My Top Ten Favorite Movies Featuring Flying Saucers

Most of my blog posts are purely technical but every now and then I like to take a look at non-technical things that interest me. I’m a big fan of science fiction movies. There are quite a few movies that feature flying saucers. Here are my ten favorites.

1. Forbidden Planet (1956) – An excellent movie with a great flying saucer. In the 23rd century, the captain (Leslie Nielson) and crew of the C-57D travel to Altair IV where they meet Dr. Morbius, his daughter Altaira, and Robby the Robot. Fantastic visual effects and sound effects.

2. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) – The title pretty much says it all. Impressive stop-motion animation of the flying saucers by the famous Ray Harryhausen. I could never quite figure out if the aliens only retaliated after being attacked by the Earth military, or if they were evil from the beginning.

3. Invaders from Mars (1953) – A young boy thinks he sees a flying saucer land in the sand pit in a field behind his house. This movie scared the heck out of me and I had nightmares about the path up the hill for years. Brilliantly directed by William Cameron Menzies.

4. War of the Worlds (1953) – This movie is a bit iffy for this list because the Martians don’t really use flying saucers to get to earth (well, we never see their shape because they burrow under the ground) and their battle machines aren’t quite flying saucers either. But I like the movie so I get to list it here.

5. This Island Earth (1955) – Dr. Carl Meacham and Dr. Ruth Adams are recruited by the Metalunas, led by the big-forehead Exeter, to help them in their war against the Zagons. Actor Russell Johnson, who was later the Professor in Gilligan’s Island, is here too but not for very long.

6. Independence Day (1996) – This is the movie where Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum fly a small refurbished alien flying saucer craft up to sabotage the gigantic flying saucer mother ship in orbit which in turn allows Randy Quaid to destroy one of the really big flying saucers.

7. The Thing from Another World (1951) – Scientists at an Artic rsearch station find a flying saucer buried in the ice and thaw out the occupant, a super-evolved humanoid-like plant, who is not very friendly. Thoughtful movie with intelligent dialogue. The 1982 remake of the film, with Kurt Russell, is also excellent.

8. The Mysterians (1957) – A Japanese film directed by Ishiro Honda, who also did Godzilla. Aliens come to earth to get women for breeding. Earth wins by developing a weapon that reflects the aliens’ weapons. Excellent special effects, except for the aliens whose helmets make them look like human sized chickens.

9. The Atomic Submarine (1959) – In the near future, an alien flying saucer is under the sea in the Artic, destroying cargo submarines. The USS Tigerfish submarine manages to destroy the evil alien saucer. Very scary scenes inside the saucer. Innovative electronic sound effects.

10. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) – This movie is considered a classic, but it ranks low on my list, just barely making my top 10. The 2008 remake with Keanu Reeves was awful. Klaatu barada nikto.

Honorable and Dishonorable Mentions

I never liked Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) with Richard Dreyfuss but the alien saucer ship was decent.

The alien ship in District 9 (2009) had too much junk hanging off it.

The huge saucer ship seen rising out of the ocean at the end of The Abyss (1989) is impressive.

Of historical interest is The Flying Saucer (1950), the first film to deal with flying saucers. Mostly a rather slow-moving espionage movie.

On another day, Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) would have made my top 10. Pretty cool alien saucers look a lot like those from War of the Worlds.

Lost in Space (1998) was terrible. The Jupiter II saucer shaped ship was OK.

The separated saucer section of the Enterprise in Star Trek Generations (1994) doesn’t count.

The somewhat saucer-shaped Millennium Falcon of the various Star Wars movies doesn’t count either.

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) (also known as “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero”) has decent flying saucers that kidnap Godzilla and Rodan, but I don’t like the movie very much.

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) is a very bad movie with unconvincing flying saucers.

Attack of the Monsters (1969) (also known as Gamera vs. Guiron) featured Gamera, the giant flying turtle. A remote controlled flying saucer brings two boys to an alien plane. Not a good flying saucer. Not a good movie.

Fearful Attack of the Flying Saucers (1956) – A Japanese movie that was thought to be lost until a copy was found in 2010. I’ve never seen this movie but hope to do so some day.

Warning from Space (1956) – Another Japanese movie. Friendly aliens come to Earth to warn of an approaching planet on a collision course. Strange movie to put it mildly, but oddly appealing. The flying saucer is not very convincing but the movie cinematography is excellent.

Battle in Outer Space (1960) – The planet Natal threatens Earth. They intend to colonize and enslave everyone. Early battles don’t go well for Earth but newly developed Atomic Heat Cannons finally save the Earth. The aliens had large mother-ship flying saucers and smaller fighter saucers.

Destroy All Monsters (1968) – A race of Japanese-looking female aliens, called Kilaaks, have some sort of plan to do something bad using Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and other monsters. Chaos ensues. The Kilaaks had glowing flying saucers. A lot of fans of Japanese monster movies like this movie but me, not so much. I couldn’t follow the plot at all.

The Strange World of Planet X (1958) aka Cosmic Monsters – An arrogant scientist is conducting experiments with strong magnetic pulses. This has side effects, including huge insects and attracting the interest of an alien race. The scientist refuses to stop his dangerous experiments and so an alien is reluctantly convinced to destroy the scientist’s laboratory.

The Bamboo Saucer (1968) – An alien flying saucer crashes in a remote Communist Chinese village. Military/science teams from the U.S. and the Soviet Union race to the site to try and wrest the saucer from the Chinese and bring it to their respective countries. I’ve watched this movie several times — on some days I enjoy it (grade B-) but on other days it drags too slowly for me (grade C-). What on earth were the producers thinking when they came up with the title of this film?

Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) – This movie couldn’t decide if it was science fiction, comedy, or horror. The saucer only makes a brief appearance before it it blown up by the military. I often like, or at least appreciate, bad movies but this movie isn’t very good.

Destination Inner Space (1966) – The crew of an undersea lab detects a flying saucer that dives into the ocean. The saucer is not a particularly convincing model. The automated alien saucer is visiting different planets to collect animal specimens. This movie is reasonably infamous for the creature that escapes the saucer and menaces the lab crew.

Battle of the Worlds (1961) – In this Italian space opera, a rogue planet enters the Earth’s solar system. A fleet of flying saucers is based on the planet and menaces the Earth’s space forces. Pretty decent special effects for the time, but Italian movies always give me a headache because everything (dialog, plot, etc.) is just slightly off.

The Human Duplicators (1965) – A very tall alien comes to Earth to prepare an invasion by replacing key humans with android duplicates. The plan fails. Even though the movie has several very good character actors from the 1960s, I don’t like this movie and I don’t like the alien’s flying saucer ship shown at the beginning of the movies.