Is the truth out there?
Hello there… July.
Being Filipinos, in the Philippines, we’re not exactly known for celebrating internationally notable July events, say, the Fourth of July or Bastille Day. But we—at least some of us—do know that America broke up with Britain via a strongly worded letter in 1776 while the French stormed a prison on July 14, 1789, and unknowingly invented a holiday in dramatic fashion. Très magnifique!
It was also in July that the first Moon landing made history in 1969 and changed the way we humans look to the stars. Neil Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon and declared that it was one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
For me, the greater jump was taken by someone named Haktan Akdogan, UFO hunter extraordinaire. He established World UFO Day, which was first celebrated on July 2, 2001, a tribute to the Roswell Incident in New Mexico.
Whoa! 2001. UFOs. Space. Coincidence?
So yes, I began this piece with “Hello there…” not just because it’s Obi-Wan Kenobi’s iconic greeting to R2-D2, but because we are about to enter the realm of aliens, a topic near and dear to my geeky, sci-fi-loving heart.
Through decades, I have allowed myself to be beamed up to the worlds of Gene Roddenberry, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott, Kevin Feige, Chris Carter and, of course, Stan Lee and Jerry Siegel. I don’t see aliens merely as green guys in flying saucers, but metaphors, messengers, monsters, messiahs. And across the multiverse of pop culture, they’ve crash-landed everywhere.
Let’s start with the venerable television, our link to the galaxy of wonders, i.e., before the internet connected us globally.
The signature intro of UFO and the colorful uniforms and gizmos of the original Star Trek were absolute clickbait—to borrow a term that kids today could easily relate to. I found UFO scary as hell with its premise: by 1980, Earth would be under siege by aliens, who abduct humans and harvest their organs. Thankfully, 1980 came and went, and the only aliens we’ve had to worry about since then don’t arrive in flying saucers— they show up without visas.
Meanwhile, Space: 1999 and Battlestar Galactica, and later Stargate SG-1 and Firefly, streamed into our consciousness before streaming was even an entertainment byword.
Of course, The X-Files and Roswell, forever whispering of government cover-ups, kept our heads tilted skyward in the ‘90s.
Today’s offerings are just as mind-blowing. The 3 Body Problem asks if humanity can survive its own curiosity. Cowboy Bebop blends jazz and existentialism with bounty hunters in space. And in Resident Alien, Alan Tudyk delivers a refreshing take on a fish-out-of-water (or rather, alien-out-of-orbit) story, even better than his performance as the droid K-2SO from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Andor.
Cinema gave us its own constellation of aliens—only in larger format. From the monoliths of 2001: A Space Odyssey to the nightmare-inducing scenes of Alien, the war cries of Predator, and the intellectual elitism of Arrival and Interstellar, such films have tested the human race against the vast unknown.
Some of them evoked childlike wonder: E.T. taught us about friendship, Close Encounters of the Third Kind suggested catchy ringtones might bridge galaxies, and Starman invited us to see ourselves through an alien straggler’s empathy.
Others are less cuddly, more sinister: Independence Day, War of the Worlds, and Starship Troopers all delivered a stern warning that if aliens don’t get us in the end, our own hubris will.
And in the mix stands the South African sleeper hit District 9, which dared to ask: what if the aliens came not as invaders, but as refugees? That Johannesburg ghetto, filled with literal illegal aliens derisively called ‘prawns’ by humans, mirrors humanity’s worst instincts, with the protagonists demonstrating how we should respond to the benign unknown.
No discussion of aliens would be complete without talking about the intergalactic, very human-looking bombshells that seem suspiciously tailored to the prurient fantasies of every nerdy boy.
Whether in comics, books or animation, our fascination with aliens persists because it makes us ask ourselves: What makes us human?
Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin seduces and consumes, much like Natasha Henstridge as the genetically engineered “docile female” hybrid in Species. There’s also Milla Jovovich’s Leeloo in The Fifth Element, wrapped in latex tape so inadequate she resembled a hot mummy unraveling.
Then there’s Zoë Saldaña, the undisputed empress of sci-fi, having ruled in multi-color hues as Neytiri, Gamora, and the ever-elegant Uhura. The palette may change, but the point remains: aliens, it seems, become a whole lot interesting when assigned quirky human lines and revealing outfits.
Don’t assume for a minute that alien sagas are a Western monopoly. As a self-confessed K-phile (any similarity to X-file is purely coincidental), I’ve had my fair share of gems from “Hallyuwood.” Alienoid twists time and tech across centuries. Parasyte: The Grey induces Asian nightmares. Space Sweepers delivers scrappy charm and stunning effects—in different languages!—while The Silent Sea quietly unsettles us with a lunar mystery soaked in moral ambiguity. Korea hasn’t only caught up to Hollywood. It’s bringing new soul (and Seoul) to the genre.
Lest we forget, many of our favorite superheroes are aliens. Superman, the OG extraterrestrial, crash-landed on Earth as a baby, so the Kents were able to raise him as a model citizen. One can only wonder what Kal-El would be like if he just flew in and gave every immigrant-hating leader the Kryptonian finger.
Similarly, the Marvel Universe teems with otherworldly warriors, like Thor and the Eternals. The way they’re depicted, these aliens are gods with relatable problems. Like humans.
Whether in comics, books, animation (Wall-E, the Transformers, and super robots), our fascination with aliens persists because it makes us ask ourselves: What makes us human?
Many of us already know that the truth is out there, but like Optimus Prime, we are here, we are waiting. If you disagree, “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” (Cue The Imperial March.)
Roll credits.
Wait for the post-credit scene.