History Film / SpacedInvaders

A 1990 comedy film in which the idiotic crew of a small Martian spaceship overhear a Halloween re-broadcast of OrsonWelles' seminal ''Radio/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' radio-play, leading them to "invade" the small Midwestern town of Big Bean. All [[HamAndCheese very cheesy]].

[[quoteright:298:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Spaced_invaders_poster_6605.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:298:"They're not really bad, they're just... stupid."]]

* HeyItsThatGuy: Old Man Wrenchmuller is played by veteran character actor Royal Dano, perhaps most famous for playing Elijah the Prophet in the 1950s adaptation of ''Film/MobyDick'', and Grandpa Jesse in ''Film/HouseIITheSecondStory''.

* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself

* HerrDoktor: Doctor Ziplock
* HumongousMecha: The Farmzoid

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The opening credits theme is a (pretty subpar) riff on ''[[Music/GustavHolst Mars: The Bringer of War]]''. Which is strange, as ''The Planets'' are public domain.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Old Man Wrenchmuller is played by veteran character actor Royal Dano, perhaps most famous for playing Elijah the Prophet in the 1950s adaptation of ''MobyDick'', and Grandpa Jesse in ''Film/HouseIITheSecondStory''.

* [[ABoyAndHisX A Girl and Her Robot]]: Kathy is very quick to wrest possession of the Help-in-a-Can droid from Brian. It decides to stick around for a while.

* LargeHam: Pretty much anyone on the Martians' side of the issue. Lieutenant Giggywig is constantly spouting typical invader lines and, at one point, imitates [[{{Patton}} General Patton]]. Captain Bipto is just a few shades under him. [[{{Expy}} Blaznee]] might as well ''be'' JackNicholson. Doctor Ziplock is a consistent critic on how [[JugglingLoadedGuns his fellows handle weapons]], and his target is usually [[StuffBlowingUp Pez]]. After Bipto takes control of him, Vern's personality takes on a combination of [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Lieutenant Commander Data]] and a game show host. And the Enforcer drone seems to channel [[StarWars Darth Vader]] in both appearance ''and'' [[YouHaveFailedMe attitude]].

* ShoutOut: Several to ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', and a particular subtle one to an [[SpaceInvaders old videogame]].

* PunyEarthlings
* PrepareToDie: Used ''ad nauseum'' by Lieutenant Giggywig.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Old Man Wrenchmuller is played by veteran character actor Royal Dano, perhaps most famous for playing Elijah the Prophet in the 1950s adaptation of ''MobyDick'', and the Old Pioneer in ''House II''.

* JerkAss: Klembecker for [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking drinking, driving, womanizing]], [[PokeThePoodle handing out cigarettes to kids on Halloween when they wanted candy]] (last year it was dead rats), [[ForTheEvulz stealing Vern's Zorro hat by rolling up the window and trapping it]], [[ForTheEvulz and not paying for gasoline]] after ''intentionally'' parking on the wrong side of the pump with Vern having to pull the gas nozzle to the other side of the truck!

* LargeHam: Pretty much anyone on the Martians' side of the issue. Lieutenant Giggywig is constantly spouting typical invader lines and, at one point, imitates [[{{Patton}} General Patton]]. Captain Bipto is just a few shades under him. [[{{Expy}} Blaznee]] might as well ''be'' JackNicholson. Doctor Ziplock is a consistent critic on how [[JugglingLoadedGuns his fellows handle weapons]], and his target is usually [[StuffBlowingUp Pez]]. After Bipto takes control of him, Vern's personality takes on a combination of [[StarTrek Lieutenant Commander Data]] and a game show host. And the Enforcer drone seems to channel [[StarWars Darth Vader]] in both appearance ''and'' [[YouHaveFailedMe attitude]].

A 1990 comedy film in which the idiotic crew of a small Martian spaceship overhear a Halloween re-broadcast of OrsonWelles' seminal ''WarOfTheWorlds'' radio-play, leading them to "invade" the small Midwestern town of Big Bean. All [[HamAndCheese very cheesy]].

* ShoutOut: Several to ''WarOfTheWorlds'', and a particular subtle one to an [[SpaceInvaders old videogame]].

* BadassAutomaton: The Enforcer Drone aboard the Martians' ship. Vern also qualifies [[spoiler:after he gets turned into a robotic slave by Captain Bipto]].

--> '''Sheriff Hoxly:''' I don't suppose you'd like to explain what you were doing wandering around in an ''alien spacecraft''.

* AlienInvasion: A parody of the all-out invasion type. [[EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion The only Martians participating in the invasion are these five idiots.]]

* DrivesLikeCrazy: "Kids, 3D and driving just don't mix."

* GrumpyOldMan[=/=]CoolOldGuy: Old man Wrencmuller, who's also quite GenreSavvy.

** For all the enforcer drones' menacinq qualities, they're about as competent as a bag of bricks with the intelligence to match. One drone is defeated when Wrenchmuller poses as the [[BavarianFireDrill ambassador of Earth]] and convinces the drone that it has won an award for being generally awesome and he [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome presents it with a lit stick of dynamite.]]

* TheAllegedCar: After crashing into Wrenchmuller's barn, the Martians' patrol craft seems to develop one problem after another, which Blaznee has to combat during the course of the movie. It's larger problem seems to be its sensitivity to gravity, which would eventually cause [[EarthShatteringKaboom the Earth to explode]], among other problems.

-->''Enforcer Drone:'' I don't know what to say!
-->''Wrenchmuller:'' You can just say your prayers...
*** Once the Enforcer Drones are introduced to handle command of the martian fleet, they prove as incompetent as their martian masters and command the entire battle fleet to its doom.