The thread doesn’t have a lot of shows yet, so I’m gonna recommend Resident Alien with Alan Tudyk. He plays the awkward alien so well it’s unreal. The show mixes humor and drama really well. Made me laugh while giving me solid characters to root for.

Mars Attacks! is always a hoot

Independence Day has a lot of great moments

Can’t forget X-Files and ET as well

I guess I never realized how many of these I liked haha

Also this bonus Pixar short, Lifted: https://youtu.be/LVLoc6FrLi0

They Live is pretty good.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Batteries Not Included

Does Invader Zim count by any chance?

Arrival and District 9 show the ships at some point, so do they count as UFO movies? If yes, then those two.

2001 Space Odyssey and Arrival for me

Movies that lean on the mystery/wonder/terror of UFOs themselves -- watch these first:

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Arrival (2016)
• Nope (2022)

For UFO-centered alien movies as baddies:

• Mars Attacks! (1996)
• Signs (2002)
• Edge of Tomorrow (2014) / All You Need Is Kill (2025)
• Fire in the Sky (1993)
• Invaders from Mars (1953) / Invaders from Mars (1986) -- very different movies, but both valid

For UFO-centered alien movies as buddies:

• E.T. (1982)
• District 9 (2009)
• Flight of the Navigator (1986)
• *batteries not included (1987)

Lesser-known but noteworthy entries from deeper in the stacks:

• Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023) -- A curious social satire that gets a bit bogged down by its message but features a unique tone that left a lasting impact
• Penguin Highway (2019) -- A hard-sci-fi core hiding within a cheerful kids movie

Marvin the Martian

Sticking strictly to 'UFO movie', i.e. one involving alien space ships on earth, I'm struggling to think of many...but Flight of the Navigator is a classic kids one.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) has a great story and overall message. Sure, there are some corny bits (like the kid), but I think some of them were intentional. People forget that sarcasm and parody have existed for centuries.

Nobody is mentioning Project UFO. I saw it as a kid.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwoa322Klork1bKONV4s8kyFukPJi52jJ

Of course the intro I remember looked more like: https://youtu.be/yVVADz0Afss?is=oioZcaQj_SkelcaB

I also thought it was called Project Bluebook

Oh and this really bad Christmas based alien show that nobody bit me remembers: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182015/

The Vast of Night

Iirc, American Horror Story season 2 did UFOs/alien abductions.

I won't try to convince anyone that it's "good", but I caught a re-run of the original V movie and series in the 2000s (probably around the time the Sci-Fi channel revived it) and I quite liked it.

Just finished People of Earth and it was fun.

Plan 9 from outer space. Its bad

I really enjoyed the Spielberg miniseries Taken when it came out in 2002, but I rewatched it a couple of years back and it hasn't aged all that well.

https://youtu.be/j2PoXfZdYVU

Set in the distant futuristic world of...

1 9 8 0 !!!!

"The day the earth stood still" still holds up

i quite liked Phoenix Forgotten (2017), it's a good little found footage type thing.