100+ Best Alien Movies of All Time

Which is a truly more terrifying notion—the idea that we’re alone in this universe, or the idea that we’re not? Alien movies deal solely with the second option and the horrifying idea that we may be outgunned and outsmarted by life forms that originated light years away.

The alien genre of film is usually defined by action thrillers, the paradigm example of this being Ridley Scott’s definitive franchise Alien. Other alien movies use the otherworldly creatures as a vehicle for comedy (e.g. The Men in Black franchise), fantasy like Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (1982), and, while rare, as a drama and romance like Robert Zemeckis’ Contact.

In addition to chronologically cataloging the cinematic history of aliens in film, the list also functions as a visual history of what aliens look like and how we have conceptualized and visualized their physicality in pop culture over the last century. This ranges from the slimy monsters of 80s films to more abstract beings we see in later films like Arrival (2016).

The Best Alien Movies

It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)

A second mission is sent to Mars to uncover the fate of the first. When they find only one survivor out of ten, they assume that he killed the other members in order to stay alive—but he insists they were killed by an alien life form. As the crew’s bad luck would have it, that alien life form sneaked onto the ship and begins killing them one-by-one as they return to earth. The movie’s plot was cited as the inspiration for the screenplay for Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien.

Star Wars (1977)

The original Star Wars has gone through a number of changes in the decades since its release. Perhaps most noticeably, other than the repeated attempts to alter the movie and add updated special effects, is the title of the film. Now it is known in full as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope thanks to the need to differentiate it from multiple sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. However, one thing remains constant with the 1977 film: it is a fantastic adventure that has tapped into the collective imagination of multiple generations of fans. According to screenwriter and director George Lucas, “It’s the flotsam and jetsam from the period when I was twelve years old. All the books and films and comics that I liked when I was a child. The plot is simple—good against evil—and the film is designed to be all the fun things and fantasy things I remember. The word for this movie is fun.”

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)

This blockbuster written and directed by Steven Spielberg focuses on the experience of Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), a blue-collar worker from Indiana whose life is thrown into turmoil after an encounter with a UFO. The flying vessel flew slightly overhead his pickup truck, but close enough to leave burns on his face. He is also haunted by visions of a mountain that he attempts to draw almost as if it was a sketch of a criminal suspect’s face. Roy’s experience draws the interest of scientists and United Nations experts who’ve been investigating UFOs. After Roy’s wife leaves him due to his erratic behavior, he sees a TV report about a train wreck near Wyoming’s Devil’s Tower—and he realizes it’s the mountain he’s been trying to draw. The government’s interest turns toward Devil’s Tower—which is where the alien craft being to appear. Communicating through hand signals and tonal sequences, the aliens make peace with the earthlings and agree to let Roy take a ride with them—and Roy agrees.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

A San Francisco health inspector (Donald Sutherland) and his partner discover that strange seeds have been landing from outer space, causing mysterious pods to grow in San Francisco. The pods systematically replace the humans after which they’re modeled with the stark difference being that the pods are unable to experience human emotion. This is a remake of the original 1956 film and was cited by the Chicago Film Critics Association as the 59^th scariest movie in history.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

The film’s concept was based on an imaginary friend Spielberg created after his parents’ divorce. The plot involves alien botanists who visit earth to obtain plant specimens from a California forest, only to be sent fleeing by government agents—except one alien is left behind. He is befriended by a troubled child named Elliott, who teaches the alien who to speak English and helps him construct a ramshackle device whereby he can “phone home” and contact his brethren in outer space. Shortly after its release, E.T. surpassed Star Wars and became the highest-grossing film of all time.

Alien (1979 – 1997)

Set years ahead in the future, this sci-fi horror series explores the uncharted extraterrestrial world of space. Writer Dan O’Bannon is responsible for building the world and characters that director Ridley Scott brought to life on screen. With a talented cast, devoted crew and unconventional script, Alien (1979) marked the beginning of the successful horror franchise. The first Alien movie is easily the best in the series, and it is structured somewhat like a gothic haunted house movie. For its time, Alien was quite scary, though by modern standards its horror is more about mood, tension, and timeless filmmaking.

