The story of alien life on Earth has been a cornerstone of American pop culture since H.G. Wells published his classic novel The War of the Worlds in 1898. The figure of the alien is charged—standing in for conversations around morals, gender, race, disconnection, and imperialism—as well as being downright fun, exhilarating, and, at times, delightfully kitsch. What does the historical and mainstream dominance of the alien movie tell us about the ongoing state of American media? Or, the world, for that matter? Every galactic movie has a slightly different answer.
It’s no question that Steven Spielberg loves alien movies as much as—if not more than—the rest of us. With Close Encounters of the Third Kind, he took the genre from the annals of pulp shlock like Plan 9 From Outer Space and catapulted it into the mainstream film canon. It’s never really left. Tomorrow, he’s releasing his latest ode to extraterrestrials, Disclosure Day, starring Emily Blunt, Colman Domingo, and Josh O’Connor.
To celebrate the sci-fi frenzy that will inevitably strike with its release, we’ve compiled a chronological list of the 17 best alien movies ever made to feed your extraterrestrial obsession.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956
One of the first alien movies to appear out of Hollywood, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Don Siegel, serves as the blueprint for the mutated extraterrestrial doppelgänger seen in popular recent media such as Annihilation and Pluribus. When Dr. Miles Bennell, played by Kevin McCarthy, finds his loved ones and himself duplicated by an alien race quietly invading their California town, he is quickly dismissed as hysterical and delusional, but must save the human race regardless. It’s the ultimate “just because you’re paranoid does not mean they are not after you” film.
The Man Who Fell to Earth, 1976
How could an alien movie starring David Bowie not make it onto the best-of-the-best list? The film, adapted from Walter Tevis’s 1963 novel, has the “Space Oddity” singer as a humanoid extraterrestrial who lands in New Mexico, desperate to save his home planet from drought. But, some detours, including his love affair with the beautiful yet lost woman (Candy Clark) and a rivalrous friendship with a former professor (Rip Torn) render the journey more even difficult than building a spaceship from scratch. The film, which has since achieved cult-classic status, even provided Bowie with imagery for two following album covers.
Star Wars, 1977
It’s strange to even think of Star Wars characters as “alien” since they feel so native to today’s popular culture (I mean, isn’t Luke Skywalker technically life from another planet?). But, the iconic franchise brought outer space life into the mainstream. The cultural impact of Star Wars: A New Hope runs deep, with 12 subsequent movies, 11 television shows, and an uncountable number of comedy spoofs and games since its release. People have even built life-sized versions of characters such as R2-D2 and C-P3O and “learned” the Wookie language. But, what has really made the franchise ever-successful is its themes of rebellion against tyranny that feel pertinent even, and especially, today.
Alien, 1979
As its title suggests, sci-fi genius Ridley Scott’s Alien is likely the most quintessential alien movie to ever be made. You have terrifyingly good special effects. You have evil artificial intelligence. You have Sigourney Weaver. You have body horror galore (the “chestburster” scene being one of the most iconic in film history). The subsequent eight films and recent television series, Alien: Earth, have confronted viewers with themes of hubris, corporate greed, and even feminist critiques of reproduction and motherhood, making the franchise not only entertaining and horrific, but poignant throughout its four-decade run.
The Thing, 1982
Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, John Carpenter’s The Thing poses the question: When everything is uncertain, can you really trust anyone? After a group of American researchers discovers the eponymous “thing,” an alien capable of perfectly shapeshifting into members of the crew, they devolve into a paranoid chaos trying to annihilate the predator before it annihilates them. The movie is a nihilistic hellscape, paving way for a new tone of bleak, violent alien story to populate Hollywood. Despite a poor reception from critics upon its release, The Thing has remained popular and influential, inspiring the likes of Under the Skin and the popular game Among Us.
E.T. (1982)
Steven Spielberg is no stranger to extraterrestrial life, and although E.T. was not his first alien movie (as he directed Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977), it is by and large his most famous, and for good reason. It gave us iconic lines such as “E.T. phone home,” and cloaked aliens in empathy rather than fear. The titular E.T. and Elliot, the young suburban kid who adopts him when he falls to Earth, were, by all accounts, friendship goals for any young kid who watched the film. I mean, who wouldn’t want a chance to ride away from all their problems into the sky?
Starman, 1984
Another entry from director John Carpenter, Starman is the first explicit alien romance featured on the list. Called a “love story” by lead actor Jeff Bridges, Starman follows an alien who is shot down to Earth (Bridges) looking for a way home, and instead finds love with a widowed woman (Karen Allen) after he takes on the appearance of her recently deceased husband (hey, whatever works for you). The film, a 180-pivot from Carpenter’s The Thing, is tender and heartfelt, and uses the alien symbol to tell a larger, gentler story of grief and acceptance.
Predator, 1987
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the leader of a paramilitary legion tasked with the seemingly impossible: he and his team must rescue a group of hostages from a group of guerilla soldiers in the middle of the Central American jungle. Unbeknownst to them, the jungle has much more in store for them than a group of Green Berets and Russian-military allies—they are also being stalked by a technologically advanced alien who picks the team off one by one. The franchise, which crosses over with the Alien franchise in a few films, has continuously evolved to answer the question: What happens when the hunters become the hunted?
