10 Good Alien Abduction Movies

The last part of June celebrates the day when the first-ever UFO sighting took place, so it seems like a perfect time to unveil my list of 10 good alien abduction movies. Sure, we’ve all heard about those little grey bastards who beam humans into their ships and start greasing up the anal probes, but there are worse things in the cold depths of space.

So what defines an alien abductee? In the movies, I suppose it’s anyone who has the misfortune of being pulled aboard an alien craft against their will. In real life, however, the Center for UFO Studies (man, I love the Internet) has a very specific list of criteria. If you meet all the following, you can proudly claim to have been abducted by aliens:

• You must be taken against your will.
• You must be taken from terrestrial surroundings.
• You must be taken by non-human beings.
• You must be taken to an enclosed place that’s not terrestrial in appearance (most likely an alien spacecraft).
• Once there, the person must either undergo an examination or engage in some form of communication with the abductors (or both).
• These experiences may either be remembered via hypnosis or consciously.

So sit back and enjoy this list of 10 good alien abduction movies. The next time the Greys, Nordics, or Reptilians show up, you’ll be more than prepared.

Fire in the Sky (1993) – Based on the book by Travis Walton (The Walton Experience) in which he described his real-life alien abduction, Fire in the Sky focuses on the mental toll such an event takes on both the abductee and their friends. Travis Walton (D.B. Sweeney) is clearing a forest in northeastern Arizona with his friends and co-workers when a UFO is spotted in the night sky. Stepping out onto the road to get a closer look, Travis is illuminated by a bright light and hauled aboard a spacecraft for a series of rather unpleasant experiments. His friends, meanwhile, deal with skeptical law enforcement officers (including James Garner and Noble Willingham) who believe that murder may be answer to Walton’s disappearance. Five days later, a naked and frantic Walton contacts them from a gas station pay phone. Robert Patrick, Craig Sheffer, Peter Berg, Bradley Gregg, and Henry Thomas star as Walton’s friends, and X-Files creator Chris Carter was so impressed with Patrick’s performance that he would later cast him as FBI Special Agent John Doggett in the show’s eighth season.

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Progeny (1999) – A professional couple (Arnold Vosloo and Jillian McWhirter) are initially thrilled when they find out they’ve managed to conceive, but this later turns to terror as they become convinced the child originates from another source. Filled with bizarre scenes of alien probing and fondling, the film is notable for lots of nudity from lead McWhirter. Brad Dourif plays an expert on parapsychology and UFOs, and Lindsay Crouse and Wilford Brimley co-star.

Communion (1989) – Based on the best-selling novel by Whitley Strieber, which is a non-fiction account of the author’s brushes with aliens, Communion stars Christopher Walken as the author. When he and his family take a vacation in the wilderness, they experience the extraterrestrial phenomenon up close and personal. Highly influential in popularizing the appearance of the spindly Greys, the film is also notable for the co-starring appearance of Lindsay Crouse (making her second appearance on this list of good alien abduction movies). If aliens did abduct Christopher Walken, I have a feeling that they would immediately leave and never come back.

The Fourth Kind (2009) – Shot in a mock-documentary style, the film claims to present actual events that took place in the year 2000. The central character is Dr. Abbey Tyler (Milla Jovovich), a psychologist in Nome, Alaska trying to carry on the research of her murdered husband. But as she uses hypnosis to interview patients who all claimed to see a bizarre white owl outside their window, she slowly uncovers a less-than-friendly plot by aliens to abduct humans, drill holes in them, and conduct assorted forms of experimentation. Co-starring Will Patton and Elias Koteas, fans of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity will want to check this one out.

Lifted (2006) – It only runs for five minutes, but this computer animated short from Pixar presents an entertaining (and lighter) look at the phenomenon of alien abduction. Stu is a young aliens who’s being schooled in the finer points of abducting humans. With his instructor, Mr. B., looking over his shoulder, Stu launches into an inept attempt to get a sleeping farmer aboard their spacecraft. Nominated for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards.

The X-Files (1998) – The first big-screen adventure of Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), the film is set between the fifth and sixth seasons of the show. While investigating the bombing of a building, the duo begin to uncover evidence of an alien colonization of the planet and a government conspiracy to cover up the fact. This eventually leads to Scully getting abducted and Mulder heading to her rescue at an underground facility in Antarctica. Mitch Pileggi reprises his role as Assistant Director Walter Skinner, and Martin Landau, Blythe Danner, and Armin Mueller-Stahl also star. A must-see for fans of the show.

Altered (2006) – Directed by Eduardo Sanchez, who also helmed The Blair Witch Project, this straight-to-DVD release is far better than you might initially expect. In fact, it’s one of the best alien abduction movies I’ve ever seen. Fifteen years before the beginning of the film, a group of five teenagers were taken aboard an alien craft. Subjected to horrible experiments, all but one of the youths were eventually returned home. Knowing that their friend died aboard the spacecraft, three of the vengeance-minded abductees manage to track down and capture an alien in the present day. Unsure of what to do next, they take him to the remaining abductee’s home, a man who’s isolated himself from the outside world for years. What follows is a tension-filled cat-and-mouse game between the bitter abductees and the sadistic extra-terrestrial. If you’re looking for a good alien abduction film that flew under the radar upon its initial release, I’d highly recommend this one.

The Arrival (1996) – Charlie Sheen stars as Zane Zaminski, a SETI radio astronomer who picks up a radio signal coming from 14 light years away. He passes the info along to his boss (Ron Silver), and shortly finds himself out of a job and blacklisted in the industry. Suspecting a massive conspiracy, Zane begins to do his own research and discovers freaky aliens with backwards legs, a rapidly dying planet, and a sinister plot to eliminate the human race. Considering his real-life views on 9/11, Sheen’s the perfect guy to play a man surrounded by a vast conspiracy. Lindsay Crouse makes her third appearance on this list.

Independence Day (1996) – Released during the Fourth of July weekend in 1996, Independence Day was a monstrous hit that pulled in over $800 million at the global box office. When aliens show up sporting massive city-killing cannons and impervious force fields, the human race immediately winds up on the ropes. But never count out plucky heroes like Will Smith (as a cocky fighter pilot), Jeff Goldblum (an MIT whiz), and Bill Pullman (the President of the United States). It’s big dumb fun of the variety you’d expect from a Roland Emmerich film. So where does the alien abduction angle come in? Randy Quaid plays an alcoholic crop duster who claims to have been an abductee, and it later becomes obvious that the attacking aliens were doing some recon prior to their invasion of Earth.

Predators (2010) – Robert Rodriguez produces and Nimrod Antal (Kontroll) directs this sci-fi actioner intended to be a direct sequel to the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. This time around, the Predators abduct some of the most dangerous members of the human race and dump them on an alien game preserve to be stalked by a new breed of hunter. Adrien Brody plays a merc, Topher Grace a serial killer, Danny Trejo an enforcer for a drug cartel, Alice Braga a black ops sniper, Oleg Taktarov a Russian commando, Louis Ozawa Changchien a Yakuza hitman, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali a death squad officer, and Laurence Fishburne as a Navy Seal. While it’s not your standard alien abduction movie, it does qualify. It also offers the abductees something not found in most of these films…the chance to fight back.

All of these good alien abduction movies are available on Amazon, and you won’t find lower prices anywhere. If buying movies isn’t your thing, you can also become a subscriber to Netflix and rent them instead (with no late fees ever). Either way, we receive a small commission if you spend any money after following our links, but it all goes right back into paying for the day-to-day costs of running a website.

If you enjoyed the list of good alien abduction movies, you might also like the following:

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