Invasion
An invasion of our home planet is another regular theme in science fiction – Independence day, War of the Worlds and the Day the Earth still to name but a few. As with the other themes mentioned through the A-Z blogging challenge, different writers have different ideas of what an invasion might entail, although it usually involves an alien species. We might be sport – hunted down and killed, an inconvenience standing in the way of the natural resources, or a species to be rounded up and enslaved. Whatever the reason, you can guarantee mankind will fight for its survival.
War of the Worlds
Based on a novel by H.G.Wells, the recent 2005 film brought the War of the Worlds to the big screen – Hollywood style. In this version, the aliens invading our world buried tripod styled machines deep beneath the surface of our world long before man even existed.
They have returned to claim the planet for their own, at first killing everyone in sight, they go on to capture the pitiful humans panicking beneath their feet…
Independence Day
In Independence Day, alien spaceships appear over the most populated cities. It takes a while for the powers to be to work out that their arrival is not a friendly one, by which time they manage to lose the majority of their fighter planes, although they never really had much of a chance against a forcefield protected spaceship anyway.
A mentally implanted image from an alien informs them that the invasion is indeed hostile…
The day the Earth stood still
The alien in this film takes on the human form and claims his intention to save the Earth, although the alien’s definition of save and ours, are two entirely different things. The treatment he receives after being captured and interrogated does not convince the alien that mankind should be allowed to continue in existence.
As a swarm of insect-like nanites sweep across Earth, a mother and child must convince him that mankind is worth saving…
I’ve chosen to mention three older films so not to give spoilers away about new films (and assume most people will have seen these ones anyway). Alien invasions are very popular in science fiction, for an in-depth list of movies, you can check out IMDb’s Apocalyptic and Alien Invasions listing, for books, check out the alien invasion listings on Amazon.
Ooh, fun A To Z theme! My favorite thing about War of the Worlds is the mass panic it allegedly caused in the 1930s when it was aired as a radio play. The radio play was presented as a series of news bulletins, so… so, yeah. People were freaked.