Entertainment
Ranking The 13 Best Alien Invasion Movies Of All-Time
By Joshua Tyler
| Updated
Some of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time revolve around humans in a desperate struggle for survival. Sometimes we’re fighting time-traveling robots or out-of-control plagues. Occasionally, we end up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland fighting ourselves.
What really brings humans together, though, is a battle against an outside force. All the better if those invaders are from the stars. This is the definitive ranking of the best alien invasion movies of all time.
13. Lifeforce
The 1985 movie Lifeforce begins with a naked girl in a box, and it ends with a love scene so explosive it destroys a cathedral and sends a race of alien vampires running for their lives. In between those bookends, Lifeforce is one of the wildest, most unique, most incredible science fiction movies almost no one has seen.
A mission to explore Halley’s Comet results in an alien vampire who looks exactly like one of the most beautiful women in the world wandering around our planet without clothes, luring men in, and sucking the life out of them. At one point, she briefly takes the form of Star Trek star Patrick Stewart, and despite now being a bald academic, she’s so alluring that people still want to make out with her, at their peril.
Movies like Species and Under the Skin owe everything to Lifeforce, the original super hot alien babe sucks the life out of the world movie. Those copies are just copies. They can’t hold a candle to Lifeforce.
12. The Avengers
The 2012 culmination of Marvel’s phase 1, The Avengers, is one of the best superhero movies ever made, but it’s also entirely about an alien invasion. Loki shows up, opens a hole in the sky, and invites an alien army to pour directly into midtown Manhattan like it’s a curbside delivery.
The Chitauri scream between skyscrapers, raining down death as civilians run and buildings collapse. The only way to stop them is if Earth’s mightiest heroes come together as a team and fight them off.
The Avengers is the movie that made Marvel into the modern-day juggernaut it is, and it’s built entirely on the backs of Iron Man dogfighting alien attackers, Captain America commanding street-level resistance, and Hulk unleashing the full force of his anger on giant, alien beasts.
11. Little Shop of Horrors
In Little Shop of Horrors, Rick Moranis stars as Seymour Krelborn, a meek florist whose life changes when he discovers a strange plant he names Audrey II. The plant brings fame and fortune to the failing flower shop until Seymour learns it only grows when fed human blood.
Voiced by Levi Stubbs, Audrey II is an alien planet that has come to earth, but not an invader with a master plan to conquer us. Instead, it’s a manipulative alien parasite with ambition.
As the plant grows, so does its appetite and its influence, pushing Seymour to kill in exchange for success, love, and validation, including a chance with Ellen Greene’s Audrey. The real threat isn’t an alien invasion, it’s alien temptation. Audrey II’s only goal is to grow bigger, spread farther, and use human weakness to do it.
10. Signs
M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs is an alien invasion from the perspective of a normal family, and the big global consequences are only in the background. That allows it to be about more than just aliens. It’s about belief, loss, and the terrifying silence of a God who might not be there.
Mel Gibson’s Graham Hess, once a minister, has abandoned his faith after the tragic death of his wife. The alien invasion is the crucible; it drives his family into corners, tests their survival, and eventually forces him to confront whether life is chaos or design. It doesn’t end with humanity defeating aliens, it ends with one man putting his collar back on, embracing faith not because he got proof, but because he chose to trust again.
9. Predator
In Predator, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Dutch, the leader of an elite mercenary team sent into the Central American jungle on what’s supposed to be a routine rescue mission. Alongside him are Carl Weathers as Dillon, Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke, Sonny Landham, and Shane Black. Each is introduced like an action-movie archetype before the movie starts tearing those archetypes apart.
One by one, the team is hunted by an unseen alien warrior using cloaking technology, advanced weapons, and brutal tactics. This isn’t a takeover attempt, like most alien invasions.
The Predator is a lone trophy hunter on Earth purely for sport, seeking worthy opponents to kill and collect. As the squad is wiped out, the film strips away guns, gear, and bravado until it becomes a primal duel between Dutch and a creature that respects only strength, cunning, and survival.
8. Superman 2
Shot back-to-back with Superman: The Movie, the sequel, Superman 2, manages to exceed the groundbreaking original. It does that by pitting Superman against a trio of super-powered alien invaders from his own planet of Krypton, resulting in an eye-popping super-powered slugfest with special effects so amazing for the time that some still hold up today.
