The sheer notion of alien contact in the recently released film Nope excites filmmakers from all genres since it is such a fascinating subject with so many potential consequences. It’s safe to say that’s what motivated the Get Out writer and director to create his own “first contact” film. The best UFO films, in which an alien race visits Earth, have been compiled by Letterboxd based on user feedback. Look at them below.
Table of Contents
1. Arrival (2016)
Director- Denis Villeneuve
Ratings- 4.1/5
A menacing alien pod, one of twelve in total, comes to a stop and hovers just a few feet over the lush plains under the clear Montana skies, during an extraordinary worldwide occurrence of simultaneous first contact with extraterrestrial life. As a result of the ensuing panic, Colonel G.T. Weber assembles a group of specialists, including the esteemed experts in linguistics and dialectology Professor Dr. Louise Banks and the theoretical physicist Dr. Ian Donnelly, and assigns them the impossible task of deciphering a coded conversation with the extraterrestrial visitors. But if all efforts at communication fail, do something useful.
2. The Thing (1982)
Director- John Carpenter
Rating- 4.3/5
Early winter 1982 at an American research outpost in Antarctica. A helicopter from the neighbouring Norwegian research station suddenly buzzes the base. They’re attempting to put down a dog that got away from their headquarters. The US crew flies to the Norwegian base after the Norwegian helicopter is destroyed, only to find that everyone there is either dead or missing. They do come across the charred bones of an odd monster that the Norwegians burned. It is taken by the Americans to their base, where they conclude that it is an alien life form. After some time, it becomes clear that the extraterrestrial has the ability to seize control, blend into various life forms, including humans, and spread like a virus. As a result, tensions rise because anyone at the base could be The Thing’s host.
3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Director- Steven Spielberg
Ratings- 3.8/5
An unimportant extraterrestrial who was with his party of covert visitors is abandoned on Earth and finds himself in a frighteningly weird and foreign environment. Lucky for him, a lonely 10-year-old kid called Elliott finds him when he is alone and afraid. After the initial shock wears off, Elliott chooses to take him home and gives him the name “E.T.” A friendship will gradually develop, and as our friendly blue planet transforms into a prison full of threats and government agents, Elliott and his band of rescues will need to move quickly to find a solution to get E.T. back with his extraterrestrial family. Even though Elliott will lose an unexpected yet good buddy as a result.
4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Director- Steven Spielberg
Ratings- 3.8/5
Cableman Roy Neary is one of many individuals who saw UFOs flying through the night sky and has a first-person close encounter. As a result, his marriage suffers greatly as he is concerned with understanding the meaning of the mountain-like vision that has been haunting him for some time. Government officials discover tangible proof of extraterrestrial visits in the form of military vehicles that vanished decades ago but then reappeared in the middle of nowhere. This second type of close encounter is happening while government officials around the world experience the first. In order to go to the location of their third-kind close encounter—contact—Roy and the agents must both follow the hints they have been provided.
5. District 9 (2009)
Director- Neill Blomkamp
Ratings- 3.7/5
The “Prawns” were a large starship that emerged over Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1982 and carried a bedraggled alien populace. The original warmth of the human population’s reception has diminished 28 years later. The refugee camp where the foreign nationals were housed has degraded into a militarised ghetto named District 9, where they are imprisoned and exploited in misery. The people will be forcibly removed in 2010 under the direction of operator Wikus van der Merwe by the armaments company Multi-National United. Wikus is exposed to an odd alien substance during this operation and is left with only his two new “Prawn” companions for support.
6. Independence Day (1996)
Director- Roland Emmerich
Humans saw a peculiar signal at the start of July, which has now spread throughout the world. Smaller spacecraft started to blanket entire towns all over the world while a huge spaceship moved towards Earth. Then, as the spacecraft use energy weapons to obliterate the cities, wonder turns to fear. The alien spacecraft are impervious to military weapons, so when the world launched a counterattack, they were destroyed. In order to develop a strategy to fight the aliens, the President of the United States then makes the decision to travel to Area 51. The few remaining people now control the course of the entire planet.
7. Men In Black (1997)
Director- Barry Sonnenfeld
Ratings- 3.6/5
The universe’s best-kept secret, they exist. Kay and Jay are the Men in Black, who administer immigration services and control anything alien on Earth. They are employed by a well-funded but unofficial government agency. The MIB agents discover a deadly plot by an interstellar terrorist who is out to kill two ambassadors from rival galaxies. They are now residing in New York City while looking into a string of unreported close encounters.
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Director- Stanley Kubrick
Ratings- 4.3/5
In this mysterious version of a short story by renowned science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, a massive black edifice serves as a bridge between the past and the future. Dr. Dave Bowman and the other astronauts are dispatched on a mystery mission, but as they travel across space and time, HAL, the ship’s computer system, starts to act increasingly strangely. This tension-filled confrontation between man and machine is the catalyst for the mind-bending journey.
9. Signs (2002)
Director- M. Night Shyamalan
Ratings- 3.4/5
After his wife was killed in a horrible car accident, Graham Hess, a former Episcopal priest, lost his faith and withdrew to a rural farm in Pennsylvania where he now lives with his two young daughters and younger brother. When inexplicable crop-circle formations start to grow in his field six months later and the same circular patterns start to appear all over the world, a palpable sense of dread begins to spread among the family. Grief, denial, and paranoia combine more frequently when similar inexplicable events take place, creating a highly explosive cocktail.
10. Under The Skin (2013)
Director- Jonathan Glazer
Ratings- 3.6/5
A young woman who searches Scotland’s highways and streets for the human prey she came to loot is actually an alien creature inhabiting her earthly form. She entices her abandoned and lonely male victims into an unearthly realm where they are undressed and devoured. The alien guest is starting to alter, nevertheless, as a result of existence in all its complexity. Tragic and scary things happen as she starts to realise that she is a person.
Finally, the best UFO films provide spectators interested in the potential of extraterrestrial life with a fascinating and thought-provoking experience. These films, ranging from classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind to more contemporary blockbusters like Arrival, explore the mystery and awe of the unknown. Whether you believe in UFOs or not, these films will leave you enthralled and wondering about the nature of our cosmos.
