Items40The creator’s order
  1. 1They Live (1988)They Live (1988) 7.2/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 4, 1988Start here if you want the disguise to be hiding in a crowd. A drifter's sunglasses let him see which people are aliens and which ads are issuing orders. The joke is how differently the same sidewalk looks when you can read what everyone else walks past.0
  2. 2Starman (1984)Starman (1984) 7.0/10 on IMDbReleased Dec 13, 1984Choose this for a romantic road movie about the wrong person having the right face. An alien takes the form of a woman's late husband and needs her help getting across the country. You get to see how much he can copy before he has to learn how to behave.0
  3. 3The Faculty (1998)The Faculty (1998) 6.6/10 on IMDbReleased Dec 25, 1998Pick this for high-school horror where the usual reasons to distrust adults keep getting in the way. Students start recognizing changes in the teachers and in one another. What counts as ordinary behavior is one more thing the cliques can't agree about.0
  4. 4The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) 6.6/10 on IMDbReleased Mar 18, 1976Try this for a sadder story about belonging badly even when your disguise works. Thomas Jerome Newton uses inventions to build a company and finance a way to send water home. His public role gives him access to money and power without helping him figure out what to do with either.0
  5. 5The Brother from Another Planet (1984)The Brother from Another Planet (1984) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 7, 1984Choose this for a quiet comedy that lets you look at a neighborhood with a newcomer. A mute alien lands in New York and finds his way to Harlem, where he looks enough like everyone else to be read as another person with a story. What people assume about him is often more revealing than the way he…0
  6. 6The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 18, 1951Pick the 1951 version for an alien who learns from passing unnoticed. After a spacecraft lands, Klaatu leaves official custody and takes a room under an ordinary name. The people he meets tell you a lot more about Earth than the leaders he came to address.0
  7. 7Superman (1978)Superman (1978) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased Dec 14, 1978In Richard Donner’s 1978 film, an infant from Krypton grows up to become a reporter at the Daily Planet. Watch Christopher Reeve switch between the hesitant Clark Kent and the much surer figure Lois meets as Superman. The disguise is an everyday performance.0
  8. 8The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) 5.5/10 on IMDbReleased Dec 10, 2008Try the 2008 remake for the same visitor with a different reason to wonder what human life is worth. Klaatu's body lets him move among people, then a scientist and her stepson give him a smaller, more immediate example of what he came to judge.0
  9. 9Men in Black (1997)Men in Black (1997) 7.3/10 on IMDbReleased Jul 2, 1997Choose this for a comedy where the city has been full of visitors for years. An agent learns how the people keeping that secret spot newcomers and handle the ones who break the rules. Watch Vincent D'Onofrio make a stolen farmer's skin look as uncomfortable as it ought to feel.0
  10. 10Galaxy Quest (1999)Galaxy Quest (1999) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased Dec 25, 1999Try this if you like the idea that a costume might fool the actors who ought to recognize it. The Thermians approach the cast of an old TV show in human form because they think the show was real. Their awkward gestures make sense once you realize how much they learned from watching us on a screen.0