What Planet Are You From? (2000)

A human-looking alien from a highly advanced but emotionless all-male society is sent to Earth to impregnate a woman and bring the child back to their planet. The alien ends up falling in love there. A suspicious F.A.A. Agent targets him.

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writers:

Garry Shandling (story), Michael Leeson (story)

Stars:

Garry Shandling, Annette Bening, John Goodman

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Garry Shandling	...	Harold Anderson
Annette Bening	...	Susan
John Goodman	...	Roland Jones
Greg Kinnear	...	Perry Gordon
Ben Kingsley	...	Graydon
Judy Greer	...	Rebecca
Danny Zorn	...	Randy
Harmony Smith	...	Rita
Richard Jenkins	...	Don Fisk
Linda Fiorentino	...	Helen Gordon
Caroline Aaron	...	Nadine
Nora Dunn	...	Madeline
Cricky Long	...	Janice
Camryn Manheim	...	Alison
Ann Cusack	...	Liz

Storyline

A highly advanced civilization, whose citizens feel no emotion and reproduce by cloning, plans to conquer Earth from the inside by sending an operative, fashioned with a humming, mechanical penis, to impregnate a human and stay until the birth. The alien, Harold Anderson, goes to Phoenix as a banker and sets to work finding a mate. His approaches to women are inept, and the humming phallus doesn't help, but on the advice of a banking colleague, he cruises an A.A. meeting, meets Susan, and somehow convinces her to marry him. The clock starts to tick: will she conceive, have a baby, and lose Harold (and the child) to his planet before he discovers emotion and starts to care?

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Plot Keywords:

pregnancy | question in title | alien | husband wife relationship | sex scene | 

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Taglines:

To save his planet, an alien must find a woman on Earth to have his baby. There's just one problem.

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Genres:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 March 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

De quelle planète viens-tu?

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,008,746, 5 March 2000, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$6,291,602, 26 March 2000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, What Planet Are You From? Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 87 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

If you look closely, the opening "Columbia" lady's face is very different and holds a very strong resemblance to Annette Bening.

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Goofs

[All goofs for this title are spoilers.]

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Quotes

[first lines]
Title Card: At the far reaches of the Universe lies a planet of men who have advanced technologically beyond the realm of human comprehension. This is no breeding - they are a product of cloning, and their reproductive organs have shrunk and disappeared. All emotions have been bred out of this race and each succeeding generation has become more ambitious and driven than the previous one. They want to rule the Universe, and now they are planning their next takeover from the inside.

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Crazy Credits

At the very end of the credits, we hear the familiar "humming" sound and Susan's voice saying, "Oh, Christ! Turn that thing off."

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Alternate Versions

The German DVD only runs 87 minutes. At least 3 scenes from the trailer are missing. The subplots involving Linda Fiorentino and John Goodman's characters are mostly deleted.

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Connections

References American Beauty (1999)

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Soundtracks

Wedding March
Written by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Performed by Anthony Newman
Courtesy of Sony Classical
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Another of My Guilty Pleasures...

I don't know why I'm afraid to admit it, but WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? is definitely one of my guilty pleasures which I have viewed multiple times and still find highly entertaining. This cute and entertaining comedy stars Garry Shandling as an alien sent to earth to impregnate a woman and bring the baby back to his planet. He ends up targeting a real estate agent and recovering alcoholic (Annette Bening) as his target, but he doesn't plan on complications like love, marriage, friends, business competitors...those little things that we earthlings deal with on a daily basis but an alien from another planet would have no concept of. The opening scenes of the aliens being educated on the female erogenous zones are quite amusing as is Shandling's explanations of women to aliens when he returns to his planet after impregnating Bening and stealing the baby. Bening is charming in a rare comedic turn and even gets to sing. Greg Kinnear scores as a slimy co-worker of Shandling's and Linda Fiorentino makes the most of her brief appearance as his sexy wife. John Goodman is solid as a cynical UFO investigator who can't get anyone to believe there is an alien on earth and has to deal with his paranoid wife (Caroline Aaron) who is convinced the man is cheating on her. Ben Kingsley, in a refreshing change of pace, plays the stone-faced leader of Shandling's planet and Camryn Manheim, Nora Dunn, and Ann Cusack appear as Bening's girlfriends. Shandling co-wrote this comedy, smoothly directed by Mike Nichols, of all people. It's no masterpiece, but there are worse ways to kill 90 minutes and there are laughs to be had along the way.