| “ | Ack ack ack! | „ |
| ~ The Martians |
The Martians, also known as the "Martian Army", are the main antagonists of Tim Burton's 1996 film Mars Attacks!. At their first landing in the Nevada Desert, at first they seem peaceful, but they begin to attack Earth's troops shortly after, almost gaining control of Earth.
They were all voiced by Frank Welker.
Biography[]
The Martians first appear broadcasting a massive television message to all of the USA, in which the Martian Ambassador says something in their own language. English professor Donald Kessler (Pierce Brosnan) manages to translate their message. Still not understanding the message's translation, they discover that the Martians will land in the Nevada Desert, and organize a big welcome, which is being transmitted to the whole world. However, the meeting goes horribly wrong, and the Martians are proven hostile, killing dozens of people with deadly ray guns that reduce them to skeletons, and kidnapping a news reporter, Natalie Lake (Sarah Jessica Parker).
Still wanting to make a peace offering to the Martians, Kessler and US President James Dale (Jack Nicholson) propose a meeting in the United States Congress with the Martian Ambassador, but once again it ends in disaster, as the Ambassador and his troops immediately skeletonize all of Congress, blowing up the building and capturing Kessler. After a failed attempt to assassinate the president, the Leader declares an all-out war on Earth and the Martians proceed to attack many famous cities throughout the world.
Meanwhile, in Kansas, Richie Norris (Lukas Haas) and his grandmother Florence (Sylvia Sidney) accidentally discover the Martians' weakness to a particular set of sound waves: namely, "Indian Love Call" by Slim Whitman. Hearing the song causes the Martians extreme pain and their heads to explode.
Meanwhile, former boxer Byron Williams (Jim Brown) faces the Ambassador in Las Vegas' ruins and beats him to death in a fist fight. Richie manages to broadcast the yodel worldwide, blasting the Martians' brains along the way, including the leader.
Personality[]
Unlike previous movies, these Martians are invading Earth for the sole purpose of having fun. These aliens have no sense of remorse or mercy to mankind, and only act hostile, though they do hold their fire in certain situations. They also are very curious about human behavior and manners, kidnapping humans to their (not so scientific) experiments. These Martians are incredibly comical, with little to no understanding about human race, but they couldn't care less about it, as long as they have weapons and things to destroy. Their language is consisted only of high-pitched aAcks".
There is at least some possible explanation for their bizarre, warlike tendencies. At one point a human scientist devised a device which seemingly translated their strange and unintelligible "ack acks" into English. The result was this:
"All green of skin... eight hundred centuries ago, their bodily fluids include the birth of half-breeds. For the fundamental truth self-determination of the cosmos, for dark is the suede that mows like a harvest."
Now, while it could be assumed this is simply nonsense, the fact that the aliens used the device in an attempt to fool humans into surrendering to them, and their bizarre desire to "experiment" on humans, means that they may have been very literal here. If true, it essentially means eighty thousand years ago "all green of skin" (possibly referring to themselves as they have green tinged skin) interbred with another species leading to the birth of hybrid creatures. This led to some kind of conflict, or harvest, caused by "fundamental truths of the cosmos" implying a religious motivation.
Taking their extraordinary viciousness towards humanity into account, this seems to imply that humans were the offspring of some precursor species, possibly Martians themselves, and a third species which resulted in a religious war over the survival of humankind, a kind of interplanetary jihad.
Powers and Abilities[]
Aside from achieving interstellar travel, enhanced cybernetics/robotics, extreme long-range communication, and anti-gravity transportation, the Martians' most notable technology is their weaponry.
Their main weapons are pistols and rifles that fire deadly red or green beams of energy, which quickly reduces humans and animals to skeletons with a single shot (tinged red or green, depending on the color of the ray that hit them), as well as cause fiery explosions when striking walls, vehicles, and other inanimate objects. Their armor is sturdy and resistant to bullets, though their own weapons can kill them if turned against them. The Martian Leader carries a Shrink Ray pistol with him, which he uses on General Decker to shrink him down to an inch tall before stomping the General dead beneath his boot. In addition to that, the Martian Leader has a cybernetic hand that detached itself from the wrist, impaling the president through the chest with a pointed metal tentacle.
The flying saucers the Martians fly around in are equally powerful, being faster and more agile than any of Earth's aircraft and made of seemingly indestructible material. Each saucer includes a death ray fired from a turret beneath the craft, capable of blowing up buildings in seconds. One saucer is shown to have a large claw-arm that it uses to throw an enormous metal sphere like a bowling ball to knock over several Maoi statues on Easter Island. One Martian is shown piloting a 50-foot-tall giant robot with enormous claws, which it uses to pick up and smash mobile homes together. Strangely it seemed to possess no ranged weaponry of any kind, attempting to chase down Richie in his truck on foot before tripping over power lines and being disabled when the Martian pilot is thrown against the cockpit window and dies.
Near the beginning of the film, it is speculated that the Martians may possess telepathic abilities, though this is never shown.
Weaknesses[]
Physically, the Martians are very frail creatures, with small, rail-thin bodies and large, soft heads with exposed brains (Byron Williams uses this to his advantage, fighting and defeating the Martian Ambassador one-on-one in a fistfight before taking on several Martian soldiers). They make up for their lack of physical strength with their highly advanced technology. Due to how frail they are, the Martians rely heavily on their superior technology to overrun the armed forces of Earth. Aside from being physically weak, the Martians breathe nitrogen, with oxygen being toxic to them, thus they have to wear pressurized suits while on Earth. These suits are bullet resistant though the bubble helmets are less so, shattering with a well placed shot from pistol rounds. They are also not immune to their own weapons when used against them. The sheer destructive power of their ray guns and quick reflexes of the Martians allow them to take out human attackers before being shot.
But their most defining weakness is the intolerance to the high frequency sound waves of Slim Whitman's yodeling, which causes Martians extreme pain as their heads visibly throb and swell before exploding in a blast of green slime.
Gallery[]
