| Director | Tim Burton |
|---|---|
| Genre | comedy film, parody film, retrofuturism, science fiction film |
| Runtime | 106 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $70 million |
| Box office | $101.4 million |
On the planet Mars, a Martian spaceship gathers hundreds of other ships and travels to Earth. U.S. President James Dale, along with his aides, addresses the United States concerning this historic event. Several days later, the President's science aides set up a first-contact meeting with the Martians in Pahrump, Nevada, as Dale watches the development on television with his wife Marsha and his daughter Taffy. Using a translation machine, the Martian ambassador announces that his race has "come in peace". In response, a hippie releases a live dove as a symbol of peace, causing the ambassador to shoot it before ordering the other Martians to massacre most of the attendees at the event, including General Casey, news reporter Jason Stone, and young private Billy-Glenn Norris. Talk-show host Natalie Lake, who is Jason's co-worker and girlfriend, is captured by the Martians in the process, alongside her pet chihuahua, Poppy.
Thinking that the Martians assumed that the dove was a symbol of war, Dale tells Professor Donald Kessler to renegotiate with the Martians, whose ambassador later requests to address the United States Congress. At this meeting, the Martians annihilate most of Congress and, despite begging the ambassador to stop, Kessler is knocked unconscious and taken aboard their ship. Kessler's head is disembodied and animated as part of the experiments by the Martians, who have also switched around Nathalie and Poppy's heads onto their bodies. Back on Earth, General Decker fails to persuade Dale to retaliate with nuclear warfare.
After a failed attempt to assassinate Dale using a disguised Martian, the Martians declare war and invade Earth in droves, starting with Washington, D.C., and quickly spreading around the globe. As they attack the White House, the U.S. Secret Service evacuates Dale, but Marsha is killed while Taffy is separated during the chaos. After the president of France is assassinated by the Martians that night, the U.S. government attempts a nuclear attack on the Martian mothership, but that proves futile. Eventually, two Martians, led by their leader, breach the bunker where Dale has been taken, and kill Decker and everyone else in the bunker except for Dale, who makes an impassioned speech in an attempt to plead for peace. The Martian leader seemingly agrees to a truce with Dale, but then uses a gadget disguised as a hand to assassinate him.
As the Martians ravage Las Vegas, Byron Williams, a former world-champion boxer turned casino employee, leads a small group of survivors consisting of Barbara Land, singer Tom Jones, and Byron's waitress co-worker Cindy to escape the city in a small turboprop plane. As soon as they enter the plane, the group discover a large platoon of Martians (along with the ambassador) stationed there, as they are preparing to take off. Byron creates a diversion by challenging the Martians to a fistfight. While he succeeds in killing the ambassador, Byron is outnumbered and overwhelmed by the other Martians, but Jones, Barbara, and Cindy escape.
While going to rescue his grandmother Florence, Billy-Glenn's brother Richie discovers the Martians' weakness: Slim Whitman's "Indian Love Call". Richie and Florence then drive around town, using the song to kill Martians and broadcast the song on a local radio station. Thereafter, armed forces broadcast the song around the globe, killing the Martian leader and most, if not all, of the other Martians. Nathalie and Kessler's disembodied heads accept their fate as the Martian mothership they are on crashes into the ocean.
In the aftermath, Barbara, Cindy, and Jones emerge from a cave with some wild animals to see dozens of crashed Martian ships in Lake Tahoe. Taffy awards Richie and Florence the Medal of Honor. Byron, who survived the Martian brawl, arrives in Washington, D.C., to reunite with his former wife Louise and their two sons Cedric and Neville, as the devastation is being cleaned up.