Trailer
Plot summary
On a dying desert planet, a family of aliens hunts for water beneath the ground. A research probe from NASA lands, draws in samples of the air, and pulls the aliens aboard with it. The probe returns to Earth. The aliens break out of a government base and flee; they can control electricity and destroy whatever they touch. The smallest of them hides in a minivan carrying Janet Cruise and her two sons, Michael and Eric, who are relocating near Los Angeles after her husband's death. Eric, who uses a wheelchair, sees the creature.
Cast
- Lauren Stanleyas Debbie
- Laura Waterburyas Linda
- Jack Eisemanas Splatter Car Driver
- Barbara Allyne Bennetas Scientist
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mac and Me (1988)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Jade Calegory, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair in real life, performed part of the stunt of rolling down a hill in his wheelchair himself; Raffill said that going fast in a wheelchair places tremendous risk on the child.
- Raffill was hired before there was a script: the producer already had a whole crew on the payroll, from the transportation captain to the production manager, and told him he would have to write the screenplay quickly, on weekends, while prepping the movie.
- Actor Paul Rudd has turned the film into a running joke on Conan O'Brien's shows, repeatedly airing the same clip of Eric's wheelchair tumbling down a hill instead of clips from whatever project he was actually there to promote.
- Producer R.J. Louis used his advertising ties to McDonald's charity arm Ronald McDonald House Charities to build the film around the brand, pitching it as cross-promotion that could be marketed in restaurants with profits supporting the charity.
- Despite McDonald's specifying that they did not want Ronald McDonald to appear in the film, the character, played by Squire Fridell, nonetheless appeared in a scene set at a McDonald's which featured an extended dance sequence.
SPOILER
A scene showing Eric's on-screen death was cut from theatrical and home video prints after negative test-audience reactions, leaving his death to happen offscreen; the original footage still exists on the Japanese VHS release.- Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock cited the film as the most egregious example of product placement in cinema history, as well as the "worst thing you’ll ever see in your entire life".
- Jennifer Aniston and Nikki Cox both appear in the film as background extras, neither of them named anywhere in the credits.
