The ’80s – a simpler time for sure. Especially when it came to movies. We analyze and overanalyze things to death these days. Audiences are also smarter now than they were back then. Now, we get mad if the physics are off or there’s something that seems too far-fetched, even in superhero movies. It has to be believable!
There were no such restrictions back then. It was never about “how,” things just happened, and you were meant to believe it. Aliens keep coming to Earth but only hang with kids? Sure.
Playing a video game makes you a deadly starfighter? Why not. Alien movies in the ’80s simply existed to entertain. Could they hold up to today’s rigorous standards? Almost definitely not, although some definitely do.
Here are the top ten ’80s alien movies from someone who was born in the ’80s.
10. E.T.
I’m not gonna lie, this is not one of my favorites. However, how can you have a list about ’80s alien movies and not include E.T.? It’s one of the most popular movies ever, and it pretty much kickstarted the whole “kid befriends alien” subgenre.
Some sad backstory: the movie was based on an imaginary friend that director Steven Spielberg came up with after his parents got divorced. Woof. Another thing about Spielberg, he shot the movie chronologically to help get the best performances from the kids in the movie. Pretty smart.
The movie was a monster hit and stayed on the top of the box office for weeks. Word of mouth was so good that it recorded the highest-grossing second weekend ever for a movie at the time.
For a while, it was the highest grossing film of all time. Right now, it sits at #102.
9. Howard The Duck
Howard the Duck is not what you would refer to as a “success,” but it’s pretty unforgettable regardless. Originally a comic book character introduced in 1973, Howard is an alien from Duckworld who gets ejected from his armchair while reading PlayDuck and launched into space.
He ends up in Cleveland and meets a woman named Beverly Switzler, who takes him in. At one point, there’s a duck-on-human sex scene. Perhaps the most puzzling thing about the movie is that it was Marvel’s second officially sanctioned film after a Captain America adaptation in 1944.
Think about it. Marvel had Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor – and they went with Howard the Duck. Another weird footnote: it was originally supposed to be an animated film. Would that have made a difference? Who knows.
I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a terrible movie. Less so when I was a kid mostly because I was confused as to why a woman was hooking up with a duck. That part was fun.
8. Mac and Me
Revenge of the E.T. clones! If there’s a more blatant cash-grab trying to copy the winning formula of E.T., I don’t what it is. There’s a kid, there’s an alien trying to get home, the government wants the alien, etc.
Couple things worth mentioning here. This movie bombed pretty hard, but I’m including it for a special reason I’ll get to in a second. Product placement worked overtime on this one, with blatant McDonalds tie-ins. At one point, they all stop at a gas station to drink cokes.
And main kid — Eric — gets shot at the end by a stray bullet, and dies! The kid’s already in a wheelchair. Why do we need to put a bullet in him? That’s just one of the lingering questions.
There’s a classic scene in this movie involving Eric in his wheelchair rolling down a hill and getting saved by Mac (Mysterious Alien Creature). It’s the scene that Paul Rudd used to bring to the Conan O’Brien show every time he had a movie to promote. Gold!
7. The Last Starfighter
This one is the “play a video game that secretly tests you to be a starfighter pilot movie.” By today’s standards, kind of a snooze but back when it came out kids everywhere (including me) wanted to be starfighters.
This one has the distinction of being one of the first films to use actual CGI for special effects. And it is ’80s to the bone, just look at some of the vernacular in the script: “the Ko-Dan Empire,” “Xur,” “Ko-Dan Armada,” “Grig,” “Centauri,” the list goes on.
The main character, a down-on-his-luck teen who lives in a trailer park, feels like his life is going nowhere – until it is. It’s not a bad movie at all, even though it got high-mid reviews. It’s fun!
6. Flight of the Navigator
This is the “what if we combined E.T. with The Last Starfighter movie” movie. Producers couldn’t get enough of “the kid and the alien” trope, and this one is right on the money.
This time it’s 12-year-old David Freeman, who somehow travels six years into the future after an accident. David goes to NASA and it’s learned that he traveled to a different planet in 2.2 hours and is experiencing “time dilation.”
Somehow, a captured UFO is not under guard and Freeman is able to sneak onboard. One of the more fun things is the ship’s sassy personality, played by pre-arrest Paul Reubens.
This one did pretty well, and doubled its $9 million box office budget. There was even talk of a sequel back in 2017. It’s still in development.
5. Dune
A certain generation will always know Dune as the phenomenal 2021 film, but this ’80s classic was just inspirational. I’m not going to say it’s better. Dune will always be tough to adapt, but this one really dug into the gore and digestibility of some of the alien characters.
It’s a perfectly passable film that hits all the same notes as the new one, except packed into one film. It barely made back its budget when it was released, but is viewed as a cult classic now, especially for fans of the books.
4. Spaceballs
Hard to state just how popular Star Wars was in the ’80s, especially nowadays since Disney has pretty much run it into the ground. This space alien movie spoofed all kinds of films, like Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Planet of the Apes.
It’s also incredibly hilarious, and features two classic ’80s actors: John Candy and Rick Moranis. We could go over plot, but honestly the plot itself isn’t as important as the number of gags in this movie. It’s stuffed to the gills with jokes.
Director Mel Brooks actually got permission from George Lucas to spoof Star Wars, and even got Lucas to handle post-production. When it was finished, Lucas sent Brooks a message that he was worried he would “bust something from laughing.”
The movie was a commercial success and still remains the best Star Wars satire out there.
3. Predator
It’s hard to think of Predator as an alien movie, especially since it all takes place in a jungle. It is, though. This 1987 classic was the birth of the franchise and features a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime.
It’s about an elite military rescue team sent into a Central American rainforest to rescue some VIP hostages. They then meet a creature that can cloak itself to appear invisible that starts picking them off one by one in increasingly gruesome ways.
It hunts the team but Dutch (Schwarzenegger) decides to turn the tables and hunt the alien back. A scene of Dutch silently covered in mud is one of the most recognizable of the era.
Predator packed action and suspense beautifully, and it totally holds up. It delivered exactly what it advertised. Watch this one first if you haven’t seen it.
2. The Empire Strikes Back
Do I need to explain why Metalica is still around? Or why Daniel Day Lewis is a good actor? Or why the original Star Wars trilogy is the best trilogy?
Well, that makes Empire Strikes Back the best of the best. It took all the story beats and action from the first movie and doubled it. There was more of our favorite characters, a love story, an epic battle between good and evil and even a cute little old man puppet.
I don’t need to tell you why this is the best Star Wars movie. If you’ve made it this far you obviously know what’s up. What a way to kick off the ’80s.
1. Aliens
I know, you’re thinking, “why did he pick the sequel and not the original?” Well, the original Alien came out in 1979, so technically it doesn’t count. The sequel, however, is one of the baddest Alien movies ever.
It came out in 1986, and this time we have Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) outnumbered and outgunned on a space facility with a group of space marines. Everyone gets killed pretty much, which is a sign of a great movie.
It was directed by none other than James Cameron and it featured some of the best special effects for its time. It also melded horror, action, and sci fi in a way that defied genres, but was undeniably suspenseful, entertaining, and just flat-out fun.
The Images of the xenomorph stalking the spaceship are so iconic and recognizable that they’re pretty much baked in to popular culture. A real thrill ride.
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