The heart of Superman 2 is the moral dilemma: godlike power versus human happiness. It treats Superman as a man making painful, adult choices. Superman has already given up his powers, leaving humanity defenseless. Realizing the cost of his choice, he reclaims his abilities, confronts the invaders, and ultimately restores both order and his secret identity.
It’s a great alien-invasion movie and one of the best superhero movies ever made.
7. They Live
They Live centers on Roddy Piper’s Nada, a transient who arrives in Los Angeles looking for work after a string of bad luck. Nada investigates a nearby church, gets caught up in a wild late-night police raid, and walks away with a mysterious pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the world for what it really is, a hotbed of political propaganda built on complacency and conformity so the aliens can quietly take over and throttle Earth’s resources for their own personal gain.
Nada’s glasses reveal not only the aliens but the true messages hidden in the magazines, billboards, and television shows we all watch. They Live is a biting commentary on the way we’re all manipulated by mass media, and in that sense, it may be one of the most important and eye-opening movies ever made.
As the film reaches its climax, it reveals just how far the conspiracy against the masses goes, and at this point, there’s no turning back. It’s up to Nada to figure out how to wake everybody up, even if it costs him his life.
6. Edge of Tomorrow
What if the only way to save humanity from an alien invasion was to kill yourself repeatedly until you found the right answers? That’s the setup for 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow, starring one of potentially thousands of Tom Cruises as he wakes up repeating the same day until he nails the perfect combination of allies and strategic maneuvers to win the war.
Considered one of the best action films of the 2010s, Edge of Tomorrow moves at a breakneck pace because it can afford to. The first-act exposition keeps resetting, expanding slightly each time until our hero learns to survive the nightmare that’s been forced on him. Each loop inches him closer to completing his mission, but at the cost of dying over and over again.
5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
One of the best remakes hit screens in 1978: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Even if you’ve never seen the 1956 original or its other remakes, the basics of the plot are easy to swallow: aliens invade Earth by replacing humans with emotionless duplicates. The catch is that the humans must be asleep for the process to work, a simple twist that turns every yawn into dramatic tension.
Donald Sutherland leads the cast of famous sci-fi stars, including Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, and Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy. Our heroes try to uncover the mystery of the pod people, but that soon takes a backseat to trying to survive another night.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is treated as a very serious story where the stakes are life and death for the entire human race. That’s refreshing compared to modern films winking at the audience every twenty minutes with a tension-deflating joke. The result is one of the most impressive remakes of all time and remains a must-watch for any sci-fi or horror fan today
4. Independence Day
Independence Day is your classic alien invasion story, but with the best CGI that 1996 has to offer. This was years after Jurassic Park, so it’s pretty damn good.
A powerful alien force has appeared over the skies of Earth with the mission to completely annihilate the planet over the Fourth of July weekend. They start by blowing up some of our best buildings in spectacular fashion. A ragtag group of people from Earth works together to stop the destruction of the planet in a last-ditch effort.
Bill Pullman gives one of the best speeches ever as our president, Will Smith gives a performance so fun it turned him into a megastar, and the rest of the cast then totally matches it every second they’re on screen. No alien invasion movie is bigger, crazier, or more fun than this one.
3. War of the Worlds
The world has seen numerous adaptations of HG Wells’ classic alien-invasion novel, both before and after the 1953 release of producer George Pal’s version, yet none have done it better. Especially not that Steven Spielberg version. Sorry, Dakota Fanning.
The movie takes the book that invented alien invasion stories and contemporizes it, setting the War of the Worlds in the 1950s. It also changes the alien ships from Tripod walkers into sleek, floating ships with heat-spitting cobra heads.
The movie’s plan was originally to stick with tripods, but they eventually went with something that was more feasible for the era’s limited practical effects. The change gives this version of the story a uniquely iconic look all its own, and the movie remains as effectively tense and suspenseful now as it ever was.
War of the Worlds holds up in a way few other movies this old do. The cinematography is still beautiful, the aliens are still scary, and the story is still haunting. It’s also a perfect window into 1950s America, complete with the innocence of weekly square dances and the hard-edged determination of soldiers who’d just survived a world war and now found themselves in another one.
2. The Thing
1982’s The Thing is the gold standard of graphic sci-fi horror, an alien-invasion film where every grotesque transformation feels like a practical-effects masterclass in nightmare fuel.
Unlike some of the bigger, more bombastic entries on this list, The Thing takes place in a more intimate setting. With people trapped in a remote outpost, and a creature from another world loose on the inside, mimicking and killing them.
