When they discover the haughty Earth-centric views of Earth philosophers, they are very much amused by how important Earth beings think they are compared to actual titans such as themselves. Initially, they believe the planet is uninhabited, due to the difference in scale between them and human beings. Voltaire's Micromégas (1752) includes two aliens, from Saturn and Sirius, who are of immense size and visit the Earth out of curiosity. However, there were stories of aliens and alien invasion prior to publication of The War of the Worlds. It is now seen as the seminal alien invasion story and Wells is credited with establishing several extraterrestrial themes which were later greatly expanded by science fiction writers in the 20th Century, including first contact and war between planets and their differing species. Wells published The War of the Worlds, depicting the invasion of Victorian England by Martians equipped with advanced weaponry. Martian war machines destroying an English town in H. Within academia, prospects for an alien invasion of Earth are dismissed as Earth does not have any special resources that aren't already abundant elsewhere, among other reasons. Examples include the short story Sentry (1954) (in which the 'aliens' described are, at the end, explained to be humans), the video game Phantasy Star II (1989), The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, the Imperium of Man in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Invaders from Earth by Robert Silverberg, Ender's Game, the movies Battle for Terra (2007), Planet 51 (2009), Avatar (2009) and Mars Needs Moms (2011).Īs well as being a subgenre of science fiction, these kinds of books can be considered a subgenre of invasion literature, which also includes fictional depictions of humans invaded by other humans (for example, a fictional invasion of England by a hostile France strongly influenced Wells' depiction of a Martian invasion). Such stories are much rarer than stories about aliens attacking humans. Technically, a human invasion of an alien species is also an alien invasion, as, from the viewpoint of the aliens, humans are the aliens. nuclear weapons and space travel in The Day the Earth Stood Still or faster-than-light travel in First Contact), justifying their initiation into a broader community of intelligent species. A trope of the peaceful first-contact is humanity attaining a key technological threshold (e.g. There are some notable exceptions, such as the alien-initiated first-contact scenarios in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Arrival (2016). In the invasion trope, fictional aliens contacting Earth tend to either observe (sometimes using experiments) or invade, rather than help the population of Earth acquire the capacity to participate in interplanetary affairs. Examples of these stories include the short story “ The Liberation of Earth“ (1950) by William Tenn and the film The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Soviet Union) occupation and nuclear devastation of the American people. Alien invasion was a common metaphor in United States science fiction during the Cold War, illustrating the fears of foreign (e.g.

Prospects of invasion tended to vary with the state of current affairs, and current perceptions of threat.

Wells' novel The War of the Worlds extended the invasion literature that was already common when science fiction was first emerging as a genre. The invasion scenario has been used as an allegory for a protest against military hegemony and the societal ills of the time.

The alien invasion or space invasion is a common feature in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrials invade the Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under an intense state, harvest people for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether. Wells' The War of the Worlds, as illustrated by Henrique Alvim Corrêa.

Alien invasion movie