The Mike's Top 11 Alien Invasion Films of 1950-2000

When my good buddy Russ of Dead End Drive-In asked me to participate in his Alien Invasion Weekend, I didn't even have to think about my response.  Russ asked me to cover some of my favorite alien invasion flicks made before the year 2000 (because we all know Y2K ended civilization back then, of course), and I did what I do: I made a list.

I'm being kind of picky on semantics here, and a couple of my very favorite sci-fi films ever - The Day the Earth Stood Still and Close Encounters of the Third Kind - are getting the shaft due to this.  Look, Gort wasn't here to take us out, he was just forced to get a little angry.  And those Close Encounters things? Heck, they were just curious.  Yes, these might be two of my five favorite sci-fi films, but I'm looking for good old fashioned destructive invaders here.

Also, I cheated several times on this list.  There are a few cases once in a while - though most horror fans won't believe me - where both original films and their remakes were awesome.  And I've lumped them together here so I can cover more of my favorite invasion flicks.  You like more awesome, don't you?

Honorable Mentions? Yeah, we got some honorable mentions for you.

Honorable Mention: War of the Worlds (1953), Earth vs. The Flying Saucers (1956), Mars Needs Women (1967), Superman II (1980), Night of the Creeps (1986), Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988), Independence Day (1996), The Faculty (1998)

Some notes on those Honorable Mentions:

• A lot of people will probably balk at the exclusion of War of the Worlds, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, and Independence Day, which have a lot of great publicity and a lot of great special effects for their eras.  While each film features a pretty widespread invasion, I got a few more cerebral picks ahead of them. (And a couple that are much dumber too.)
• Sure, any Superman film could technically be an Alien Invasion film, but General Zod and his awkward friends are pretty much the best kind of invaders.  I won't quite kneel, but I'll give him some props.
• YOU GUYS! The Faculty is seriously underrated. There, I said it.

Now, let's see that list!

Number 11 - Bloodsuckers from Outer Space (1984)

Bloodsuckers from Outer Space is certainly one of those movies that is so bad that it's....bad.  But at the same time it's kind of not.  Heck,  the IMDB voters - who are generally the cruelest and most genre unfriendly people on our planet - even have given it a 5.2 out of ten rating.  A 5.2 on IMDB for a movie with these production values is like a Nobel Peace Prize for someone with Hitler's racial beliefs.  Anyway, Bloodsuckers from Outer Space is terribly silly, but it's got that odd feeling like this whole small town was in on the joke and everyone chipped in and made this goofy flick a ton of fun. So it's kind of awesome.

Number 10 - Not of this Earth (1957, 1988)

Speaking of silly, you won't find two filmmakers who are more open to cheese than Roger Corman and Jim Wynorski.  And the story behind Not of this Earth, featuring a nurse who works for an odd character who turns out to be an emissary from a distant land (and I don't mean Kansas), lends itself to their kind of cheese.  The former film is a black and white drive-in classic led by Paul "Marlboro Man" Birch, the latter is full of comedic turns and led by former porn star Traci Lords.  Both films are charming enough to hit this list, in their own ways.

Number 9 - The Arrival (1996)

It's probably not a good idea to put a Charlie Sheen film this close to one starring a porn star, but I'm gonna risk it.  The Arrival arrived (oof, that stung) early in the Summer of 1996 - just before Independence Day was released to much hype - and kind of fell on deaf ears throughout the world.  But director David Twohy's film is a pretty smart sci-fi chiller, with Sheen's Zane Zaminski (major bonus points for cool character name!) uncovering a secret signal and then battling wits with a dastardly Ron Silver (and you all should know just how much The Mike loves Ron Silver - it's a lot).  The action and the effects that big budget sci-fi flicks are known for aren't here, but I'll take it over its much bigger 1996 counterpart any day of the week.

Number 8 - The Hidden (1987)

I've written about The Hidden before, but it bears repeating that this might be the '80s coolest sci-fi flick.  The action packed story follows a creature that inhabits human bodies and gets a little silly when the special effects come into play, but the brisk pace keeps the film going so fast that you barely notice anything amiss.  The Hidden also capitalizes on political concerns of the '80s and seems to throw a huge middle finger at the culture of the time, particularly in ritzy Los Angeles. I can dig it.

Number 7 - Men in Black (1997)

The legendary guardians against all kinds of alien invasiony nonsense take form in Barry Sonnenfeld's summer blockbuster, and face off with a one alien wrecking crew: "The Bug", portrayed in human form by Vincent D'Onofrio.  Sure, the invasion is a secondary part of the film to Will Smith's evolution from cool dude to wise and cool dude, but it's still one of the most charming sci-fi comedies out there.  And Tommy Lee Jones' straight man opposite utter chaos is always welcome.

Number 6 - Invaders from Mars (1953, 1986)

One of the first invasion films to make a connection to the Cold War and communism, the original Invaders from Mars comes to the viewer from the perspective of a young boy who witnesses an invasion. The invasion that follows has the required amount of military involvement and parent manipulation, which helps the film overcome some problems in acting and direction.  Tobe Hooper's 1986 remake uses more comedy and more special effects, and is a good time-passer.

