Aliens

theme

First contact, invasions, and visitors from beyond the stars.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) poster

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

1977

After a close encounter with a UFO, Indiana power-company lineman Roy Neary becomes obsessed with a mountain shape he can't explain — one of hundreds of ordinary people worldwide being quietly invited to a rendezvous the government is racing to keep secret.

Alien (1979) poster

Alien

1979

The commercial towing vessel Nostromo, hauling ore between stars, is diverted by company order to investigate a signal from a dead world. What the crew brings back aboard has a life cycle perfectly designed to use them — and their employer knew.

The Thing (1982) poster

The Thing

1982

An American research station in Antarctica takes in a dog fleeing a Norwegian helicopter crew trying to kill it. The dog is not a dog. It is something that imitates — perfectly, cell by cell — and by the time the twelve men understand that, any of them could already be it.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) poster

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

1982

A gentle alien botanist is stranded in a California suburb when his ship leaves without him. Found by a lonely ten-year-old boy in the aftermath of his parents' divorce, the two form a bond so deep it becomes biological — while government agents close in and the visitor grows fatally homesick.

Aliens (1986) poster

Aliens

1986

Ellen Ripley, sole survivor of the Nostromo, is found drifting after 57 years in hypersleep — and nobody believes her story. When contact is lost with a colony on the very world where her crew found the derelict ship, she returns with a unit of cocky Colonial Marines. This time it isn't one alien.

Predator (1987) poster

Predator

1987

An elite rescue team led by Dutch Schaefer is dropped into a Central American jungle for a routine hostage extraction. The mission is a lie, and something else is in the canopy — a creature that hunts humans for sport, sees in heat, and collects skulls as trophies.

They Live (1988) poster Gem

They Live

1988

A drifter looking for work in Los Angeles finds a box of sunglasses that reveal the truth: the billboards say OBEY, the money says THIS IS YOUR GOD, and the ruling class are skull-faced aliens running Earth as a third-world franchise. He responds the only way an American hero can — with a shotgun and a one-liner.

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