Aliens (1986) marked the second installment in this series, this time with James Cameron serving as director and co-writer. Cameron had previously directed the 1984 sci-fi blockbuster The Terminator. Actress Sigourney Weaver starred again as a strong female protagonist, playing a warrant officer on board of a spaceship. The character challenged gender roles of the time, and the impeccable commitment to her performance earned Weaver an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

In 1992, Alien³ was released in theaters to an eager audience hungry for more extraterrestrial material. Numbers report that this sci-fi horror directed by first-time feature director David Fincher underperformed in US theaters, possibly due to the fact that the film was shot without a final script in place. The story follows Weaver’s character as she survives a horrific spaceship crash, soon realizing that she is not the only survivor. When she lands on a wasteland, she must earn the trust of the alien community in order to fight together against their greater enemy.

Alien Resurrection (1997) opens 200 years after the previous film, in an extraterrestrial world where the military kidnaps humans in order to conduct alien breeding experiments. A familiar face stars alongside Winona Ryder, who plays an intelligent new member of the military force whose character is one to watch. Jean-Pierre Jeunet directed this final installment in the Alien franchise, speaking no English at the time and communicating to his cast and crew through a translator at all times.

Contamination (1980)

A hideous gigantic alien cyclops plots to destroy the world by flooding it with slimy green alien pod spores that are filled with a lethal acid that dissolves human flesh. The eggs release a gooey substance that forces people to explode upon contact with it. Also released as Alien Contamination, Toxic Spawn, and Larvae.

Strange Invaders (1983)

In the late 1950s, the town of Centerville, IL is invaded by a race of aliens who can fire lasers from their eyeballs and hands and then take over the bodies of the humans they’ve killed. Years later, after a woman doesn’t return from her mother’s funeral in Centerville, her ex-husband arrives in town and notices the inhabits are acting strangely. The FBI doesn’t believe his story that the town may be inhabited by aliens, but when he takes his tale to a tabloid, the aliens take notice and begin stalking him.

Lifeforce (1985)

Lifeforce is a movie by Tobe Hooper, the filmmaker behind the famous ghost movie Poltergeist. It has somewhat of a cult following and has been described as one reviewer as “almost a classic” which sums up the movie aptly. That said, if space vampires are your niche, then this movie is for you.

Explorers (1985)

Directed by Joe Dante and starting Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, Explorers tells the story of a teenage boy living in the San Francisco suburbs who is fascinated with sci-fi movies and keeps having dreams about flying through clouds and over a vast circuit board after falling asleep watching sci-fi movies. He draws a blueprint that recurs in his dreams for his inventor friend, and they team together to build themselves a spaceship to explore outer space.

Cocoon (1985)

A group of aliens have left “cocoons” in a Florida swimming pool that rejuvenate people and serve as a Fountain of Youth. When a trio of elderly people trespass and swim in the pool, they suddenly feel younger and stronger. When word gets out, the local geriatrics crowd the pool and drain it of its life-giving energy. Directed by Ron Howard, Cocoonwon two Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects and Best Supporting Actor (Don Ameche). A 1988 sequel, Cocoon: The Return, featured most of the original cast members reprising their roles.

Wolf’s Hole (1987)

A creepy and unique sci-fi horror movie by director Věra Chytilová, who was at one point banned from filmmaking in her home country of Czechoslovakia for seven years. It follows a group of students staying in an isolated mountain cabin while they take a skiing class. At first, Wolf’s Hole seems like a formulaic 80s slasher movie, but the aliens are revealed in the third act.

They Live (1988)

Written and directed by John Carpenter and titled onscreen as John Carpenter’s They Live, this sci-fi action horror film is based on a 1963 short story called “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” by Ray Nelson. An unnamed drifter chances upon a pair of special sunglasses that enable him to see that aliens have taken over planet Earth and are manipulating people to breed and conform by sending subliminal messages through mass media. A hacker is able to take over television broadcasts and warn the populace of what’s happening. They Live gave birth to the famous line, “I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubble gum.”

The Abyss (1989)

In search of a lost nuclear submarine, a diving team realizes it is at the bottom of the ocean and has been commandeered by an aquatic alien species. Using an experimental diving suit that enables him to reach the ocean floor, a diver named Bud realizes that once he reaches the bottom and disables the nuclear bomb, he will suffocate. To his surprise, the alien species takes him into their alien city in a deep ocean trench and creates a safe pocket of air that enables him to breathe. Nominated for four Oscars, The Abyss won the award for Best Visual Effects.

Body Snatchers (1993)

This is the third film based on the 1955 Jack Finney novel The Body Snatchers. A teen girl and her father discover to their horror that alien clones are systematically replacing human beings on a military base in rural Alabama. The clones grow from pods and are exact replicas of the humans except for their inability to show any emotion. The pod people—who emit a distinctive scream to alert other pod people—try to convince an Army major that individuality is obsolete and that only rigid conformity can heal what ails the world. Instead of conforming and living in such a world, the major shoots himself in the head.

