Spaced Invaders

Spaced Invaders is a 1990 science fiction comedy directed by Patrick Read Johnson and starring Douglas Barr, Royal Dano and Ariana Richards. As the armed forces of the planet Mars fight a vast interstellar war under the direction of imperious "Enforcer Drones", the idiotic crew of a small Martian spaceship intercepts a rebroadcast of Orson Welles' 1938 The War of the Worlds radio dramatization. Mistaking this for the real thing, they land the shi... more

Spaced Invaders is a 1990 science fiction comedy directed by Patrick Read Johnson and starring Douglas Barr, Royal Dano and Ariana Richards. As the armed forces of the planet Mars fight a vast interstellar war under the direction of imperious "Enforcer Drones", the idiotic crew of a small Martian spaceship intercepts a rebroadcast of Orson Welles' 1938 The War of the Worlds radio dramatization. Mistaking this for the real thing, they land the ship in a podunk, drought-stricken farming community (Big Bean, Illinois) and ineptly attempt to conquer Earth. Because it is Halloween, their appearance is taken to be very good costumes, except by a handful of locals who come to realize the truth, among them the town sheriff (Barr), his young daughter (Richards), and a crotchety elderly farmer named Wrenchmuller (Dano). In a comedy of errors, the Martians eventually realize they have made a horrible mistake, but the intransigence of their ship's resident Enforcer Drone threatens to cause a mass... less