When Aliens And Humans Meet – Top Movies To See Before Jordan Peele’s NOPE Opens July 22

By Movie Geeks | July 20, 2022

Whether it’s a modern alien invasion or a meet-and-greet, movie goers have been fascinated and lured into theaters by images of UFO’s and their visitors.

E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, which hit theaters 40 years ago on June 11, 1982 , and the earlier Close Encounters of the Third Kind, gave moviegoers nicer versions and visions of first contact with friendly alien visitors – coincidentally both scores were from Oscar-winning composer John Williams – while A QUIET PLACE, THE THING and SIGNS were foreboding and cautionary tales of aliens wiping out all of mankind.

Famed physicist Stephen Hawking warned:

“Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they could reach,” Hawking said in 2010 on an episode of “Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking,” a TV show that aired on the Discovery Channel. “If so, it makes sense for them to exploit each new planet for material to build more spaceships so they could move on. Who knows what the limits would be?”

Hawking voiced his fears at the Breakthrough event, saying, “We don’t know much about aliens, but we know about humans. If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from https://justfucklocal.com/ their point of view, and encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced. A civilization reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so, they will be vastly more powerful, and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria.”

In a recent interview with the AP Peele was asked:

AP: How much were you thinking about “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”?

Peele: Yeah, “Close Encounters” is something I think about a lot, as is “Signs” by M. Night Shyamalan. These are big-vision directors who have taken flying saucers and science fiction and have brought magic to the way they told those stories. I wanted to toss my hat in the ring to one of my favorite subgenres, in UFOs, and do it in a way only I can.

AP: When the U.S. government declassified video of Navy pilots encountering unexplained aircraft — something your movie references — how did you react? Were you affected by those images?

Peele: I was. It made it very real, very much in the moment. It’s one of the reasons, I guess, I can proudly say this movie is based on a true story. But what was most nerve-wracking or scary to me about the whole thing is that you’d like to think that when actual video proof of UFOs comes out that something would change in our lifestyle, not it’s really business as usual. It just proves that there is a desensitization to spectacle. We’re addicted and we’re in over our heads with this addiction. We have proof of UFOs or UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena), but the interest with the major public goes so far. It’s very interesting.

Jordan Peele has created with NOPE the “great American UFO story” and a spectacle that people would have to come to the movie theater to see. (video). Winner for Original Screenplay for “Get Out” at the 90th Oscars, Peele reimagines the summer movie with a new pop nightmare: the expansive horror epic, NOPE. The film reunites Peele with Oscar® winner Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah), who is joined by Keke Palmer (Hustlers, Alice) and Oscar® nominee Steven Yeun (Minari, Okja) as residents in a lonely gulch of inland California who bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.

In the wake of the success of Get Out and Us, both of which disrupted and redefined the horror genre in singular ways, Peele has expanded his cinematic canvas, embraced a challenge unlike any in his filmmaking career so far and tackled the granddaddy of genre movies: the summer event film.

“I had this idea of making the Great American UFO movie — a flying saucer horror film,” Peele says. “And not only a flying saucer horror film, but really, the quintessential one.” Whatever you think NOPE is going to be as you enter the theater, you’re in for more than a few surprises where you’ll never look up at the sky in the same way ever again.

“I’m hopeful that people will look at clouds after this movie the way they looked at the surface of the ocean in Jaws,” says Peele.

WAMG offers up a list of alien invasion thrills for readers to check out before or even after you see NOPE, in theaters and IMAX, Friday, July 22.

CLOVERFIELD series

The popular series of CLOVERFIELD movies, which started with Matt Reeves’ 2008 Cloverfield, was a huge hit and a surprise to movie goers when the first teaser hit audiences prior to TRANSFORMERS screenings with images of the head of the Statue of Liberty hurtling toward unsuspecting New York City party goers. Just like it’s documentary, hand-held predecessor, the subsequent two films (Dan Trachtenberg’s 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE and Julius Onah‘s CLOVERFIELD PARADOX) were released to unaware audiences with fake production titles and a surprise debut on Superbowl Sunday with a trailer and announcement that the third film would air at the conclusion of the big game on Netflix. The mysterious Cloverfield universe, known as “Cloververse” featured monsters, both above in the skies and below in underground bunkers, that no one could escape from.

Streaming now on HBO Max and Netflix.

A QUIET PLACE series

John Krasinski did in Hollywood the almost unthinkable. The actor/director brought audiences an unique, new and horrifying movie going experience. The intimate story of one family trying to survive on their farm as the filmmaker’s A Quiet Place turned silence into the building blocks of fright and forged from the horror-thriller genre a modern fable of family love, communication and survival. With its mix of relentless tension and layered storytelling about a tight knit clan fending off an immensely destructive, sound attuned alien force, the film became a startling hit and cultural phenomenon. After the incredible reception for the first film, a series and franchise of humans VS “death angels” were born.

In PART 2, which picks up right where the first one ends, following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

Both films are now streaming on Paramount Plus and Prime Video.

EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS

Aliens are everywhere, and they’re attacking planet Earth in one of Ray Harryhausen’s most amazing stop-motion sci-fi classics. Dr. Russell Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) works for Operation Skyhook, a government task force sending rockets into space to probe for future space flights. But when the rockets begin mysteriously disappearing, Dr. Marvin investigates along with his wife Carol (Joan Taylor), only to find the rockets are being intercepted by an army of space aliens who give humanity an ultimatum: Loyalty or death! As the aliens begin attacking cities and landmarks across the Earth – including an unforgettable assault on Washington, D.C – its up to Dr.Marvin and his wife to figure out how to stop these diabolical creatures before its too late.

