Anbe Vaa (1966 film)

Anbe Vaa () is a 1966 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar. The film stars M. G. Ramachandran and B. Saroja Devi, with S. A. Ashokan, Nagesh, T. R. Ramachandran, P. D. Sambandam, Manorama and T. P. Muthulakshmi in supporting roles. Based on the 1961 American film Come September, it follows JB, a wealthy industrialist who goes on vacation to his bungalow in Shimla, only to discover that his caretaker and his wife have left for Kasi after renting the bungalow to a family. The rest of the film revolves around JB's response to this situation.

Anbe Vaa was the first colour film of AVM Productions, and was shot in Eastmancolor. It was also the studio and Tirulokchandar's only collaboration with Ramachandran. Principal photography began in August 1965 and shooting took place in Shimla, Ooty, and at the hill station of Kufri. The soundtrack and background music were composed by M. S. Viswanathan while the lyrics for the songs were written by Vaali.

Anbe Vaa was released on 14 January 1966, during the festive occasion of Pongal. It received positive reviews from critics, who particularly praised Ramachandran's performance, as he was known for doing mainly action and drama films up until that point in his career. The film was also a commercial success, with a theatrical run of over 23 weeks.

## Plot

J. Balasubramaniam "JB" is a wealthy and popular industrialist who has been working without a vacation for two years straight. Exhausted after a Europe and New York trip, he decides to take a vacation at his bungalow in Shimla. Upon his arrival, he discovers that his caretaker Krishnaiah has rented the bungalow to a Bangalore-based couple, Punyakodi and Pappamma, and their daughter, Geetha.

Krishnaiah and his wife leave for Kasi after taking the money for the rent, leaving Krishnaiah's daughter Kannamma, and his brother-in-law Ramaiah, in charge of the house and the guests. JB decides not to reveal his true identity, instead pretending to be JB's personal secretary Balu, and pays the rent for a place in his own house. Ramaiah, who has never met JB, takes the money and gives JB's room to Balu without realising they are the same man.

Balu plays continual pranks on Geetha, during the course of which he also falls in love with her. She too falls in love with him, but circumstances and their egos, prevent them both from expressing their feelings. One day, Balu pretends to suffer from chest pain, which scares Geetha, causing her to finally admit that she loves him.

The next morning, when Geetha and Ramaiah go to Balu to enquire about his health, Balu, exiting from the bathroom, fails to see that Geetha is there. He tells Ramaiah about the prank he played on her. Enraged at having been deceived by Balu, Geetha begins to question whether or not his professed love for her is real. She brings her friends, who are vacationing in Shimla, to the residence and tries to drive Balu out of the house. When her plan backfires and her friends start supporting Balu, she becomes spiteful and tells her parents to move forward with a planned marriage to Sekar, her maternal cousin.

Geetha reconciles with Balu after he saves her from a weightlifter named Sitting Bull. But by the time Balu confesses his love for her, Geetha's engagement is already fixed to Sekar. Sekar turns out to be a school friend of JB, but he agrees to play along with the trick. When he discovers that Balu and Geetha are truly in love, he steps aside, wishing the couple well. When Balu finally reveals himself as JB, Geetha, again not knowing what to believe, thinks the wedding plans are yet another of his pranks and tries to run away. He finds her and clears up all of the misunderstandings between them. The two then get married.

## Cast

Lead actors

- M. G. Ramachandran as J. Balasubramaniam (JB/Balu)
- B. Saroja Devi as Geetha

Male supporting actors

- S. A. Ashokan as Sekar
- Nagesh as Ramaiah
- T. R. Ramachandran as Punyakodi
- P. D. Sambandam as Krishnaiah

Female supporting actors

- Manorama as Kannamma
- T. P. Muthulakshmi as Pappamma
- Madhavi as Mary
- M. S. S. Bhagyam as Govindhammal

## Production

### Development

As a fan of M. G. Ramachandran since childhood, M. Saravanan had wished to see him in an AVM Productions film. Director A. C. Tirulokchandar prepared the story of Anbe Vaa based on the American romantic comedy film Come September (1961), with Ramachandran in mind, contrary to AVM's general practice of choosing actors for already completed scripts. He was paid ₹70,000 for directing the film. The film was produced by Saravanan and his brothers Murugan and Kumaran. Aaroor Dass wrote the dialogues, and S. P. Muthuraman worked as an assistant director. S. Maruti Rao, R. G. Gope and A. K. Shekar were in charge of the cinematography, editing, and art direction, respectively. A. K. Chopra was in charge of the film's choreography, and Raghuram, who later went on to become a successful choreographer in Indian cinema, worked as an assistant choreographer to him. This was their first film together.

### Casting

Although the script differed from what Ramachandran was noted for: action or drama films, he agreed to do the film because he liked the story. Tirulokchandar recalled, "I found [M. G. Ramachandran] smiling throughout the storytelling session. At the end he said, 'I'll do it. We will be mere puppets in your hands and the credit will go only to you.'". Ramachandran gave a call sheet of 72 days for participating in the film. Saravanan states in his 2005 book AVM 60 Cinema that ₹ 300,000 was Ramachandran's salary, but the latter demanded an additional ₹ 25,000; his final pay was ₹ 325,000. The Economic Times stated in 2010 that Ramachandran was paid 10% of the film's ₹ 3 million budget. Anbe Vaa remained his only collaboration with both Tirulokchandar and AVM.

S. A. Ashokan, who helped Tirulokchandar cast Ramachandran, portrayed the role of Sekar. Ramachandran recommended J. Jayalalithaa for the role of the female lead Geetha, but it eventually went to B. Saroja Devi. She was paid ₹ 90,000 for acting in the film. Her costume design was done by the Anna Salai-based Indian Silk House. Ramachandran initially recommended K. A. Thangavelu for the role of Geetha's father Punyakodi, but Saravanan said that his father wanted T. R. Ramachandran in the role due to their long-standing friendship. M. G. Ramachandran accepted the decision and told Saravanan not to tell T. R. Ramachandran about his initial choice.

### Filming

Anbe Vaa was AVM Production's first colour film and was made in Eastmancolor. Principal photography began with a puja ceremony held on 12 August 1965. Although the story is set in Shimla, most of the film was shot in Ooty. Shooting in Shimla took place for only five days. For the sequences filmed in Shimla, P. N. Sundaram was hired as the cinematographer as Maruti Rao was taken ill at the time. The song "Pudhiya Vaanam" was shot in the small hill station of Kufri, located 13 kilometres from Shimla, as well as at Mall Road, Shimla. Portions of the film were also shot at a 200-year-old bungalow covering 15 acres in Ooty. In a scene where Punyakodi eats chicken, Tirulokchandar requested his caterer to make a cake shaped like a chicken for T. R. Ramachandran to eat as he was a vegetarian. Three or four lovebirds were bought for the filming of the song "Love Birds".

Savi, an editor who worked for the Tamil magazine, Ananda Vikatan, accompanied the production unit and published an article on the making of the film. He even appeared in "Pudhiya Vaanam" as an extra. "Naan Paarthathile" was one of the film's few songs that was shot outdoors, as M. G. Ramachandran did not want to attract attention from his large fan following. The Government Botanical Gardens in Ooty were also used as a shooting location. The production unit, composed of 20 crew members, along with Tirulokchandar, M. G. Ramachandran, Saroja Devi and Savi, initially flew to Delhi. From Delhi, they travelled to Kalka by train, then continued on to Shimla, using three first-generation Chevrolet Impalas.

The film's skating scenes, involving Ramachandran and Saroja Devi, were completed in two days. Both Ramachandran and Saroja Devi were initially hesitant to perform the scene, but went through with it after they received encouragement from the local population. For some scenes in the film, Saroja Devi was made to walk with mincing steps and flutter her eyelashes. She and Ramachandran also performed the twist in the film. For the action sequence in which JB fights a wrestler, Tirulokchander asked Ramachandran to lift the wrestler overhead and hold him in the air for some time before trampling him, and Ramachandran obliged. For the climax, Ramachandran initially came with an idea of his and Ashokan's characters fighting vigorously, but Tirulokchandar felt it would not fit in a film of this nature and a soft natured ending was more suitable, to which Ramachandran agreed. The final length of the film was 4,854.70 metres (15,927.5 ft).

## Themes

Although Saravanan has acknowledged to Anbe Vaa being based on Come September, music historian Vamanan wrote for The Times of India that it was "structured as a Roman Holiday with a man as the protagonist". Folklorist and writer M. D. Muthukumaraswamy, writing for the same newspaper, compared JB to the sage Vishvamitra, describing the former as "the archetypal male figure who resists the advances of the beautiful damsels", similar to Vishvamitra resisting the temptations of Menaka the apsara. Sujatha Narayan, writing for The New Indian Express, noted that Anbe Vaa, like other films starring Ramachandran, reflected his personal belief of not being arrogant towards women, stating, "I recall one of my uncles telling me how MGR would never chase the heroine on screen, never display interest in her first, and how the heroine will always pine for him, even in an out-and-out romantic story like Anbe Vaa."

