Aliens from Space: Little Green Men, and Big ones too
by theNeoplatonist | created - 17 Feb 2015 | updated - 15 Nov 2016 | PublicThe movies with aliens that most appeal to the cosmic sensibilities of theNeoplatonist. Excluding Star Wars, Star Trek, and superheroes. In alphabetical order, but beginning with that unavoidable number...
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1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
G | 149 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
Votes: 715,883 | Gross: $56.95M
The aliens are never seen, but that makes them all the more eerie and creepy, especially with THAT music playing.
2. Aliens (1986)
R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser
Votes: 759,151 | Gross: $85.16M
Like lots of others, I prefer this to the original, maybe because it relies less on shock value, and develops the character of Ripley much more fully and vividly. Also lots of good alien vs human conflict, and the great Lance Henriksen redeeming the android figure from its treacherous outing in the prequel.
3. Dark Star (1974)
G | 83 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
In the far reaches of space, a small crew, 20 years into their solitary mission, find things beginning to go hilariously wrong.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Dan O'Bannon, Dre Pahich, Brian Narelle, Cal Kuniholm
Votes: 27,029
The most hilarious alien on screen - the mischievous "mascot" that goes scampering all over the ship. A balloon with claws.
4. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
G | 92 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe
Votes: 85,497
Klaatu berada nikto.
5. Ender's Game (2013)
PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Young Ender Wiggin is recruited by the International Military to lead the fight against the Formics, an insectoid alien race who had previously tried to invade Earth and had inflicted heavy losses on humankind.
Director: Gavin Hood | Stars: Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin
Votes: 252,926 | Gross: $61.74M
Enter humanity as the real monster...
6. The Faculty (1998)
R | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
When Casey Connor, Herrington High School's newspaper photographer, witnesses the murder of a nurse and sees her alive again, he decides to investigate the bizarre happenings.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett
Votes: 134,541 | Gross: $40.06M
Never trust a teacher.
7. Galaxy Quest (1999)
PG | 102 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
The alumni cast of a space opera television series have to play their roles as the real thing when an alien race needs their help. However, they also have to defend both Earth and the alien race from a reptilian warlord.
Director: Dean Parisot | Stars: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub
Votes: 177,124 | Gross: $71.58M
Affectionate send-up of Trekkies.
8. The Hidden (1987)
R | 97 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A cop and an FBI agent race for answers after law abiding people suddenly become violent criminals.
Director: Jack Sholder | Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, Claudia Christian, Clarence Felder
Votes: 22,460 | Gross: $9.75M
Surprisingly effective: should be much more widely known. Any chance to see Kyle MacLachlan in action is fine by me.
9. I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)
Not Rated | 78 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Aliens arrive on Earth to possess the bodies of humans. One of their first victims is a young man, whose new wife soon realizes something is wrong with him.
Director: Gene Fowler Jr. | Stars: Tom Tryon, Gloria Talbott, Peter Baldwin, Robert Ivers
Votes: 3,079
They just don't make 'em like this any more. All the creepier for being in black and white.
10. Independence Day (1996)
PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell
Votes: 603,453 | Gross: $306.17M
11. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Approved | 80 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan
Votes: 54,471
Both versions merit a paranoid viewing.
12. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
PG | 115 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
When strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.
Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright
Votes: 69,398 | Gross: $24.95M
See above.
13. It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
Approved | 69 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
The first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.
Director: Edward L. Cahn | Stars: Marshall Thompson, Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding, Ann Doran
Votes: 6,239
Pretty much the template for "Alien". Monstrous alien on board spaceship, alien infection of human, creeping through spaceship corridors.... Not bad at all for a 1950s B movie.
14. John Carter (2012)
PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Transported to Barsoom, a Civil War vet discovers a barren planet seemingly inhabited by 12-foot tall barbarians. Finding himself prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter Woola and a princess in desperate need of a savior.
Director: Andrew Stanton | Stars: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton
Votes: 285,369 | Gross: $73.08M
Alien civilization (Mars - "Barsoom") as envisaged by Edgar Rice Burroughes. As a younger human, I preferred his Barsoom to his Tarzan visions, and this is a pretty good stab at putting Barsoom on screen.
15. K-PAX (2001)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
PROT is a patient at a mental hospital who claims to be from a faraway planet named K-PAX. His psychiatrist tries to help him, only to begin to doubt his own explanations.
