When the Narrator meets the artilleryman the second time, the artilleryman imagines a future where humanity, hiding underground in sewers and tunnels, conducts a guerrilla war, fighting against the Martians for generations to come, and eventually, after learning how to duplicate Martian weapon technology, destroys the invaders and takes back the Earth. Wells had already proposed another outcome for the alien invasion story in The War of the Worlds. It was not widely read, and consequently Wells' vastly more successful novel is generally credited as the seminal alien invasion story. It describes a covert invasion by aliens who take on the appearance of human beings and attempt to develop a virulent disease to assist in their plans for global conquest. In 1892, Robert Potter, an Australian clergyman, published The Germ Growers in London. 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 comparatively microscopic size of 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. 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, alien invasions are also considered to be 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).Īcademics consider the prospects of an actual invasion of Earth by extraterrestrials to be unlikely, as Earth does not have any resources that could not be obtained by aliens elsewhere, among other reasons. 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.Ī similar trope depicts humans in the role of the "alien" invaders, where humans are the ones invading or attacking extraterrestrial lifeforms. 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 extraterrestrial lifeforms 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. Aliens from Mars launch an invasion of Earth in H.