All language subtitles for James.Camerons.Story.of.Science.Fiction.S01E01.720p.HDTV.x264-W4F

I am your father.

I've always loved
science fiction in every form...

out of the shadow

like a gray snake.
And now it's another one,

and there's another one
and another one.

For the power
of its ideas...

It works!

And for the big
questions it asks.

"What's out there
in the universe?

How will the world end?

Will our technology
destroy us?"

Dead or alive,
you are coming with me.

And above all...

It's alive!

"What can we learn
from these fantastic stories?"

So, who wants to say,
"Action," you or me?

You, go on.
Okay. Action!

I think I always have been
a sci-fi fan.

What's possible?
What's gonna happen?

That's kind of like
seeing in the future.

It's just boom!
Right at you. Wshoom.

Science fiction shows you
all the possibilities.

At that point,
it's beyond science fiction.

It's a statement about humanity.

We'll do things that we cannot
even imagine today.

But it's
great entertainment.

Exactly!

This is a whole genre
that's just exploding

because it's so much more fun
than a lot of the other genres.

So badass and cool
and empowering.

You're constantly saying,
"What if?"

And if you're not saying,
"What if?" you're a fool.

Anything is possible.

Ray Bradbury
and Arthur Clarke

and Robert Heinlein.

That was it.
I was hooked.

The concept of the universe
is so mind-boggling.

And then there's also that line
of science fiction fantasy.

I think monsters tell us
everything about ourselves.

Science fiction is just
that special to me.

And we love it, and
we can't get enough of it.

And so we can't stop.

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You've done, I think,
over your entire oeuvre,

between
directing and producing,

you've done many films
about first contact

or invasion.

Was that what was inflaming
your... your young imagination?

My father was the one
that introduced me

to the cosmos.
Right.

He's the one that built,
from a big cardboard roll,

that you roll rugs on...

he built a two-inch
reflecting telescope.

Cool.

And then I saw
the moons of Jupiter.

It was the first thing
that he pointed out to me.

And I saw the rings of Saturn...
Around Saturn.

And I'm six, seven years old
when this all happened.

And so, for me,
the cosmos...

You... You spent a lot of time
staring at the sky.

A lot of time
looking at the sky.

Woke me up
in the middle of the night.

It's scary when your dad
walks into your bedroom,

and it's still dark,
and he says, "Come with me."

Your dad took you out
to watch a meteor shower?

It was the Leonid shower.
Yeah, right, right.

And he took me to a knoll
somewhere in New Jersey,

and there were hundreds of
people lying on picnic benches.

Yeah, well, that scene is right
in "Close Encounters."

Absolutely.
It's the same scene.

I put the scene in "Close Encounters."
Yeah.

And I got out there and
we laid down on a knapsack...

His Army knapsack.

And we looked up
at the sky...

How awesome.

And every
30 seconds or so,

there was a brilliant
flash of light

that streaked across the sky.

And I just remember, you know,
looking at the sky,

because of the influence
of my father, and saying,

"If I ever get a chance
to make a science fiction movie,

I want those guys
to come in peace."

I got a call from my agent,
saying, "There's a job.

Steven Spielberg
is directing a movie.

It's called 'Close Encounters
of the Third Kind.'"

I said, "Excuse me?"

So, I have this
audition coming up,

so I practice
a little bit

of what I think will
help me get the job.

And Steven says, "Well,
we'd love you to do this movie.

You'd be Fran�ois Truffaut's
interpreter.

The only thing is,

we just need to hear
what your French is like.

Is your French good"?

I said...

None of them spoke French
and they said,

"Great, you've got the job.
Your French is terrific."

Have you recently had
a close encounter?

Close encounter with
something very unusual?

Who are you people?

"Close Encounters
of the Third Kind"

had an original title
called "Watch the Skies."

And if you're a real
science fiction buff,

you know where
that comes from.

Every one of you listening
to my voice, tell the world.

Tell this to everybody,
wherever they are.

"Watch the skies."

So, "Close Encounters
of the Third Kind,"

its original title
built a bridge back

to that 1950s classic
science fiction film,

"The Thing from
Another World."

Happy B-b-b-birthday,

you, thing
from another world, you.

Thank you!

The character of Richard
Dreyfuss in "Close Encounters"

is really interesting
because he is not a hero.

He's not a good dad.
He's not a good husband.

He gives up everything
to seek out this idea

that there is life
on other planets.

