Americans and Aliens at War, Research Paper Example

The stories of superheroes have been around for decades. In every childhood in America, children have been growing up with the comic book, and fantasy worlds of superheroes that are able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and stare death in the face every day. Through all the superhero’s challenges, he is somehow able to find a way to thwart evil and find a way to save the world. The figure of the hero has evolved over time, with heroes being classic figures such as Indiana Jones or Will Smith in Independence Day, to comic heroes such as Superman, Batman, Captain America, and just about every good figure in the DC and Marvel universe. However, more and more movies with everyday heroes such as military personnel, and citizens that come in contact with extraterrestrial beings are being put in the middle of an alien invasion.

Looking at the films, Independence Day (1996), Transformers 3: Dark Side of the Moon (2011), and Armageddon(1998), we can make the consensus that over the past decade, a majority of the action movies have been centered on military, superheroes, and citizens fighting aliens that have invaded the Earth, looking to takeover. In the end, the heroes always manage to foil the aliens’ plans through prestigious weapons, and help from military groups such as the Navy, Special Ops, and other branches. Americans like depict the military as heroes when fighting aliens, because there is a political and economic motivation to receive more military funding, implement military propaganda, and building a strategy if/when aliens do decide to invade Earth. The military acts as our defense against any those that poses a threat to American’s ways of life. They are the superheroes, ordinary heroes, and protectors of all humanity. The drive for employing military in every alien movie, is to emphasize not only their importance, but also the need for significant funding and recruitment to continue their services, and manufacture the “cool” weapons that people see in the movies. The movies underlying agendas are motivated by the economic, social, and political aspects of society in which they will continuously support the military in defending the American people.

Looking at the amount of movies that have been made about alien invasions numbers in the hundreds, starting in the 1940’s, with many more in development. Why the popularity with alien invasions, are a mixture of several elements. Aliens are scary, and the thought of aliens invading Earth, scares people. The thought of aliens fills people with dread, yet they project an inescapable attraction to the individual.  Aliens are generally depicted as evil, odd looking creatures that want to capture people as slaves, or worse kill them. The notion that movies are made to tell the horrific examples contains several subliminal messages that while some in the audience ignore, other experts interpret as meaningful messages.  Aliens have the ability to usurp the mind and bodies of ordinary humans assuming familiar forms, and can be any stranger where no one is immune. According to Rieber and Kelly (2014), aliens are like a social dream where the collective experiences arises to an evolving dynamic between society’s culture and individuals. The dream emerges through aggregated social experiences that are constantly being transformed and characterized by tension. There is no better vehicle for expressing the social dreams to society’s conflicts than through movies. Looking to Rieber and Kelly, “by bringing these conflicts to light, moviemakers, whether they are conscious of it or not, are trying to explain the sources of tension and showing us a possible way out of our dilemma” (Rieber and Kelly 31). What drives any fiction movie is the ideal of what if. The concerns of the society are manifested through the fictionalized tale that invokes emotion of excitement, disorientation, and fear. What keeps these movies in popularity are the constant debate on whether aliens exist. From unreported sightings, to perceived classified documents about Roswell, and the location of Area 51, there has been much information put out since the beginning of time. So it is no wonder that Hollywood we want to capitalize off people’s fears and ideals that aliens exist. Some of the most common questions that people have been how would we respond to discovery of aliens? There have been several resources put on in the literature world, some a work of fiction while others count as realistic scenarios in using research, historical prototypes, and disaster studies that create an outlook of how would people deal with an alien invasion. The continual creation of alien movies is largely driven by money and profit for directors and movie studios; however, it also likes to capitalize on the fear that drives people to continue to watch alien movies. Out of sheer curiosity to see the technology, weapons, and military forces work to take down the alien threat, but also to test their on reactions. The confrontational narrative of alien invasions in films serves as an allegory that reveals a paradoxical relationship of power that challenges the basis of the government. Which comes down to the notions of us versus the aliens.

