The end of the world by way of an alien attack is probably the most bloated of the apocalypse genres. From HG Wells’s War of The Worlds to Starship Troopers the human race has been fascinated by the idea of its own extinction coming from space in the form of little green men. Whether they are scuttling lizard creatures or building-sized behemoth’s, we do seem to love a bit of doom by alien invasion.
This Essentialist is the fourth installment in my series of posts which cover the Earth’s impending or past destruction, so far having covered disease, disaster and comedy, with films detailing our annihilation in classic and animated film form still to come.
A Quiet Place (2018)
A Quiet Place is a slickly constructed, measured exercise in tension-suspension horror. The opening scene introduces us to the post-invasion existence of an isolated family as they make their way silently around a rural town. We have not seen the creatures that the family of five are afraid of but we can feel that threat in every cautious step they make. It is an unseen danger that is quickly and shockingly realised.
John Krasinski wrote, directed and co-starred in A Quiet Place and has created a tense, claustrophobic post-apocalyptic world where the remaining humans can survive only so long as they can remain silent. The overall effect makes for nerve-jangling, compelling viewing throughout with the monstrous alien creatures, following the best conventions of horror filmmaking, being rarely more than a fleetingly glimpsed threat. Krasinski, alongside his real-life wife Emily Blunt are great throughout and the writer-director deserves extra credit for pushing the casting of Millicent Simmonds, a young deaf actor, as the child lead. The element of realism that this imbues a film based on echo-based, predatory alien monsters is tangible.
Pacific Rim (2013)
I love giant robots. I remember watching Robot Jox in 1990 with eager anticipation, even though I knew it was going to be godawful. The giant robots I loved most in my youth were Transformers but I had to wait 28 years to get a live-action version of them and I’m still waiting for a good one. Outside of animation, giant robots in movies always proved to be little more than a monstrous disappointment. That was, until I saw Guillermo del Toro’s 300ft Jaeger’s stomping on (or getting stomped on by) Godzilla-sized alien Kaijus in Pacific Rim.
The scale and spectacle of the monster fights are breathtaking and each battle is an exciting, jaw-dropping feast of destruction. Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba both seem to be competing to see who can suck the most emotion out of what is already a fairly turgid script but that doesn’t deter from the film’s strengths as a whole and there are strong comedic cameos from Ron Perlman and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s Charlie Day.
Annihilation (2018)
Natalie Portman is a cellular biologist who joins a group of specialist female scientists to investigate an alien dome which has appeared in Southern Florida, called ‘The Shimmer’. The plot of this sci-fi, by Ex Machina writer-director Alex Garland, is not so typical as it may at first appear. Portman’s husband (Oscar Isaacs) is a military special operative who had previously been sent into the rainbow-coloured dome. He returns to Portman but without his team and he is different now somehow, changed. Rapidly, his condition deteriorates and to understand his situation Portman’s group must enter The Shimmer, find its source and determine what threat it presents. As they move deeper into the disturbance the team discover a hyper-accelerated ecosystem that is evolving rapidly and becoming increasingly alien. As they approach the centre, they uncover the fate of the previous party, as well as a number of deeper revelations about The Shimmer and the fate of humanity.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Say what you like about Tom Cruise (I know I do) but he gets some amazing roles, he is a movie star that delivers and that mad bastard can act. I guess you have to be able to act if you are as nutbags crazy as Tom Cruise on a daily basis. Anyway, I digress.
Edge of Tomorrow is awesome; an alien invasion Groundhog Day where Cruise loses, dies and repeats the same day, when the army catastrophically failed to stop the attack, ad infinitum. The first, doomed assault is great to watch, as the hapless, outgunned and ill-prepared marines are thrown into the meat grinder to be stomped, skewered, flattened or generally obliterated by the invading monsters. The real joy however, is rewatching the battle again and again as Cruise gradually learns the loop and tries to find a way to escape his fate. After his successes with Cloverfield, Dawn of The Planet of the Apes and Rise of the Planet of The Apes, Director Matt Reeves treats us to this tight, tense time-loop triumph.
