Remember When: Tom Jones’ Extended Cameo Enlivened Tim Burton’s Loony “Mars Attacks!”

Released in 1996 and based on the controversial Topps trading cards series from the 1960s, Mars Attacks! was a funny and trippy homage to 1950s alien invasion movies that mixed practical sets with ‘90s digital effects. Although he was trying to maintain some of the low-budget appeal of those earlier movies, director Tim Burton used digital effects judiciously to come up with a lot wilder stuff than could have been produced back in the day.

Although it has its fans, the film didn’t succeed at the box office. It made $101 million against a $70 million budget, but as movies are said to need at least double their budget to be profitable. The movie still has plenty of fans and was a bigger hit internationally than in the U.S. The invading aliens got to have some diabolical and destructive fun, including wiping out Congress in a matter of seconds. This loony movie was also stocked with a lot of high-profile stars, including Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Martin Short, Pierce Brosnan, Jack Black, Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, and many others.

It’s So Unusual

Burton’s film had many mirthful moments amid the chaos, and perhaps the most memorable was the extended cameo of famed singer Tom Jones. He appears playing himself as he performs his eternal hit “It’s Not Unusual” at a Las Vegas theater. When the aliens rush in and start disintegrating his audience, he quickly makes his escape and hooks up with other cast members—including Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, Janice Rivera, and Jim Brown—to race to a plane and fly out of town. Jones, of course, was also the pilot.

The powerhouse Welsh singer was already in the midst of a career revival at this point. He’d cameoed on episodes of The Simpsons and Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and in The Jerky Boys: The Movie, while his 1994 album The Lead and How To Swing It had start recharging his career internationally six years after his collaborative cover of Prince’s “Kiss” (with Art of Noise) became an international hit for him. Jones’ music was reaching new ears, and younger fans were getting in on the joke of throwing their underwear at him on stage. They also learned the man still had a powerful, booming voice. He had become a Vegas star, and while not a master thespian, the singer still had an affable charm on screen.

Jones’ screen time in the Vegas sequence totaled nearly four minutes. He also showed up at the end of the movie, emerging from a cave with a horde of animals gathering around him and a bird of prey landing on his arm. He was ready to burst into “It’s Not Unusual” again when the film cut to the credits and the song really kicked in.

No one expected Tom Jones to show up in Mars Attacks! and when he did, it became more fun.

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Photo by Bruce Talamon/Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock