MRQE Ranks: Cinema's Best Alien Invasion Movies

1

Alien (1979)

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton

Director: Ridley Scott

Synopsis: "In space, no one can hear you scream." A close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft in Ri... [MORE]

2

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Francois Truffaut, Bob Balaban

Director: Steven Spielberg

Synopsis: Steven Spielberg followed Jaws (1975), his first major box-office success, with this epic science fiction adventure about a disparate group of peop... [MORE]

3

The Thing (1982)

Cast: Kurt Russell, A. Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David

Director: John Carpenter

Synopsis: John Carpenter's The Thing is both a remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 film of the same name and a re-adaptation of the John W. Campbell Jr. story "Who ... [MORE]

4

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Cast: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray

Director: Robert Wise

Synopsis: All of Washington, D.C., is thrown into a panic when an extraterrestrial spacecraft lands near the White House. Out steps Klaatu (Michael Rennie, i... [MORE]

5

District 9 (2009)

Cast: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope, Vanessa Haywood, Mandla Gaduka

Director: Neill Blomkamp

6

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Cast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Veronica Cartwright, Art Hindle

Director: Philip Kaufman

Synopsis: This remake of the 1956 horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers moves the action from small-town USA to 1970s San Francisco and replaces at l... [MORE]

7

Them! (1954)

Cast: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness, Onslow Stevens

Director: Gordon Douglas

Synopsis: A little girl is found wandering in the desert, in a state of complete shock. When she finally revives, she can scream out only one word: "Them!" A... [MORE]

8

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn

Director: Jonathan Frakes

Synopsis: The first "Trek" film to feature the cast of the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series without any of the members of the original series, this a... [MORE]

9

Men in Black (1997)

Cast: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D'Onofrio, Rip Torn

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Synopsis: For his fifth effort as a feature-film director, one-time cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld brought his cartoonish visual style and darkly humorous ... [MORE]

10

Predator (1987)

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Kevin Peter Hall, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke

Director: John McTiernan

Synopsis: Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has a code of honor which he will not violate, even when his life depends on it. Paradoxically, his code of honor giv... [MORE]

11

The War of the Worlds (1953)

Cast: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Lewis Martin, Robert Cornthwaite

Director: Byron Haskin

Synopsis: H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds had been on the Paramount Pictures docket since the silent era, when it was optioned as a potential Cecil B. DeMille... [MORE]

12

Cloverfield (2008)

Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David

Director: Matt Reeves

Synopsis: Producer J.J. Abrams teams with writer Drew Goddard and director Matt Reeves for this frenetic tale of a powerful destructive force that descends u... [MORE]

13

Dark City (1998)

Cast: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt, Richard O'Brien

Director: Alex Proyas

Synopsis: Alex Proyas (The Crow) directed this noir-styled futuristic thriller, scripted by Proyas, Lem Dobbs (Kafka), and David S. Goyer (The Puppet Masters... [MORE]

14

Superman II (1980)

Cast: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper

Director: Richard Lester

Synopsis: Between giving up his super powers, confronting criminals from outer space, and having problems with his girlfriend, it's a bad time to be the Man ... [MORE]

15

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

Cast: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson, Royal Dano, John Vernon

Director: Stephen Chiodo

Synopsis: This low-budget cult classic horror spoof has one of the great movie titles of all time. Mike (Grant Cramer) and his sweetheart, Debbie (Suzanne Sn... [MORE]

16

Signs (2002)

Cast: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Abigail Breslin, Rory Culkin, Cherry Jones

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Synopsis: Following the smash hit The Sixth Sense (1999) and the under-performing follow-up Unbreakable (2000), directing phenom M. Night Shyamalan returns t... [MORE]

17

The X Files (1998)

Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Blythe Danner

Director: Rob Bowman

Synopsis: This 60-million-dollar science fiction suspense drama (marketed with an additional 25 million dollars), was adapted from the popular TV series The ... [MORE]

18

Starship Troopers (1997)

Cast: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Synopsis: Director Paul Verhoeven (Showgirls, Total Recall) reunited many from his 1987 Robocop team for this $100-million science fiction adventure, adapte... [MORE]

19

Monsters vs Aliens (2009)

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland

Director: Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon

Synopsis: When human-hating aliens disrupt earthbound cable-television signals, it's up to a monster-hunting superhero to take out the pesky extraterrestrial... [MORE]

20

Independence Day (1996)

Cast: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Harry Connick Jr.

Director: Roland Emmerich

Synopsis: A group of intrepid humans attempts to save the Earth from vicious extraterrestrials in this extremely popular science-fiction adventure. Borrowing... [MORE]

21

Transformers (2007)

Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Rachael Taylor

Director: Michael Bay

Synopsis: The interstellar battle between the Autobots and Decepticons rains destruction down on planet Earth as director Michael Bay adapts Hasbro and Takar... [MORE]

22

The Arrival (1996)

Cast: Charlie Sheen, Ron Silver, Lindsay Crouse, Tony T. Johnson, Teri Polo

Director: David Twohy

Writer: David Twohy

Synopsis: A shy radio telescope operator named Zane Ziminski (Charlie Sheen) picks up a series of regular signals coming from space -- and deliberately point... [MORE]

23

They Live (1988)

Cast: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George Flower, Raymond St. Jacques

Director: John Carpenter

Synopsis: John Carpenter wrote and directed this science fiction thriller about a group of aliens who try to take over the world by disguising themselves as ... [MORE]

24

Mars Attacks! (1996)

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Natalie Portman

Director: Tim Burton

Synopsis: This quirky science fiction comedy is a characteristic feature by iconoclastic director Tim Burton, known to moviegoers for Beetlejuice, Edward Sci... [MORE]

25

The Blob (1988)

Cast: Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, Donovan Leitch, Jeffrey DeMunn, Ricky Paull Goldin

Director: Chuck Russell

Synopsis: After the phenomenal box-office and critical success of David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly, a series of big-budget remakes of '50s horror fa... [MORE]

26

The Faculty (1998)

Cast: Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Synopsis: Miramax Films darlings Robert Rodriguez and screenwriter Kevin Williamson teamed up for a high-school alien-horror film that they described as The ... [MORE]

27

Evolution (2001)

Cast: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Ted Levine

Director: Ivan Reitman

Synopsis: The spirit of the mega-hit Ghostbusters (1984) is intentionally recalled with this effects-heavy sci-fi comedy from the same director, Ivan Reitman... [MORE]

28

What Planet Are You From? (2000)

Cast: Garry Shandling, Annette Bening, John Goodman, Greg Kinnear, Ben Kingsley

Director: Mike Nichols, Mike Nicholson

Synopsis: Garry Shandling makes his big-screen debut as a leading man in this sci-fi romantic comedy. Harold (Shandling) is an alien from another galaxy sent... [MORE]

29

Sphere (1998)

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Coyote, Liev Schreiber

Director: Barry Levinson

Synopsis: Barry Levinson directed this $100+ million adaptation of Michael Crichton's science fiction novel about the investigation of a half-mile-long space... [MORE]

30

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Cast: Bela Lugosi, Lyle Talbot, Tor Johnson, Gregory Walcott

Director: Ed Wood

Synopsis: With its incoherent plot, jaw-droppingly odd dialogue, inept acting, threadbare production design, and special effects so shoddy that they border o... [MORE]