| Spaced Invaders | |
|---|---|
Theatrical Release Poster |
|
| Directed by | Patrick Read Johnson |
| Produced by | Luigi Cingolani |
| Written by | Patrick Read Johnson Scott Lawrence Alexander |
| Starring | Douglas Barr Ariana Richards Royal Dano Gregg Berger Wayne Alexander |
| Music by | David Russo |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 27, 1990 (USA) |
| Running time | 100 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $15,369,573 |
Spaced Invaders is a 1990 science fiction comedy directed by Patrick Read Johnson and starring Douglas Barr, Royal Dano and Ariana Richards.
Contents |
The armed forces of Mars, known as the Imperial Atomic Space Navy (Battle Group Seven), fight a vast interstellar war against a presumably long-time enemy called the Arcturans, under the direction of imperious "Enforcer Drones." An incompetent crew of a small Martian spaceship (of the Civilian Asteroid Patrol) intercept a short distress signal from the fleet followed by a rebroadcast of Orson Welles' 1938 The War of the Worlds radio dramatization.
Mistaking this for a real invasion, they land the ship in the tiny farming community of Big Bean, Illinois and try attempt to conquer Earth. The ship's smart-mouthed pilot, Blaznee, with more common sense than the others, doesn't think it's a good idea, but he is ignored by the others: Captain Bipto, the overzealous optimist of the group; Lieutenant Giggywig, the ambitious hothead who thinks he knows everything; Dr. Ziplock, the careful and calm scientist; and Corporal Pez, the over-eager and timid smart-mouth. They start to search for the invasion fleet they think has already landed. Because it's Halloween, they are assumed to just be kids in very good costumes. Eventually, though, a handful of locals come to realize the truth. Among them is the town sheriff (Barr), his young daughter (Richards), and an elderly farmer named Wrenchmuller (Dano). The sheriff finds out about the aliens when his deputy tapes the alien ship on his video camera doing 3000 mph.
The deputy tracks down the Martian ship to give them a ticket for having no license, no registration, no headlights, no taillight, no wheels, and going 2945 miles over the posted limit. The sheriff's daughter, Kathy, finds out about the aliens when they unintentionally join a group of costumed kids Trick-or-Treating. She befriends the Martians' "Scout-in-a-Can", a small robot that folds itself up into a small sphere and is considered "smart, efficient, easy to use, and expendable". Mr Wrenchmuller finds out about them when they crash land in his barn. Captain Bipto gets run over by a truck and turns a gas station attendant into his robot slave. Giggywig, Ziplock and Pez try to blow up the town's Co-Op and instead heat up one of the silos of popcorn seeds, making a giant popcorn popper. Kathy's new friend, Brian captures Blaznee by hitting him with a trashcan lid then tries to help him repair his ship. Finally, Wrenchmuller tries to blow up the ship and gets trapped in a paralyzing beam instead. The Martians try blowing up the planet with the D.O.D. (Doughnut Of Destruction), but it fails to operate and falls apart upon use. Eventually the Martians realize they made a horrible mistake.
Things get worse when the ship's "hyperdriver" goes into meltdown, threatening to create a black-hole on Earth, and the stubbornness of their ship's Enforcer Drone makes things even worse. The sympathetic humans manage to destroy the Enforcer Drone with a stick of dynamite and help the grateful "invaders" return to space. As an unintentional gift to their human friends, the Martians jettison their ship's sewage tank all over Wrenchmuller's field in an attempt to lighten the load of their ship so that they can reach escape velocity.
The alien manure rejuvenates the drought-stricken farmland and turns the regular green beans (for which the town is known) into gigantic, 6 foot tall green beans, enabling Wrenchmuller to save the town itself from greedy real-estate developers. The ending scene has the Martians heading home, with Captain Bipto suggesting they go to Arcturus in order to "help torture prisoners", which is vehemently refused by the rest of the crew.
|
|||||||||||