According to Tamil historian and author Sachi Sri Kantha, the song "Pudhiya Vaanam" had "delicately introduced" the symbol for the political party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a rising sun, through the lyrics which roughly translate to "While [the] rising sun shines, the world will become aware, the cool wind from Himalaya will touch the heart" in that pre-election year. Writing for the website Scroll.in, Karan Bali noted that though Anbe Vaa was not as "overtly political" as Ramachandran's other films, the black and red clothes he sports as JB in "Pudhiya Vaanam" was a reference to the colours of the DMK. V. Ramji of the magazine Kamadenu noted that, unlike most Ramachandran films which have seven or eight villains, the main villain in Anbe Vaa is egoism.

## Music

The soundtrack and score were composed by M. S. Viswanathan, while the lyrics were written by Vaali. Kalyan Subrahmanyam, an anaesthetist and alumnus of Madras Medical College and Stanley Medical College, made his musical debut with this film, singing as part of the chorus. K. Sampath, a sound engineer who joined AVM Productions in the mid-1950s, created the chick mungu (also spelt chik mang) sound effect for the title track. The song "Naadodi", picturised on JB and Geetha performing a twist, was a rock and roll number.

"Pudhiya Vaanam" originally had the lyrics "udaya sooryanin paarvayile" (in the eyes of the rising sun), but after Meiyappan stated that the Censor Board would not accept it, Vaali amended the lyrics to "puthiya sooryanin paarvayile" (in the eyes of the new sun). Regarding this change, Vaali said that if Ramachandran enunciated the words, they would sound like "udaya sooryanin", and he was proven right. The sound effect of the horses' footfall in "Rajavin Paarvai" was created by Meesai Murugesan. The song "Once A Pappa" belongs to Baila, a Sri Lankan musical genre.

All the songs from the soundtrack were popular, especially "Rajavin Parvai", and "Pudhiya Vaanam". Gopal Ethiraj, writing for the Asian Tribune, noted that "Pudhiya Vaanam" was one of several songs written by Vaali for Ramachadran that "helped the latter galvanize masses". This view was also shared by B. Kolappan of The Hindu. Following Vaali's death in 2013, Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu included "Pudhiya Vaanam" in her collection, Best of Vaali: From 1964–2013.

"Rajavin Parvai" was performed live by French actor and singer Pascal Heni (popularly known as Pascal of Bollywood) during his visit to India in 2003. "Naan Paarthathilae" was performed live by the Chennai-based music group Square Band at the concert "Isai Kaveri" hosted by the Bharathidasan Institute of Management in August 2012. Susheela performed "Rajavin Paarvai" live in 2006 with S. Janaki, in a concert organised by the T. V. K. Cultural Academy, and performed a solo version of the song in Magalir 2007, an event organised at the Indian Medical Association Hall. The song "Naan Paarthathile" was remixed in the 2020 TV series named after the film.

## Release

Anbe Vaa was released on 14 January 1966, during the festive occasion of Pongal. When AVM first discussed making the film a Pongal release with Ramachandran, he objected to the suggestion at first as his other film, Naan Aanaiyittal, was already set to release at that time. Ramachandran eventually negotiated a deal with Naan Aanaiyittal's producer R. M. Veerappan to postpone that film's release and allow Anbe Vaa to release on Pongal, while Naan Aanaiyittal was released on 4 February.

Anbe Vaa was dubbed into Telugu as Prema Manasulu and released on 25 April 1969. In November 2008, the Tamil original was screened at the 39th International Film Festival of India under the segment "Lifetime Classics". On 18 April 2010, it was screened at the South Indian Film Chamber Theatre for the Dignity Film Festival held in Chennai along with: Madhumati (1958), Kadhalikka Neramillai (1964), Server Sundaram (1964) and, Thillana Mohanambal (1968). Moser Baer released the DVD of Anbe Vaa on 30 August 2010. The film was later made available for viewing on Amazon Prime Video when it was launched in India in December 2016.

## Reception

On 19 February 1966, T. M. Ramachandran of Sport and Pastime said Anbe Vaa "provides entertainment with a capital "E". It has been deliberately shaped in that fashion" and the story "is used only as a peg to hang the numerous songs and dances on." He said the colour photography was "eyefilling, particularly as regards the scenic beauty of the Himalayas", praised M. G. Ramachandran's performance, especially his twist dance, and added that Saroja Devi provided a "good foil", while appreciating the performances of the other supporting cast members. T. M. Ramachandran praised Maruthi Rao's cinematography and Tirulokchandar's direction, concluding, "The producers, M. Murugan, M. Kumaran and M. Saravanan, could well be proud of their work but this should inspire them to make bigger pictures in the future." On 6 August 1966, the review in Ananda Vikatan described Anbe Vaa as an English film in Tamil, and felt that though it did not have any story, viewers could spend three hours in an entertaining manner with the film. Anbe Vaa had a theatrical run of 23 weeks and was a box office success, grossing ₹ 6 million against a budget of ₹ 3 million according to estimates by Dinamalar and Ramachandran's biographer R. Kannan. The scenes featuring Ramachandran and Nagesh were immensely popular, bringing repeat audiences to theatres.

## Legacy

Anbe Vaa attained cult status in Tamil cinema, and was one of the first South Indian films to be shot in Shimla, inspiring many other South Indian films to choose Shimla as a shooting location. According to Vamanan, it emerged an "uncommon triumph" for M. G. Ramachandran, who had previously acted mainly in "scrappily made cop and robber flicks". It was one of several films featuring Ramachandran which he used to propagate his ideologies during his election campaigns. Actor and film historian Mohan Raman noted that Ramachandran's acceptance of the role "that went against the then accepted formula for an MGR film" was a demonstration of the actor's faith in Tirulokchandar. Likewise, Vamanan noted that Tirulokchandar "had imbibed the deportment by observing his role model L V Prasad – that film stars looked up to him. So much so that even the usually interfering MGR allowed himself to be moulded under the filmmaker's baton" in Anbe Vaa. The hat worn by Ramachandran onscreen attained popularity, at a time where there was a "minor hat-mania" in Tamil Nadu.

Sujatha Narayanan considered Anbe Vaa the "forerunner to what we see today in the urban romance genre – of flirtatious interactions and ego in a relationship". As of February 2010, the costumes that Ramachandran used in the film are still preserved at AVM Studios. As of 2017, the MGTB car driven by Ramachandran in the film is preserved at the Madras Heritage Club's Vintage cars display. In August 2016, the Studebaker President car driven by Saroja Devi in the film was on display at the 14th annual exhibitions held at Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai. In July 2019, Saravanan ruled out the possibility of a remake, saying, "Some films will work only with a particular star [...] This was why I refused when a popular actor approached me wanting to remake Anbe Vaa as it was a vehicle written specifically for MGR."

## In popular culture

References to Anbe Vaa are made in various films. In Unakkaga Ellam Unakkaga (1999), Kundalakesi (Goundamani) imagines himself as M. G. Ramachandran in "Pudhiya Vaanam" by dancing with children, which results in him being mistaken for a kidnapper by the police. In Dhool (2003), Aarumugam (Vikram) echoes a single line, "Pudhiya Vaanam", to signal his arrival to his friends. The 2005 film Anbe Vaa was named after the 1966 film, as was the 2020 TV series. A clip from the song "Love Birds" is featured in Saroja (2008). Scenes from the film were interposed in Villu (2009); in some scenes, Pugazh (Vijay) tries to woo Janavi (Nayanthara) in the same manner that JB woos Geetha in Anbe Vaa. A portion of "Rajavin Paarvai" is used in the song "Vaa Machi" from Onbadhule Guru (2013).

1966 film by A. C. Tirulokchandar


Mars Attacks!

Mars Attacks! is a 1996 American comic science fiction film directed by Tim Burton, who also co-produced it with Larry J. Franco. The screenplay by Jonathan Gems was based on the Topps trading card series of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Jack Nicholson (in a dual role), Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Pam Grier, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Lisa Marie, and Sylvia Sidney in her final film role.

Alex Cox had tried to make a Mars Attacks film in the 1980s before Burton and Gems began development in 1993. When Gems turned in his first draft in 1994, Warner Bros. commissioned rewrites from Gems, Burton, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski in an attempt to lower the budget to \$60 million. The final production budget came to \$80 million, while Warner Bros. spent another \$20 million on the Mars Attacks! marketing campaign. Filming took place from February to June 1996. The film was shot in California, Nevada, Kansas, Arizona and Argentina.

The filmmakers hired Industrial Light & Magic to create the Martians using computer animation after their previous plan to use stop motion animation, supervised by Barry Purves, fell through because of budget limitations. Mars Attacks! was released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on December 13, 1996, and received mixed reviews from critics. The film grossed approximately \$101.4 million in box office totals, which was seen as a disappointment. Mars Attacks! was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and earned multiple nominations at the Saturn Awards.

