Minor Characters

Character Analysis

Marty Gilbert (Harvey Fierstein)

Marty's David's friend and colleague. He doesn't get a ton of airtime, but he makes an impression, since he's extremely loud and expressive. He tries to flee town, but it appears that he's killed in the alien attacks by a giant wave of fire. 

Miguel (James Duval), Alicia (Lisa Jakub), Troy (Giuseppe Andrews)

These are Russell's kids. They mostly find their father embarrassing until he becomes a hero destroying the alien spaceship. Nothing like some good old-fashioned alien destruction to bring the fam together.

Dylan (Ross Bagley)

Jasmine's son seems like a total sweetie-pie, and he adores Steve. That's pretty much all we know about the kid himself, but he's important to the film for a couple of reasons.

First, Jasmine's love for him tells us a lot about her and what makes her tick—without her intense love for Dylan, we don't get to see her fierce caretaking instincts at play (like, when she manages to save him from a huge wave of fire while everyone else on that road gets char-broiled).

Also, Dylan brings out that oh-so tender side of Steve that softens his whole smart aleck thing.

So, while we don't know a lot about Dylan per say, this little kiddo helps us know a lot about the other peeps around him.

Patricia Whitmore (Mae Whitman)

We don't know a whole lot about Patricia, other than the fact that she's super cute and has to endure a lot of suffering and danger in the course of the film, including the loss of her mama. The fact that someone nicknamed "munchkin" has to suffer through all that really amps up our hate for those aliens up to 11, that's for sure.

Captain Jimmy Wilder (Harry Connick Jr.)

Jimmy's a sassy fighter pilot and friend of Steve. He seems like a good guy, but he's definitely cocky, Case in point: while fighting the aliens, he spends a lot of time joking around over the radio instead of focusing simply on the job at hand. And more to the point: he ends up piloting dangerously…which ends up getting him killed.

That happens pretty early in the film, so we don't get a whole lot of exposure to Jimmy. Which is too bad, because we were kind of digging the Jimmy/Steve bromance.

General Grey (Robert Loggia)

This dude's the President's right-hand man during the alien crisis. Like the President, he finds the Secretary of Defense intrusive and frustrating—those two are like oil and water from minute one.

He cheers up when the Prez fires Nimziki, though (and, you know, when they beat the aliens).