Number 5 - The Blob (1958)

Did you really think I wasn't gonna mention The Blob?  Sure, his (Or is it a her? Do Blobs even have genders? Are there more than one Blob? We never really know!) invasion was stopped pretty quickly by really old teenagers, but he wins plenty of style points for being one of the few amorphous invaders in film history.  And I love The Blob, so it's on the list.  NEXT.

Number 4 - Predator (1987)

I'm sure he wasn't voted "Most Likely to Blow Himself Up on Another Planet Because of an Austrian Lunkhead" when he graduated his planet's equivalent of high school, which makes the ill-fated invasion by the Predator all the more sad.  But his movie is still pretty amazing, so I'm willing to give some credit to the Predator for being the baddest humanoid one-man invasion crew ever.  He couldn't have predicted that he was going to run into Schwarzenegger, Weathers, and the rest of the bad-asses, and we can't hold that against him.

Number 3 - The Thing From Another World/The Thing (1951, 1982)

I'm probably undervaluing The Thing here, mostly because it wins almost every time I make a list.  Both versions of this story vary greatly, and both represent different kinds of invaders.  Much like the last two films, the invaders are slowed by factors outside their control - in these cases, location.  The original Thing gets bonus points for basically birthing the "watch the skies" craze of the '50s, while the remake gets bonus points for just being really awesome.

Number 2 - They Live (1988)

What if the invasion is already here?  That's the question asked - and answered by a nameless blue-collar worker - in They Live, which has has long been one of my favorite movies to talk about.  Like The Hidden, we get a look at how greed can be involved in an '80s Los Angeles invasion, but this time it's human greed taking the lead instead of alien greed.  I've spent a lot of words on how important I think They Live is before, so I'm just gonna let it tell its own story this time around.

Number 1 - Invasion of Body Snatchers/Body Snatchers (1956, 1978, 1993)

First things first - I'm not as wild about the '78 remake as everyone else is.  Yes, Sutherland and Nimoy.  No, it's not as scary as people say and the ending's kind of dumb.  And it's way too long.  It's good. It's not great.

That said, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers is the definitive sci-fi paranoia epic.  From Kevin McCarthy's howling lead performance to the cool pod people effects, there's plenty to love about the movie that's spawned three remakes.  My favorite of those, as evidenced above, is Abel Ferrara's 1993 Body Snatchers. With a script by horror maestros Stuart Gordon and Larry Cohen, an ominous army base setting, and wonderful performances by the Gabrielle Anwar, Meg Tilly, and Forest Whitaker.

Though the flying saucers and little green men get the most headlines, it's the invaders that we can't easily see that provide the most chills and thrills for viewers.  Siegel knew that, and the story he created lives on - in many different tellings (though it's best we just don't mention The Invasion, isn't it?) - as my favorite alien invasion.

Except for maybe this one....

Predator - The Musical!

I'm not usually one to just post videos, but in honor of a) my most popular and controversial post ever, b) a former Midnight Movie of the Week, and c) one of my very favorite movies ever, I just had to share this amazing Youtube hit.  BEHOLD!

I know what I'm singing in the shower for the rest of eternity.

Midnight Movie of the Week #49 - Predator

As you can see from my recent lack of updates, I've been a little busy this week.  In fact, I spent about 24 of the last 36 hours at my place of work, to be exact.  It hasn't been fun, either.  And it's times like that - times when I'm just sick and tired of being sick and tired - that I turn to Predator. 

The good thing about that is that I've seen Predator enough times that I don't need to watch Predator to reap the benefits of Predator.  I can just sit here, like I am right now, and think about Predator.  It's in my brain.  I can see the ridiculousness of it all, and I love it so dearly.

I mean, it starts with that ridiculous intro.  We've got a chopper full of what must be bad dudes landing to Alan Silvestri's hammering and awesome musical score.  There's Jesse "The Body" Ventura in his MTV t-shirt, there's Bill Duke in a suit, there's Arnold smoking his giant cigar while wearing ridiculous sunglasses.  There's too-tight polo shirts, mid-air arm wrestling, and that immortal line "DILLON!  YOU SON OF A BITCH!"  And that's all before we even get to the jungle.

(During that scene, the General TOTALLY winks at Dutch while explaining the mission.  He's trying to warn him of the Predator, but thankfully Dutch denies his advances.  We NEEDED them to get to that jungle, or society wouldn't be what it is today.  Thank you, bad acting General!)  

And then there's the mission.  We don't know what's happened to Jim Hopper's men when Arnie's Dutch and his crew arrive, but we can tell that something's not right.  A lot of this is due to weird noises, the overreactions to the jungle by Billy (the token Native American tracker type), and the skinned corpses that are found amongst the trees.  Dutch is no fool.  He knows that Dillon and Co. set him up, and he has to remind Dillon (played by the always amazing Carl Weathers) that his men are not expendable assets.  But even Dillon doesn't know what comes next.