## Plot

When Earth is visited by a massive fleet of flying saucers from Mars, President of the United States James Dale addresses the people of the United States. Talk show host Nathalie Lake and her boyfriend, news reporter Jason Stone, attempt to capitalize on the developing story with an interview with Dale's scientific advisor Professor Donald Kessler, which is unexpectedly interrupted by a broadcast from the Martian leader. As the Martians prepare to land outside Pahrump, Nevada, numerous people around the country react to their arrival, including donut shop employee Richie Norris and his older brother Billy-Glenn, flamboyant casino operator Art Land and his hippie wife Barbara, divorced ex-boxer Byron Williams and his former wife Louise, and Byron and Louise's children Cedric and Neville.

Against the advice of the hawkish General Decker, Dale chooses to greet the Martians as foreign dignitaries, ordering military officer General Casey to welcome them to Earth. Billy-Glenn, a private in the US Army, is among the soldiers who volunteers to accompany Casey as he greets the Martians in Nevada. Despite the translated message from the Martian ambassador stating that the Martians "come in peace", the ambassador sees a hippie release a dove into the air and kills it with his ray gun. The Martians then turn on the assembled crowd and attack them with their ray guns, killing Casey, Jason, and Billy-Glenn, and abducting Nathalie and her pet chihuahua Poppy.

Kessler convinces Dale that the Martians' attack in Nevada may have been the result of a cultural misunderstanding because of the dove, and Dale agrees to let the Martian ambassador address Congress after the Martians issue a formal apology for their actions. Once again, the Martians turn on the assembled humans, massacring most of Congress and abducting Kessler. While Nathalie and Kessler are held captive in the Martian mothership, the Martians switch Nathalie and Poppy's heads and reduce Kessler to a disembodied head.

Dale narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a Martian disguised as an attractive blonde woman, who infiltrates the White House by seducing and killing his press secretary Jerry Ross and then killed by the secret service. Following the assassination attempt, the Martians commence a full-scale invasion of Earth, attacking major cities throughout the world. When Martian soldiers overrun the White House, First Lady Marsha Dale is killed by a falling chandelier as President Dale escapes to the PEOC. Shortly after, Art is killed when the Martians destroy his casino, Galaxy Casino, in Las Vegas.

In Las Vegas, Barbara prepares to flee to Tahoe in Art's private plane, and offers to let Byron accompany her. The pair are joined by Byron's co-worker Cindy, guest singer Tom Jones, who offers to pilot the plane, and a rude gambling lawyer, who, after became frustrated of being lost, got killed after separated from them. Meanwhile, Richie abandons his frustrating parents in their mobile home and goes to his grandmother Florence's retirement home to escort her to safety, leaving his parents to be killed by a Martian piloting a giant robot. At the retirement home, the Martians' brains unexpectedly explode when they hear Florence's record of Slim Whitman's yodeling on "Indian Love Call", revealing one of their only weaknesses.

Eventually, Martian soldiers breach Dale's secure bunker, crushing Decker after reducing him to minuscule size with a shrink ray, then leveling their weapons on everyone else in the bunker, causing many to be killed while others flee the bunker, leaving Dale the last alive in the room. He makes an eloquent, impassioned speech exhorting the Martians to make peace with humanity, but the now teary-eyed Martian leader kills him with a fake-hand-prank device after offering a handshake.

Barbara, Byron, Cindy, and Jones reach Art's plane, but find the runway overrun by a group of Martians led by the Martian ambassador. To buy time for his companions to escape, Byron steps forward to challenge the ambassador to a boxing match, and beats him to death before being seemingly overrun by Martians as the plane takes off. Around the world, the Martians are defeated as humans play "Indian Love Call" to incapacitate them, resulting Kessler, Nathalie and Poppy's death, which the firsts both kiss goodbye before the ship they're on crashes.

In the aftermath of the war with the Martians, the Dales' teenage daughter Taffy awards the Congressional Medal of Honor to Richie and Florence. In Washington, D.C., Byron—who survived his encounter with the Martians—walks up to Louise's home to greet his family. In Tahoe, Barbara, Cindy, and Jones emerge unharmed from a cavern.

## Cast

Other notable actors to appear in the film include Willie Garson as Corporate Guy, John Roselius as GNN Boss, Michael Reilly Burke and Valerie Wildman as GNN Reporters, Rebecca Broussard as a Hooker, Steve Valentine as TV Director, Enrique Castillo as Hispanic Colonel, John Finnegan as Speaker of the House, Gregg Daniel as Lab Technician, and J. Kenneth Campbell as a Doctor. Ron Howard's father Rance Howard has a small part as a Texas Investor, while The Simpsons writer Josh Weinstein portrays the Hippie who sets loose the dove. Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voices of the Martians.

## Production

### Development

In 1985, Alex Cox pitched the idea of a film based on the Mars Attacks trading card series as a joint-production to Orion and Tristar Pictures. He wrote three drafts over the next four years, but was replaced by Martin Amis before Orion and Tristar placed Mars Attacks in turnaround.

In 1993, Jonathan Gems, a screenwriter who had previously written multiple unproduced screenplays for director Tim Burton, approached the director and pitched the idea of turning both Mars Attacks and Dinosaurs Attack! into movies. While both Gems and Burton realized that a Dinosaurs Attack! film would be too similar to Steve Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993), Burton believed that a Mars Attacks! adaptation could function like a 1970s disaster picture with an ensemble cast; he and Gems consequently rented a copy of the movie The Towering Inferno (1974) and watched it for inspiration. In a later interview, Gems explained: "After seeing that [movie] it all came to me fairly quickly. And, in about a week, I had it roughed out: the story and the characters. And when I finished it, I realized it was inevitably going to be – it couldn't help being – a portrait of America because, following the Irwin Allen formula, I'd sketched out a range of different characters from different walks of life, and placed the action in different locations — in this case: California, Nevada, Kansas, New York, Mount Rushmore in Washington D.C."

Burton, who was busy preparing Ed Wood (1994), believed that Mars Attacks! would be a perfect opportunity to pay homage to the films of Edward D. Wood Jr., especially Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), and other 1950s science fiction B movies, such as Invaders from Mars (1953), It Came from Outer Space (1953), The War of the Worlds (1953), Target Earth (1954), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956).

Burton set Mars Attacks! up with Warner Bros. and the studio purchased the film rights to the trading card series on his behalf. The original theatrical release date was planned for the summer of 1996. Gems completed his original script in 1994, which was budgeted by Warner Bros. at \$260 million. The studio wanted to make the film for no more than \$60 million. After turning in numerous drafts, the studio grew frustrated with Gems after insisting he remove the film's cold open, specifically "the cows on fire"; they demanded there be no burning cows, but Gems contends he couldn't devise another sequence (albeit anything he and Burton could agree improved on his initial "barbecue bovines" prologue). When Gems' latest script revision still included burning cows the studio dismissed him; prior to leaving the project Gems recommended the writing-duo behind Ed Wood, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, as his replacement(s). Alexander and Karaszewski worked on the film through July 1995, focusing the characters and making the tone less satirical — they re-wrote the third act, incorporating the military and a finale that mirrored Independence Day (1996), according to Gems.

Gems eventually returned to the project, writing a total of 12 drafts of the script (well over 90% of the finished shooting script). Although he is credited with both the screen story and screenplay of Mars Attacks!, Gems dedicates his novelization of the movie to Burton, who "co-wrote the screenplay and didn't ask for a credit". Warner Bros. was dubious of the Martian dialogue and wanted Burton to add closed captioning subtitles, but he resisted. Working with Burton, Gems pared the film's 60 leading characters down to 23 and the worldwide destruction planned for the film was isolated to three major cities. Scenes featuring Martians attacking China, the Philippines, Japan, Europe, Africa, India and Russia were deleted from the screenplay, leaving only Paris, London and the Taj Mahal. "Bear in mind this was way before Independence Day (1996) was written," Gems commented. "We had things like Manhattan being destroyed building by building, the White House went and so did the Empire State Building. Warner Bros. figured all this would be too expensive, so we cut most of that out to reduce the cost." Further discussing the differences between Mars Attacks! and Independence Day, Gems stated, "Independence Day is more like a movie called Fail-Safe and Mars Attacks is like Dr. Strangelove", in that both films had a similar story, but with different tones. Howard Stern claimed that the film's climax, where an attack by Martians was thwarted by playing Slim Whitman songs to them, was originally created by him when he worked at WNBC in 1982, in a sketch named "Slim Whitman vs. The Midget Aliens From Mars."

### Casting

The decision to hire an A-list ensemble cast for Mars Attacks! parallels the strategy Irwin Allen used for his disaster films, notably The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974). Jack Nicholson, approached for the role of the President, jokingly remarked that he wanted to play all the roles. Burton agreed to cast Nicholson as both Art Land and President Dale, specifically remembering his positive working relationship with the actor on Batman.

