Lesson: Invasion Stories – Extraterrestrial Life

Mars Attacks!

Invasion literature became popular after the publication of The Battle of Dorking in 1871, which describes a fictional invasion of Britain by a German speaking force.

H.G. Wells published The War of the Worlds as a serial in 1897 (and in hardcover the following year).

And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?
H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

Invasion stories tend to reflect the cultural anxieties of the time.

The War of the Worlds novel (1898) – colonial expansion
The War of the Worlds radio drama (1938) – World War II
The Thing from Another World (1951) – communism
War of the Worlds Pal adaptation (1953) – Cold War
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) – McCarthyism
Village of the Damned (1960) – family values
The Andromeda Strain (1971) – Space Race
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – Watergate
The Thing (1982) – disease
They Live (1988) – consumerism

The Wacky 1990s

In the 1990s, a lot of big disaster movies were released: Jurassic Park (1993), Outbreak (1995), Twister (1996), Dante’s Peak (1997), Deep Impact (1998), Godzilla (1998), and Armageddon (1998), to name a few. While the plots of these films involved a tremendous loss of human life, this violence was shown through cartoonish spectacle, usually involving the destruction of major landmarks and often accompanied by witty one-liners. This trend carries over to alien invasion films of the time as well.

Mars Attacks – directed by Tim Burton (1996)

Independence Day – directed by Roland Emmerich (1996)

It’s a fun-pocalypse!
Lindsay Ellis, Independence Day vs. War of the Worlds

Starship Troopers – directed by Paul Verhoeven (1997)

Men in Black – directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (1997)

The Faculty – directed by Robert Rodriguez (1998)

The Grim 2000s

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, moviegoers lost their taste for bombastic disaster movies. As a direct consequence, alien invasion films became darker and more focused on human loss than symbolic destruction. The most direct comparison can probably be made between Independence Day in 1996 and War of the Worlds in 2005. In the former, the invasion unites humanity against a common foe. In the latter, the alien threat fractures humanity and drives it towards its worst impulses.

Apocalyptic movies eventually began to resurface, with films like The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and 2012 (2009). Even though these films no longer feel “distasteful” in the way they did immediately after 9/11, the collective trauma of the 2001 attacks is now an inescapable point of comparison.

It’s not that aliens equals terrorists. It’s Spielberg’s ultimate statement on living in an America that no longer feels secure. We can’t just mindlessly enjoy the cinematic destruction of a major city or landmark, because we had just gone through this in real life.
Lindsay Ellis, Independence Day vs. War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds – directed by Steven Spielberg (2005)

Cloverfield – directed by Matt Reeves (2008)

District 9 – directed by Neill Blomkamp (2009)

Where Are We Now?

Comic book movies are now the most popular examples of alien invasion and disaster movies, by far. Like the disaster films of the 1990s, these tend to be loud and colorful – lots of destruction, with little emphasis on human suffering.

In parallel, a number of smaller, more “intimate” invasion films have been released, with a greater emphasis on loss and personal struggle.

Spectacle!

Transformers – directed by Michael Bay (2007)