After seeing the magnificent Arrival film, I was inspired to do a quiz on other films about extra terrestrial forms of life. There really are far more than you might think. Quite a few have these visitors as violent and threatening, but there are some friendly ones in there. How many will you get? If you’ve seen Arrival where would you rank it among these?
1. (1950s)
2. (1970s)
3. (1970s)
4. (1970s)
5. (1980s)
6. (1980s)
7. (1980s)
8. (1980s)
9. (1990s)
10. (1990s)
11. (1990s)
12. (1990s)
13. (2000s)
14. (2000s)
15. (2010+)
Answers below
1. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1955)
2. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
4. Alien (1979)
5. The Thing (1982) – August
6. ET (1982) – December
7. Flight of the Navigator (1986)
8. Predator (1987)
9. The Abyss (1989)
10. Mars Attacks (1996)
11. Starship Troopers (1997) – January
12. Men in Black (1997) – July
13. Signs (2002)
14. District 9 (2009)
15. Super 8 (2011)
Alex Raphael 
I just saw Arrival last week. I thought it was great, although, a bit lengthy. I love Amy Adams!
Arrival would be ranked 4 or 5 for me. I thought it was well executed and touched the whole alien thing a bit differently. Great post, Alex.
1. I have no idea
2. The Man Who Fell to Earth
3. I have no idea
4. Alien
5. I have no idea
6. E.T.
7. Flight of the Navigator
8. The Predator
9. Abyss
10. Mars Attacks
11. Starship Troopers
12. Men in Black
13. Signs
14. District 9
15. No Idea
Solid scoring 🙂 It was so beautifully shot. A well judged soundtrack and an original premise. Amy Adams is wonderful. I’ve been watching old episodes of West Wing and she’s in one or two of them. She’s barely aged haha.
She has the face of a little girl. That’s what I love about her. She’s wonderful!
Fun quiz, I knew all these except the two most recent which I had forgotten the title of. I just saw your 1950s pick this week, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). I loved the way the story unfolded and I’ve now added it to my top 10 sci-fi movies of all-time list. Arrival I’ll get to soon.
I love that film too. So many films (admittedly some brilliant ones amongst them) have them as bad guys, it’s nice to see one or two where they come in peace. The short story its based on is well written too. I didn’t see the remake but not sure what new angle they could have taken. What other sci-fi films make up your top 10?
I should check out the short story, thanks for the info, My top 10 sci-fi films + honorable mentions: http://letterboxd.com/mas365/list/top-10-sci-fi-for-ragingtaxidrivers-poll/
Nice list. Have signed up 🙂
You reminded me I want to see ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’. How have I managed to miss Bowie in that?? A Fun quiz, Alex. I haven’t seen ‘Predator’ or ‘Men in Black’ (busy raising kids) but have no desire to. Funny how some of them hit you when you are younger and they are funny or entertaining but when you are older, they seem silly. How would you rate ‘Arrival’ to ‘Contact’?
Shhhh, don’t tell anyone but I’ve not seen it either. Predator was a well made film and I did like it but it won’t be for everyone. I did prefer Arrival but I’d be curious what you think.
Yes! First time I garnered a perfect score!😊 I’m so glad you enjoyed Arrival Alex. I’ve been hearing mostly positive things about it.💁🏻
I’m going to pretend you did this when you realised you’d aced it ha.
My score was 13, Alex! Thanks for the great quiz. I hope to see “Arrival” soon.
Not far off at all. Which ones stumped you?
7 out of 15. When are you going to do a quiz on musicals? II’d nail it
You already nailed the musicals quiz I did, but I think you’ll be doing well on this one 🙂 https://alexraphael.wordpress.com/2014/05/04/film-quizzes-feel-good/
I did? I don’t remember 😧 Thanks for the link. We’ll see.
Only missed the first 2, so 13/15
love these quizzes alex!
A high score Rob. Good stuff 🙂
Got ’em all, but the image you had for “8. Predator” is not from the original 1987 film (looks like it’s from the Predators 2010 film). Luckily, you already had it timed-framed to the “1980s” so I knew it had to be McTiernan’s classic. 🙂
I’d forgotten about that film and hadn’t spotted the second Predator in the picture. well spotted. Happy to change it. Oh and on your score…
13/15. I’ve never seen The Man Who Fell to Earth nor Flight of the Navigator. Those are the two I missed.
Solid score Wendell. I haven’t seen The Man Who Fell to Earth either.
District 9 was a heartbreaking study of racism and elitism. I have friends who don’t understand what it means to be discriminated against on the basis of race, nationality or religion because they’ve never been outside of their comfort zones. Mars Attacks was brilliant satire. It is one of my favourite films. Evolution is not on the list. It is also a comedy and I watched it many times. My favourite so far is Prometheus. I haven’t seen Arrival as yet but I am looking forward to it.
I hope you haven’t experienced too much discrimination. There were so many others I could have mentioned. The X Files, Independence Day, Prometheus, Evolution, Species…
My husband and I went to see Arrival last week when we got home from vacation. It was a good movie – I love Amy Adams. I thought it was a bit long, but I enjoyed the movie overall. I never pass up an opportunity to go see a good movie. It’s not the best sci-fi movie ever, but it’s decent.
Well there’s some competition for best sci-fi film ever ha. I’m glad you saw it at the cinema. You really get the full experience there.
I really love to watch fantastic movies. I thought I’d seen everything … But “The Man Who Fell to Earth, I have not seen. There are things to see at the weekend.
Really like the movie “Men in Black”. This movie leaves no anxiety. Us protect these supermen )) Movie review more than once.
And the movie “The Abyss” gives hope that we earthlings have such feelings as compassion and kindness. And we can live in the space community ))
I’m curious to see The Man who Fell to Earth too. It’s nice to see such a balance of films within the genre.
So happy to hear you liked Arrival. It truly blew me away.
It’s one of those films you think of long after you’ve seen it.
It definitely stays with you.
Got them all until you stumped me with Flight of the Navigator, shame on me! 🙂 Enjoyed this, have you written on any film sites before?
I have in the past yeah. Nice score.
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10/15. I have to admit that I didn’t know some of the older ones.
Maybe not an out of this world score, but still pretty solid.
Another cool quiz. 9/15 is my score. I have never seen such films as Starship Troopers or Flight of the Navigator, but they must be good, though – in a science-fiction sort of way.
There’s a cool range. Not a fan of Starship Troopers. Flight of the Navigator gives me a real pang of nostalgia.