There is a lot of talk about aliens after a recent government hearing on UFO sightings alleged the United States government has evidence of extraterrestrial life, and the public has a right to know more about it. If aliens are among us or headed toward us, I think it's only natural for the world at large to prepare. In my home, this means stashing away the movies in my collection that would offend a visiting extraterrestrial.
Men In Black, Independence Day, the list goes on even beyond movies that Will Smith starred in. We'll get into some of the worst offenders below and why it would be a bad idea to throw these on if you're looking to have a chill night with your new friends from a few galaxies away.
Men In Black
At face value, one might think Men In Black is an alien-friendly movie. The organization does well to keep aliens in hiding around the world and maintain Earth as a neutral zone for refugees. Perhaps some aliens who watch would appreciate how the organization achieves this, but I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel on a planet where I have to hide amongst people who will lose their minds if they find out I'm not a fellow human. I feel like I'd be much safer on a planet where the people would be ok with me living there!
Independence Day
Independence Day is a classic humans vs. aliens movie, but I think we can all agree the perspective is largely one-sided. The humans are hailed as heroes while the aliens are faceless villains that don't even get a clear motive as to why they attacked Earth in the first place. Then you have Will Smith punching the lights out of an alien like he's Chris Rock disrespecting his wife? That's not something that I'd enjoy seeing if I was visiting from Mars.
War Of The Worlds
Much like Independence Day, War Of The Worlds gets low marks because it's another human vs. the faceless aliens with no depth or real character. The only shot we get of these aliens is when one dies because they didn't take Earth's microbes into consideration and died because of it. If I were an alien, I certainly wouldn't appreciate the implication my species is smart enough to hide weapons underground for world domination, but not smart enough to do a basic bio-reading of the planet before invasion and get properly prepared for the conditions. It's insulting!
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
I shouldn't even need to explain why Killer Klowns From Outer Space one is offensive. Per the parameters of this prompt, however, I must. To trivialize an entire invading species as one of Earth's most comedic and ridiculous symbols; it's grotesque, bizarre, and just obscene to envision a species with the technological prowess to make it to Earth would turn into something so demeaning. If I were an alien visiting someone's home and saw the movie on the mantle, I'd be throwing hands immediately with no further questions. Perhaps it's best to start referring to this as a creepy clown movie and leave it at that.
District 9
If Men In Black is offensive because it implies aliens would need to live in secrecy to avoid freaking out humans and discrimination, District 9 is offensive for confirming it. A group of one million alien refugees are left behind in South Africa and are ultimately pushed into slums and treated like second-class citizens by the government. This is not a story that would instill confidence that the best of humanity would be looking out for our visiting species.
Cloverfield
I know what you're thinking, and yes, Cloverfield is a movie about an alien. In fact, it's about a baby alien trapped in an unfamiliar world and terrified. How does the Earth respond to this? By attempting to kill it rather than trying to calm it down and help it find the right way home. I can imagine this movie plays entirely differently to a group of our extraterrestrial friends, who would likely be uncomfortable seeing a young alien in fear and fighting for its life throughout the movie.
Any Movie In The Alien Franchise
There are six movies in the Alien franchise, and I think it's entirely safe to say you'd want to keep all of them away from a visiting extraterrestrial. To start, Xenomorphs are not the most flattering representation of alien life. Second, I don't want any species to get the idea that humans are suitable vessels for hatching eggs! I think what's scariest about these movies, however, is that the title will be so easy to track down once a species starts to learn about our culture and likely be the first thing they see. The second movie may be the highest-rated sci-fi movie on Rotten Tomatoes, but it's number one on my list of movies we should all pretend never happened once our friends come from the stars.
Mars Attacks!
It feels like I'm beating a dead horse here with the "Aliens mindlessly attacking humans" trope here, but Mars Attacks! takes it to the utmost extreme. Not only are the Martians mindlessly aggressive, they're over-the-top cruel in their tactics to torture humanity. Putting a woman's head on a chihuahua? Hopefully, our visitors from another planet will have a sense of humor about the ludicrous nature of it all. Plus, I fear this movie would turn aliens off to the musical stylings of Slim Whitman, which would be a crime on another level.
Galaxy Quest
Galaxy Quest, at first glance, may seem as harmless and progressive toward alien life as a Star Trek movie you'd binge with your Paramount+ subscription. In reality, this movie provides a false expectation that common actors can be abducted from a convention and replicate the actions of their fictional characters in their sci-fi franchise. We need to be careful with this! A visiting species may see this and try to take William Shatner to their planet to fight an actual Gorn. Just because he actually went to space does not mean he's in fighting shape!
Remember, we could be getting confirmation of intelligent life on other planets at some point in the future. Keep these movies in hiding just in case, and perhaps keep an eye out for movies to promote positive exchanges between humans and visiting friends from other planets. Hopefully that will prevent any ill feelings... or a violent invasion of any kind!
