Mars Attacks!

Random thoughts float in and out of my head most days. Today there was one about the movie Mars Attacks. I’ll get to the thought in a moment.

First, this is the obligatory spoiler alert. The movie came out in 1996, so I assume that most people have either seen this movie, or aren’t really interested, on that note the alert doesn’t matter all that much.

The Movie

The basic premise of Mars Attacks is that the martians finally come to earth, and they end up leaving destruction in their wake. They initially pretend that they are here to befriend us, but then they go about slaughtering as many people as they can, and performing weird experiments. The martians are finally defeated when it is discovered that their heads explode if they are exposed to the song Indian Love Call as sung by Slim Whitman. The movie leaves very little question that the martians are evil and deserve this fate. They came to earth simply to destroy us.

But what if there was more to the story? What if the martians weren’t initially the bad guys? what if something had happened in their past that made them think that earth was out to destroy them, and the invasion was their retaliation?

I am referring to the very song that defeats them in the movie.

Indian Love Call same out in 1952. For those who are not aware, radio signals do not disappear once the broadcast ends. Radio signals from earth spread out through space, in an ever increasing wave of noise coming from our little blue and green ball.

This could explain the way the aliens treat us. Imagine receiving radio and TV transmissions from earth for a few decades, getting the idea that this nearby planet might in fact be friendly. Your culture believes that these transmissions are a good will sort of thing, lulling your people into a false sense of security with these earthlings. Then everything changes one day when a new transmission comes along, one which causes your people to drop dead simply from hearing it. You might very well feel betrayed, angry, and vengeful.

So in 1952 Mars is devastated by a deadly transmission from earth. Those martians that survive spend the next forty years rebuilding and plotting their revenge. They come to earth to get retribution for the millions of deaths on their world, only to be stopped once again by the same song that caused the problem in the first place.

#geekery

About the Author:

Stephen Mayo lives in Montana with his wife, daughter, and three cats.

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