Susan Sarandon was originally set to play Barbara Land before Annette Bening was cast. Bening modeled the character after Ann-Margret's performance in Viva Las Vegas (1964). Hugh Grant was the first choice for Professor Donald Kessler, a role which eventually went to Pierce Brosnan. Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Stockard Channing were considered for First Lady Marsha Dale, but Glenn Close won the role. In addition to Nicholson, other actors who reunited with Burton on Mars Attacks! include Sylvia Sidney from Beetlejuice (1988), O-Lan Jones from Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Danny DeVito from Batman Returns (1992), continuing Burton's trend of recasting actors several times from his previous works.

Roger L. Jackson, best known as the voice of Ghostface in the Scream film franchise, makes an uncredited appearance as the voice of the Martian translator device. His performance in Mars Attacks! helped him get the audition for Scream.

### Filming

The originally scheduled start date was mid-August 1995, but filming was delayed until February 26, 1996. Director Tim Burton hired Peter Suschitzky as the cinematographer, because he was a fan of his work in David Cronenberg's films. Production designer Thomas Wynn (A Beautiful Mind, Malcolm X) intended to have the war room pay tribute to Dr. Strangelove (1964). During production, Burton insisted that the art direction, cinematography and costume design of Mars Attacks! incorporate the look of the 1960s trading cards.

On designing the Martian (played by Burton's girlfriend Lisa Marie Smith) who seduces and kills Jerry Ross (Martin Short), costume designer Colleen Atwood took combined inspiration from the playing cards, Marilyn Monroe, the work of Alberto Vargas and Jane Fonda in Barbarella (1968). Filming for Mars Attacks! ended on June 1, 1996. The film score was composed by Burton's regular composer Danny Elfman, to whom Burton was reconciled after a quarrel that occurred during The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), for which they did not co-operate in producing Ed Wood (1994). Elfman enlisted the help of Oingo Boingo lead guitarist Steve Bartek to help arrange the compositions for the orchestra.

### Visual effects

Tim Burton initially intended to use stop motion animation to feature the Martians, viewing it as a homage to the work of Ray Harryhausen, primarily Jason and the Argonauts. Similar to his own Beetlejuice, Burton "wanted to make [the special effects] look cheap and purposely fake-looking as possible." He first approached Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, to supervise the stop motion work, but Selick was busy directing James and the Giant Peach, also produced by Burton. Despite the fact that Warner Bros. was skeptical of the escalating budget and had not yet greenlit the film for production, Burton hired Barry Purves to shepherd the stop motion work. Purves created an international team of about 70 animators, who worked on Mars Attacks! for eight months and began compiling test footage in Burbank, California. The department workers studied Gloria Swanson's choreography and movement as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard for inspiration on the Martians' movement.

When the budget was projected at \$100 million (Warner Bros. wanted it for no more than \$75 million), producer Larry J. Franco commissioned a test reel from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the visual effects company he worked with on Jumanji. Burton was persuaded to change his mind to employ computer animation, which brought the final production budget to \$80 million. Although Purves was uncredited for his work, stop motion supervisors Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders, who would later collaborate with Burton on Corpse Bride, received character design credit. Warner Digital Studios was responsible for the scenes of global destruction, airborne flying saucer sequences, the Martian landing in Nevada and the robot that chases Richie Norris in his pickup truck. Warner Digital also used practical effects, such as building scale models of Big Ben and other landmarks. The destruction of Art Land's hotel was footage of the real life nighttime demolition of the Landmark Hotel and Casino, a building Burton wished to immortalize.

## Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by Danny Elfman. The soundtrack was released on March 4, 1997, by Atlantic Records.

### Track listing

## Reception

### Release and box office

Warner Bros. spent \$20 million on the movie's marketing campaign; together with \$80 million spent during production, the final combined budget came to \$100 million. A novelization, written by screenwriter Jonathan Gems, was published by Puffin Books in January 1997. The film was released in the United States on December 13, 1996, earning \$9.38 million in its opening weekend. Mars Attacks! eventually made \$37.77 million in U.S. totals and \$63.6 million elsewhere, coming to a worldwide total of \$101.37 million.

The film was considered a box office bomb in the U.S., but generally achieved greater success both critically and commercially in Europe. Many observers found similarities with Independence Day, which also came out in 1996. "It was just a coincidence. Nobody told me about it. I was surprised how close it was," director Tim Burton continued, "but then it's a pretty basic genre I guess. Independence Day was different in tone – it was different in everything. It almost seemed like we had done kind of a Mad magazine version of Independence Day." During the film's theatrical run in January 1997, TBS purchased the broadcasting rights of the film.

### Critical reception

The film received mixed responses from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 56% based on 86 reviews, with an average rating of 6.00/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Tim Burton's alien invasion spoof faithfully recreates the wooden characters and schlocky story of cheesy '50s sci-fi and Ed Wood movies -- perhaps a little too faithfully for audiences." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 52 based on 19 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Roger Ebert observed the homages to the 1950s science fiction B movies: "Ed Wood himself could have told us what's wrong with this movie: the makers felt superior to the material. To be funny, even schlock has to believe in itself. Look for Infra-Man (1975) or Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) and you will find movies that lack stars and big budgets and fancy special effects but are funny and fun in a way that Burton's megaproduction never really understands."

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Mars Attacks! is all 1990s cynicism and disbelief, mocking the conventions that Independence Day takes seriously. This all sounds clever enough but in truth, Mars Attacks! is not as much fun as it should be. Few of its numerous actors make a lasting impression and Burton's heart and soul is not in the humor". Desson Thomson from The Washington Post said "Mars Attacks! evokes plenty of sci-fi classics, from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) to Dr. Strangelove (1964), but it doesn't do much beyond that superficial exercise. With the exception of Burton's jolting sight gags (I may never recover from the vision of Sarah Jessica Parker's head grafted on to the body of a chihuahua), the comedy is half-developed, pedestrian material. And the climactic battle between Earthlings and Martians is dull and overextended."

Richard Schickel, writing in Time magazine, gave a positive review. "You have to admire everyone's chutzpah: the breadth of Burton's (and writer Jonathan Gems') movie references, which range from Kurosawa to Kubrick; and above all their refusal to offer us a single likable character. Perhaps they don't create quite enough deeply funny earthlings to go around, but a thoroughly mean-spirited big-budget movie is always a treasurable rarity." Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader praised the surreal humor and black comedy, which he found to be in the vein of Dr. Strangelove and Gremlins (1984). He said it was far from clear whether the movie was a satire, although critics were describing it as one. Todd McCarthy of Variety called Mars Attacks! "a cult sci-fi comedy miscast as an elaborate, all-star studio extravaganza."

Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B" on a scale of A+ to F.

### Awards

Mars Attacks! was on the shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects nomination, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected Independence Day, Dragonheart, and Twister instead. The film was nominated for seven categories at the Saturn Awards. Danny Elfman won Best Music, while director Tim Burton, writer Jonathan Gems, actor Lukas Haas, costume designer Colleen Atwood and the visual effects department at Industrial Light & Magic received nominations. Mars Attacks! was nominated for both the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film (which went to Independence Day) and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

## See also

- List of films featuring miniature people
- List of films featuring extraterrestrials
- List of films set in Las Vegas
- Mars in fiction

1996 film directed by Tim Burton

American films with live action and animation

Films about fictional presidents of the United States


Soundgarden

Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil (both of whom are the only members to appear in every incarnation of the band), and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Cornell switched to rhythm guitar in 1985, replaced on drums initially by Scott Sundquist, and later by Matt Cameron in 1986. Yamamoto left in 1990 and was replaced initially by Jason Everman and shortly thereafter by Ben Shepherd. The band dissolved in 1997 and re-formed in 2010. Following Cornell's death in 2017 and a year of uncertainty regarding the band's future, Thayil declared in October 2018 that Soundgarden had disbanded once again, though they did reunite in January 2019 for a one-off concert in tribute to Cornell.

The band helped to popularize grunge music, a style of alternative rock that developed in the American Pacific Northwest in the mid-1980s, alongside such Seattle contemporaries as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. They were the first of a number of grunge bands to sign to the Seattle-based record label Sub Pop, through which they released the EPs Screaming Life (1987) and Fopp (1988). Soundgarden's debut album, Ultramega OK, was also released in 1988 by the California-based independent label SST Records; although the album did not sell well nationally, it garnered critical acclaim and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1990. Their second album, Louder Than Love, was recorded independently, but, after they signed with A&M Records in 1989 (making them one of the first grunge bands to sign to a major label), the album became their major-label debut. While Ultramega OK had failed to chart and Louder Than Love peaked at number 108 on the Billboard 200 album chart, the band's third album Badmotorfinger (1991) was buoyed by the success of the singles "Jesus Christ Pose", "Outshined", and "Rusty Cage", reached number 39 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified double-platinum by the RIAA.

Soundgarden achieved its biggest success with the 1994 album Superunknown, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and yielded the Grammy Award-winning singles "Spoonman" and "Black Hole Sun". The band experimented with new sonic textures on their follow-up album Down on the Upside (1996), which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned several hit singles of its own, including "Pretty Noose", "Burden in My Hand" and "Blow Up the Outside World". In 1997, the band broke up due to internal strife over its creative direction and exhaustion from touring. After more than a decade of working on projects and other bands, they reunited in 2010, and Republic Records released their sixth and final studio album, King Animal, in 2012.