That would be the Predator himself, one of the very greatest monsters created in the history of monsters.  Played by stuntman Kevin Peter Hall of Harry and the Hendersons fame (who replaced an uncooperative Jean Claude Van Damme inside the suit), the Predator might be effects legend Stan Winston's greatest creation.  Like Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, it's one of those things that transcends description - I can't tell you what the Predator looks like, because it's in my mind as simply "the Predator".  And if I typed "The Predator is a creature that looks a lot like the Predator", I'd be being foolish. (Too late, right?)

 Well, there's also a random siege on a drug ring that seems like a leftover set piece from Commando, complete with Arnold's trademark zingers like "Knock knock!" and Ventura's infamous words " I ain't got time to bleed."  This has to do with why Dutch and his men (or, as I like to call them, The Dutch Warriors) are in this Predator-occupied jungle, though it's never really clear.  Nor is it clear why they take Ana, played by Elpidia Carillo as a hostage, except that she has "information".  Of course, we don't get much time to figure that all out...because the Predator takes over the movie from that point forward.

When you think about it, Predator - at its core - is a slasher movie for dudes who love being dudes.  Strong character trusts old friend despite reservations, goes to a secluded place, disrupts the order of things and thus awakens the killer's rage, sees everyone else destroyed before finding the strength to survive the ordeal.  I occasionally struggle with the idea that Predator could be called a horror film - I usually lump it into Sci-Fi (or maybe action) because there aren't many moments in it I'd say are designed to scare the audience - but I suppose I could.  It's also worth noting that you'd never really call Predator a "midnight movie" based on its popularity and star power and budget, but it could fit that bill as well.

I don't care what I call Predator, as long as it continues to be Predator.  In times like this, when my brain seems to be as responsive as that mush the school cafeteria used to call "pudding", I just need Predator to be exactly what it is, because it thrills me, inspires me, and makes me smile like I've never smiled before.  I need nothing more from a film, even if I can't put my love into words well. 

I'm gonna marry Predator on top of a mountain someday, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

Predators

2010, Dir. by Nimrod Antal.

I'm not sure there's an action movie that male viewers of the last 25 years love more than Predator. The jungle-based sci-fi blockbuster starring Arnold Schwarzenegger has held up extraordinarily well, and also holds the distinction of being one of the few genre films of the late '80s that didn't spawn a series that was based around its star(s). While Terminator/Die Hard/Lethal Weapon/Aliens flicks continued to occur with original cast members, John McTiernan's original Predator - despite the fact it did have an Arnold-free sequel and the two AVP films cashing in off of it, has always remained its own entity. While others could argue their favorite film in each of those other franchises, I don't know if I've ever met anyone who proclaims something other than Predator as their favorite dreadlocked alien hunter film.

I don't think that's going to change with the release of the Robert Rodriguez production of Predators - though I imagine the youngsters who only know Arnie as a governor might disagree - but I'm actually kind of shocked at how pleased I am with Predators after an initial viewing. This "rebirth" of the franchise, which only briefly refers to the events of the 1987 film, manages to dive into some fresh ideas while maintaining a strong connection to its original source.

The biggest change in the film is dealt with early, as it's established that our cast of characters (a who's who of dangerous folks from around the globe) have been dropped onto a strange world where they are being hunted by something. Those who have seen McTiernan's film or any of the follow-ups know what is hunting them, of course, but there are still some surprising reveals to come for even the trained viewer. The new additions to Predator lore don't come with many details - a large portion of what you need to know to understand the film's final act is dealt with through a couple of lines of dialogue by a character that pops up mid-film - but as a student of the first film I welcomed the new aspects of Predator culture. (Speaking of, since the characters here have no prior connection to each other, I don't think I'll be discussing this film's relationships like I've done with Predator.)

Another fine touch is the film's musical score. Original music for the film is credited to John Debney, but I didn't find much in the film that wasn't taken directly from Alan Silvestri's score for the original Predator. That's not a bad thing, as this has always been one of my favorite soundtracks for any action film, and it helped remind me of the connection to the original film...and even seemed like a genuinely respectful gesture.

I think that was the most exciting thing about Predators for me. The movie offered an entirely new set of characters (I thought Adrien Brody was a fine lead, if anyone is wondering) and an entirely new world, but still felt like it really respected the film it was following. Though it would have been easy to assume audiences don't remember what happened 23 years ago (and many studios/producers assume far less of audiences), Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal manage to avoid short-changing the viewer. They don't do this by simply mimicking Predator either, as a couple of iconic one-liners from that film are left out of this version entirely.

A few of the twists this story takes in regard to its characters and predators aren't completely effective, but I admire the film for not taking the easy route. It would have been cheaper for Fox to send us Alien vs. Predator 3: The Quest for More Money, but respect for the viewer somehow won the day. It's a rare victory for us, so I most definitely plan to enjoy it while I can. You should too.