Film Research - Aliens

I decided to do some more film research concentrating more on alien themes to help me come up with the context I need to base my project on.

District 9

I first looked at District 9 (2009) directed by Neill Blomkamp. An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly finds a kindred spirit in a government agent who is exposed to their biotechnology.

I had seen this film before so knew the storyline and that it would be useful to watch. I only watched it again in order to get screen shots for reference purposes.

The main character Wikus van de Merve.

An Alien or 'Prawn', their derogatory nickname.

The scene always make me laugh because of the pink bra the alien is wearing!

Part of some alien equipment used to refine a precious liquid the aliens use for fuel.

When Wikus is sprayed in the face with this liquid, it begins the transformation process.

Inside the command module that has been hidden underground for 20 years. While this alien father and son collect enough liquid fuel to power it and the mother ship so they can return home

The command module after it has unearthed itself and is heading for the mother ship.

Some advanced alien technological weaponry.

This film was useful to watch because although it was not directly apocalyptic, it gave me some inspiration for my constructed scenario. Details such as alien appearance, specific alien weapons and also alien space craft were covered in the film so it has given me some ideas for my own story. These aliens are also quite unusual to what people picture when they think aliens which shows me I can pretty much be as creative as I want and it will still be believable. Overall though, this probably wasn't the most useful source of research as the earth did not experience an apocalypse and nor could the aliens read minds.


Mars Attacks!

The second film I watched was Mars Attacks! (1996) directed by Tim Burton. It is a normal day for everyone, until the President of the United States announces Martians have been spotted circling Earth. The Martians land and a meeting is arranged, but not everything goes to plan, and the Martians seem to have other plans for Earth. Are they just misunderstood beings or do they really want to destroy all of humanity?

This is a much less serious film than District 9, but still a valid source for alien research. I remember watching this film when it came out, I was 4 or 5 years old. I loved it back then and still enjoy it very much today.

The first eight pictures below show the appearance of the aliens. They are quite comical and hard to take seriously, especially because of the way they talk. However, they are still a little terrifying. They are much similar to the classic perception of what aliens could look like.

 

   

This is from a scene in the film where the scientific expert is discussing the speculated anatomy of the alien species. Although the aliens never display such abilities he theorises that because of their large brains, advanced mental functioning is highly possibly. 

Professor Donald Kessler - "The large cerebrum here...indicates telepathic potential."

Press Secretary Jerry Ross  - "You mean they can read our thoughts?"

Professor Donald Kessler  - "Potentially, Yes."

 This is useful for my project research because it shows me another example of aliens with the ability to read minds. It also tells me that the aliens I write into my story should have very big brains in order to allow for such abilities.

 These last three shots are from the last few minutes of the film and show the aftermath of what the aliens have done. Therefore it is the only true post-apocalyptic part of the film. I liked some of the imagery so I decided to take these screen shots for future reference.

Watching this film proved to be fairly useful as it has shown me the more comical side of an alien invasion. It has also given me some ideas for creature design and ways in which the aliens will contact us and proceed to destroy the earth. However, the specific circumstances of the apocalypse are not suitable for my project idea. So unfortunately I cannot base my project on this context alone.