August 26, 2025: Alien Nation: E.T. and Aliens

[30 yearsago this week, the pseudo-documentaryfilm Alien Autopsy aired. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy that momentand others that reflect our enduring fascination with the possibility of alienlife, leading up to a post on recent revelations!]

Onfriendly and hostile extraterrestrials, and the real bad guys in any case.

In theshape of his head, E.T. (star of Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film of thesame name) looks a tiny bit like a distant cousin of the mother alien (the “bitch,” that is)from James Cameron’sAliens (1986).But that slight comparison is about the only possible way in which these twosummer blockbusters aren’t wholly distinct from one another. E.T. is perhaps Spielberg’s mostkid-centered film, from its youthful protagonists to its product placements forReese’s Pieces and thegood ol’ Speak andSpell, its drunken slapstick to its underlying theme of growing up in asingle-parent household. While Alienshas to be one of the most adult, hard-R-rated summer blockbusters ever,featuring one nightmare-inducing,graphically violent and horrifying sequence and image after thenext (to say nothing of the Space Marines’ extremelysalty repartee).

E.T. and Aliens aren’t just at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comesto their ratings and intended audiences, however. They also embody two entirelydifferent perspectives on the question not of whether there is lifeother than our own in the universe (both films agree that there is), but ofwhat attitude toward Earth and humanity those extraterrestials might hold. Thesummer blockbuster Independence Day (1994),about which I bloggedhere, explicitly engages with these contrasting perspectives,featuring a number of characters who believe the aliensmight come in peace before their true, hostile intentions arerevealed. Because of its status as a sequel to a film in which the alien creaturecould not be more hostile and destructive to humans, Aliens can dispense with the debate and move immediately into thestory of how its human characters will combat the extraterrestrial threats. Andby tying his extraterrestrial’s first entrance into the film to the creature’slove of Reese’s Pieces, Spielberg similarly signals from the start that hisalien will be friendlyto—indeed, overtly parallel to—his young protagonist Elliot.

E.T. isn’t without antagonists, though—butthey’re of the human variety, the community of threatening scientists andgovernment officials who seek to capture and (if necessary) kill E.T. to learnhis secrets (and who in the original film carryguns, not walkie talkies, in that pursuit). And in that sense, E.T. and Aliens aren’t quite as far apart as they might seem—because in thelatter film’s major reveal (SPOILER alert), it turns out that Paul Reiser’s corporate scientist CarterBurke is far more overt of a villain than the aliens, who are after all onlyfighting for their own survival (rather than driven by greed and manipulation,and a willingness to sacrifice anyone who gets in their way, as Burke and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation for whichhe works are revealed to be). If there’s one thing on which such disparatesummer blockbusters can apparently agree, it’s that the powers that be—whethercorporate or governmental—represent a far greater threat, to humans andextraterrestrials alike, than any alien invaders.

Next alienstomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?