As of 2019, Soundgarden had sold more than 14 million records in the United States, and an estimated 30 million worldwide. VH1 ranked Soundgarden at number 14 in their special 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.

## History

### Formation and early recordings (1984–1988)

Soundgarden's origins began with a band called the Shemps, which performed around Seattle in the early 1980s, and featured bassist Hiro Yamamoto and drummer and singer Chris Cornell. Following Yamamoto's departure, the band recruited guitarist Kim Thayil as its new bassist. Thayil moved to Seattle from Park Forest, Illinois, with Yamamoto and Bruce Pavitt, who would later start the independent record label Sub Pop. Cornell and Yamamoto stayed in contact, and after the Shemps broke up Cornell and Yamamoto started jamming together, and were eventually joined by Thayil.

Soundgarden was formed in 1984 and included Cornell (drums and vocals), Yamamoto (bass), and Thayil (guitar). The band named themselves after a wind-channeling pipe sculpture titled A Sound Garden, on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration property at 7600 Sand Point Way, next to Magnuson Park in Seattle. Cornell originally played drums while singing, but in 1985 the band enlisted Scott Sundquist to allow Cornell to concentrate on vocals. The band traveled around playing various concerts with this lineup for about a year. Their first recordings were three songs that appeared on the 1986 compilation album for C/Z Records called Deep Six—"Heretic", "Tears to Forget" and "All Your Lies". It also featured songs by fellow grunge pioneers Green River, Skin Yard, Malfunkshun, the U-Men, and the Melvins. In 1986, Cornell's then-girlfriend and future wife, Susan Silver started managing Soundgarden. In the same year, Sundquist left the band to spend time with his family and was replaced by Skin Yard's drummer, Matt Cameron.

A Soundgarden performance one night impressed KCMU DJ Jonathan Poneman who later said: "I saw this band that was everything rock music should be." Poneman offered to fund a release by the band, so Thayil suggested he team up with Bruce Pavitt. Poneman offered to contribute \$20,000 in funding for Sub Pop, effectively turning it into a full-fledged record label. Soundgarden signed to Sub Pop, and the label released "Hunted Down" in 1987 as the band's first single. The B-side of "Hunted Down", "Nothing to Say", appeared on the KCMU compilation tape Bands That Will Make Money, which was distributed to record companies, many of whom showed interest in Soundgarden. Through Sub Pop, the band released the Screaming Life EP in 1987, and the Fopp EP in 1988, and a combination of the two, Screaming Life/Fopp, in 1990.

### Ultramega OK, major label signing, and Louder Than Love (1988–1990)

Though major labels were courting the band, in 1988 they signed to the independent label SST Records for their debut album, Ultramega OK, released on October 31, 1988. Cornell said the band "made a huge mistake with Ultramega OK" because they used a producer suggested by SST who "didn't know what was happening in Seattle". According to Steve Huey of AllMusic, Soundgarden demonstrates, a "Stooges/MC5-meets-Zeppelin/Sabbath sound" on the album. Mark Miremont directed the band's first music video for "Flower", which aired regularly on MTV's 120 Minutes. Soundgarden promoted Ultramega OK on a tour in the United States in the spring of 1989, and a tour in Europe, which began in May 1989—the band's first overseas tour. Ultramega OK earned the band a Grammy Award nomination for Best Metal Performance in 1990.

After touring to promote Ultramega OK, the band signed with A&M Records, which caused a rift between Soundgarden and its traditional audience. Thayil said, "In the beginning, our fans came from the punk rock crowd. They abandoned us when they thought we sold out the punk tenets, getting on a major label and touring with Guns N' Roses. There were fashion issues and social issues, and people thought we no longer belonged to their scene, to their particular sub-culture." The band later began work on its first album for a major label, but personnel difficulties caused a shift in the band's songwriting process, according to Cornell: "At the time Hiro [Yamamoto] excommunicated himself from the band and there wasn't a free-flowing system as far as music went, so I ended up writing a lot of it." On September 5, 1989, the band released its debut major-label album, Louder Than Love, which saw it take "a step toward the metal mainstream", according to Steve Huey of AllMusic, describing it as "a slow, grinding, detuned mountain of Sabbath/Zeppelin riffs and Chris Cornell wailing". Because of some of the lyrics, most notably on "Hands All Over" and "Big Dumb Sex", the band faced various retail and distribution problems upon the album's release. Louder Than Love became the band's first album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 108 on the chart in 1990.

A month before touring for Louder Than Love was to begin, bassist Hiro Yamamoto, who was becoming frustrated that he was not making much of a contribution, left the band to return to college. Jason Everman, formerly of Nirvana, replaced him on bass. The band toured North America from December 1989 to March 1990, opening for Voivod, who were supporting their album Nothingface, with Faith No More and the Big F also serving as opening acts at the beginning and end of the tour. The band then went on to tour Europe. The band fired Everman in mid-1990 immediately after completing its promotional tour for Louder Than Love. Thayil said that "Jason just didn't work out." Louder Than Love spawned the EP Loudest Love and the video compilation Louder Than Live, both released in 1990.

### Established lineup, Badmotorfinger, and rise in popularity (1990–1993)

Bassist Ben Shepherd replaced Jason Everman and the new lineup recorded Soundgarden's third album in 1991. Cornell said that Shepherd brought a "fresh and creative" approach to the recording sessions, and the band as a whole said that his knowledge of music and writing skills redefined the band. The band released the resulting album, Badmotorfinger, on October 8, 1991. Steve Huey of AllMusic said that the songwriting on Badmotorfinger "takes a quantum leap in focus and consistency". He added, "It's surprisingly cerebral and arty music for a band courting mainstream metal audiences." Thayil suggested that the album's lyrics are "like reading a novel [about] man's conflict with himself and society, or the government, or his family, or the economy, or anything". The first single from Badmotorfinger, "Jesus Christ Pose", garnered attention when MTV decided to ban its music video in 1991. The song and its video outraged many listeners who perceived it as anti-Christian. The band received death threats while on tour in the United Kingdom in support of the album. Cornell explained that the lyrics criticize public figures who use religion (particularly the image of Jesus Christ) to portray themselves as being persecuted. Although eclipsed at the time of its release by the sudden popularity of Nirvana's Nevermind, the focus of attention brought by Nevermind to the Seattle scene helped Soundgarden gain wider attention. The singles "Outshined" and "Rusty Cage" were able to find an audience on alternative rock radio and MTV. Badmotorfinger was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1992, and was among the 100 top-selling albums of the year.

Following the release of Badmotorfinger, Soundgarden went on a North American tour in October and November 1991. Afterward, Guns N' Roses personally selected the band as its opening act for their Use Your Illusion Tour. The band also opened for Skid Row in North America in February 1992 on its Slave to the Grind tour, and then headed to Europe for a month-long headlining theater tour. The band returned for a tour in the United States, and then rejoined Guns N' Roses in the summer of 1992 in Europe as part of the Use Your Illusion Tour along with fellow opening act Faith No More. Describing opening for Guns N' Roses, Cornell said, "It wasn't a whole lot of fun going out in front of 40,000 people for 35 minutes every day. Most of them never heard our songs and didn't care about them. It was a bizarre thing." The band played the 1992 Lollapalooza tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Ministry and Ice Cube among others. In anticipation of the band's appearance at Lollapalooza, they released a limited edition of Badmotorfinger in 1992 with a second disc containing the EP Satanoscillatemymetallicsonatas (a palindrome), featuring Soundgarden's cover of Black Sabbath's "Into the Void", titled "Into the Void (Sealth)", which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1993. The band later released the video compilation Motorvision, filmed at Seattle's Paramount Theatre in 1992. The band appeared in the movie Singles, performing "Birth Ritual". The song is included on the soundtrack, as is a Cornell solo song, "Seasons".

In 1993, the band contributed the track "Show Me" to the AIDS-Benefit album No Alternative, produced by the Red Hot Organization.

### Superunknown and mainstream success (1994–1995)

Soundgarden began working on its fourth album after touring in support of Badmotorfinger. Cornell said that while working on the album, the band allowed each other more freedom than on past records, and Thayil observed that the band spent a lot more time working on the recording of the songs than on previous records. Released on March 8, 1994, Superunknown became the band's breakthrough album, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and being driven by the singles "Spoonman", "The Day I Tried to Live", "Black Hole Sun", "My Wave", and "Fell on Black Days".

The songs on Superunknown captured the creativity and heaviness of the band's earlier works, while showcasing the group's newly evolving style. Lyrically, the album was quite dark and mysterious, and it is often interpreted to be dealing with substance abuse, suicide, and depression. At the time, Sylvia Plath inspired Cornell's writing. The album was also more experimental than previous releases, with some songs incorporating Middle-Eastern or Indian music. J. D. Considine of Rolling Stone said Superunknown "demonstrates far greater range than many bands manage in an entire career". He also stated, "At its best, Superunknown offers a more harrowing depiction of alienation and despair than anything on [Nirvana's final studio album] In Utero." The music video for "Black Hole Sun" became a hit on MTV, and received the award for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards, and in 1995 the Clio Award for Alternative Music Video. Soundgarden won two Grammy Awards in 1995—"Black Hole Sun" received the award for Best Hard Rock Performance and "Spoonman" received the award for Best Metal Performance. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 1995. Superunknown has been certified six times Platinum in the United States and remains Soundgarden's most successful album.

