If you were writing an alien movie, what would be it's climax?

UFO/Alien films ... I'm not talking about comedy (MIB) or shoot'em'up (the Alien films) but those films that are trailored as being examples of "What would happen if..."

Think of some of the UFO/alien movies/tv shows of recent times... Signs, Contact, X-Files, Close Encounters, The Spielberg TV Series last year (forget its name)... They offer so much in terms of suspence and expectation that almost inevitably, the endings turn out to be either and anti-climax or over the top.

One the most powerful tools in a film-maker's kit is the audience's imagination. The monster that's around the corner, the conspiracy that's out of reach, the mysterious ufo sightings without any evidence - they all tantalise us, and they promise answers to some of the questions we all have about universe.

Sadly, more often than not, when the monster is revealed (usually in full computer-generated technicolor) or the conspiricy is explained, we're let down. The film-makers do all the hard work in the first half of the movie, bringing together the most potent aspects of modern UFO mythology and presenting them to us in a mouth-watering premise, but they don't know how to end it. So they say "Oh yeah, aliens are allergic to water" or "Yep, the consipiricy is so complex you'll never understand it so don't try," or "No sorry, you can't see the aliens, they're too complex for humans to understand" or "Crop circles? because they look good on the film's poster."

Anyway... I just though it might be nice if there was a thread where people could off up either

(a). their preferred endings to sci-fi films, books, tv shows,
or
(b). outline their thoughts on what would make the perfect UFO/alien film (satisfying ending required!)

Love those dramatic endings .. boom wam bam, earth is no more ..



[edit on 9-9-2004 by partykid]

itd probably be something more realistic. say something along the lines of a part of humanity fighting to the end but only loosing, or they are forced to retreat, while others flee in panic, trying to escape. or maybe something where humans are forced to go underground while the alien intruders inhabit the surface. none of that one chance with a 99.9% likeliness of not working but some how works 100% of the time!!?? "oh i'll just upload this virus to somehow take out the mothership and all other crafts connected to the hive mind..." NO!! come on, thats BS!! grunt... dfh out.

Better ending to alian films humm ok lets start with independence day.
alternit ending the alains on passing the moon look at one another and say wasent there sop to be two moons here? And turn around and go home .Whosshh that was a close one.
movie two The movie alians .The alians apon eating humans get Gas realy bad and explod ending the threat.
The movie predeter He comes he hunts he leaves HE comes he hunts he leaves. Ever see a crowd from 20 stories up ? They look just like ANTS.

Originally posted by Simcity4Rushour
Better ending to alian films humm ok lets start with independence day.
alternit ending the alains on passing the moon look at one another and say wasent there sop to be two moons here? And turn around and go home .Whosshh that was a close one.
movie two The movie alians .The alians apon eating humans get Gas realy bad and explod ending the threat.
The movie predeter He comes he hunts he leaves HE comes he hunts he leaves. Ever see a crowd from 20 stories up ? They look just like ANTS.

What was that all about, again? Well as we know of, there arent much movies where aliens are in peace with humans. Again, not too realistic, but watch "The chronicles of Riddick". There is no earth involved, but again a very good story based on nothing, a sci-fi action/detective i would say.

I think the scenes in Signs where you see the lights hovering over Mexico(?) etc and the Birthday Party footage of the alien, are probably some of the most gripping alien scenes in years. Shame that the film tails off after that. I would have been happy to see the movie shift away from Mel and co and just watch world events as they unfolded.

Alien movie I'd like to see get made:

Lights hover over major cities. UFO lands outside the White House in full view. We find out why aliens are here (hopefully not to eat us, or turn us into slaves. Maybe they're an alien version of Marco Polo who knows.)
And we see how human society would react.

Ending:
Definately not some drunk old crop-duster sobering up and saving the day by giving aliens the common cold.
Not some plucky air-force/cop hero finding some weakness in the aliens' defenses and showing that good old human grit can overcome awsome technology.

Maybe something more along the lines of:
Earth can't undo the alien contact, so inevitably, relations are started with their race. Perhaps the begginings of trade are started. All we could probably offer would be raw materials, such as uranium. Maybe our economy can't compete with an alien economy and we are plunged into a global depression. Its not very exciting, I have to admit. Maybe add in a global equivilent of the Cuban Missile Crisis for good measure.

It should contain the human race fighting off the grey's under a valiant leader. All goes well, the greys are finally obliterated or driven away. In the end the charismatic is alone in his chamber, and then he reveals his tru appearance - he's a reptilian

Probably the most potent storyline i have seen in a long time is Titan AE. Unfortunatley, like most other sci fi, the story doesn't fullfill the potential. So i have taken the storyline and twisted it into another story, a combination of titan, star wars, orson scott card, etc.

Well, I watched Contact again the other day, a film I very much enjoy. It has many aspects of reality encompassed into a proposed future alien contact senario.

The X-Files, series was tremendously successful, at least the first few seasons were. It got a little lost after that.

Not quite alien but definitely Sci-Fi, would be the screen adaptation of the "John Titor" story. Best filmed as a one off series of around 12 one and a half hour episodes (similar to "Band of Brothers"). It would go into great detail. The opening credits would start off panning across the rooms and computer screens of conspiracy website members across the world, their postings providing the narrative. You would never see JT in this time scape, only when the narrative turns to his postings would you see him in what he is describing. The ending would be the point that JT is revealed to be...........well, you'll have to wait and see....

In the flim I would write the world would discover that area 51 and roswell was just a cover for a cold war experiment gone bad that has become apart of western culture. Meanwhile the man has began to Colonize plants outside of our solar system and life has been discovered! Do they have one eye and six legs? no they are human a bit taller and hairly the there earth counterparts. Both plants take there citzens for Slavery and try to force there cultures down one another�s throat (much like 15th century missionary�s in south america.) the result is a american style civil war on both plants and conflict between humans (somethings never change no matter how far from earth you are.)
Which culture prevails and which plant is forced to adopt the culture and customs of the other?
Well I hear sequel........

