems.

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.

[17] Burton agreed to cast Nicholson as both Art Land and President Dale, specifically remembering his positive working relationship with the actor on Batman.

[18] Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Stockard Channing were considered for First Lady Marsha Dale, but Glenn Close won the role.

include Sylvia Sidney from Beetlejuice (1988), O-Lan Jones from Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Danny DeVito from Batman Returns (1992), continuing Burton's trend of recasting actors several times from his previous works.

Production designer Wynn Thomas (A Beautiful Mind, Malcolm X) intended to have the war room pay tribute to Dr. Strangelove (1964).

[8] On designing the Martian (played by Burton's girlfriend Lisa Marie Smith) who seduces and kills 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).

[1] Tim Burton initially intended to use stop-motion animation to feature the Martians,[6] viewing it as a homage to the work of Ray Harryhausen, primarily Jason and the Argonauts.

Even though Warner Bros. was skeptical of the escalating budget and had not yet greenlit the film for production, Burton hired Barry Purves to shepherd the stop-motion work.

Although Purves was uncredited for his work,[6] stop-motion supervisors Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders, who would later collaborate with Burton on Corpse Bride, received character design credit.

[1] Warner Digital Studios was responsible for the scenes of global destruction, airborne flying saucer sequences, the Martian landing in Nevada and the robot that pursues Richie Norris in his pickup truck.

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 mega production never really understands.

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 a chihuahua), the comedy is half-developed, pedestrian material.

"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.

"[35] Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader praised the surreal humor and black comedy, which he found to be in the vein of Dr. Strangelove and Gremlins (1984).

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.