STACK February 2017 Issue 148

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Although we're yet to make first contact with our celestial neighbours, extraterrestrials
have been visiting Earth for decades on the screen – bonding with children, abducting
us, phoning home, and launching devastating attacks on our planet. Words Scott Hocking
WHAT TO EXPECT
Aliens usually have a reason for paying us a visit,
whether it's simply to say "hello", offer advanced
technology in exchange for something they need,
or destroy us. Whatever the purpose, their arrival
always creates huge headaches for governments
and the military, with the latter more likely to shoot
first and ask questions later. Moreover, federal
agents – in black suits of course – will doggedly
pursue the visitors, especially those attempting to
return to their ship with human help.
Officials will also be desperate to cover up
any evidence of alien visitations – you'll quickly
discover what supposedly happened in Roswell,
New Mexico, in mid-1947 – and a bogus disease
outbreak or toxic gas leak is useful to quarantine
a landing site. This doesn't work, however, when
the visitors announce their presence by parking
giant saucer-like ships over cities, landing in the
middle of Washington D.C., or being of gargantuan
proportions.
Some will infiltrate by stealth, hiding inside us
(The Hidden), creating duplicates (Invasion of the
Body Snatchers, The Thing), or taking on human
form (V). A seemingly innocuous meteor falling to
Earth is another common mode of arrival (The Blob ,
The War of the Worlds).
Aliens will also abduct humans to learn more
about us via medical experiments (Fire in the
Sky, Communion), which frequently involve the
administration of an anal probe and subsequent
amnesia.
The benevolent kind tend to make contact with
a child or adult (usually a scientist) whose mind is
more open to the possibility of an extraterrestrial
encounter, and who are willing to offer assistance
in returning home or initiating
peaceful contact. The more
malevolent variety are intent
on reducing our civilisation to
ashes, colonising our world, or
plundering its natural resources.
And when it comes to alien
invasions, our red neighbour is
frequently the planet of origin
(Invaders from Mars , Mars
Attacks, War of the Worlds).
Sometimes extraterrestrials
will arrive by accident and find
themselves, well, alienated and
marginalised – banished to refugee camps (District
9) or forced into fractious coexistence with the
human race (Alien Nation).
The diversity of these alien visitors is vast –
humanoid, octopoid, insectoid, reptilian, viral,
crustacean, robotic, and the archetypal grey being
with almond-shaped eyes – and understanding
them can be difficult (see First Contact, far right).
Some communicate via musical tones (Close
Encounters of the Third Kind ) while others squirt
inky stains from their tentacles (Arrival). Things
can get lost in translation, leading to interplanetary
conflict. Others are quick learners, or will possess a
human mind to make their intentions known.
Alien visitors can also serve as a metaphor for
human issues like conformity and loss of identity
(Invasion of the Body Snatchers), racism (Alien
Nation), Apartheid (District 9 ) and Cold War paranoia
(The War of the Worlds).
WHERE TO START
Invasions of Earth tend to outnumber peaceful
visits, so you're probably already familiar with the
destructive capabilities of an alien race. Best to
begin with benign visitors of the Spielberg kind.
If you grew up during the 1970s, Close
Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) will be as
fondly remembered as Star Wars. But if you've
never seen it, prepare to be awed by the
sense of magic and wonder that Spielberg
built his career on – and astonished that
practical effects and models can look better
than CGI. For the record, an encounter of
the first kind is the sighting of a UFO; the
second is physical evidence; the third being
contact. Following an encounter of the first
kind, strange visions compel suburban dad
Richard Dreyfuss to build a mountain out
of garbage in his living room and abscond
to a Wyoming landing site for the third
variety. The climactic appearance of the alien
mothership over the Devil's Tower National
Monument is an iconic moment in cinema that will
take your breath away, and the haunting five-note
melody used by the visitors to communicate will be
stuck in your head forever.
The affable aliens of Close Encounters could well
be a cousin to Spielberg's other beloved creation,
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), who established
that friendship is universal. If you've yet to make
the acquaintance of this diminutive alien botanist
who finds himself stranded and needs to "phone
home", you've obviously been living on another
planet.
(Note: The arrival of E.T. in 1982 was quickly
followed by the chameleonic creature of John
Carpenter's unmissable classic The Thing and
BEGINNER’S
GUIDE
#11 - ALIEN VISITORS
They can be friend or foe, humanoid or monstrous, lost and alone, or
hellbent on conquering our world. Alien visitors are a popular staple of the
sci-fi genre, justifying the belief that we are not alone in the universe.
[Note: Not all titles discussed are available on DVD and Blu-ray. Check the JB website.]
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