Almost always in the cinematic world, when aliens come to visit Earth, there ends up being a smackdown. Whether it’s Will Smith chomping a cigar and punching an alien pilot, or half a dozen Hollywood A-listers being massacred by Martian ray guns courtesy of Tim Burton, extra-terrestrials are usually cast as invaders, whether they’re body snatching or just fancy blowing up the White House for no apparent tactical reason.
In honour of Close Encounters of the Third Kind getting a loving re-release, however, we thought we’d take a cue at Set The Tape from that slice of Spielbergian sweetness and take a look at a few films that buck the trend. Films where beings from another world haven’t come to enslave or destroy all humans but actually are, y’know, quite nice.