In the movie, Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon (2011), it centered around the main protagonist throughout the series Sam, played by Shia LaBeouf, teaming up with alien friends known as the Transformers, and his military friends in order to protect the world from an imminent threat of alien invasion. This movie plays on the space landing, in which President Kennedy makes the proclamation that he will put a man on the moon. In the opening scenes depicts the moon landing, and then revealing what it really was for. They found an alien craft, and have been creating weapons since the discovery. The new menacing aliens are bent on taking over the world, and they have created fear among the people, by showing Sam’s picture over the broadcast, calling for his surrender or the annihilation of the world. The characters that are following Sam, questioned themselves if they should turn him in, if that means saving the world. However, Sam has friends in the military and at NASA that help him. Many people, including the military are clamoring to catch Sam, because the aliens appear to have far more weaponry than our military. In looking to the military, in the shots were the Aliens work for the government, the soldiers and the Autobots are seen working together taking down the enemy, and they each show military pride with the flag covered coffin, to the them going through the drills. Sam has to enlist the help of his highly technology advanced friends, and people within the military to ward off the alien invasion, in which the Autobots plans to make the Earth their home.  Simmons one of the main figures of the military and friend, inspire the people with his prolific quote, “Years from now they’re going to ask us: where were you when they took over the planet? We’re gonna say: we stood by and watched” (Transformers Dark Side of Moon, 20110. The soldiers are depicted as showing their military pride, and use of military weaponry equipped to take down tons of machines. Optimus Prime spoke as an allegory for the American military, “In any war, there are calms between the storms. There will be days when we lose faith, days when our allies turn against us. But the day will never come, that we forsake this planet and its people” (Transformers Dark Side of the Moon, 2011). They band to together to rescue civilians and help save the world. At the end once the enemy has been destroyed they are greeted as heroes, including the Transformers, which make Earth their home. This movie infuses all the reason in which the government is still funding space based programs and weapons, which are needed to help save the earth. The heroes are military personnel, and civilians that band together in order to save the world. The fear that was depicted when they took over, forced many to look to the government to make the critical decisions in sacrificing a few to save millions.

One of the biggest ways in which people have tried to answer the question do alien exists, are through research and discoveries made from space exploration. Space exploration has been the primary way in which Americans, and the world are able to offer up evidence that there is life on other planets. The question of alien existence and people’s reaction are mirrored in Albert Harrison’s empirical research. According to Albert Harrison (2011), “for approximately 50 years the physical and biological scientists who led the search for extra-terrestrial life (ETL) and intelligence (ETI) has welcomed contribution from behavioral and social scientists to better understand the psychological, social, and cultural implication of the search and its consequences” (Harrison 656). Many funds have been designated to NASA to explore the unknown parts of space in an effort to validate that there is life out there. Since NASA has focused on finding extraterrestrial life, they have discovered over 700 new planets within this year, and in total almost 1800. These discoveries fuel any conspiracies’ mind that aliens do exist, and could potentially walk among us. The bigger theory is that with these newly discovered planets, the event of an alien evasion seems imminent. This circles back to the question if/when will an alien invasion occur, will the United States be prepared? This hypothetical scenario is answered hundreds of times in several movies in which pits the United States or the World against an alien attack. The question however is why.

America has one of the best military defenses in the world. As a super nation of one of the premier factions in the world, when preparing for a potential war, the military looks at their weapons arsenal to inflict the most pain with the least casualties. One of the biggest advanced weapons facilities that the government funds are DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA is an agency apart of the United States Department of Defense that overseas and is responsible for the development of innovative and new technologies that are utilized for the military. They have funded projects that have impacted just about all countries in the world including computer networking, and the first hypertext system uses as precursors for the graphical user interface. First created by President Eisenhower in 1958, purposed with developing and implementing research and development projects in order to enlarge the frontiers of science and technology that go beyond the military’s immediate requirements. The formation of DARPA (or ARPA at the time) was the need for high level innovative military technology that was beyond the needs of the military at the time. More importantly it was to help them plan for the future that would incorporate a wide range of scientific disciplines with the focus on national security. The original premise of DARPA was in response to the Sputnik 1 launch by the Soviet Union in 1957, which ensured that the U.S military technology be more advanced than the nation’s potential enemies (DARPA).  They began to work on programs that included behavioral science, computer processing, and materials sciences, the programs AGILE and DEFENDER help form the foundation for DARPA’s surveillance, sensor, and the study of infrared sensing, radar, and x-ray/gamma ray detection.

