STACK #148 Feb 2017

FIRST CONTACT Meeting extraterrestrial visitors would change the world as we know it, but saying "hello" could prove problematic...

CONTACT (1997) When the alien looks like your father, communication isn't going to be problem. But deciphering an extraterrestrial signal and building a machine to get to him is a whole other matter.

Independence Day (1996) evokes the aliens' spectacular arrival in V with giant spacecraft positioning themselves over Earth's cities, before unleashing fiery destruction. These visitors are here for one reason only: to exterminate us. God Bless America then, for taking the fight to them with patriotism, Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and malware. FURTHER VIEWING There's an entire solar system of alien visitor movies out there to be explored, and the following should be the first three stops on your continuing voyage of discovery. Launched in 1977, NASA's Voyager II probe contained a message inviting aliens to come and visit us – and one of them accepts our invitation in John Carpenter's Starman (1984). Basically E.T. for grown-ups, an alien visitor assumes the form of a widow's late husband, enlisting her help to rendezvous with his mothership in Arizona (with government agents in hot pursuit of course). While aliens are often the aggressors, sometimes it's we humans who treat our extraterrestrial visitors badly. Xenophobia reigns in District 9 (2009), in which prawn- like extraterrestrial refugees are confined to a Johnanesberg slum for 28 years before finding an ally in a government official, who's been mutated by an alien liquid. And finally, David Bowie playing an androgynous alien is reason alone to check out The ManWho Fell to Earth (1976). The late music legend stars as a humanoid visitor who sets up a tech conglomerate to fund the construction of a ship that will transport water back to his drought-stricken world, discovering much about big business and human nature in the process. This surreal and haunting sci-fi parable could well have come to us from another planet.

the more lowbrow Xtro (with the tagline "He's the mean E.T.") the same year, as a reminder that not all aliens are friendly.) Spielberg's films are intimate and personal examples of alien contact, so now it's time for a wider perspective with global ramifications. Robert Wise's elegant 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood

ARRIVAL (2016) Even the most brilliant linguist will struggle to translate an alien language, especially when it sounds like whale song and the written form looks like stains left by a coffee mug.

Still raises issues that still resonate today, namely nuclear disarmament and a more unified world. The planet-pausing event and ultimatum delivered by humanoid visitor Klaatu – who initially extends the hand of friendship only to be promptly gunned down – is loud and clear: "It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten

to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder." That's exactly what happens when "intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regard our Earth with envious eyes" in TheWar of the Worlds (1953). Arriving in the guise of a fallen meteor, H.G. Wells's malevolent martians turn their war machines and heat rays on our cities, until the "littlest things" bring

STARTREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996) Saying "Hi" to the Vulcans when you're drunk can be difficult, but when the Borg are intent on preventing it from ever happening, that's the easy part.

about their downfall. One of the greatest science fiction films of the '50s is also the quintessential alien invasion movie, and Spielberg's accomplished 2005 remake is also well worth checking out. The TV mini-series V (1983) depicts another volatile confrontation between humankind and an alien species. A race of seemingly benevolent 'Visitors' enlist our help to replenish their dying world in exchange for advanced alien technology. But beneath their humanoid disguise lurk hungry lizards with more sinister intentions (which include stocking their larder with human meat).

THE ABYSS (1989) A tentacle of animated seawater that morphs into the likeness of an estranged husband isn't the best way to begin interplanetary relations.

35