In most film/TV sci-fi, aliens are often stand-ins for humans with one trait or culture amplified. If we were to actually encounter aliens, it’s extremely unlikely they’re going to be bipedal humanoids that more or less think like us, where communication and interaction is relatively easy. But this view of aliens dominates aliens in our popular media, both because it makes portraying them more practical (just a human in some prosthetics) and because it makes storytelling easier.
Instead, it’s likely that they’ve been subjected to a totally different environment, with a different evolutionary path. They may look entirely differently from us, perceive reality differently from us, and think differently from us, in a way that we may not even have imagined.
Attempts to describe legitimately alien aliens are much more common in sci fi novels than in film/tv, so I decided not to include them here. Instead, I’m interested in finding examples of alien aliens in film/tv.
Spoilers will be open since it’s a lot easier, but I would like to try to have one rule: state the name of the film/show up front before you describe it, that way if anyone is planning on seeing that movie, they can avoid that section.
Here goes are a few off the top of my head.
Annihilation.
The entity seems to learn by using some sort of indistinguishable-from-magic force that changes and combines all living things near it. Not only are animal and plant life hybridized and altered in bizarre ways, but traits that aren’t simple biology are mixed up too. A tattoo moves around several people. Her husband picks up and speaks with the accent of one of his team members.
It’s never clear what the entity’s purpose is, or if it even has a purpose. It’s unclear if it’s malicious or even aware of what it’s doing.
Under the skin.
This movie is essentially told from the perspective of an alien alien. We observe it being created, or born, or changed to pass for human. The opening sequence sees it biologically developing and doing vocal exercises to seemingly calibrate itself to use its vocal cords. It’s unclear if it’s a normal alien (normal for their race) that is essentially wearing a human suit to help its infiltration, or if it was a purpose-created fake human that awoke with innate programming to serve its purpose.
We’re never told what their goal is, just that they see that they target people who probably won’t be noticed too much if they’re gone for the apparent purpose of harvesting them in some way. We never see them communicate (or rather, the scenes that feature communication are very alien), it’s never narrated what they’re doing, and you can only infer their motivations or goals. I know it’s based on a novel, and the novel goes into a lot more detail, but from what I gather it’s very loosely adapted from the novel and more or less stands on its own. The explanation in the novel seems a bit on the mundane side, so I prefer the mystery of the film.
Arrival
Not as inscrutable as the other aliens on this list, because we can see their intentions. They want to communicate with us and they’ve prepared for it and are doing their best. But the movie focuses on the barriers that we’d face if we tried to communicate with alien aliens. The big sci-fi idea in this one is that the aliens in this case perceive time differently than we do, and their writing system and method of communication reflect that. The leap is ultimately made by one human transcending their limitations and being able to perceive how they perceive.