In their later history most of DARPA’s programs involved technology that focused on sea, space-based technology, land, anti-armor and tactical armor programs, They also had high-energy laser technology for spaced-based missile defense, infrared sensing for space-based surveillance, advanced aircrafts, antisubmarine warfare, defense applications of advanced computing, and advanced cruise missiles (DARPA). Due to the governments’ importance that is placed on the space-based technology, there is also a need for more funding.  America prides itself on being one of the top countries in the world through many industries that include military weaponry and technology. The collaboration with other international organizations places their departments far ahead of some of the other super nations. However, DARPA has not been the only American initiative for space-based weapons. President Ronald Reagan had also formed the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) in 1984, widely criticized as an initiative formed from the movie, Star Wars(1977), many saw it as unrealistic, as Reagan wanted to build a global shield in space (Kramer 1).  Even with all the criticism, America has remained ahead of the other nations due to the years of research and testing for comprehensive advanced missile defense systems that have helped with other programs that pertain to weaponry.  The importance of developing weapons for a perceived inevitable alien takeover has been one of the main priorities, besides trying to stop threats by other countries. These programs were built with the purpose of protecting from threats, and advancing military weaponry far beyond the immediate needs of the military. If there is any other need for movies being used as an example for the government or the military, than the example of NASA uploading The Avengers to the International Space Station, as an instruction manual for intergalactic war (Parks and Keating 1).

Of course, these programs and initiatives would not mean anything if they did not have personnel to utilize these weapons. The use of movies that depict alien warfare and invasion, has given way to many what-if scenarios that have caused many military and science personnel to create alien invasion scenarios of how the government would respond. Following the talk of Professor Paul Springer that serves a member of the U.S. Air Command and Staff College, was authorized to discuss the military plans of possible alien invasion. In his talks, he discussed the possibilities of imminent extraterrestrial threat to humanity. His authorized and supported discussion confirmed for the first time that the United States government is drawing up contingency plans for possible alien invasion, and in published books written by defense contractors, that many of the classified plans from the Pentagon were true. One of the first questions that was asked, is what would the alien plans be, according to Springer, it would depend on the wants of the aliens. If they were here to extract resources from the planet, then their purpose will to be to eliminate all those that pose a threat, or resisted them. If aliens wanted to take over and occupy Earth, they would first began by wiping out all communication networks, and eliminate as many weapons that could be a significant threat to them and the resources they want to acquire (Salla 1). Also Springer noted that if needed that all the world’s super powers would eventually band together it an imminent threat was posed to humanity. Springer also said that the Pentagon, “acknowledges the importance of thinking through the many national security issues surrounding the possible existence of extraterrestrial life and technology” (Salla 1).

Looking at Independence Day (1996), an alien invasion film that depicts a race of spacefaring, sapient alien creatures that traveled through space to sponge on the planets natural resources, and then move on to the next planet. The aliens are depicted in the movie arriving on earth in massive ships that possess far superior technology, with advanced defense fields that prevent the military missiles from reaching the hull of their ships. The aliens in Independence Day are far more menacing than in other alien movies. Some of the beginning scenes show people running as they ships destroys some of the major cities, they are hiding and screaming out of fear. The scenes show many people running away, while some gathered around only to be killed off by the aliens. What was not known to the public that the government tried to cover up, was that a small alien craft had crashed in Roswell in 1947 in Area 51, and the science department was continually doing research until 1996 that a large scale invasion happened. It is not until the resilience of two unsuspecting heroes that are the President and Captain Steven Hiller apart of the U.S Marine Corps as an F/A-18. The only way for the Americans to save themselves and the world from the imminent demise, is by a computer virus uploaded to the Alien’s ship mainframe, and to plant a nuclear missile on the alien mothership, in the hopes that it will disrupt the force fields allowing for the military to strike. The scene in which the President acknowledges that all the top commandos have been taken out including NORAD, which provides evidence in which the Aliens are trying to destroy the world. Even though the Government has been creating weapons to fight off large scale attacks, their most powerful weapons are nuclear missiles. This is made evident when the President has a telepathic connection with one of the aliens, and he sees that they have moved from planet to planet consuming their resources, he said, “Nuke ’em, Lets nuke the bastards” (Independence Day 1996). The use of this weaponry is used again in the premise for Armageddon, and many more movies. The tactics used in the movie, are not realistic. However, they do draw on several theories, and that the government is engineering research on aliens in order to create biotechnology, and other technologies to combat future attacks.