He's just an absolute,
everyday guy

working for the power company.

And he has an
inexplicable experience

that he cannot deal with.

And when that thing
flies over his truck,

his life is changed.

Characters are kind
of ripped apart.

It's definitely suggested
that his obsession with aliens

is really harming
his kid and his wife.

Well, I guess
you've noticed

that something is
a little strange with Dad.

I can't describe it.

This means something.

But it raises the question

of how far would we
be willing to go

to communicate with aliens.

I understand why
we're always criticized for it,

but I'm also greatly relieved

that there are people
in this world

that will listen to that voice
inside them and pursue it.

You felt compelled
to be here?

Yeah,
you might say that.

But what did you
expect to find?

An answer!

That's not crazy, is it?

"Close Encounters
of the Third Kind"

did something
different with aliens.

Instead of having aliens
just as mostly fearsome monsters

who only wanted to drink
our blood or rule us,

it said there's a lot of amazing
stuff out there in the universe,

and you're gonna
walk away awestruck.

And Steven knew
just how to create

a reaction of wonderment,
happiness, and awe

at the same time.

There is a scene
in "Close Encounters"

when something has landed.

Cary has to open this door

and look and see
these amazing things.

Steven had a number of people
from the movie

dress up in giant costumes...

A rabbit costume,
a mouse costume.

And he said, "Okay, Cary,
now open the door."

And Cary opened the door.

And you could see
the wonder in his eyes...

The excitement, the happiness.

Toys!

Toys!

I think
science fiction as a genre

has definitely always had
a kind of social,

political, cultural message

that's generally contained
in the stories that are written.

You know?
It's not the normal world,

but it's dealing with the things
that we deal with in our world.

And that's the playground
that science fiction plays in.

I have seen it twice.
Have you?

And cried both times.

I think it's a very
emotional experience,

a very beautiful one.

I think it's probably
the most important film

of the last 20 years.

It is a movie written
by a director and writer

who is searching
for meaning in his life.

He's a very
introspective person.

And I think he needed
to make a movie

that provided
some kind of answer

to, "What's
the meaning of life?"

In a way,
this isn't a movie

so much about
the aliens themselves.

What it's really about is us.

You know, how are we
going to feel

when we become aware
of a life bigger than ours?

What would we do?

Are we willing to do
what Richard Dreyfuss did?

Are we better people
than Roy?

Or maybe Roy is
a better version of us.

You really created
a kind of almost

alternate spirituality
or alternate religion.

Yes, and an infinite
superior civilization

is going to find
the best of you

and is going to pull the best
of you out of yourself.

Right.

And you will present the best
part... parts of yourself.

As Lincoln said, "the better
angels of your nature."

Yeah, exactly.

And that's
what goodness does.

You know, good
doesn't inspire evil.

Good, you know,
propagates a greater good.

Right.
And that's what I thought

that the best
science fiction does.

I think one of the most important
things as a filmmaker...

At least of the kind of
awe-and-wonder-type stories

that we're both attracted to...
Is to stay that kid.

Part of that means fighting
off the natural urge of cynicism

as we take everything in.
It's a battle.

Yeah.
It's a battle for me.

It continues to be a struggle for me...
Yeah.

To want to look
on the... the bright side.

More than
any other genre,

science fiction
is the great "What if?"

What would happen
if we woke up tomorrow

and there were spaceships
larger than cities

hovering above us?

Evil alien disasters
are exciting

because we get to
vicariously live

through our fears
of annihilation

while comfortably
sort of eating popcorn.

The alien-invasion movie
is absolutely a metaphor

for the human's darkest side.

The invasion of aliens
destroying our planet

is us destroying our planet.

One of my favorite
alien-invasion narratives

is actually a classic episode
of "The Twilight Zone"

called "To Serve Man."

Aliens arrive,
and humans are, like,

"What are you here for?"

And they're like,
"We want to serve you."

We are here
to help you.

Later, humans sneak
onboard the aliens ship

and find a book there.

"To Serve Man."
I hope so.

And eventually,
they translate it

and find out it's a cookbook.

It's a cookbook!

I think we use aliens
to portray our dreams,

our wishes, our desires,
what we wish we could be.

Most often, I think
we use aliens

to portray
our fear of the unknown.

And in doing that, we see
all these aliens invade.

"Independence Day"
really captured

all of the things
I had dreamed as a child.

And part of what I wanted to do

was bring regular guy
to science fiction

that's really not happy about
his planet being invaded.

