Collection: Extra-terrestrials in films and TV (SPOILERS)
Submitted by 1922 on Sun, 11/14/2004 - 02:38
Tags:
- Film:
(Rather) Bad aliens
- The War of the Worlds (1953)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956+1978) (thanks to cramoukji)
- Village of the Damned (1960) (thanks to cramoukji)
- Star Wars (1977-2005) (thanks to lukeprog)
- Alien (1979)
- Star Trek (1979-2002) (thanks to lukeprog)
- The Last Starfighter (1984) (thanks to cramoukji)
- Aliens (1986)
- They Live (1988) (thanks to cramoukji)
- Alien 3 (1992)
- Independence Day (1996)
- Mars Attacks! (1996)
- Men In Black (1997)
- Starship Troopers (1997) (thanks to lukeprog)
- Event Horizon (1997) (thanks to lukeprog)
- Alien- The Resurrection (1997)
- Virus (1999)
- Men In Black 2 (2002)
(Rather) Good aliens
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (thanks to lukeprog)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
- Star Wars (1977-2005) (thanks to lukeprog)
- Star Trek (1979-2002) (thanks to lukeprog)
- E.T.- The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- The Thing (1982) (thanks to lukeprog)
- The Last Starfighter (1984) (thanks to cramoukji)
- StarMan (1984) (thanks to cramoukji)
- Cocoon (1985) (thanks to lbangs)
- Enemy Mine (1985) (thanks to cramoukji)
- Mac & Me (1988) (thanks to cramoukji)
- Alien Nation (1988) (thanks to cramoukji)
- My Stepmother Is an Alien (1992)
- Coneheads (1993)
- Alf (1996)
- Contact (1997) (thanks to lukeprog)
- Lilo & Stitch (2002) (thanks to lukeprog)
- TV:
(Rather) Bad aliens
- BattleStar Galactica (thanks to cramoukji)
- Doctor Who (thanks to cramoukji)
- First Wave (thanks to cramoukji)
- The Invaders (thanks to cramoukji)
- San Ku Kai Message from Space (thanks to cramoukji)
- Taken (thanks to cramoukji)
- UFO: Space Warning (thanks to cramoukji)
- V (thanks to cramoukji)
- X-Files (thanks to cramoukji)
(Rather) Good aliens
- Alf
- Earth 2 (thanks to cramoukji)
- Mork and Mindy (thanks to Rushmore)
- My Parents Are Aliens (thanks to Rushmore)
- Space 1999 (thanks to cramoukji)
- 3rd Rock from the Sun (thanks to cramoukji)
- V (thanks to cramoukji)
Author Comments:
Suggestions?
TV
Mork and Mindy
My Parents Are Aliens (uk kids tv show)
hehe just a suggestion..or two
Thanks.
great list! :)
Thanks, I'm always open for suggestions.
Bad:
The Thing (1982)
Good:
The unseen, benevolent aliens of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Contact (1997) dunno if this counts
Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Are you including aliens in movies that don't really spend much time on earth anyway, like Star Wars, Star Trek, or Starship Troopers? How 'bout movies like Event Horizon?
Try this, using alien or aliens for "Plot summary (words)" and a decent-sized number for "Minimum number of voters". You might also check "Display first 100 highest rated movies matching all other criteria".
After seeing 2010 the movie and reading Arthur C. Clarke's novels you might realize that the Monoliths are not as benevolent as you may think
I haven't read the novels, and I saw 2010 too long ago to remember it. Would you remind me why the Monoliths are not so benevolent (in spoiler tags), please?
Well, it can be understood as if they came to Earth to bring knowledge to the first traces of civilization as depicted in the apemen scene in the first third of Kubrick's masterpiece but as you would have noticed yourself the knowledge brought is that of weapons and killing... later, and that is clearly explained in Clarke's novelization of the screenplay, Frank Poole arrives, that's the final mystical scenes of the movie, in the "White Room" where he eats, drinks, sleeps and gets very very old in a very short time or so it seems... this room is actually what we could describe as a lab cage from which the aliens study as many bodily and mind functions of humans as they can... so maybe the aliens are not exactly hostile but they are not more benevolent than would be a scientist running tests on mice or rabbits... last thing that should be pointed out is that it is never made clear whether the aliens are the monoliths themselves or if the monoliths are just tools used by the aliens... apparently Kubrick and Clarke disagreed on that point as Clarke goes very far in the novel to give you the idea that the Monoliths are living things which is not obvious by looking at the movie... now, I have not read 2010 but in the movie the Monoliths destroy Jupiter and that cannot be a benevolent act, destroying an entire gas giant... I hope these few explanations could help
Thank you, that was very helpful.
Thanks for the suggestions the hint for searches. Yes, I think I'm gonna include aliens who don't spend time on earth, because they are aliens anyway.
Do the aliens need to be seen or can they be just inferred by the movie ?
In which case you have bad aliens in Invasion of the body snatchers and in Village of the damned
You have both good and bad aliens in The Last Starfighter
You have good aliens in StarMan (well just one actually) and in the (awfully stupid) Mac&Me and also in Alien Nation (Mandy Patinkin plays that) and in Enemy Mine (considered bad turns out good)
More will come to me I'm sure
Thanks, thanks and thanks once more.
No, it is not necessary that the aliens are seen in the movie.
TV aliens:
Bad: The Invaders, V, First Wave, Taken, XFiles
Good (or stupid): 3rd Rock from the Sun, V (there are V aliens who side with humans), the early 90's series with the girl who is part human part alien (her dad talks to her through an intersideral crystal) and the mid-90's series with Bronson Pinchot (Balki from Perfect Strangers) as an alien nanny to a bunch of kids and of course Gordon "Alf" Shumway.
Bad TV aliens can also be found in BattleStar Galactica, in UFO: Space Warning (check the correct title, it a Gerry Anderson live series) and in San Ku Kai Message from Space (cult japanese live series from the 70's) while good aliens were featured in Space 1999 (the most famous Gerry Anderson live series)in the form of the shape-shifting woman with the weird eyebrows. In case you don't recall Gerry Anderson is the creator of The Thunderbirds and other puppet shows.
Thanks. But sorry, I don't know any of these TV shows, except BattleStar Galactica.
Keeping with the british theme of TV aliens you could include Doctor Who... and if you want to know more about the incredible works and career of Gerry Anderson I invite you to check out this website
OK, thx, but I am also unfamiliar with Doctor Who. Are the aliens good or bad in this show?
P.S.: I'm now thinking of another movie, which I haven't yet seen: Cocoon. Have you seen it? If yes, please tell me whether the aliens there are benevolent or not.
In Cocoon, the aliens are nice folk.
I really dug the film, but I have not seen it since junior high, so beware... :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
OK, thanks for the information!
Well, you have a bit of everything but the most memorable ones, like the Daleks are highly hostile. Doctor Who never was properly broadcast on continental TV and that's a shame cos it's a pure joy to experience.
Bad aliens in a movie, you can take into account They Live by John Carpenter and good aliens on TV you can add Earth2 with Debra Farentino...
Thx.