Looking at the film, Armageddon (1998), this film takes place in the United States, which follows a group of NASA workers that are sent to stop a gigantic asteroid set on a collision course to the Earth. The earth was not invaded by aliens, however, it did need weapons that were capable of destroying a Texas-Sized asteroid that was going to destroy the earth. The government enlisted the help of not only the military but other NASA scientists in order to insert a nuclear bomb deep inside of the asteroid that would be capable of splitting the asteroid in half, to prevent impact with Earth. Led by NASA oil driller, and Harry Stamper who gathers a team to carry out the plan. One of the biggest takeaways from the movie besides the popular soundtrack, is the lack of technology capable of recognizing the asteroid until these actions were needed. This is illustrated in a pivotal scene between the President and Dan, in which he addresses the matter, “We didn’t see this thing coming? As Dan replied to the President “well, our object collision budget’s a million dollars. That allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and begging your pardon sir, but it’s a big-ass sky” (Armageddon 1998). The surviving members of the voyage make it home and are greeted as American heroes. What the movie proves is that the government is still in need of providing money in order to fund technology that is capable of developing monitoring and satellite systems that can detect objects in space, before the last plan to sacrifice people to implement nuclear bombs on asteroids. While people may think this movie is nothing more than a compelling story left to jerk at people’s emotions, it is really a vehicle by NASA and the government to continue to promote the initiative of space exploration, and technology that is needed to protect the people on Earth. This is illustrated as Harry Stamper is arguing with NASA about their lack of backup plan or contingency plan, instead of send a group of oil drillers to place a nuclear bomb on the asteroid. Without these technologies that the government and NASA provide, it would be impossible to detect objects in space, and protect against threats from land, sea, and space.

According to military documents, the United States has been developing several weapons that can be used to take down motherships, or massive alien crafts, as described by Foreign Policy. The movies depict alien invasions, which unite us in fear, but also, “remind us that when the invading space fleet arrives, humanity is not going to surrender without a fight to our intergalactic invaders” (Parks and Keating 1). With the continuation of alien movies DARPA has created High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense Systems (HELLADS), they also like invisibility cloaks, high powered lasers, hypersonic planes and aircrafts, and aero-adaptive aero-optic beam control. Among several high powered vehicles, shooters, clocking devices, missiles, and satellites that detect the launch of missiles, or the detonation of nuclear weapons on Earth (Parks and Keating 1). There are several other weapons that the United States has developed in case of a potential threat in space that includes, the THEL, Tactical High Energy Laser, that is used as high powered microwave energy weapons that have the potential to stun or kill like that in the movie Star Trek. Cosmic Satellites, already used in the military, has the ability to attach to other satellites as a parasitic microsatellite that can take them down or destroy them (SPACE.com Staff 1). The United States is aware that it must be ahead of the competition as far as advanced military weaponry in order to protect the people of the United States. There are several weapons that the public are not aware of, that has been in development that goes far beyond expectations. With the creation of movies that form around advanced uses of technology and military power, the imagination of people, and the want of people for these weapons will continue to support the developments. The different scenes of the movies depict the technology such as nuclear weapons, and advanced weaponry to take down the space-based threats. While the movies are fiction, it does give support to the government using movies as a vehicle to not only further the actions by the military and the governments needs to fund military weapons, but that the heroes that will save the United States and the world are military forces.

