The friendship and world-saving partnership between Gosling’s Dr. Ryland Grace and Rocky is what helps the movie work its way into your heart, but it’s not the first movie to have a human develop a connection with an alien. It’s a great example of such a dynamic, but what follows are examples that came before this Hail Mary. We’re going for very specific aliens here, so no benevolent species as seen in Arrival and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, though they do still deserve a shout-out.
5) E.T.
Image courtesy of Amblin Entertainment
Let’s just start with the gold standard and get it out of the way, because anyone and everyone reading this list knows that, without a shoutout to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, it would be incomplete. When it comes to a movie displaying a connection between a human and something other than human, this is how you do it best.
E.T. is such a lightning in a bottle movie. The cast members, even those who didn’t go on to do much else, are right where they should be. Because it was made in the ’80s it created the title character out of practical effects as opposed to the CGI that would have stripped both E.T. and his movie of their humanity. It’s a movie that, like Project Hail Mary, appeals to every age group. If there is a movie that every child should watch at least once growing up, it’s this. Just get ready to cry when E.T. is dying next to the river, because that’s going to tear you apart.
Stream E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial on The Roku Channel.
4) Christopher Johnson
image courtesy of sony pictures releasing
Just as Rocky and Dr. Grace team up to solve a problem that affects them both, so too do District 9‘s Wikus van de Merwe and his “Prawn” pal, Christopher Johnson. Specifically, they’re fighting the MNU, or Multinational United, a defense contractor pushing the alien Prawns into a horrible internment camp.
At first, Wikus is part of this morally bankrupt machine. In fact, as the son-in-law of an MNU executive, he’s put in charge of the relocation. But when Wikus accidentally gets sprayed in the face by some Prawn fuel, which begins turning him into one of the very aliens his company is abusing. At first Wikus just wants a cure, but pretty soon he sees that his main goal should be keeping Christopher safe. In fact, they’ll both need to keep one another safe. And what’s the best way to do that? Cool alien tech weaponry.
Stream District 9 on Netflix.
3) Frank the Pug
image courtesy of sony pictures releasing
Most of the aliens on this list are small sweethearts with big hearts. Men in Black‘s Frank the Pug is more just small…but he has a lovely singing voice.
Technically, Frank is a Remoolian, but to us he just looks like a Pug, one of the cutest breeds in existence. And, throughout the trilogy, he assists Agent J and Agent K in their various missions. In the first film he is interrogated (shaken violently) by K, and Frank tells the pair about the Arquillian galaxy. In Men in Black II he gets a more sizable role, teaming up with Agent J in what is, quite frankly, the best stretch of minutes in an otherwise poor film.
2) Paul
image courtesy of universal pictures
If Dr. Ryland Grace ever lit up a joint for Rocky, you’d basically have Paul. Well, the stakes are lowered, too. Instead of world-ending Astrophage eating up the sun you have a Secret Service special agent named Lorenzo Zoil in pursuit (though he’s actually more ally than foe).
This is basically R-rated E.T. and it coasts on Seth Rogen’s note-perfect work as the title character, the CGI used to bring him to life, and the presence of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Not just because they star in it, but because they wrote it, as well.
1) Croak
image courtesy of blue fox entertainment
Xeno doesn’t exactly play as anything brand new. It’s basically a mixture of E.T. and Bumblebee. A 15-year-old befriends a crash-landed alien, that alien is being pursued by the CIA, and its bond with the human ultimately overshadows its primary need for self-preservation.
But Xeno still works very well. The alien, Croak, looks great, the tone is as light as it should be, and Lulu Wilson proves once more that she has the chops to carry a movie. But, at its core, what works best is the believable bond between Croak and Wilson’s Renee Rowan.
Stream Xeno for free on Hoopla.
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