The band began touring in January 1994 in Oceania and Japan, areas where the record came out early and where the band had never toured before. This round of touring ended in February 1994. In March 1994 the band moved on to Europe. They began a theater tour of the United States, first with a stop on May 27, 1994 at the PNE Forum in Vancouver, with the opening acts Tad and Eleven. In late 1994, after touring in support of Superunknown, doctors discovered that Cornell had severely strained his vocal cords, and Soundgarden canceled several shows to avoid causing any permanent damage. Cornell said, "I think we kinda overdid it! We were playing five or six nights a week and my voice pretty much took a beating. Towards the end of the American tour I felt like I could still kinda sing, but I wasn't really giving the band a fair shake. You don't buy a ticket to see some guy croak for two hours! That seemed like kind of a rip off." The band made up the dates later in 1995. Superunknown spawned the EP Songs from the Superunknown and the CD-ROM Alive in the Superunknown, both released in 1995.

### Down on the Upside and breakup (1996–1997)

Following the worldwide tour in support of Superunknown, the band began working on what would become their last studio album for over 15 years, choosing to produce the record themselves. However, tensions within the group reportedly arose during the sessions, with Thayil and Cornell allegedly clashing over Cornell's desire to shift away from the heavy guitar riffing that had become the band's trademark. Cornell said, "By the time we were finished, it felt like it had been kind of hard, like it was a long, hard haul. But there was stuff we were discovering." The band's fifth album, Down on the Upside, was released on May 21, 1996. It was notably less heavy than the group's earlier albums, and marked a further departure from the band's grunge roots. At the time, Soundgarden explained that they wanted to experiment with other sounds, including acoustic instrumentation. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly said, "Few bands since Led Zeppelin have so crisply mixed instruments both acoustic and electric." The overall mood of the album's lyrics is less dark than on previous Soundgarden albums, with Cornell describing some songs as "self-affirming". The album spawned several singles, including "Pretty Noose", "Burden in My Hand", and "Blow Up the Outside World". "Pretty Noose" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1997. The album did not match the sales or critical praise of Superunknown.

The band took a slot on the 1996 Lollapalooza tour with Metallica, who had insisted on Soundgarden's appearance on the tour. After Lollapalooza, the band embarked on a world tour, and already-existing tensions increased during it. When asked whether the band hated touring, Cornell replied: "We really enjoy it to a point, and then it gets tedious, because it becomes repetitious. You feel like fans have paid their money and they expect you to come out and play them your songs like the first time you ever played them. That's the point where we hate touring." At the tour's last stop in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 9, 1997, Shepherd threw his bass into the air in frustration after suffering equipment failure, and then stormed off the stage. The band retreated, with Cornell returning to end the show with a solo encore. On April 9, 1997, the band announced it was disbanding. Thayil said, "It was pretty obvious from everybody's general attitude over the course of the previous half year that there was some dissatisfaction." Cameron later said that Soundgarden was "eaten up by the business". The band released a greatest hits collection entitled A-Sides on November 4, 1997, composed of 17 songs, including the previously-unreleased "Bleed Together", which had been recorded during the Down on the Upside recording sessions.

### Post-breakup activities (1998–2009)

Cornell released a solo album in September 1999, entitled Euphoria Morning, which featured Matt Cameron on the track "Disappearing One". By May 2001, Cornell joined the platinum-selling supergroup Audioslave with Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk, then-former members of Rage Against the Machine, which recorded three albums: Audioslave (2002), Out of Exile (2005), and Revelations (2006). Cornell left Audioslave in early 2007, resulting in the band's break-up. His second solo album, Carry On, was released in June 2007, and his third solo album, Scream, produced by Timbaland, was released in March 2009, both to mixed commercial and critical success. Cornell also wrote the lyrics and provided vocals for the song "Promise" on Slash's debut solo album Slash, released in 2010.

Thayil joined forces with former Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Gina Mainwal for one show, performing as The No WTO Combo during the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle on December 1, 1999. Thayil contributed guitar tracks to Steve Fisk's 2001 album, 999 Levels of Undo, as well as Dave Grohl's 2004 side-project album, Probot. In 2006, Thayil played guitar on the album Altar, the collaboration between the bands Sunn O))) and Boris.

Cameron initially turned his efforts to his side-project Wellwater Conspiracy, to which both Shepherd and Thayil have contributed. He then worked briefly with the Smashing Pumpkins on the band's 1998 album, Adore. In 1998, he played drums for Pearl Jam's Yield Tour following Jack Irons's departure, and later joined Pearl Jam as an official member. He has recorded six albums as the band's drummer: Binaural (2000), Riot Act (2002), Pearl Jam (2006), Backspacer (2009), Lightning Bolt (2013) and Gigaton (2020). Cameron also played percussion on Geddy Lee's album My Favourite Headache. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pearl Jam.

Shepherd was the singer on Wellwater Conspiracy's 1997 debut studio album, Declaration of Conformity, but left the band after its release. He has toured with Mark Lanegan and played bass on two of Lanegan's albums, I'll Take Care of You (1999), and Field Songs (2001). Shepherd and Cameron lent a hand with recording Tony Iommi's album IOMMI (2000). While they were members of Soundgarden they were part of the side-project band Hater, and in 2005 Shepherd released the band's long-delayed second album, The 2nd.

In a July 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, Cornell shot down rumors of a reunion, saying that conversations between the band members had been limited to discussion about the release of a box set or B-sides album of Soundgarden rarities, and that there had been no discussion of a reunion at all. The band's interest in new releases emerged from a 2008 meeting about their shared properties, both financial and legal, where they realized Soundgarden lacked online presence such as a website or a Facebook page. As Thayil summed up, "we kind of had neglected our merchandise over the last decade". Eventually the musicians decided to create an official site handled by Pearl Jam's Ten Club, relaunch their catalog, and according to Cameron, seek "a bunch of unreleased stuff we wanted to try to put out". On March 2009, Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron got onstage during a concert by Tad Doyle in Seattle and played some Soundgarden songs. Cornell stated that the moment "sort of sparked the idea: If Matt, Kim, and Ben can get in a room, rehearse a couple songs, and play, maybe we all could do that as Soundgarden."

On October 6, 2009, all the members of Soundgarden attended Night 3 of Pearl Jam's four-night stand at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, CA. During an encore, Temple of the Dog reunited for the first time since Pearl Jam's show at the Santa Barbara Bowl on October 28, 2003. Chris Cornell joined the band to sing "Hunger Strike". It was the first public appearance of Soundgarden since their breakup in April 1997. Consequently, rumors of an impending reunion were circulating on the Internet.

### Reunion, Telephantasm and King Animal (2010–2013)

On January 1, 2010, Cornell alluded to a Soundgarden reunion on his Twitter account writing: "The 12-year break is over and school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!" The message linked to a website that featured a picture of the group performing live and a place for fans to enter their e-mail addresses to get updates on the reunion. Entering that information unlocked a video for the song "Get on the Snake", from 1989's Louder Than Love. On March 1, 2010, Soundgarden announced to their e-mail subscribers that they would be re-releasing an old single "Hunted Down" with the song "Nothing to Say" on a 7-inch vinyl record. It was released on April 17, Record Store Day. They released "Spoonman" live at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego, California from 1996. Soundgarden played their first show since 1997 on April 16 at the Showbox at the Market in the band's hometown of Seattle. The band headlined Lollapalooza on August 8.

Telephantasm: A Retrospective, a new Soundgarden compilation album, was packaged with initial shipments of the Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock video game and released on September 28, 2010, one week before the CD's availability in stores on October 5, 2010. An expanded version of Telephantasm consisting of two CDs and one DVD is available for sale. A previously unreleased Soundgarden song—"Black Rain"—debuted on the Guitar Hero video game and appears on the compilation album, which achieved platinum certification status after its first day of retail availability. "Black Rain" hit rock radio stations on August 10, 2010, and was the band's first single since 1997. In November 2010, Soundgarden was the second musical guest on the show Conan, making their first television appearance in 13 years. The band issued a 7-inch vinyl, "The Telephantasm", for Black Friday Record Store Day. In March 2011, Soundgarden released their first live album, Live on I-5.

In February 2011 Soundgarden announced on their homepage that they had started recording a new album. On March 1, 2011, Chris Cornell confirmed that Adam Kasper would produce it. Four days later, the band stated it would consist of material that was "90 percent new" with the rest consisting of updated versions of older ideas. They also noted that they had 12 to 14 songs that were "kind of ready to go". Although Cameron claimed the album would be released in 2011, the recording was prolonged as Thayil said that "the more we enjoy it, the more our fans should end up enjoying it". Thayil also reported that some songs sound "similar in a sense to Down on the Upside" and that the album would be "picking up where we left off. There are some heavy moments, and there are some fast songs." The next day, Cornell reported that the new album would not be released until the spring of 2012.