The military is a formidable weapon, and is indispensable when the U.S is looking to maintain order and stability in places of unrest. The reason for why Americans will be the heroes in movies in which we do battle with the aliens, is to further need for weaponry ideas and funding, and also to further the propaganda for military recruitment. The advanced military weapons that are used to keep America safe are depicted in several movies in which America that serves as the entire world in movies, has to do battle with out of this world aliens, that are made up of weapons, technology, and machines that have the ability to transform and adapt to any vehicle in the United States. Military forces seem like the formidable option in exacting damage on alien or any type of threat. They are largely presented in just about every alien movie, in which they play the American heroes. In real scenarios in which they go to war, they are real-life American heroes, because they put their lives on the line in order to protect the American people. The military represents a default position, according to Stephen Hanke (2013). Movies often utilize characters that have some capacity of military background, “in which military forces inevitably provides the solution to dramatic conflicts; in which military structures of authority are assumed to be universal throughout all other social institutions (the police, the educational system, the prison system, etc.” (Hanke 4). These movies use a substantial amount of propaganda used in soldier recruitment that includes scenes where soldiers are showing how exciting it is to be in the military, soldiers’ pride, and examples in which only the military is able to get their hands on cool weapons, or ultimately save the day.

These type of movies infuses not only the elements of military propaganda that is needed to ward off attacks, but also funds are needed to be used in order to continue to explore space. Create technologies and weapons that are able to monitor, detect, and destroy an imminent threat to the United States and primarily the world. Transformers Dark Side of the Moon serves an example in which Aliens not only works as our allies but also as our enemies in which we must continue to find ways to stop their invasion. Armageddon is a movie that shows the lack of resources and technology that was available to detect a massive asteroid that was hurtling towards the Earth. This presents the example and support for more government funding to military programs that focus on both advanced technology and weaponry. While Independence Day, presents our worst fears of aliens that came to Earth decades earlier, and return to take over the world. The band of heroes in each movie that shows military personnel, comes to save the day, as they are our modern day superheroes. In the scenes described it questioned the government’s intelligence and the provided the types of weapons that would be capable of killing the aliens. This scenario as most, rely on the intervention of military forces that subjugate military recruitment techniques through propaganda aimed at showcasing the positions needed to thwart any attempt at world domination.

Works Cited

DARPA. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. 2014. Web. 10 April 2013. http://www.darpa.mil/

Hanke, Stephen. “Military Science Fiction Film.” Virtual SF. July 2013. Web. 10 April 2014. http://virtual-sf.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Hantke.pdf

Harrison, Albert. A. “Fear, Pandemonium, Equanimity, and Delight: Human Responses to Extra-Terrestrial Life. “ Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 368, 656-668. 2011. Web. 9 April 2014. http://www.michaelsheiser.com/UFOReligions/Harrison%20Fear,%20pandemonium,%20equanimity%20and%20delight%20human%20responses%20to%20extra-terrestrial%20life.pdf

Kramer, Peter. “Ronald Reagan and Star Wars.” History Today. 1999. Web. 10 April 2014. http://www.historytoday.com/peter-kramer/ronald-reagan-and-star-wars

Parks, Cara and Keating, Joshua E. “Battleship Earth: Does the Pentagon have the right weapons to fight off an alien invasion?” Foreign Policy. 30 May 2012. Web. 10 April 2013. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/31/battleship_earth

Rieber, Robert W., Kelly, Robert J. “The Aliens in Us and the Aliens Out There: Science Fiction in the Movies.” Film, Television and the Psychology of the Social Dream, pp 31-44. 2014. Article.

Salla, Michael. “Pentagon plans for Alien invasion exist according to military professor.” The Examiner. N.d. Web. 10 April 2014. http://www.examiner.com/article/pentagon-plans-for-alien-invasion-exist-according-to-military-professor

SPACE.com Staff. “Top 10 Space Weapons.” SPACE. Com. 5 April 2013. Web. 10 April 2014. http://www.space.com/19-top-10-space-weapons.html

Yang, Yaochong. “Stuck Watching the Skies: What Alien Invasion Films Can Tell Us About Challenges to Hegemonic Authority? University of Waterloo. 2013. Web. 9 April 2014. https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/7942/Yang_Yaochong.pdf?sequence=1