Continuity mistake: At the beginning when the President is deciding to go public to the American people, Jerry moves his arms into his lap twice. (00:05:25)
Continuity mistake: In the first scene with the Lands, the handles on Barbara's bag continually switch from up to down. (00:08:10)
Continuity mistake: Jason Stone stands a knife in his food as he passes the phone to his wife at the breakfast table. The knife disappears in the next shot, but reappears in every closeup on Jason. (00:13:00)
Continuity mistake: When Byron's ex-wife is driving the bus, she sees her two sons playing at the arcade, when the bus passes right in front of the building. She makes an announcement to the passengers, then she brakes, but the bus stops right in front of the arcade. (00:15:25)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah Jessica Parker is talking to Pierce Brosnan on her show, her dog suddenly ends up in her lap. While she is talking her dog is beside her sleeping, when the camera cuts to another angle the dog is suddenly wide awake and sitting on her lap. (00:19:20)
Continuity mistake: When General Casey answers the phone en route to Pahrump, the helicopters following him drop back in an instant. (00:32:15)
Continuity mistake: The helicopters at the landing site escort the saucer down, then immediately disappear. They are completely gone as the saucer touches down and do not participate in the ensuing battle, even though the Martians are never seen aiming their guns in the air. (00:36:10)
Continuity mistake: When the martians first visit earth in the desert you can see that the shadow from the poles at the red carpet is on the left side, a few seconds later after the silver ramp is unrolled and the martian ambassador walks down it and onto the red carpet you can see that the shadow of the poles is on the right side. (00:36:35 - 00:38:15)
Continuity mistake: When the Martians are attacking the people in Nevada, the truck which Natalie is on falls to the ground, but when Jason runs to save her it's back on its wheels. (00:41:25)
Continuity mistake: When the press secretary kisses the hand of the alien-dressed-as-a-seductive-woman, the eyeball ring is on her right middle finger but after she knocks him out (or kills him) the ring is on the finger between the middle and the pinkie. In subsequent scenes it's back on the middle finger. (01:01:35 - 01:04:20)
Continuity mistake: When Land is presenting to the investors during the invasion, a saucer flies behind him just as he puts on his hat. In the next shot, that saucer is gone, though there are others still in the background. It didn't move quickly enough to get offscreen in that time. (01:11:45)
Continuity mistake: The first time we see Tom Jones' backup dancers, they are about three feet apart. In the next shot, they are directly next to each other. (01:12:40)
Continuity mistake: When Byron, Barbara and the others are going to escape from the casino, the Martians break a wall behind them. The hole is different in the following shots. (01:14:40)
Continuity mistake: Right before the president is killed, the Martians shoot around in the room and knock over Australia, leaving the lighted outline visible. When Mitch the bodyguard is killed, the cutout is back, intact. When the president starts his speech ("Why are you doing this?"), we see the lighted outline and the cutout is missing yet again. (01:27:15)
Continuity mistake: When the two boys finds the dead Martian in their bedroom at the end of the film, there's that green stuff on his brain but in the next shot, when they push the Martian and he falls into the street, the brain is clean. (01:39:10)
Continuity mistake: When we first meet Lands in the casino, Art sticks a cigarette in his mouth. But in the next shot when he hands Barbara some chips the cigarette disappears.
Chosen answer: While the movie is a parody of the 50's sci-fi B-movies, the film is actually based on the Topps 1962 science fiction trading card collection called "Mars Attacks!", which tells the tale of the Martians' attack.
Bishop73