8 Alien Encounter Movies That Aren’t Your Typical Invasion Flicks
Steven Spielberg is back with another big alien encounter movie, a subgenre he has mastered more than once already in his filmography.
With the arrival of Disclosure Day, the legendary filmmaker is returning to the kind of movie that he is perhaps best known for. Spielberg thrives when he’s crafting enchanting stories about life beyond our planet, the wonders of the universe, and that magical feeling of adventure.
Usually, alien movies are all about chaos, destruction, and fear. That doesn’t have to be the case, though, as these eight alien encounter movies prove.
Somehow, Denis Villeneuve turned a 55-page novella into one of the most beautiful and moving sci-fi movies of the 21st century. Arrival centres around the landing of 12 alien ships across the globe. The so-called “Shells” are eerily quiet and inactive… at first. Eventually, one of them is accessed by Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist tasked with finding out what the aliens want.
What ensues is a stunning depiction of determinism and fate, wrapped in a story about how our world can become a better place if we all focus on collaboration rather than conflict. The alien lifeforms in Arrival may be big and scary to look at, but they help drive a narrative that will leave you in floods of tears by the end.
Admittedly, Scarlett Johansson’s alien character in Under the Skin is akin to your typically dangerous creatures in more standard alien invasion fare. But taking over the planet and ending the human race is not exactly her mission — she just wants to eat a few men, that’s all. However, after luring unsuspecting victims to their doom for a while, the mysterious alien soon grows curious about her victims, eventually realising she wants to form a deeper connection with mankind.
If you enjoy surrealist, high-concept sci-fi movies like David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, I think you’ll really get a kick out of this tense, atmospheric effort from Jonathan Glazer. Johansson’s performance, in particular, is a real highlight.
Spielberg’s first brush with alien life came in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and he really changed the game with this one. For so long, alien movies had tapped into the paranoia and uncertainty around what would happen if otherworldly creatures came to Earth, but Spielberg posed the question: what if aliens just want to share knowledge with humans?
To say this movie is now approaching 50 years old is wild considering its impressive technical features; in particular, the practical effects to bring the main UFO to life, and the superb sound design and score from John Williams. Of all the films on this list, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is definitely the best companion piece to Disclosure Day.
Much like Under the Skin, Alex Garland’s Annihilation fits somewhere in the grey area of an alien movie where the visitors to Earth have ambiguous and evolving machinations. Clearly, the extraterrestrials are dangerous, having caused irreparable damage to Kane (Oscar Isaac) and leading the Twelfth Expedition to their doom. But, once the alien life presents itself to Lena (Natalie Portman) in the film’s climax, it reveals its more inquisitive nature.
Annihilation is a great example of a film that trusts its audience and allows an open-ended conclusion, keeping us guessing even after the credits roll. It’s packed with eye-catching visuals, has a couple of grizzly kills, and is a brilliant combination of sci-fi and body horror.
Set 30 years after the arrival of an insect-like alien race on Earth, District 9 flips the narrative to make mankind the villain. Referred to as 'Prawns,' the aliens in this movie are seeking refuge from their own dying planet, but militant humans segregate them into what are essentially concentration camps.
Neil Blomkamp puts together a fascinating film, heightened by superb CGI and world-building that feels surprisingly real. With a mix of emotional weight and sci-fi action, District 9 is perfect for anyone who’s a fan of films like Elysium or The Creator.
There can be no friendlier alien tourist in the history of cinema than the titular little fella in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. After being accidentally left behind by others of his kind, E.T. befriends local boy Elliot and his siblings, forming an endearing and enduring bond as they learn from one another.
This is another Spielberg masterclass, with the filmmaker imbuing the film with all the charm and warmth he’s become synonymous with. He has a real knack for getting the best out of young actors, too, and the chemistry they share with the animatronic puppet is simply magical.
So often, alien invasion (and encounter) stories are about extraterrestrials touching down on land and doing what they came here to do. However, James Cameron’s The Abyss takes a different route entirely, submerging viewers in the deepest depths of the world’s oceans for a story that is part-submarine thriller, part-alien contact fantasy.
Granted, some of the CGI at play here, while revolutionary in its day, is a bit dated now, but it’s still incredible that Cameron could bring this story to life on such a huge scale. He did so using huge water tanks in an abandoned nuclear facility, but it really does feel like we are miles down in the Caribbean Sea. Ed Harris is superb in the lead role, but it’s the unhinged performance of Michael Biehn that really steals the show.
The clue is very much in the title with this one. Contact is very similar to Arrival in its premise, wherein an alien race attempts to guide mankind through their evolution, master interstellar travel, and be inducted into the wider galactic community throughout the universe.
Robert Zemeckis so often utilises CGI (perhaps too much, at times), but with this movie, it's stripped back, by and large. The result is that, while Contact is a story with immense scope, it still feels grounded and gritty. The film is widely remembered for the mesmerising mirror shot that cinematographers still celebrate to this day, but there’s still plenty of substance to match the style on show.
