In the 1996 blockbuster
motion picture Independence Day, hostile aliens come to Earth hell-bent on death
and destruction. Resourceful humans band together, defeat the common enemy, and
save Earth. This Hollywood scenario is not new—it has dominated screen versions
of alien contact since 1951 with the release of The Thing, in which a single
alien wreaks havoc on a group of humans.
A more peaceful version of
alien contact has also become a cultural staple. From 1951 and The Day the Earth
Stood Still to 1977 and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, benign aliens have
come to Earth to help humans. In this scenario, the aliens offer world leaders,
scientists, and media representatives their assistance and cooperation. There is
mutual respect: The humans expect to learn from the aliens' technological
advancement, and the aliens expect to help the humans live in peace and
cooperatively build a better world.
Still another vision of alien
intervention in human life is the idea that they are coming to save specially
chosen individuals from a rapidly approaching cataclysm. Cult groups who believe
this have existed since the early 1950s.1 Members of the Heaven's Gate cult in
1997 were so convinced that a UFO would save them from the apocalypse and carry
them to a higher physical and spiritual realm that thirty-nine members committed
suicide to facilitate their rescue and transportation.
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