Invaders from Mars (1986)

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"Don't worry, Son! We Marines have no qualms about killing Martians!"

―General Climet Wilson

Invaders from Mars

Credits
Title:	Invaders from Mars
Directed by:	Tobe Hooper
Written by:	Don Jakoby Dan O'Bannon David Womark David Lipman
Produced by:	Yoram Globus Menahem Golan
Music by:	Christopher Young David Storrs
Cinematography:	Daniel Pearl
Edited by:	Alain Jakubowicz
Production
Distributed by:	Canon Pictures Golan-Globus Productions
Released:	June 6th, 1986
Rating:	PG
Running time:	100 min.
Country:	USA
Language:	English
Budget:	$12,000,000
Gross:	$4,884,663 (US)
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Invaders from Mars is an American science fiction/horror film directed by Tobe Hooper. It is a remake of the 1953 film Invaders from Mars, directed by William Cameron Menzies. It was produced by Canon Pictures and released theatrically in the United States on June 6th, 1986. The movie stars Hunter Carson as David Gardner, a young boy who learns that aliens from the planet Mars have come to Earth and are taking control of the minds of the town's parents.

Cast[]

Actor	Role
Karen Black	Linda Magnusson
Hunter Carson	David Gardner
Timothy Bottoms	George Gardner
Laraine Newman	Ellen Gardner
James Karen	General Climet Wilson
Bud Cort	Mark Weinstein
Louise Fletcher	Mrs. McKeltch
Eric Pierpoint	Sgt. Major Rinaldi
Christopher Allport	Captain Curtis
Donald Hotton	Old NASA scientist
Kenneth Kimmins	Officer Kenney
Charlie Dell	Mister Cross
Jimmy Hunt	Police chief
William Bassett	NASA scientist
Virginia Keehne	Heather
Chris Hebert	Kevin
Mason Nupuf	Doug
William Frankfather	Ed
Joseph Brutsman	MP #1
Eric Norris	MP #2
Debra Berger	Corporal Walker
Eddy Donno	Hollis
Mark Giardino	Johnson
Daryl Bartley	Classmate
Roy Mansano	Classmate
Shonda Whipple	Classmate
Amy Fitzpatrick	Classmate
Shawn Campbell	Classmate
Brett Johnson	Classmate
Dale Dye	Squad leader
Douglas Simpson	Lieutenant/Drone
Lonny Low	Communications officer
Scott Leva	Marine officer
Randall Wulff	Young marine/Drone
Frederick Menslage	Marine #1
Michael McGrady	Marine #2
Larry Poindexter	Marine #3
James Acheson	Marine #4
Matt Bennett	Marine #5
Aaron Scott Bernard	Marine #6
Steven Lambert	Demolition man
Debbie Lee Carrington	Drone
Margarita Fernandez	Drone
Tony Cox	Drone
Sal Fondacaro	Drone
Phil Fondacaro	Drone
Peter Genovese	Classmate/drone
Brian Penikas	Supreme Martial Intelligence

Notes & Trivia[]

The tagline for this film is "It's open season... on Earthlings!"
Production on Invaders from Mars began on July 10th, 1985 and concluded on November 20th, 1985.
Invaders from Mars was released on laserdisc in early 1996. It was first released to DVD on January 20th, 1998 by Anchor Bay Entertainment. It was re-issued by MGM/United Artists on August 28th, 2001. Invaders from Mars was also packaged with the 1983 film Strange Invaders as a "Midnight Movies" DVD double-feature on February 15th, 2005. The collection was produced by MGM Home Video.
Tobe Hooper is more famously known for directing the 1974 slasher film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. He also directed Eaten Alive, Poltergeist, Night Terrors and The Mangler.
Invaders from Mars grossed $2,046,576 over it's opening weekend.
The German version of the film has an alternate ending from that of the US release. In order to avoid the twist ending of the original, the movie cuts from the moment that the space ship explodes (where in the original US version the film cuts to David awaking, starting the twist ending) immediately to the credits.
UK prints of the film excised one minute of footage where the invaders are show drilling screws into the necks of their brainwashed victims.
Jimmy Hunt, who plays the police chief in this film played young David Gardner in the original Invaders from Mars.
Actual United States Marines from the 4th FAAD Battery were used in this film.
Hunter Carson is the son of Karen Black and L.M. Kit Carson.
In the scene where actress Ellen Gardner's neck explodes, the sparks caught Laraine Newman's hair on fire and singed a large part of it. She did not realize this until after shooting the scene. ^[1]
Wade Williams had acquired the rights to Invaders from Mars (1953). For the remake rights, Williams received over 50 times the amount he had paid. Williams had already made a very handsome profit from the original film from television, cable and video releases. ^[1]
Near the beginning of the film the parents are getting David Gardner ready for bad and start shuffling things around his bedroom. The father picks up a magazine and starts to read it. The magazine was a late 70's slick fanzine called Fantascene. That issue had a very fine article on the making of the original Invaders from Mars. ^[1]
Louise Fletcher was nominated for a Razzie Award in 1987 for the category of Worst Supporting Actress. John Dykstra and Stan Winston were also nominated in the categories of Worst Visual Effects (special effects and creature design).
Daniel Pearl was also Tobe Hooper's director of photography on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Dan O'Bannon is more famously known for conceptualizing the 1979 sci-fi/horror film Alien.
"Invaders from Mars" is also the title to issue #4 of the JLA comic book series from 1997.

External Links[]

Recommendations[]

References[]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 IMDB; Invaders from Mars; Trivia

Keywords[]

[IMDBtrivia-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 IMDB; Invaders from Mars; Trivia

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