In April 2011, Soundgarden announced a summer tour consisting of four dates in July. The band headlined for Voodoo Experience at City Park in New Orleans on the 2011 Halloween weekend. In March 2012 a post on the band's official Facebook page said a new song, "Live to Rise", would be included on the soundtrack of the upcoming movie The Avengers, based on the Marvel Comics franchise. It was the first newly recorded song the band had released since re-forming in 2010. "Live to Rise" was released as a free download on iTunes on April 17. Also in March it was announced that Soundgarden would headline the Friday night of the Hard Rock Calling Festival the following July in London, England. In April, Soundgarden announced the release of a box set titled Classic Album Selection for Europe, containing all of their studio albums except for Ultramega OK, and live album Live on I-5. On May 5, just before The Offspring began playing their set, the band appeared as a special guest at the 20th annual KROQ Weenie Roast in Irvine, California. Later that month, Soundgarden told Rolling Stone they were eyeing an October release for their new album. That June, the band appeared at Download Festival in Donington, England. The band released "Been Away Too Long", the first single from their new album King Animal on September 27; the album was released on November 13, 2012. The band released a video for "By Crooked Steps", directed by Dave Grohl, in early 2013. "Halfway There" was the third single released from the album.

### Echo of Miles... and Cornell's death (2013–2017)

On November 15, 2013, drummer Matt Cameron announced he would not be touring with Soundgarden in 2014, due to prior commitments promoting Pearl Jam's album Lightning Bolt. On March 16, 2014, Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails announced they were going to tour North America together, along with opening act Death Grips. Former Pearl Jam drummer Matt Chamberlain replaced Cameron for live shows in South America and Europe on March 27, 2014.

Soundgarden announced on October 28, 2014, they would release the 3-CD compilation box set, Echo of Miles: Scattered Tracks Across the Path, on November 24. The set includes rarities, live tracks, and unreleased material spanning the group's history. It includes previously released songs, such as "Live to Rise", "Black Rain", "Birth Ritual", and others, as well as a newly recorded rendition of the song "The Storm" from the band's pre-Matt Cameron 1985 demo, now simply titled "Storm", which was, like the original, produced by Jack Endino. One day before its official announcement, on October 27, the band posted a copy of "Storm" on YouTube.

Thayil mentioned in several interviews it was likely the band would start working on material for a new album in 2015, and in August 2015, Cornell stated they were doing so. On January 19, 2016, The Pulse Of Radio announced that Soundgarden had returned to the studio to continue working on their new album. On July 14, 2016, bassist Ben Shepherd and Cameron stated that the band had written "six solid tunes" for the new album, with more writing to be done in August.

On May 18, 2017, Cornell was found dead, "with a band around his neck", according to his representative, Brian Bumbery. Cornell was in his room at the MGM Grand hotel and casino in Detroit, Michigan, after performing at the Fox Theatre with Soundgarden. From the outset, the investigation into the singer's death was described by a local police spokesperson as that of a "possible suicide", based on unspecified details in the room where his body was discovered. Subsequently, the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office determined the cause of death as suicide by hanging. However, Cornell's widow, Vicky, questioned whether he would deliberately end his own life, and said that the drug Ativan, which her husband was taking, might have led him to commit suicide. She said: "I know that he loved our children and he would not hurt them by intentionally taking his own life."

Following Cornell's death, Soundgarden canceled the rest of their 2017 tour, including headlining performances at Rock on the Range and Rocklahoma later that month.

### Aftermath and disbandment (2017–present)

In September 2017, drummer Matt Cameron told Billboard that he and the other surviving members of Soundgarden had yet to make a decision about the future of the band following Cornell's death. He was quoted as saying, "I don't think we're ready to say anything other than ... Kim and Ben and I are certainly aware of how much our fans are hurting, and we're certainly hurting right there along with them. But we're extremely private people, and we're all still processing our grief in our own way and on our own time. But we definitely are thinking of our fans and love them very much."

In September 2018, guitarist Kim Thayil told Billboard that he and the other surviving members of Soundgarden were still unsure about the future of the band. He was quoted as saying, "We often reference rock history and we've often commented on what other bands in similar situations have done, not as a plan or anything but just commenting on how bands have handled situations like this and what bands seem to have been graceful and dignified in how they manage their future musical endeavors and how some maybe were clumsy and callous. We think about those things. We try not to go too deep into these conversations, but stuff comes up after a few beers." A month later, Cameron told Rolling Stone that the surviving members of Soundgarden "would certainly love to try to continue to do something, figure out something to do together." Bassist Ben Shepherd added, "We haven't even gotten a chance to hang out, just us three, yet. We're going through natural healing, then thinking about the natural next step."

In an October 2018 interview with Seattle Times, Thayil stated that the Soundgarden band name would be retired. He explained, "I don't know really what kind of thing is possible or what we would consider in the future. It's likely nothing. The four of us were that. There were four of us and now there's three of us, so it's just not likely that there's much to be pursued other than the catalog work at this point." Thayil also stated that while he does not rule out the possibility of working with Cameron and Shepherd in a different capacity, writing or touring under the Soundgarden banner again was unlikely. "No, I don't think that's anything we'd give reasonable consideration to at this point. When I say 'at this point,' I mean perhaps ever."

In January 2019, the remaining members of the band reunited in a tribute concert and fundraiser at The Forum in Inglewood, California, organized by Cornell's widow, Vicky Cornell. Members of Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave, Alice in Chains, Melvins, Foo Fighters, and Metallica together with other notable artists performed songs from Cornell's career. Taylor Momsen, Marcus Durant, Brandi Carlile, and Taylor Hawkins contributed vocals to Soundgarden, who performed "Rusty Cage", "Flower", "Outshined", "Drawing Flies", "Loud Love", "I Awake", "The Day I Tried to Live", and "Black Hole Sun", making this their only performance since Cornell's death.

In July 2019, Thayil said in an interview with Music Radar that the surviving members of Soundgarden are trying to finish and release the album they were working on with Cornell. However, the master files of Cornell's vocal recordings are currently being withheld, and when Thayil sought permission to use these files, he was denied.

In December 2019, Cornell's widow, Vicky Cornell, sued the surviving members of Soundgarden over seven unreleased recordings Cornell made before his death in 2017, claiming "they have “shamelessly conspired to wrongfully withhold hundreds of thousands of dollars indisputably owed to Chris’ widow and minor children in an unlawful attempt to strong-arm Chris’ Estate into turning over certain audio recordings created by Chris before he passed away." The lawsuit stated that Cornell made the seven recordings at his personal studio in Florida in 2017, which there was never any explicit agreement that these songs were meant for Soundgarden, and that Cornell was the only owner of tracks. In February 2020, Thayil, Cameron and Shepherd demanded Vicky to hand over the unreleased recordings, claiming that they worked jointly on these final tracks with Chris and that Vicky has no right to withhold from them what they call the "final Soundgarden album." The band members pointed to interviews Chris and his bandmates made at the time confirming they were working together on what would be Soundgarden's eighth album. In March 2020, Soundgarden asked court to dismiss the lawsuit. In May 2020, Soundgarden countersued Vicky claiming that she engaged in "fraudulent inducement" by allegedly attempting to use the revenue from the January 2019 "I Am the Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell" concert, which was meant to go to the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation, for "personal purposes for herself and her family". The band dropped the benefit concert lawsuit in July 2020.

On August 10, 2020, Nile Rodgers and Merck Mercuriadis's company Hipgnosis Songs Fund acquired 100% of Chris Cornell's catalog of song rights (241 songs), including Soundgarden's catalog. Rodgers is friends with Cornell's widow.

On December 1, 2020, Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron performed as "members of Soundgarden" alongside Tad Doyle, Mike McCready and Meagan Grandallat at MoPOP Founders Award tribute to Alice in Chains.

In February 2021, Vicky Cornell filed another lawsuit claiming that the remaining members of Soundgarden have undervalued her share of the band, offering her “the villainously low figure of less than \$300,000.” Vicky claimed the band offered her \$300,000 despite receiving a \$16 million offer from another investor for the act's master recordings. Vicky said she counter-offered \$12 million for the band's collective interests, equaling \$4 million per surviving member, which they denied. She then offered them \$21 million for the band’s interests, and that offer was also rejected. Soungarden said in a statement that the "buyout offer that was demanded by the estate has been grossly mischaracterized and we are confident that clarity will come out in court. All offers to buy out our interests have been unsolicited and rejected outright." The band also noted that they also haven't had access to their social media accounts, which has resulted in "misleading and confusing our fans", leading the band to create new Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts under the name "Nude Dragons", an anagram for Soundgarden. On March 19, 2021, a federal judge recommended that claims the surviving band members improperly withheld "hundreds of thousands of dollars" and that the band's manager breached his duty to look after Vicky's interests be dismissed, citing lack of evidence of the band withholding royalties. On March 25, 2021, Soundgarden demanded the passwords for their social media and website. On June 15, 2021, the band got their website and social media accounts back in a temporary agreement with Vicky.

