David is a plucky 1950s lad who enjoys watching the skies with his telescope and being able to trust local authority figures. But all that is upended when Martians land in the sandpit in his family’s yard - every yard has a sandpit, right? The aliens begin replacing everyone in the town with synthetic mutants (pronounced mu-TANTS) starting with David’s very own parents! David heads straight to his town’s surprisingly grand police station, and quickly gets help from a local doctor, an astronomer, and even the U.S. Army. Because, unlike most movies about a kid trying to convince everyone that something weird is going on, all the adults believe him immediately. For a movie about invasion paranoia, there sure is a lot of trust.