By the time H.G. Wells published “The War of the Worlds,” science fiction had already become widely read. Mary Shelley, a young English writer in the creative writing field, expressed her creativity in manipulating the real world with the frightful tale of a scientist who creates new living things in the laboratory by sewing together the body parts of the dead almost a century before Wells wrote and published his book about alien invasion. Her works have remained popular not just in her lifetime but also in the present day, as seen by the television series “Frankenstein” and the book students recently studied in literature class.
In the mid 1800s, Jules Verne, a French author, wrote a number of science fiction classics, including the book “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”, which was about the tale of travellers who uncover a hidden and mysterious civilization deep beneath the surface of the Earth. Apart from that adventurous science fiction book, the literature about life in the science fiction world could be seen in other Verne’s writings. He wrote a book with the title “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea”, in which he organised the writing plots about a powerful submarine that can travel for many hours in the oceans. After many decades, the first deep water submarines were finally being used by the navies around the world.
However, by the end of the nineteenth century, only a few stories about alien visitors had found their popularity into popular culture (pop culture). Although some authors had written stories about extraterrestrials and their civilizations before the publication of “The War of the Worlds”, unfortunately most of them failed to gain widespread popularity among readers. Besides that, electronic media such as television was not even invented at that time. In this current time, we also find out that several people think that invest in life and disability insurance plan Malaysia is such an ‘’alien’’ thing (don’t forget to invest in an insurance plan, please). But have you ever thought about how the media and pop culture in the modern days shape our mindset about aliens?
The General Representations of Aliens In Modern Media And Pop Culture
A lot of TV series, movies and mysterious TV programmes and even the printed media like books, comics and film posters show that the aliens as the invasive creatures that would like to conquer the world as the future place to be inhabited by them, aggressive and dangerous to human population. It is not often seen that aliens are represented as friendly creatures to humans unless in the TV series that are targeted among kids. Our mindset towards these extraterrestrials have been shaped through the depiction of media and famous culture although almost none of us have confronted these aliens face to face or communicate directly with them.
All these portrayals can be found and clearly reflected in these modern films.
Extinction (2018)
Extinction is a science fiction, mystery and thriller film released in 2018 that tells about the suffering of a man when he has recurring nightmares about a destructive and unknown force. He must not be late to find and gather the strength to save his wife and two daughters when extraterrestrials come to the Earth and launch a devastating attack on the Earth.
Life (2017)
The first proof of extraterrestrial life on Mars has been discovered by astronauts (Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds) aboard the International Space Station, and it is one of the most significant discoveries in human history. When the team does its study, the rapidly evolving life-form turns out to be much more intelligent and terrifying than anyone could have anticipated.
Prometheus (2012)
A 2012 British-American science fiction film with Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron in the lead roles, Prometheus was directed by Ridley Scott. Written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, the story takes place in the late 21st century and highlights the crews of the spaceship named Prometheus. Their journey begins as they trace a star map which is discovered among the remains of ancient Earth cultures. The group searches for the roots of humanity after being directed to a faraway globe with an advanced culture, but instead they come across a danger that could wipe out the human species.
Predators (2010)
A group of humans is abducted by the extraterrestrial killers and all members of the group that are abducted play vital roles in the safety enforcement while few of them are the commoners. They are mercenary, sniper from IDF team, commando, drug cartel and Yakuza enforcers, officer, inmate who waits for death penalty, and doctor. Later, they are placed on a planet that looks like conducting a game reserve between two warring tribes of killers. Those killers are a type of extraterrestrial or as known as, aliens. That means those humans are in a dangerous zone! They quickly come to the realisation that they are being pursued and that strength comes in numbers, so they all begin to look for a way off the strange planet.
Rim Of The World (2019)
Just as summer camp is getting started, aliens suddenly attack the earth. Four misfit teenagers find themselves suddenly in charge of a key that holds the key to prevent the invasion in a campsite that was once bustling with people. It is obvious what they must do: unite, face their concerns, and save the world without the aid of grownups or technologies.
Conclusion
Whether the aliens exist in real life or perhaps they only exist in the fiction world, we cannot deny the impact of media and pop culture in shaping our mindset about the aliens. We have not seen them but the imagination that we have is so unbelievable.