On April 17, 2023, it was officially revealed that seven final recordings with Chris Cornell would be released after the dispute between the members and Vicky Cornell had ended.

## Musical style and influences

Soundgarden were pioneers of the grunge music genre, which mixed elements of punk rock and metal to make a sludgy, murky sound through the use of fuzzy-sounding distortion in the guitars. "Soundgarden are quite good..." remarked Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, "It's very much like the same sort of stuff that we would have done." Soundgarden's sound during the early years of the Seattle grunge scene has been described as consisting of "gnarled neo-Zeppelinisms". The influence of Led Zeppelin was evident, with Q magazine noting that Soundgarden were "in thrall to '70s rock, but contemptuous of the genre's overt sexism and machismo." According to Sub Pop, the band had "a hunky lead singer and fused Led Zeppelin and the Butthole Surfers". The Butthole Surfers' mix of punk, heavy metal and noise rock was a major influence on the early work of Soundgarden. The band was also influenced by the likes of the Ramones, Kiss, Accept, the Melvins and Saint Vitus.

The name of the band, according to Thayil, was supposed to include the many roots of their style: that included "a virtual plethora of cutting edge rock that spans Velvet Underground, Meat Puppets, and Killing Joke". The band also mentioned "Metallica Gothicism and sublime poetry. The almost ethereal flavour of the name betrays the brutality of the music but never pins Soundgarden in one corner".

Black Sabbath also had a huge impact on the band's sound, especially on the guitar riffs and tunings. Joel McIver stated: "Soundgarden are one of the bands I've heard closest to the original Sabbath sound." Soundgarden, like other early grunge bands, were also influenced by British post-punk bands such as Gang of Four and Bauhaus which were popular in the early 1980s Seattle scene. Cornell himself said: "When Soundgarden formed we were post-punk – pretty quirky. Then somehow we found this neo-Sabbath psychedelic rock that fitted well with who we were." Thayil described the band's sound as a "Sabbath-influenced punk".

Soundgarden broadened its musical range with its later releases. By 1994's Superunknown, the band began to incorporate more psychedelic influences into its music. As a member of Soundgarden, Cornell became known for his wide vocal range and his dark, existentialist lyrics.

Soundgarden often used alternative tunings in its songs. Many Soundgarden songs were performed in drop D tuning, including "Jesus Christ Pose", "Outshined", "Spoonman", "Black Hole Sun", and "Black Rain". The E strings of the instruments were at times tuned even lower, such as on "Rusty Cage", where the lower E is tuned down to B. Some songs use more unorthodox tunings: "Been Away Too Long", "My Wave", and "The Day I Tried to Live" are all in a E–E–B–B–B–B tuning and "Burden in My Hand", "Head Down", and "Pretty Noose" in a tuning of C-G-C-G-G-E".

Soundgarden also used unorthodox time signatures; "Fell on Black Days" is in 6/4, "Limo Wreck" is played in 15/8, and "The Day I Tried to Live" alternates between 7/8 and 4/4 sections. The main guitar riff of "Circle of Power" is in 5/4. Thayil has said Soundgarden usually did not consider the time signature of a song until after the band wrote it, and said the use of odd meters was "a total accident". He also used the meters as an example of the band's anti-commercial stance, saying that if Soundgarden "were in the business of hit singles, we'd at least write songs in 4/4 so you could dance to them".

## Legacy

The development of the Seattle independent record label Sub Pop is tied closely to Soundgarden, since Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman funded Soundgarden's early releases, and the band's success led to the expansion of Sub Pop as a serious record label. Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was a fan of Soundgarden's music, and reportedly Soundgarden's involvement with Sub Pop influenced Cobain to sign Nirvana with the label. Cobain also stated that Soundgarden was one of the only Seattle bands that he liked along with Tad and Mudhoney. In rare footage from the 2015 documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Cobain can be seen impersonating Chris Cornell singing "Outshined". Alice in Chains guitarist and vocalist, Jerry Cantrell stated that Soundgarden was a big influence on his band.

Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign to a major label when the band joined the roster of A&M Records in 1989. However, Soundgarden did not achieve success initially, and only with successive album releases did the band meet with increased sales and wider attention. Bassist Ben Shepherd has not been receptive to the grunge label, saying in a 2013 interview "That's just marketing. It's called rock and roll, or it's called punk rock or whatever. We never were Grunge, we were just a band from Seattle." They were ranked No. 14 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.

In 1994, Electronic Arts contacted Soundgarden's label A&M Records for a bid to license the band's music for a CD-based entry in the Road Rash video game series. Although the label was initially hesitant due to the lack of precedence for licensing music for video games, Cornell and his band members expressed enthusiasm, as they were fans of the games and frequently played them on their bus while touring the country. A&M then obtained the band's permission to use them as leverage to incorporate other alt-rock bands within the A&M label into the game, including Monster Magnet, Paw, Swervedriver, Therapy? and Hammerbox. As a result of Soundgarden's involvement, the 3DO version of Road Rash has been credited with revolutionizing the use of licensed music in video games.

Regarding Soundgarden's legacy, in a 2007 interview Cornell said:

> "I think, and this is now with some distance in listening to the records, but on the outside looking in with all earnestness I think Soundgarden made the best records out of that scene. I think we were the most daring and experimental and genre-pushing really and I'm really proud of it. And I guess that's why I have trepidation about the idea of re-forming. I don't know what it would mean, or I guess I just have this image of who we were and I had probably a lot of anxiety during the period of being Soundgarden, as we all did, that it was responsibility and it was an important band and music and we didn't want to mess it up and we managed to not, which I feel is a great achievement."

Soundgarden has been praised for its technical musical ability, and the expansion of its sound as the band's career progressed. "Heavy yet ethereal, powerful yet always-in-control, Soundgarden's music was a study in contrasts," said Henry Wilson of Hit Parader. Wilson proclaimed the band's music as "a brilliant display of technical proficiency tempered by heart-felt emotion".

Soundgarden is one of the bands credited with the development of the genre of alternative metal, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stating that "Soundgarden made a place for heavy metal in alternative rock." Ben Ratliff of Rolling Stone defined Soundgarden as the "standard-bearers" of the rock riff during the 1990s. The band inspired and influenced a number of metalcore bands such as Between the Buried and Me and the Dillinger Escape Plan. In 2017, Metal Injection ranked Soundgarden at number three on their list of 10 Heaviest Grunge Bands. Loudwire recognizes Soundgarden as one of the "big four" bands of grunge, alongside Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana.

## Members

### Classic lineup

- Kim Thayil – lead guitar (1984–1997, 2010–2019)
- Chris Cornell – lead vocals (1984–1997, 2010–2017; his death), rhythm guitar (1988–1997, 2010–2017), drums (1984–1985)
- Matt Cameron – drums, backing vocals (1986–1997, 2010–2019)
- Ben Shepherd – bass (1990–1997, 2010–2019)

### Former members

- Hiro Yamamoto – bass, backing vocals (1984–1989)
- Scott Sundquist – drums (1985–1986)
- Jason Everman – bass (1989–1990)

### Timeline

## Discography

### Studio albums

- Ultramega OK (1988)
- Louder Than Love (1989)
- Badmotorfinger (1991)
- Superunknown (1994)
- Down on the Upside (1996)
- King Animal (2012)

## Awards and nominations

Clio Awards

\|- \|1995 \|\| "Black Hole Sun" \|\| Alternative Music Video \|\| \|-

Grammy Awards

MTV Europe Music Awards

\|- \| 1994 \| Soundgarden \| Best Rock \|

MTV Video Music Awards

\|- \| 1994 \| "Black Hole Sun" \| Best Metal/Hard Rock Video \|

Northwest Area Music Awards

\|- \| rowspan="3"\| 1991 \| Chris Cornell \| Best Male Vocalist \| \|- \| Matt Cameron \| Best Musician - Drums \| \|- \| Soundgarden \| Best Rock Group \| \|- \| rowspan="4"\| 1992 \| Matt Cameron \| Best Drums \| \|- \| Chris Cornell \| Best Male Vocalist \| \|- \| Badmotorfinger \| Best Metal Album \| \|- \| Soundgarden \| Best Metal Group \|

Revolver Music Awards

\|- \| rowspan="4"\| 2013 \| King Animal \| Album of the Year \| \|- \| Soundgarden \| Comeback of the Year \| \|- \| Kim Thayil \| Best Guitarist \| \|- \| Chris Cornell \| Best Vocalist \|

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

\|- \| 2020 \| Soundgarden \| Performers \|

American rock band

1984 establishments in Washington (state)

2019 disestablishments in Washington (state)

Alternative rock groups from Washington (state)

American alternative metal musical groups

Articles which contain graphical timelines

Hard rock musical groups from Washington (state)

Heavy metal musical groups from Washington (state)