John Carpenter doesn’t settle for simple jump scares; he unleashes a parasite that rips through flesh, bursts out of chests, and reshapes bodies into twisted parodies of life. Dogs split open into writhing masses of tentacles, heads sprout legs and scuttle across the floor, and human bodies melt and fuse in ways that are as mesmerizing as they are revolting.
What makes it unforgettable is the sheer creativity of the terror, shot with brutal clarity. The Antarctic isolation only magnifies the terror, making every reveal hit harder. The Thing is a relentless catalog of the most inventive, character drama, and alien imagery sci-fi has ever dared to put on screen.
1. Arrival
In Arrival, mysterious ships invade Earth’s airspace, land, and then just sort of sit there. It’s an invasion, but one without any violence, and humans are left trying to figure out what’s going on. What’s going on will change everything about the way humanity views the universe, and also maybe the way the movie’s viewers do, too.
Amy Adams plays Louise Banks, an expert linguist who has tragically lost her daughter to an illness. She’s teamed with Ian Donnelly, played by Jeremy Renner, and the two are tasked with figuring out why the ships are there and finding some way to communicate with the beings inside.
Amy Adams is brilliant in the role, and we learn about these aliens and their language right along with her. We go through the pain of losing her daughter and find, along with her, the solace in understanding someone else for the first time. The alien’s invasion becomes a deep exploration of how our communication shapes our thinking.
It’s one of the best movies of the past ten years, a totally unique take on what might happen if visitors from space show up on our doorstep. Though it contains no battle sequences or threats of annihilation, it’s the best alien invasion movie of all time.
Entertainment
NASAs incredible new telescope will offer an atlas of the universe
NASA has completed its next space observatory, built to create sharp, panoramic maps of the universe while revealing how the most mysterious, invisible substances and distant worlds shape the cosmos.
About a quarter-century after the Hubble Telescope reshaped astronomy, and a few years into the era of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will join them not as a replacement, but as a big-picture partner. Where Hubble and Webb zoom in for close‑ups, Roman will capture Hubble‑like detail across areas about 100 times larger, turning isolated snapshots into sweeping surveys that show the very scaffolding of the universe.
At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, engineers are wrapping up prelaunch testing on the cutting-edge telescope. Next, the observatory will travel 900 miles to Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where teams will prepare it for launch.
That could happen as early as this September, about eight months ahead of schedule, NASA managers said at a news conference on Tuesday, April 21. Once in space, Roman will head to a stable orbit about 1 million miles from Earth, near the same region where Webb orbits the sun, and begin a years‑long campaign of deep space imaging.
“We didn’t want to wait to launch the Nancy Grace Roman. We’re eight months ahead of schedule,” said Nicky Fox, NASA’s associate administrator of science. “Everybody felt the urgency. Everybody was sprinting towards this.”
Named for Nancy Grace Roman, who became the agency’s first chief of astronomy and one of its earliest female executives, the telescope reflects a legacy of opening new windows on the universe from above Earth’s atmosphere. Nicknamed the “mother of Hubble,” Roman helped lay the groundwork in the 1960s for a whole fleet of space telescopes.
A wide shot of the dark universe
At the heart of the mission is Roman’s eight-foot-wide mirror, the same size as Hubble’s, paired with a powerful camera that sees in infrared light, like Webb. That camera’s field of view is Roman’s superpower. In a single shot, it can image vast swaths of sky that Hubble simply can’t match.
Because a space telescope can only see one patch of sky at a time, it has to take many separate “pointings” — individual shots aimed at slightly different spots — and stitch them together into a mosaic.
In 2023, Ami Choi, an astrophysicist and scientist for Roman’s wide field camera, contrasted the difference between Hubble and the new telescope. To photograph the Andromeda Galaxy, Hubble has to take 400 smaller images and stitch them together. For Roman’s camera, that should only take two pointings, she said.
This wide, sharp vision is what scientists need to study the so-called “dark universe.” Ordinary matter — the stuff that makes up stars, planets, and even people — accounts for only about 5 percent of the cosmos. The bulk of it is dark matter and dark energy, which do not emit light but leave clues where they’ve influenced space’s expansion and the arrangement of galaxies.
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“Current observations hint that our standard model of the universe is incorrect,” said Julie McHenry, senior project scientist, referring to cosmologists’ best recipe for the universe. “Roman will be able to confirm these and set us on the path to understanding what’s right.”