Mars Attacks!, 1996
Every sci-fi subgenre needs it’s comedic relief, and Mars Attacks! is the perfect addition to the alien-verse. Tim Burton directs an absolutely stacked cast of Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Annette Bening, Glenn Close, Sarah Jessica Parker, Danny DeVito, and Natalie Portman—to literally only name a few—in a black comedy about martians who “come in peace” to Earth and the disaster that ensues. The film is the definition of camp, with its satirical, eccentric humor and special effects. Could you possibly imagine SJP as a… tiny chihuahua? Imagine no more, it’s here in Mars Attacks! And, like most of the great campy cult-classics, it absolutely bombed at the box office ( a right of passage).
Men in Black, 1997
Ah, another camp masterpiece with a stacked cast and more talking dogs. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones star as a duo of special agents at a secret government agency, Men in Black, who are tasked with maintaining peace between the extraterrestrial life that secretly inhabits Earth and mankind. This task becomes harder when a bug-like alien (Vincent D’Onofrio) in search of a tiny galaxy held within a marble lands in New York. The partners have to rely on a cast of goofy aliens (including a raunchy talking pug and a googly-eyed Tony Shalhoub) in order to retrieve the galaxy, and in turn, save the world.
Starship Troopers, 1997
In the near-future, a society on the brink of ruin looks for the next “logical” place to turn: space (sound familiar?). Now capable of intergalactic travel, the human race, led by a militaristic regime, attempts to colonize the universe and annihilate the native alien races they find there. The film was met with immediate controversy and contempt, labeled fascist and overly violent, but it has retrospectively been praised as a biting satire. Starship Troopers’s famed Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, a Holocaust survivor and creator of other sci-fi satires such as RoboCop and Total Recall, crafts an important critique of colonial nations, and includes references to films such as Birth of a Nation.
Galaxy Quest, 1999
Apparently aliens can be parasocial, too. In Galaxy Quest, the cast of the eponymous Star Trek-esque sci-fi television show are met with actual aliens who think the show is a documentary and have shaped their culture around it. Needless to say, the aliens are not happy to find out the fictional Galaxy Quest is nothing more than make-believe. The comedy stars alien-movie staples Sigourney Weaver and Tony Shalhoub, as well as Tim Allen, Sam Rockwell, and Alan Rickman, and has been embraced by the Star Trek community as an acceptable, and downright brilliant spoof on their beloved canon.
War of the Worlds, 2005
In his third alien epic, Steven Spielberg directs Tom Cruise in this story of a family navigating the threat of a deadly, global invasion of an envious yet advanced alien race. The suspenseful atmosphere and ahead-of-its-time special effects were a filmic achievement that remains impressive to this day. The film was a modernized adaptation of H.G. Wells’s iconic novel of the same name, and saw Cruise as more than a man struggling in the midst of alien invasion—but also one desperately attempting to connect with his family in the wake of extinction.
The World’s End, 2013
What’s the worst thing that could happen on a pub crawl? Drinking too much and getting sick? Not drinking enough and getting bored? Seeing an ex? For this group of five friends trying to recapture the olden days of their hometown bars, it’s something much, much worse. Try a secret alien invasion on for size. The third and final film in director Edgar Wright’s British comedy series Three Flavours Cornetto, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, The World’s End is peak 2000s-era Frat Pack comedy.
Under the Skin, 2014
Under the Skin was imperative in establishing what would later become the signature style of indie-film powerhouse A24. One of the first films to come out of the studio, the flick features Scarlett Johansson as an enigmatic alien in the body of a beautiful woman who seduces vulnerable young men and sends them to another dimension. Unnerving, violent, and entrancing, the film helped usher in a new era of symbolic, art-house horror that has become prevalent in recent years. Exploring what it means to be human, particularly in a female body, Under the Skin is a thought-provoking masterpiece from Sexy Beast and Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer.
Arrival, 2016
After 12 egg-shaped alien pods land around the world, expert linguist Dr. Louise Banks, played by an incredible Amy Adams, is employed by the United States Army to communicate with the extraterrestrials and learn their intentions. But, the closer Adams’s character gets to understanding the aliens, the more defensive and territorial the world around her becomes, leading to imminent disaster. Director Denis Villeneuve warps the alien genre with Arrival, as his focus on compassion and communication, rather than impersonation and destruction, challenges ideas of how mankind should approach fear and the unknown.
Nope, 2022
Jordan Peele delivered one of the most creative alien movies in recent history with his sci-fi western horror film Nope. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as siblings trying to capture the likeness of a large, fleshy UFO that inhabits the sky over their California ranch. At the same time, the siblings’ neighbor Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), a retired child star and survivor of a violent chimpanzee attack, attempts to domesticate the alien in hopes of revitalizing his career in entertainment. Layered, intense, and visceral, Nope contextualizes the alien discourse in the context of race, voyeurism, and the exploitative politics of viewership and ownership.
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