The Faculty (1998)
Robert Rodriguez had become a gonzo film sensation with Desperado and subsequently cemented his reputation with the hugely popular vampire splatterfest From Dusk ’til Dawn, so it was strange that his next film The Faculty did not make more of an impact. Although teen hearthrob/plank of wood impressionist Josh Hartnett gets pole position on the poster, Elijah Wood stars as the geeky outsider who is such a loser he doesn’t even fit into any of the (overly recognisable) 90s cliques in his High School. However, it is from the sidelines that Wood notices the increasingly strange behaviour of his coach, ‘Have you seen this boy?’ Robert Patrick and, increasingly, other faculty memebers. He suspects that they might be getting Invasion of the Bodysnatched (they are) but only manages to convince a motley bunch of Breakfast Club types of the truth. Will they be enough to thwart the faculty, save the school and, by extension, the world from this alien invasion?
Cloverfield (2008)
For me, Cloverfield is probably the best found-footage film I’ve seen (although that would likely require another list). However, this is no low-budget, snot-bubbled, admittedly ground-breaking, student-made project but rather the brainchild of JJ Abrams and director Matt Reeves (also his second film on this list).
As reports of a giant, alien creature crashing into Lower Manhattan begin to spread, a group of friends (all unknown, monster-fodder actors) are filming a birthday party. It is through this camera that we follow their desperate attempt to escape the island as it comes under under alien invasion. The occasional shakey-cam glimpses of the gigantic alien smashing through tower blocks, even as thousands of parastic bug-things detach and begin attacking the people below, are far more tense than if we had seen 50 full minutes of close-up monster footage.
It is well worth investigating the series. Cloverfield has two sequels (in name at least); 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox, neither of which are directly connected or use found footage. However, both develop the Cloverfield universe interestingly, delivering very different narratives and settings yet with each chapter providing sci fi horror stories that skirt around the periphery of the central concept, but never get too close to the reveal.
Dark City (1998)
Here is one that you have probably not seen. Director Alex Proyas shot to fame with the monumental success of his debut film, The Crow. With his second feature, Dark City, he took an innovative approach to an old sci-fi concept. Rufus Sewell stars alongside William Hurt, Jennifer Connolly and Keifer Sutherland, who plays the kind of sussurating, twitchy mad scientist type that he is typecast as these days. They are all inhabitants of an oddly out-of-time city which appears to be based in a film noir period. However, there is something wrong with the world, a fact that becomes clear to Sewell as he slowly begins to manifest the power to control reality. His epiphany is confirmed as his newly-manifested abilities bring him to the attention of The Strangers, and they will not let him interfere with their plans for the human race.
Dark City is stylish and unexpectedly thought provoking, with a remarkably restrained Richard O’Brien cast to perfection as Mr Hand, the leader of the villainous Strangers.
Independence Day (1996)
And here’s one that you definitely have seen. It’s preposterous, badly written, projects terrible stereotypes and stars Bill Paxton, but despite all that, you love it.
Avengers: Infinty War (2018)
You’re either “ermigerd!” about this stonking finale (part one) to the epic, 10 year Marvel Universe saga… or you’re not, in which case you’re just wrong. From Iron Man in 2008 to Black Panther in 2018 there were 17 films that led up to this universe-shattering moment. They all maintain a consistently high bar of quality, tone, action and humour throughout. The scope, scale and style varies to support films as diverse in mood as Captain America: Winter Soldier to Ant Man and every single film is part of one, greater story arc.
Part of the reason I loved Marvel comics as a kid was because of the ridiculously intertwined complexity of the universe. I wanted to get six comics into a storyline and find out that I needed to have read Daredevil #242 and New Warriors #17 to get the full story. It’s awe-inspiring how many narrative threads are seeded in each phase of Marvel’s cinematic opus and by the time we reach the final battle(s) they are ridiculously huge, eye-bleedingly epic spectacles.
If that wasn’t enough, even though you are fully aware there are another two films and the finale’s second part yet to come before the end, you are hurtled toward what you still believe must be the triumphant victory of our heroes… before it is all snatched away. It’s Empire Strikes Back, except that the follow up film is even better, and it doesn’t have any fucking Ewoks.
Upcoming End Of The World Essentialists
Boom! That was death by Alien Invasion. Disaster, comedy and disease have already been covered but still to come in this series are my classic and animated end of the world film Essentialists. You lucky, lucky swine you.
