Picture it: everyone is going about their lives when suddenly mankind knows for certain that we are not alone in the universe because aliens have made us aware of their presence.
Please note: I’m interested in talking about just works where everyone (or just about) is suddenly cognizant of the existence of aliens, rather ones like The X-Files, Roswell, or E.T. etc. where there are aliens but only a select few people know.
What books/movies/tv shows/comics/video games do you think depicts humans reacting in ways that most closely matches how you’d imagine people reacting if such a thing happened in real life?
I guess that given not all aliens are shown to have the same goals in contacting Earth, and the reactions of regular people vs. their governments might vary, this is actually a multi-part question…
The variables:
a. Most realistic reaction of ordinary humans to non-hostile alien visitors?
b. Most realistic reaction of governments to non-hostile alien visitors?
c. Most realistic reaction of ordinary humans to hostile alien visitors who make their hostility slowly known?
d. Most realistic reaction of governments to hostile alien visitors who make their hostility slowly known?
e. Most realistic reaction of ordinary humans to hostile alien visitors who attack immediately?
f. Most realistic reaction of governments to hostile alien visitors who attack immediately?
It’s of course possible for some of these to overlap, though a/b are probably mutually exclusive with e/f unless there are multiple groups of aliens in the story.