Are We Alone in This Universe? Are Aliens a reality? Or the figment of human imagination?
E.T. home phone …
The floating squiggler across the sky caught man’s fancy many moons ago. And since then, we have been trying to fathom the unfathomable. Trace the trails of the unknown. Pump ideas into the universe, coupled with open-ended mysteries. And swirl and twirl in the glorious, adventurous arena of aliens.
Our active hunger to know what lies beyond our origins opens the doorways to many possibilities. It leaves a huge room for debate about the existence of extraterrestrial species. While Mr. Musk works his muscles and money-mind to send citizens of Earth to Mars, we, ‘the-not-so-docile-and-much-rather-curious’, are interested in knowing about stories that lie far from our reach. Yes… further than Mars even. The unrealism is what makes these stories, the visuals, and the wagon of thoughts so captivating that we want to keep scratching the surface and knowing more and more, not realizing this is a maze without an end.
But when it comes to encapsulating the enigma of – ‘Are we alone in this universe?”, with a hint of action and mystique, moviemakers from across the globe have tried to up their ante in the conquest to achieve that. With zero clue of when the veil will be lifted from this simmering secret, we can only view the other worlds through the lens of these filmmakers and enjoy the brief spectacle of edgy invasion stories and human interactions with extraterrestrial species.
Let’s check-in at the alien chamber and see some of the spaceships that have been worth a visit.
Spielberg’s E.T.
Can a human and an alien be friends ?
Imagine an otherworldly creature not only arriving on the planet, but being harmless enough for one to befriend it. Beautifully cutting the chords of terror and structuring the movie on a platonic friendship between a young boy and an alien, who is yearning to go back home, E.T. left a footprint on many hearts when it hit the box-office. The magical bond, the little boy’s courage of sending his new-found alien friend back home, a supportive troop of friends, all culminated into a beautiful tear-jerker movie, rising to fame and reckoning like none other.
Neil Blomkamp’s District 9
Is Earth really your home?
A haunting story that sends shivers down the spine, showcases how a human can be left to become an outsider on his own planet. It deals with disturbing realities where a government agent’s fate dangles in the hands of an alien refugee, like a nightmare. The corrupt and capitalist arms of human forces try to get their hands on alien bio weaponry using a member from their force. The cliffhanger in the film leaves one to wonder: Are we our worst enemies? Are we capable of being alienized on our very own home planet? And many more questions.
Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival
Is language the weapon of the future?
12 alien pods drop on planet Earth… hovering over the surface. While the armed forces and military try to strike order through communication, their efforts are fruitless unless linguistic expert Louise Banks arrives on the scene to discover and communicate with these highly unusual heptapods. But in the process she learns more about herself, her life and the complexity of language as a tool. This challenge becomes her walk in the world where language doesn’t shape reality, but reality gives shape to language. An actionable roadmap that functions differently for each one, every time. Not everyone chooses to alter the future, Banks certainly doesn’t, and the movie is worth a watch to know why.
Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin
Lust for desire or destruction?
They say drop a bomb and the place explodes… but what if one drops a bomb-looking extra-terrestrial, who disguises herself as a woman to captivate men, mate with them and throw them into another dimension where they exist merely as meat? A mind-boggling-mystery. The eeriness and eccentricity of this character is what makes us constantly wonder… what’s next? The scattered puzzle compels one to stay on. Why does she lay down these thirst traps? What’s her mission? Is it just pleasure or the thrill of ranking higher than men? The visuals of her drawing men in a physical act coloured with dark tones of black… has a message… or maybe none at all. Dive in to know.
Michael Bay’s Transformers
Will the machines become our masters?
Bringing a comic book to life is a herculean feat. But Bay’s stylish filming tried to capture the autobots and deceptions in a really classy manner with action-packed sequences and well-pieced emotional scenes. The series allows us to explore how aliens, transforming into cars, machines, planes, trucks and so many other things would look like. Moreover, the idea of the existence of good and bad in the other world pretty much erases the fact that it’s only a concept meant for citizens of Earth. The heated arguments amongst the autobots, the high-voltage aggression of the deceptions can only throw us into wonder… What would happen if our cell phones would turn into one of them? *sweating bullets*
James Cameron’s Avatar
What if we had a choice to be on the other side?
With astonishing visuals and landscapes, Cameron’s Avatar was a treat of an alien movie like none-other. No beastly creatures, no slimy organs, or mucus dripping sharp teeth…but a story where humans land on a place called Pandora populated by 9 feet tall, gorgeous looking otherworldly creatures -Na’vis. Bestowed with a mission to obtain information and to find resources that technically statiate human greed, an ex-marine is sent in along with a team to do the job, only to find himself voting in favor of Na’vis and eventually becoming one of them.
To sum it up…there are plenty of movies that explore the landscape of alien encounters, invasions, and many other subjects pertaining to species of the other worlds. Whether these are figments of imagination or truth emerging from another dimension, it lies in the hands of time to reveal. While the movie makers continue to mull over ‘if or not we are alone in the universe’… in their own unique way – we can only wait and wonder what it would truly be like if we had a visitor from another world!