Coneheads (1993)

Reprising their recurrent roles as members of the original cast of Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd (Beldar Conehead) and Jane Curtin (Prymaat Conehead) return to the silver screen, with Michelle Burke replacing Laraine Newman as their daughter, Connie Conehead. The comedy of the entire Coneheads franchise revolves around the idea that these bald people with sharp pointy heads who speak in a robotic monotone expect to integrate into humanoid society without anyone noticing. Reviews of the film were mostly negative and compared it unfavorably to the original SNL sketches.

Species (1995)

This sci-fi alien feature is set in Los Angeles, where a female alien/human hybrid (Natasha Henstridge, whose topless scenes generated tremendous hype for the film) is dead-set on mating with a human and spreading her alien DNA into the general population, which would signal the end of human life as we know it. A group of scientists tries to track down her character and kill it before she is able to pull of her mating scheme. Species led to a theatrical sequel (Species II) and two direct-to-TV sequels, Species III and Species—The Awakening).

Mars Attacks! (1996)

This 1996 comedic sci-fi film was directed by Tim Burton and is based on a popular trading-card series that were first produced in the 1960s. While facing an alien invasion before which humanity seems helpless, a man named Richie (Lukas Haas) discovers that Martians’ head will explode merely at the sound of an old-time country song called “Indian Love Call” by Slim Whitman. The all-star ensemble cast includes Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Martin Short, and Danny DeVito.

Independence Day (1996)

With an all-star ensemble cast featuring Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, and Harvey Fierstein, Independence Day involves a group of scientists who gather in the Nevada desert to fight a giant “mothership” that has already wiped out the populations of major cities such as New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles. Shortly after its release, it became the second-highest-grossing film of all time after Jurassic Park and led to a 2016 sequel called Independence Day: Resurgence. A little-known fact is that Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, which teaches that there is a giant “mothership” hovering above earth waiting to redeem all black people, sued the filmmakers for allegedly stealing their idea.

Contact (1997)

Based on Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel of the same name—Sagan became famous for saying the universe contained “billions of billions of stars” and speculated that life must exist all across the universe—Contact tells the story of a female scientist named Ellie Arroway who sought alien communication after her father’s death and seeks to find alien life by listening to radio transmissions from outer space. Roger Ebert called Contact “the smartest and most absorbing story about extraterrestrial intelligence since Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Starship Troopers (1997)

Loosely based on Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel of the same name, Starship Troopers finds humans who are stuck in a totalitarian future regime and get commissioned to do battle with giant alien bugs known variously as “Arachnids” and simply “Bugs.” Even more terrifying, they are thought to be directed by a “Brain Bug” who gains knowledge about humans by piercing their skulls with his proboscis and eating their brains. The film led to two a pair of live-action sequels—Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004) and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008) and two computer-animated films, Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012) and Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017).

Men In Black Franchise (1997 – 2019)

The action-packed sci-fi comedy series Men In Black has amassed great success since its arrival in 1997. American filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld worked as a cinematographer for the Coen brothers in the early 90s before diving into directing this series. Inspired by popular UFO conspiracy theories, these films explore a world of men in black (MIB) acting as quasi-government agents who target, intimidate and sometimes eliminate any UFO witnesses. Real-life accounts dating back to 1947 claim that men dressed in jet black suits have threatened citizens innocently investigating UFOs. Some victims of this harassment have even reported that these men in black resembled some other-worldly type of human.

In 1997, the first installment of the MIB franchise was presented to audiences around the world. Shot on a budget of $90 million, this debut film earned $589.4 million at the box office. Fresh Prince of Bel Air actor Will Smith starred as an ex-NYPD detective freshly recruited as a member of the MIB group. Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones appeared alongside Smith, playing the founding member of Men In Black. The two fight against an undercover alien determined to capture a powerful energy source known as “The Galaxy,” which holds the strongest source for subatomic energy in the universe. Not to mention, this film features an adorable pug named Frank, who is actually an alien in disguise.

Five years later, audiences were craving a sequel and director Sonnenfeld delivered. Men in Black II (2002) was set in real time, taking place five years after the ending of the first installment. With positions switched up in the MIB office, new names and old enemies add an interesting layer of conflict to the film’s suspenseful plot. Actress Laura Flynn Boyle plays a shape-shifting seductress seeking to possess the powerful Light of Zartha, who will not blink an eye before murdering anyone who steps in her way. Frank the Pug was now seven years old during filming, so makeup had to be applied to the gray fur around his nose, but he was still adorable as ever.

