From Brutal Violence to Good Friends of Human Beings： Intergenerational Change of Aliens in American Science Fiction Works

The theme of aliens has always been an extremely important part of American science fiction literature and science fiction movies. Interestingly, according to the summary of scholars, the alien images in these sci-fi works have undergone complex changes of the times and generations. For example, aliens in the 1960s and before were often cruel, violent and aggressive, while aliens in the 1970s and 1980s were peaceful and became good friends of human beings.

From fifty years ago to now, what changes have people experienced in the image of aliens in the imaginary world? Why did this change happen?

Aliens before the 1960s

Before the 1960s, the science fiction craze in the United States had just started. During this period, there appeared alien works such as World War, UFO Invasion of the Earth, Invisible Invaders and so on. Generally speaking, the alien images at this time are mostly cruel, militant and irrational.

The movie The War of the Worlds is based on the original novel of the same name by British writer H.G. Wells.

In 1953, The War of the Worlds told us that aliens from Mars could not survive because of the sudden change of climate on Mars, and planned to invade the earth on a large scale. When the first spaceship landed on the earth, nearby residents thought it was a meteorite. Dr. Crawfast learned that there was radioactivity through the detection instrument, and he had to wait until it was cooled before he could see it. However, some people went to watch it out of curiosity, only to be killed. Human weapons could not fight against Martians, and the whole earth was in a mess. At the beginning of the whole film, Martians killed three unarmed young people who shouted "We are friends" and "We welcome you".

Stills of UFO Invasion of the Earth.

In 1956, UFO Invasion of the Earth was about aliens trying to invade the Earth. After encountering aliens, Dr. Lu Se developed a secret weapon of high-frequency ultrasound, which eventually subdued the aliens. It is worth noting that there is also a strong "human imagination" in this film, that is, aliens have human-like limbs, wear clothes similar to humans, and have a similar structure to humans. The only difference is that the aliens’ heads are buns-shaped and have no facial features. Probably because the routine is simple, and the production level of early science fiction films is still rough, on Douban, this film only scored 5.7 points.

Some scholars have analyzed that this image of aliens in this era is inseparable from the outbreak of the Korean War. In the film, human beings are faced with all the weapons that aliens can use, even nuclear weapons. This confrontation actually reflects that Americans demonize their enemies through a cultural product such as movies, and then find reasons for their violent behavior. Anyone in the film who shows the idea of submission or anti-war will be criticized, and the spirit of fighting to the end will be respected.

Aliens in the 1970s and 1980s

Different from the previous era, the aliens in this period were gentle, simple and amiable as a whole, but human beings seemed "inhuman". Representative works include E.T. Alien, Cocoon, Alien Lover and so on.

Alien lovers.

In 1984′ s Alien Lovers, an alien was shot down by the earthlings because of his spaceship. He was injured and went to the widow’s house, and borrowed her husband’s body to continue his life. In the process of learning the life style of the earth people, aliens have feelings with widows. Like many alien science fiction works at this time, "separation" is inevitable, and the alien rescue team will arrive in three days and take him back to space. Two government officials on earth received the message and decided to catch aliens.

E.t. aliens.

This story is almost the same as E.T. Alien, which was released in 1982. The latter is that children in the human world found a little alien who was accidentally lost. He quietly took in the little alien and treated E.T. with the greatest kindness and introduced him to his friends. However, people finally found E.T. and put it in the laboratory, so the friends began a rescue journey.

Most of the aliens in this period came to visit the earth because of accidents, which was different from the previous "weird" ferocity. At this time, the aliens either had a sense of "sprouting" or approached the human image, which was different from that in the 1950 s only from the design of characters. On the contrary, people on earth are extremely unfriendly to aliens because of greed or in the name of "science"

This presentation is also related to the change of American society’s view of war after the Vietnam War, which is very different from the Korean War era. At this time, the people are looking forward to peace in the mainstream. As an "other" image, aliens also turn enemies into friends in movies, and all contradictions are entangled in human beings themselves.

Aliens after the 1990s.

Near the end of the century, the images of aliens in sci-fi works show different patterns, which mainly have two characteristics. One is that some sci-fi movies are different from the mainstream in the previous era, and the thinking of aliens after 1990 is more complicated; The second is that some films have fallen back to before 1960. At this time, representative works such as Contact in Time and Space, Independence Day, Surprise and District 9.

Aliens in "Sky Attack".

In 1996, the movie "Sky Attack" told that the earth suddenly received radio waves from outside the solar system, which made the weather unpredictable everywhere. Scientists began to investigate this phenomenon and found that aliens had settled in a corner of the earth and changed into people on earth. They are trying to change the weather on the earth, and scientists need to stop it from happening. In terms of value orientation, this film actually goes back to before the 1960s, that is, aliens are regarded as enemies.

The aliens in District 9 are a bit like locusts and a bit like shrimps.

In addition, District 9 and The Impersonator all show more complicated aspects. For example, in "District 9" in 2009, the aliens in the film looked like locusts and were extremely ugly. They came to the earth because of the poverty of other planets. The United Nations set up a special "District 9" to take care of them, but with the improvement of physical conditions, they brought a lot of trouble to the local public security, and the government decided to move these aliens to refugee areas. In the film, these aliens are ugly, cruel and decadent, drunk and robbed, but they are also rich in wisdom and know how to repay their kindness, which shows great goodwill to the human beings who help them.

From beginning to end, aliens are regarded as "the other" in the human film world. Aliens will not participate in human life, and even if they turn into human beings to participate in the operation of human society, they will eventually face the problem of "return". Moreover, the design and production of science fiction films are entirely out of human imagination. In this imagination space, whether the "other" of aliens is hostile or peaceful, whether it is revenge or good for evil, it profoundly reflects a country’s imagination of the outside world.

references

Nie Xinru: Cold War Thinking and Alien Construction in American Science Fiction Films (Journal of Shanghai University (Social Science Edition), No.3, 2013).