“You will believe a man can fly,” promised the tagline, and, although the impressiveness of the SFX of the time have diminished considerably, one has to be the hardest of hard-bitten cynics to not succumb to its euphoric tone and myriad charms. But the most iconic version of the legendary figure unquestionably belongs to Christopher Reeve in Richard Donner’s 1978 film. Superman, the original superhero, had been depicted onscreen prior-with a live-action television show, as well as both animated and live-action big screen serials, it’s true. Here are the 50 best movies about aliens: We’ve included many entries from The Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, The Best Superhero Movies of All Time and even The Best Anime Movies of All Time.

Whether visitations from malicious invaders or those coming to save us from ourselves, stories of humanity encountering alien races on their own turf or movies taking place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, these 50 films present us with a wide-range of life on other planets. The Fermi Paradox might have scientists scrambling for answers on why we haven’t been able to make contact with alien races, but filmmakers have rescued us from the Great Silence with countless fictional encounters with aliens throughout cinema history. And those imaginings made it onto film as early as 1918 with Holder-Madsen’s A Trip to Mars.

Humanity has wondered about life on the moon and among the stars at least as early as the second century, when Lucian wrote about his travels to the moon and stars and his encounters with the people there.

The hidden movie shapeshifter cop