Men in Black 3 (2012) drew in a devoted audience and praised reviews, with a total worldwide gross of $624 million. An evil imprisoned alien escapes his cell and immediately sets his sights on Tommy Lee Jones’ character for revenge from the past. Audiences are sent on a roller coaster time travelling journey, as the characters fight to ensure that past events occur as they should in order to preserve the future’s security. Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger makes an appearance as a love interest for one of the characters.

In 2019, instead of a sequel, Men in Black: International was released as spin-off to the MIB franchise. Directed by F. Gary Gray, this film starred celebrities such as Chris Hemsworth and Liam Neeson. The incredible film was shot in beautiful locations including New York City, London, Italy and Morocco. With fresh faces and a new plot focus, this spin-off had high hopes but did not perform as well as the first three MIB films in theaters. Despite lackluster box office sales, the chemistry between Hemsworth and his co-star Tessa Thompson is captivating enough to give the film a chance.

Lost In Space (1998)

Based on a hit TV show that lasted from 1965-68 and featured the Robinson family, Major Don West, a talking robot, and the highly neurotic and effeminate Dr. Zachary Smith, this film version finds the Robinson crew still stranded in space and desperately trying to find their way back to Earth. Roger Ebert gave it a measly one and a half stars: “This is the kind of movie that, if it fell into a black hole, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

Galaxy Quest (1999)

The cast of a space-opera TV series that is obviously modeled on Star Trek but was called Galaxy Quest get visited by real-life aliens who mistook the TV drama for a documentary. They find themselves drawn into a struggle that forces them to fight to save planet Earth—making them wish they could just return to their humdrum-but-safe life of signing autographs at sci-fi conventions. Galaxy Quest is both a parody of and a tribute to science-fiction films and TV series and stars Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, and Daryl Mitchell.

Signs (2002)

A former Episcopal priest and current rural farmer named Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) recently lost his wife in a traffic accident, causing him to lose his faith and abandon the priesthood. As he struggles to deal with the grief, he begins to notice that his cornfield is covered in crop circles, leading him to conclude that they were left by extraterrestrial life. Then other crop circles begin to appear around the planet as well as strange lights appearing over cities across the globe.

Avatar (2009)

Based on a script that director James Cameron had been revising for years, the plot of Avatar is set in the year 2154, when a severe energy crisis threatens to destroy life on Earth. Seeking a resolution to the crisis, a paraplegic Marine is sent to a moon named Pandora to mine a mineral known as unobtanium, a superconductive element that would solve Earth’s energy problems. But Pandora is inhabited by a blue-skinned alien species that grow to 10 feet tall, and the Marine who was sent to save the world develops an emotional bond with the blue-skinned aliens, forcing him into a crisis of conscience where he must choose between saving the earth and saving the aliens of Pandora. 

The Watch (2012)

While this alien comedy movie stars Hollywood elites —  Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill — and was designed by 20th Century Fox to be a major summer Blockbuster, it was panned by many critics as unwatchable. In an infamously negative review of the film, critic Al Alexander slams the movie:

After the slaying of Trayvon Martin, much worry and consternation went into 20th Century Fox’s decision to change the title of “Neighborhood Watch” to simply The Watch. Too bad the lame script didn’t merit the same level of trepidation. It’s far more offensive than any remote connection someone might draw between a racially charged homicide and an imbecilic summer movie…

Alexander continues that movie is just “an excuse.. to fire off a cannon of pee and penis jokes that suggest the writers possess the scatological mindset of a 12-year-old.” Naturally this critic calls The Watch unwatchable. Is it though? In reality, it’s actually a silly alien and anti-superhero movie that is certainly worth a watch.

Predators (2010)

In this third installment of the main Predator franchise—following Predator (1987) and Predator II (1990)—a group of elite paramilitary warriors are parachuted into a remote jungle, where they find themselves stuck in between a battle of two warring factions of extraterrestrial killers. They also realize to their horror that this jungle is on another planet. They also realize that it’s actually a game preserve where four-legged aliens hunt humans for sport. The film stars Adrien Brody, Walton Goggins, and Laurence Fishburne and was followed by two more installments, The Predator (2018) and Prey (2022).