Roman will trace those clues in several ways at once. By mapping the positions and shapes of hundreds of millions of galaxies, it will show how structures have grown from the early universe to today. Subtle distortions in galaxy shapes will reveal how clumps of invisible space stuff bend their light on the way to us, exposing the hidden dark matter. At the same time, Roman will discover and track large numbers of a special kind of exploding star, known as Type Ia supernovas; their predictable brightness lets astronomers measure how quickly space has expanded over time.
Imaging large space targets, such as the Andromeda Galaxy, will require far fewer smaller images to stitch together than other flagship observatories.
Credit: NASA composite image
Taken together, these measurements will allow scientists to test competing ideas about dark matter, dark energy, and even the laws of gravity themselves with far greater precision than ever before. Other observatories can make similar kinds of measurements, but none combines Roman’s sharpness and sky coverage in the infrared, NASA mission leaders say, which lets it see more distant and dust-covered galaxies.
A new census of distant exoplanets
Roman’s wide‑field power also makes it skilled at exoplanet hunting. Previous missions like Kepler and TESS mostly found planets close to their stars, where their repeated crossings dim starlight in a regular rhythm. Roman will focus on a different region of planetary systems: the cooler, outer zones, where worlds similar to Jupiter and Saturn reside. It may even find wandering planets that aren’t tethered to stars.
To do this, Roman will repeatedly monitor dense star fields toward the center of our Milky Way. As a foreground star passes in front of a more distant one, its gravity will briefly magnify the background star’s light. If the foreground star carries planets, they can produce smaller, telltale blips in that brightening. This technique, called microlensing, works best in precisely the kind of crowded, faint, and distant regions that Roman is expected to capture.
Optical Engineer Bente Eegholm inspects the primary mirror for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Credit: NASA / Chris Gunn
Over its mission, Roman will attempt to record thousands of these microlensing events, revealing planets at distances and masses other surveys mostly miss. From that haul, astronomers will compare our solar system’s architecture with many others and judge whether having inner rocky worlds and outer giant planets is the status quo or something more rare.
Roman will also test an advanced coronagraph — a system of masks and mirrors that blocks a star’s glare so the telescope can try to see the faint glow of planets around it. On Roman, this is more of a technology trial than an everyday science instrument, but if it works, it will set the stage for a future observatory whose main goal is to directly image Earth‑like worlds around other sun‑like stars.
“What astronomers can do today with coronagraph instruments is see planets that are maybe a million times fainter than their stars,” Vanessa Bailey, NASA’s Roman coronagraph scientist, told Mashable. “What we’re doing with the Roman coronagraph is hopefully getting to 10 million to 100 million times fainter, maybe even a little bit more, in the best case scenario.”
Catching the universe in motion
Roman is also built for studying how the sky changes, creating a veritable library of “before” and “after” shots.
Technicians assemble the solar panels on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Credit: NASA / Sydney Rohde
One of its major surveys will repeatedly scan high‑latitude regions of the sky, away from the plane of the Milky Way. By returning to the same fields every few days, Roman will catch supernovas as they ignite and fade, watch black holes light up as they feed on nearby material, and uncover other short-lived, dramatic events across the distant universe. Its infrared vision will reveal explosions and flares that dust clouds hide from visible‑light telescopes.
Another core program will stare toward the Milky Way’s central bulge. There, Roman will track how the brightness of millions of stars rises and falls on timescales of minutes to months. Those records will not only power the microlensing planet search but also expose other phenomena, such as neutron stars and black holes.
Because Roman will cover such large areas with fine detail, its images will also become a long‑lasting reference tool. When other telescopes later spot something odd — a burst of high‑energy radiation, for instance, or an unusual variable star — astronomers will be able to pull Roman’s earlier images and see what was there before the excitement.
“The images it captures will be so large there is not a screen in existence large enough to show them,” said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman. “Roman will give the Earth a new Atlas of the universe. I think it’s worth pausing for a moment just to think about how really incredible that is.”
Entertainment
400K MagSafe power banks recalled after fatal fire, the 10th power bank recall in a year
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Casely reannounced a power bank recall this April after a fire linked to the device fatally injured a user. This is the tenth power bank recall in the United States in the last 12 months, and Anker recalled 1.5 million power banks in 2025.
The recall affects an estimated 429,200 Casely 5,000-mAh MagSafe Power Pods (Model E33A), which were originally recalled in 2025. The MagSafe power banks need to be completely replaced.
Back of Casely power banks.
Credit: CPSC
Affected customers should stop using the portable power banks immediately. They can also contact Casely to receive a free replacement.
