Challenge #03118-H209: A Mirror Crack'd

A human has an archive of old horror science fiction movies from Earth spanning the 1990's to the first twenty years of the 2000's. Among these are movies like Alien, Predator, Europa, and so forth. Many of the movies portrayed aliens as monsters and horrifically powerful predators hunting humans as prey. But there was a reason for this. They also had movies like Close Encounter of the Third Kind, E.T. and more benevolent movies as well. They wished to teach a class on the fears humans had of one day meeting aliens, and the hope they had for the future. -- Anon Guest

"Science Fiction is, and always has been, a mirror. Mary Shelly held a mirror up to the blooming modern era and said, Mankind should be careful with what it's making. H. G. Wells not only saw a potential for exploration, but also warned of the hazards. War of the Worlds is the seminal invasion fear. Other beings will come and bring devastation to everything we know... but it was also a mirror to the devastation that white colonialism was visiting on everyone else." Human Ritt apparently came up for air. Ze grinned nervously. "Sorry, I've been rehearsing this Ed Talk so long I just launch into it. You may have asked the wrong question."

"I did say 'why the movies'," said Gorx. He turned to another display poster. Three-legged machines were vaporising human figures with death rays. "This is for educational purposes?"

"Oh yes. Fears of Them coming to do what we've already done to Others, that one. The Invasion Narrative is almost too on the nose. They come, they take over, they appear benevolent or they just don't care, they start wrecking everything, including important cultural artifacts..." this display poster had a giant flying saucer immolating the White House. "To the fictional aliens, I guess this was Manifest Destiny."

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