Prometheus (2012)

In this sci-fi horror directed by Ridley Scott, it is the late 21^st century and the crew on the spaceship Prometheus follow a star map at a distant world, only to discover that this faraway planet contains aliens that could potentially wipe out everyone on Planet Earth. Finding several dead bodies on this isolated planet, the assume that the potentially threatening alien species is extinct. But anyone who’s watched their share of alien movies should realize that one is never alone in outer space.

The Signal (2014)

Nic (Brenton Thwaites) is a young computer hacker with an unnamed debilitating illness that has him hobbling around on crutches. His best friend Jonah (Beau Knapp) is also a hacker. Together they take a cross-country trip with Nic’s girlfriend (Olivia Cooke) to drop her off at her new place in California. At a motel one night, Nick and Jonah are contacted by a shadowy hacker who calls himself NOMAD, who challenges them to thwart his evil plot. Proving unable to meet the challenge, they instead track him down to a run-down house in the middle of the desert, but things are not as they seem—in the house’s basement is a high-tech bank of computers, and Nic suddenly wakes up wondering where he is and why he can’t feel his legs. He is greeted by Dr. Wallace Damon (Laurence Fishburne), and it’s unclear whether Damon is a human or an alien, which further confuses things—or, as Reel Views put it, “just when it looks like The Signal is headed into The Blair Witch Project territory, it takes an unexpected right turn and speeds off toward a fusion between The Matrix and TRON.”

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

In this Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt movie, a hyper intelligent alien organism called Mimics invade Earth. They have arrived on a meteorite and for unknown reasons are hellbent on taking over the planet. The Mimics are a unique kind of alien with technological so advanced they can even control time, making them a virtually impossible to beat enemy for humankind. It also makes for a riveting and orignal plot within the alien genre of cinema.

Arrival (2016)

Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Amy Adams, is one of the most cerebral alien movies ever made by Hollywood. The movie represents aliens in a highly abstract and intellectual way, as advance creatures that speak to humans in a complex hieroglyphics. The film does a good job balancing the different political and cultural reactions to extraterrestrial life landing here on Earth.

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

In this third installment of the Cloverfield franchise—following Cloverfield (2008) and 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)—the year is 2028, and the planet Earth is in the midst of a catastrophic energy crisis. Desperate to solve the crisis, scientists from multiple nations aboard a space station develop a particle accelerator which they claim will solve the crisis, but which skeptics fear will open a parallel universe, or several, which will allow those universes to attack the planet and unleash untold horrors on its residents. As the space station returns to Earth, the scientists are not prepared for the carnage that is ravaging the planet.

Rim Of The World (2019)

In this scary Netflix movie, four socially awkward campers find themselves tasked with the unenviable job of saving the planet from an alien invasion. Through a concerted effort and a ton of bravery, these four nerds find themselves global heroes. Writing for RogerEbert.com, Nick Allen gave it only one star: “Rim of the World is not going to inspire young viewers to look up at the stars, pretend to run from alien monsters, or continue its story in their own imaginations. It probably won’t even keep them awake during a slumber party.”

The Seed (2021)

In The Seed, three female friends travel to an isolated house in the Mojave Desert for a weekend getaway. While relaxing by the pool one night during a meteor shower, an alien lands in their swimming pool. Soon, the tiny, nearly motionless being from space beings to affect their minds. The Seed is campy sci-fi fun with a good amount of body horror and cheesy special effects.

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

More than a decade after the events of the original Avatar, Jake Sully and Neytiri are raising their family on the planet Pandora. However, the people of Earth return with a mission that threatens to tear Sully and Neytiri’s family apart. The wait for this sequel was long, but fans around the world showed up to take another journey to Pandora, helping the film cross over $2 billion at the box office in just a few months.