SIGNS

From writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, comes the story of the Hess family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who wake up one morning to find a 500-foot crop circle in their backyard. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) and his family are told extraterrestrials are responsible for the sign in their field. They watch, with growing dread, the news of crop circles being found all over the world. SIGNS is the emotional and intimate story of one family on one farm as they encounter the terrifying last moments of life as the world is being invaded. Night’s film is ultimately a story of faith that drives home the tagline “there are no coincidences.”

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE

Amateur astronomer John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his fiancée Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush) are stargazing in the desert when a spaceship bursts from the sky and crashes to the ground. Just before a landslide buries the ship, a mysterious creature emerges and disappears into the darkness. Of course, when he tells his story to the sheriff (Charles Drake), John is branded a crackpot; but before long, strange things begin to happen, and the tide of disbelief turns…Based on a story by acclaimed writer Ray Bradbury, “It Came From Outer Space” is a science fiction classic that is as thought-provoking and tantalizing today as it was when it first “landed” on the sliver screen.

UNDER THE SKIN

From visionary director Jonathan Glazer (SEXY BEAST, BIRTH) comes a stunning career transformation, a masterpiece of existential science fiction that journeys to the heart of what it means to be human, extraterrestrial — or something in between.

A voluptuous woman of unknown origin, okay an alien, (Scarlett Johansson) combs the highways in search of isolated or forsaken men, luring this succession of lost souls into an otherworldly lair. They are seduced, stripped of their humanity, and never heard from again. Johansson adjusts to life in new human skin, struggling to make sense of a world that is entirely foreign to her as her alien perspective melds with a human one. “It was a kind of metamorphosis, but there was also something metaphysical about playing this character,” Johansson explains. “It’s hard to put your finger on it and that was part of its appeal for me. This is not a genre movie. It’s more along the lines of an Ingmar Bergman drama in terms of its philosophical inquiry.” Based on the novel by Michel Faber (The Crimson Petal and the White), UNDER THE SKIN examines human experience from the perspective of an unforgettable heroine who grows too comfortable in her borrowed skin, until she is abducted into humanity with devastating results.

Streaming free on Pluto TV, Tubi, Crackle and VUDU

SKYLINE

Strange lights descend on the city of Los Angeles, drawing people outside like moths to a flame, where an extraterrestrial force threatens to swallow the entire human population off the face of the Earth. The great reveal at the end to director Liam O’Donnell’s sci-fi meet up with the aliens is that the hero, Jarrod, becomes one when his brain, glowing red instead of the usual aliens’ blue, is inserted into a new alien body thus defending his pregnant wife. SKYLINE was followed by two sequels, Beyond Skyline (2017) starring Frank Grillo and Skylines (2020) and fans were delighted in December 2020 when writer/director O’Donnell announced plans to continue the series, with plans to bring back the featured cast.

Skyline is playing on STARZ with a subscription; Beyond Skyline and Skylines (2020) are streaming on Netflix.

WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953)

Gene Barry (TV’s Bat Masterson) and Ann Robinson (TV’s Fury) are among the humans intrigued when a meteor-like object crashes to Earth … but its occupants are definitely not friendly. The assault on Earth is underway, and the Martian machines — hovering “swan”-shaped vehicles of destruction — are both beautiful and terrifying as they cut a relentless path of annihilation.

WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)

Equally, if not more, frightening is director Steven Spielberg’s new take on the sci-fi classic. A contemporary retelling of H.G.Wells’ classic, the sci-fi thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family. Fleeing from an extraterrestrial army of killer Tripods that annihilate everything in their path, Ray Ferrier (Cruise) races to keep his family safe. Features another terrific score from John Williams along with scenes of horrifying disaster from cinematographer and frequent Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kamiński.

Streaming now on Netflix.

THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and THE THING (1982)

Staying with the theme of original and equally as good if not better, is THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and THE THING.

In Howard Hawkes’ version, a UFO crashes near an isolated military base in the far Arctic. Scientists recover the craft’s now-frozen alien pilot and take it back to their base. While debating whether to study the alien, try to communicate with it or kill it, the pilot awakens–and the scientists’ question of if it is friend or foe is quickly answered.Now, trapped in a frozen wasteland with an unstoppable, nonhuman creature that sees them as prey, the small band of scientists come face to face with The Thing.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the remake by horror-master, John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York) teamed Kurt Russell’s outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic THE THING. In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Once unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and becomes one of them. Over the decades it has become a cult classic and still sees much debate on which of the two remaining characters, Kurt Russell or Keith David, were The Thing.

Streaming on SHUDDER.

BATTLE LOS ANGELES

Witness the end of civilization unfold as hostile alien invaders attack the planet. As people everywhere watch the world’s great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. Now it’s up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they’ve ever encountered in Jonathan Liebesman’s epic sci-fi action film.

Streaming on HBO Max.

EDGE OF TOMORROW

An alien race, undefeatable by any existing military unit, has launched a relentless attack on Earth, and Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) finds himself dropped into a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage is thrown into a time loop, forced to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again and again. Training alongside warrior Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), his skills slowly evolve, and each battle moves them one step closer to defeating the enemy in this fun action thriller.

BATTLESHIP

“They were here for one purpose… conquest.” Hey its an alien invasion movie so it had to make the list. An international naval coalition becomes the world’s last hope for survival as they engage a hostile alien force in Peter Berg’s BATTLESHIP. Think Saturday afternoon matinee filled with a killer soundtrack, lots of blowup explosions, out of this world VFX and the fact the film cast actual wounded veteran Greg Gadson as one of its heroes along with Vets who fought on a real battleship – the USS Missouri – during World War II.