Director: Iain Softley | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary McCormack, Alfre Woodard
Votes: 192,562 | Gross: $50.34M
Heart-melting, heart-breaking.
16. Predator (1987)
R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
A team of commandos on a mission in a Central American jungle find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.
Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Kevin Peter Hall, Elpidia Carrillo
Votes: 452,326 | Gross: $59.74M
17. The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
Not Rated | 78 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Professor Bernard Quatermass' manned rocket ship returns to Earth, but two of the astronauts are missing and the survivor seems ill and unable to communicate.
Director: Val Guest | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth, Margia Dean
Votes: 7,132
The first of the three Quatermass Hammer films, all of them fine specimens of 1950s/60s British science fiction. Stunning performance by Richard Wordsworth as tortured, alien-infected astronaut Victor Carroon.
18. Quatermass 2 (1957)
Approved | 85 min | Sci-Fi, Horror
Professor Quatermass, trying to gather support for his Lunar colonisation project, is intrigued by mysterious traces that have been showing up.
Director: Val Guest | Stars: Brian Donlevy, John Longden, Sidney James, Bryan Forbes
Votes: 4,589
Quatermass does government/alien paranoia, and very effectively too.
19. Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Approved | 97 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A mysterious artifact is unearthed in London, and famous scientist Bernard Quatermass is called in to divine its origins and explain its strange effects on people.
Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: James Donald, Andrew Keir, Barbara Shelley, Julian Glover
Votes: 11,443
Masterpiece. We are the Martians! The best of alien/occult crossovers.
20. Roswell (1994 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 91 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Beginning at a 30-year reunion for members of a military nuclear bomb unit, flashbacks are presented that follow the attempts of Major Jesse Marcel to discover the truth about strange ... See full summary »
Director: Jeremy Kagan | Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Martin Sheen, Dwight Yoakam, Xander Berkeley
Votes: 2,704
Pretty accurate re-creation of that seminal event. Great performances.
21. Starship Troopers (1997)
R | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Humans, in a fascist militaristic future, wage war with giant alien bugs.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey
Votes: 319,029 | Gross: $54.81M
22. They Live (1988)
R | 94 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us feeling it. They control our lives without us realizing it. They live.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George 'Buck' Flower
Votes: 144,477 | Gross: $13.01M
23. The Thing from Another World (1951)
Approved | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Scientists and American Air Force officials fend off a bloodthirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.
Directors: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks | Stars: Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, James Arness, Robert Cornthwaite
Votes: 33,178
The black and white original. Still packs a wallop, especially on first viewing.
24. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 463,761 | Gross: $13.78M
The Carpenter version. The special effects conceal a complex mystery with an ambiguous ending.
25. This Island Earth (1955)
Passed | 86 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Aliens come to Earth seeking scientists to help them in their war.
Directors: Joseph M. Newman, Jack Arnold | Stars: Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason, Lance Fuller
Votes: 10,639
Another golden oldie. Just priceless.
26. Under the Skin (I) (2013)
R | 108 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.
Director: Jonathan Glazer | Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Dougie McConnell
Votes: 157,047 | Gross: $2.61M
Demands repeated viewings to get its full meaning. A sad movie.
27. Unearthly Stranger (1963)
78 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Mysterious woman marries government scientist Davidson despite his lack of knowledge about her past. His bosses are suspicious of her unusual traits. After it's clear she does love Davidson, the pair come under attack.
Director: John Krish | Stars: John Neville, Philip Stone, Gabriella Licudi, Patrick Newell
Votes: 929
Super-creepy British gem. Beware the fish-eyed stare.
28. Village of the Damned (1960)
Not Rated | 77 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
In the English village of Midwich, the blonde-haired, glowing-eyed children of uncertain paternity prove to have frightening powers.
Director: Wolf Rilla | Stars: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens, Michael Gwynn
Votes: 19,064
The original 1960 classic, NOT the recent remake. The children are sort of alien-human hybrids. And the scariest children you'll ever see on screen. Damien from "The Omen", take a back seat.
29. The War of the Worlds (1953)
G | 85 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A small town in California is attacked by Martians, beginning a worldwide invasion.
Director: Byron Haskin | Stars: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Robert Cornthwaite
Votes: 38,365 | Gross: $4.36M
The 1950's "original", with those glorious Martian war machines. Forget any attempted remakes!
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