“The recalled lithium-ion battery in the power banks can overheat and ignite, posing risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards to consumers,” the CPSC stated on its recall website.
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The Brooklyn-based company is reannouncing the recall after receiving 51 reports of the lithium-ion battery overheating, expanding, and/or catching fire while charging smartphones, “resulting in six minor burn injuries.”
However, in the past year, the CPSC says 28 more reports have been made, including explosions that caused a serious accident on an airplane and one death.
In August 2024, a 75-year-old woman from New Jersey, was charging her cell phone with the power bank on her lap when it caught on fire and exploded. The victim suffered second and third degree burns and later passed away from complications from her injuries. In February 2026, a 47-year-old woman was charging her cell phone with the power bank on an airplane when it caught on fire and exploded, resulting in the victim suffering first degree burns.
How to check your Casely Power Pod
Worried you may own one of the 429,000 recalled power banks? It’s easy to check if your device is included in the recall.
On the back of the device, look for the device’s model number, as show in a picture provided by the CPSC. If the model number reads “E33A,” then stop using the device immediately.
Look for the model number.
Credit: CPSC
More information on requesting a replacement power bank is available on the CPSC and Casely recall websites.
Entertainment
The new Dyson Supersonic Travel is the cheapest Supersonic yet
Table of Contents
Nearly three years ago, I asked if the (then) $429 Dyson Supersonic was still worth the price of entry.
These days, with the Supersonic line having expanded, the standard model having increased in price to $449.99, and the most expensive version of the hair dryer topping out at $549.99, it’s a question that feels even more apt.
The good news? If you’re not super into the idea of spending about $500 for a hair dryer, Dyson just announced the Dyson Supersonic Travel, a $299.99 model of its famous hair tool. In addition to its lower price point, it comes with more travel-friendly proportions and features.
As someone who’s personally tested Supersonics (and their many dupes), I took a closer look at the latest Dyson beauty launch to gather everything you need to know.
The design differences of the Dyson Supersonic Travel
In short, the Supersonic Travel is the standard Supersonic but smaller. According to Dyson, that comes out to exactly 32 percent smaller and 25 percent lighter than the OG Supersonic. In other words, it’s 0.7 pounds to the standard Supersonic’s 1.8 pounds, and 8.7 inches tall to the larger model’s 10 inches.
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This model also comes with one attachment, the styling concentrator, a la the now-discontinued Dyson Supersonic Origin (which ran for $399.99). For comparison, the $449.99 Supersonic comes with three attachments: a styling concentrator, diffuser, and wide-tooth comb. For all five attachments, you’ll have to shell out $549.99.
The Supersonic Travel is compatible with all original and Supersonic Nural attachments.
Credit: Dyson
The same attachments can be used between the Travel, original, and Supersonic Nural dryers. This means opting for the Travel could technically save you some money — individual attachments range from $19.99 to $44.99. If you only use a styling concentrator and diffuser, for instance, the total cost of a Travel dryer with the extra attachment purchase would come out to $344.98, making it still over $100 cheaper than the three-attachment original Supersonic.
The Supersonic Travel is more versatile in some ways, and less so in others
Functionality-wise, the Supersonic Travel is a slightly different product from the other Supersonics in the line. It has anywhere from 1,000 to 1,220 watts of power and an airflow speed of 11.6 liters per second, compared to the 1,600 watts and 13.3 liters per second of the standard Supersonic. In other words, the bigger dryer is slightly more powerful, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect longer dry times.
The standard Supersonic and Supersonic Nural also feature four heats and three air speeds, where the Supersonic Travel features three heats and two air speeds.
The best noise-cancelling headphones for flying: 8 picks to improve your travel experience
That said, the Supersonic Travel has universal voltage compatibility, so it can be used from 100 to 240 volts, whereas the other Supersonics are locked into 120 volt compatibility.
In terms of its portability, it’s also worth noting the Supersonic Travel weighs the same as the Supersonic r, a professional grade hair dryer (priced as such at $549.99) that’s become more popular due in part to being lightweight and easy to maneuver.
Where to buy the Dyson Supersonic Travel
The Dyson Supersonic Travel is available for $299.99 at Dyson’s website, Amazon, and Best Buy. If you buy at the former, you will receive a complimentary $59.99 travel bag along with the hair dryer.
NASAs incredible new telescope will offer an atlas of the universe
400K MagSafe power banks recalled after fatal fire, the 10th power bank recall in a year