This is a good question.....I too have had the same let downs...

The climax of course, depends on the angle...so I'll take it by some of the movies that have let us down...

SIGNS - Lose the water bit. Only alien mental patients would attack a planet whose surface is like 3/4 the substance that kills them... Instead of a worldwide phenomenon, I would have limited it to one family's experience with a lone scout ship. The worldwide phenemonon would have lead to a massive deployment of military force, which we didn't see. Instead, have the humans stumble upon the scouting ship, and take out the crew. In the end, show the aliens on an orbitting mothership, and upon the same experience with other global scoutships, they decide the time is not right for an easy conquest, and depart. End with a news report declaring the ominous, that we are not alone, and they are not our friends...

CONTACT - Perhaps one of the biggest let downs of all time. Lose the "seeing her daddy bit", and have her meet actual aliens. Have THEM explain the stargate system. Have the same problems upon her return. They don't believe her, etc., but then have a shadow come over the room, and outside, a huge mothership is descending. End with the alien in a press conference announcing a new partnership with man, and welcoming them into the galactic community.

X-FILES - Simple. Mulder gets aboard a ship and learns what happened to his brother, learns what the "deal" was for, and gets confirmation of the global conspiracy he suspects (that we the audience see).

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS - A simple dialogue between the aliens and the scientists would have sufficed. Instead, they played Simon, and just waddled around a bit in the light....

TAKEN - A little too "V" of an ending, huh? Special little girl and all....Can't remember the details well enough to suggest another, other than just nixing the psychic little girl....

"V" - Again, just nix the "magical" ability of the hybrid little girl, and the ending was fine...show a unification of the governments afterwards, to counter the threat, and show the hardware result of it....maybe with a "years later", and the approach of several more motherships for a sequel lead in....

Originally posted by Koka
Well, I watched Contact again the other day, a film I very much enjoy. It has many aspects of reality encompassed into a proposed future alien contact senario.

The X-Files, series was tremendously successful, at least the first few seasons were. It got a little lost after that.

I agree with you there. Contact is one of my favourite films. I think the way the general public react is pretty realistic - everyone having a different take. I also think the way everything goes back to normal at the end, and the general public losing interest is also quite realistic. Its just a pity that after all the build up, all the audience gets is a "conversation with dad" - a good scene but still a little less than the expected.

As for the X-files, I think those first few seasons really changed popular culture. I wonder whether this forum would be as popular as it is now if it weren't for the "suspect the governemnt; question everything; the truth is out there" message it propagated. For a while, it gave a popular mascot for ufo enthusiasts. Problem was, all it did was throw up questions and embelish ufo mythology without providing us with very many answers or theories. I think the questions to answers ratio was probably 100:1. I gave up watching after season four/five(?) because I got the sense the writers didn't know what the answers were either.

Better ending to Contact:
Ellies Dad says "See you next week then, and bring some of your earth chums too."

Better ending to X-Files:
The whole conspiracy is blown wide open thanks to a kiss-and-tell newspaper article where Monica Lewinski reveals that Clinton told her everything when they were in the midst of passion.

Id have an ending where the humans as they do turn around and start shooting the aliens out of panic the aliens then leaving and blowing up the world.

Mannanin; Lights hover over major cities. UFO lands outside the White House in full view. We find out why aliens are here (hopefully not to eat us, or turn us into slaves. Maybe they're an alien version of Marco Polo who knows.) And we see how human society would react

About 20 years ago I saw a series by the name 'V' wich goes in that direction.

Except in V, they wanted to eat us AND turn us into slaves!!! Not to mention steal our water....


[edit on 9-9-2004 by Gazrok]

Multiple ships land and they are given refuge around the world. After they are here for 50 years, and they are now part of society. We then learn that they were actually "space pioneers" that were escaping religious persucution and those guys are now at our door. It would reflect the fact they did not tell us, and now do we help, or give them up. Bieng us,We make a deal to give them up, but it goes awry and the other aliens are eventuallydefeated. Now, both sides have lied and then they would start to fight each other and then there would be nothing left.

Kinda like a galactic middle east...lol

My ending would be where a full scale war between the greys and humans ensues and it is discovered that humans are actually the aliens on this planet. The greys are the natural inhabitants of earth and have been forced into hiding after an invasion of earth several thousand years ago. What does humanity decide to do - give up earth? Share earth? Or return their own planet?

Originally posted by Mynaeris
My ending would be where a full scale war between the greys and humans ensues and it is discovered that humans are actually the aliens on this planet. The greys are the natural inhabitants of earth and have been forced into hiding after an invasion of earth several thousand years ago. What does humanity decide to do - give up earth? Share earth? Or return their own planet?

You have my vote. I was trying to concoct something along these lines as well.

To have a alien race who created humans decide we have taken the planet for granted, we are not worthy of the rock we live on and blow the entire human race away. However they discover another alien race has infultrated the Humans and are using their souls for energy. The creators decide we deserve another chance and help us fight this alien race that is trying to take us over. Big battle, leaders discovered to be aliens, families torn between humans and members that have 'influtrated alien blood'.

Then the creators show us how they made humans in the past but the early versions were flawed and had to be wiped out. The creators were about to wipe us out when they realised we were being used by this other alien race and our true path was distorted. The creator then leaves the planet due to return in another 5000 years and check if we have returned to the path ment for us. If we haven't they will delete us and make a newer model of Human.

The end.

idea: humans are aliens who go around abducting alien species from their planets.