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the more lowbrow
Xtro
(with the
tagline "He's the mean E.T.") the
same year, as a reminder that not all
aliens are friendly.)
Spielberg's films are intimate
and personal examples of alien
contact, so now it's time for a wider
perspective with global ramifications.
Robert Wise's elegant 1951
classic
The Day the Earth Stood
Still
raises issues that still resonate today, namely
nuclear disarmament and a more unified world.
The planet-pausing event and ultimatum delivered
by humanoid visitor Klaatu – who initially extends
the hand of friendship only to be promptly gunned
down – is loud and clear: "It is no concern of ours
how you run your own planet, but if you threaten
to extend your violence, this
Earth of yours will be reduced
to a burned-out cinder."
That's exactly what
happens when "intellects vast
and cool and unsympathetic
regard our Earth with envious
eyes" in
TheWar of the
Worlds
(1953). Arriving in the
guise of a fallen meteor, H.G.
Wells's malevolent martians
turn their war machines and
heat rays on our cities, until
the "littlest things" bring
about their downfall. One of the greatest science
fiction films of the '50s is also the quintessential
alien invasion movie, and Spielberg's accomplished
2005 remake is also well worth checking out.
The TV mini-series
V
(1983) depicts another
volatile confrontation between humankind and
an alien species. A race of seemingly benevolent
'Visitors' enlist our help to replenish their dying
world in exchange for advanced alien technology.
But beneath their humanoid disguise lurk hungry
lizards with more sinister intentions (which include
stocking their larder with human meat).
Independence Day
(1996) evokes
the aliens' spectacular arrival in
V
with giant spacecraft positioning
themselves over Earth's cities, before
unleashing fiery destruction. These
visitors are here for one reason
only: to exterminate us. God Bless
America then, for taking the fight to
them with patriotism, Will Smith,
Jeff Goldblum and malware.
FURTHER VIEWING
There's an entire solar system of alien
visitor movies out there to be explored, and
the following should be the first three stops
on your continuing voyage of discovery.
Launched in 1977, NASA's Voyager II
probe contained a message inviting aliens to
come and visit us – and one of them accepts
our invitation in John Carpenter's
Starman
(1984). Basically
E.T.
for grown-ups, an alien
visitor assumes the form of a widow's late
husband, enlisting her help to rendezvous
with his mothership in Arizona (with
government agents in hot pursuit of course).
While aliens are often the aggressors,
sometimes it's we humans who treat our
extraterrestrial visitors badly. Xenophobia
reigns in
District 9
(2009), in which prawn-
like extraterrestrial refugees are confined to
a Johnanesberg slum for 28 years before
finding an ally in a government official, who's
been mutated by an alien liquid.
And finally, David Bowie playing an
androgynous alien is reason alone to check
out
The ManWho Fell to Earth
(1976). The
late music legend stars as a humanoid visitor
who sets up a tech conglomerate to fund
the construction of a ship that will transport
water back to his drought-stricken world,
discovering much about big business and
human nature in the process. This surreal and
haunting sci-fi parable could well have come
to us from another planet.
CONTACT
(1997)
When the alien looks like your father,
communication isn't going to be problem. But
deciphering an extraterrestrial signal and building a
machine to get to him is a whole other matter.
ARRIVAL
(2016)
Even the most brilliant linguist will struggle to
translate an alien language, especially when it
sounds like whale song and the written form looks
like stains left by a coffee mug.
STARTREK: FIRST CONTACT
(1996)
Saying "Hi" to the Vulcans when you're drunk can be
difficult, but when the Borg are intent on preventing
it from ever happening, that's the easy part.
THE ABYSS
(1989)
A tentacle of animated seawater that morphs into
the likeness of an estranged husband isn't the
best way to begin interplanetary relations.
FIRST
CONTACT
Meeting extraterrestrial visitors
would change the world as
we know it, but saying "hello"
could prove problematic...
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