Other Alien Movies

• Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) tells the story of a wealthy heiress whose perfect life becomes plagued by an alien encounter that transforms her into a enormous giant.
• Los Astronautas (1964) is a Mexican sci-fi comedy that opens on Venus, the planet run by women. When a small group of oppressed Venusian men attempt to initiate a strike, the Venus leader sends her best two female soldiers to bring back male earthlings to take the place of her untrustworthy male population.
• Prey (1977) is a 70s flick where rural New England is under attack from otherworldly creatures from outer space and things get bloody.
• 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) is the sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is, however, not directed by Stanley Kubrick.
• Bloodsuckers From Outer Space (1984) follows a small agricultural town whose farmers begin turning into zombies after an extraterrestrial infection spreads across town.
• Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) is a super cheesy 80s horror movie, but also a cult classic for being so silly.
• My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988) is an 80s science fiction comedy about… well, the title says it all.
• Earth Girls Are Easy (1988) is a sci-fi musical rom-com that features hilarious comedians such as Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey telling the story of furry aliens that land in a Cali girl’s pool.
• Communion (1989) a sci-fi horror flick starring Christopher Walken as a paranoid father whose family has an alien encounter at a cabin in the woods.
• Stephen King’s It (1990) while this mini-series TV movie seems to be about an evil clown, it’s actually an evil clown from outer space. Pennywise is an alien. So It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019) are also, technically speaking, alien films as well.
• The Faculty (1998) is an alien horror film set in a high school that features familiar faces such as R&B sensation Usher and Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek.
• Virus (1999) stars horror royalty Jamie Lee Curtis as an ex-Navy officer who boards an abandoned space research vessel holding an alien power that detects human life as a virus that must be eliminated at all costs.
• Titan A.E. (2000) is an animated post-apocalyptic alien film with Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore’s familiar voices. The film opens in 3028 where humans and aliens interact on a daily basis until a human invention threatens the alien species enough that they plan an attack on Earth.
• Returner (2002) is a Japanese sci-fi film taking place in 2084, where a brutal alien invasion threatens any chance at the human race’s survival. A female soldier is sent back in time to defeat the first invader that initiated the influx of evil aliens in Tokyo Bay.
• War Of The Worlds (2005) is directed by Steven Spielberg and is loosely based on an 1898 H. G. Wells novel. Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning star as a father and daughter whose family is separated when Earth is invaded by violent extraterrestrials.
• Night Skies (2007) is based on the infamous 1997 event known as the Phoenix Lights, which is regarded as the largest UFO sighting ever recorded.
• Christmas On Mars (2008) was a seven-year project in the making by the alternative rock band Flaming Lips. The story opens on Mars, as new colonists navigate mysterious Martians that are questionable allies.
• Unaware (2010) is inspired by Paranormal Activity (2007) and The Blair Witch Project (1999) and tells a terrifying story through a vacationing couple’s found footage.
• I Am Number Four (2011) was produced by Michael Bay, starring Alex Pettyfer and Dianna Agron. The film dives into a world where aliens find protection on Earth from intergalactic bounty hunters. The killers have a list containing a name and number corresponding to their next victim, and this film tells the story of the next number on the list.
• Super 8 (2011) is a suspenseful sci-fi flick starring Elle Fanning and AJ Michalka, also produced by Steven Spielberg. A group of teenagers in a rural town are shooting a Super 8 film when they witness a horrible train accident and begin to suspect alien activity when they recover their developed footage.
• V/H/S (2012) is an anthology created in collaboration with Bloody Disgusting, an online hub for horror enthusiasts, including eight haunting individual stories that become increasingly bizarre when they are connected in a chilling larger narrative. The story titled “A Sick Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Younger” features a woman whose student-doctor boyfriend surgically removes an alien fetus from her abdomen, only to find out that the aliens have erased his girlfriend’s memory and they intend on using her body for future alien incubation purposes.
• The Host (2013), based on Stephenie Meyer’s best selling novel, is a sci-fi love story that takes place after parasitic aliens take over Earth’s human race.
• 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) marked Dan Trachtenberg’s directorial debut, but that didn’t stop this film from grossing over $110 million for its chilling story of a woman who awakens from a crash with a man who insists the outside world is uninhabitable.
• How To Talk To Girls At Parties (2017) takes place in 1970s London, where a shy teenage boy falls in love with a beautiful and adventurous alien who is visiting Earth for a mysterious reason.
• Annihilation (2018) stars Natalie Portman and Gina Rodriguez in this story about an expedition group who enter a mysterious quarantined zone where extraterrestrial forces rule every element.
• A Quiet Place Part II (2020) is John Krasinski’s second self-written and directed horror flick, starring his real-life wife Emily Blunt. This sequel to the 2018 box office sensation picks up with the surviving members of a family living in constant fear of the vicious alien forces lurking outside their crumbling shelter.
• Occupation (2018) violent aliens take over an Australian town, and a group of them need to fight back.
• Another Life (2019) while this is Netflix series, not a movie, it is still a cinematic interstellar production about making first contact with aliens.
• Roswell, New Mexico (2019) another Netflix series that melds alien and high school love.
• Assimilate (2019) a small town where nothing ever happens experiences an otherworldly wake up call.
• Psycho Goreman (2020) a sci-fi action horror comedy about a brother and sister who accidentally rouse an ancient alien overlord.