The best alien encounters

1CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)

DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi classic about aliens making contact with Earth for the first time. Richard Dreyfuss stars as the family man trying to figure it all out.

2E. T THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL (1982)

FAMILY movie about a little alien who is accidentally left behind on Earth and is helped by a young boy to “phone home” for help.

3ALIEN NATION (1988)

ALIENS are making themselves at home on Earth, but face a lot of prejudice from their human neighbours. James Caan plays a cop who is teamed up with an alien partner to try and keep the peace.

4INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)

THE aliens are planethunting and they want to wipe away humanity and take over the Earth. It’s up to a pilot, an exotic dancer and a satellite TV company expert to save everyone.

5CONTACT (1997)

JODIE FOSTER plays a scientist who discovers radio signals proving the existence of alien intelligent life... and they want Earthlings to come and visit them.

6SIGNS (2002)

MEL GIBSON and Joaquin Phoenix play farming brothers who begin to suspect there is more than just crops in their fields when mysterious circles start appearing across their land.

7DISTRICT 9 (2009)

DOCUMENTARY-STYLE film about aliens whose spacecraft crash lands in South Africa and the survivors are forced to live in a slum-like ghetto.