Welcome to Earth.

The movie
needed a moment

where we thought that we were
dealing with an enemy

beyond our capabilities.

At the time, the idea
of the White House

was an image
of strength, of power.

Today, we are doing the
explosion of the White House.

Roll camera.

The White House explosion
was always in question.

We had it in the script,

and it was a very important
visual for us in the movie.

But the studio was
very skittish about it.

They said to me, "Roland,
you're German.

You don't understand.

You cannot blow up
the White House."

And I remember Roland saying,
"So, you mean,

it would be very controversial
and everybody would

talk about our movie.
And that's bad, why?"

So, yeah,
it stayed in the picture.

And action!

We were trying to give
a feeling of helplessness.

No one ever thought,
in those days,

that giant landmarks would
blow up the way they did.

This was pre-9/11.

The image of
the White House blowing up

was the tipping point
for "Independence Day."

I remember, I was sitting
in the theater.

I was a couple rows
behind a guy.

And the White House blew up.

And the dude said, "Man!
That's bad. That's bad.

That's... Man, that's bad."

He said, "Girl, that's bad,
that's bad."

"Independence Day"
actually tries to allude

to a lot of classic
science fiction,

both as a way
to appeal to the fans

but also as a way
to give audiences anchor points

for interpretation.

From HAL, the computer...

Good morning, Dave.

To the bubbling clouds

with the spaceship hidden inside
of it from "Close Encounters,"

we added a line
for Jeff Goldblum

as he's escaping the spaceship.

Must go faster,
must go faster.

That's directly
from "Jurassic Park."

Must go faster.

The computer virus is a nod
to "War of the Worlds,"

where the actual virus
kills the aliens.

You can't make a movie
about an alien invasion

without tipping your hat
to "War of the Worlds."

It is the godfather
of all alien-invasion movies.

"But in the early years
of the 20th century,

this world
was being watched closely

by intelligences
greater than man's

and surely drew their plans
against us."

Hello, I'm Orson Welles.

And I've been quoting
from another Wells...

No relation... H.G. Wells,

the distinguished
novelist, historian, prophet,

who was also the great master
of science fiction.

H.G. Wells
was a British writer

at the beginning
of the 20th century

who was one of
the most significant

early science fiction writers.

He was also a very
accomplished science writer

and used science fiction
to explore

what he considered
to be important ideas.

Mr. Wells,
have you any solution

for the very unhappy
state of affairs

that is facing
the world today?

It seems to me that many things
besides the pound

are threatened with collapse.

"War of the Worlds"
is a story, I think,

which Wells intended to be
a confrontation with ourselves.

What would happen if a society
or a civilization

with superior technology
and superior weapons

decides it wants to
take over a civilization

with less advanced technology?

He was writing in the 1890s,

when Britain had been
doing this in India,

it had been doing it
all over the world.

He's saying, "How does it feel
when it happens to you?"

"War of the Worlds"
is such a perfectly pure

alien-invasion story.

You can just kind of
pour out the old fears

that somebody else
was using it to talk about

and then pour in the new fears
that you're experiencing now.

By 1938,
Orson Welles is applying it

to this threat of Nazism
and the impending war.

Might be a face.

Good heavens,
something wriggling

out of the shadow
like a gray snake.

Now it's another one and
another one and another one.

They look like tentacles
to me.

By the 1950s,
we've got the atomic threat.

The aliens now represent
what will happen

with nuclear destruction.

This type of defense is useless
against that kind of power!

And then you fast-forward

to Steven Spielberg's
"War of the Worlds"

in which there's more of a sense
of post-9/11 catastrophe.

Get down! Get down!
Get down!

Is that the terrorist?!

I wouldn't have done
"War of the Worlds"

had it not been for 9/11,

because "War of the Worlds"
is analogous to 9/11,

an event in our American culture
and in the global,

you know, history of... of...
Of you know, terrorism.

Absolutely.
And... And... And...

And America is not a country
that's used to being attacked.

The last time we were attacked
like that was Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor, yeah.
And you...

You managed to turn it
into a family drama

that pulled everybody
together.

Yeah, it was one that said,
"We have to make this

a story about a single dad
who doesn't really even

care about his kids.
Right.

And somehow this event
has to make him care

about his kids more than
he ever cared about himself.

Right.
And so that became the nucleus.

This idea of
the perils of encounter

that H.G. Wells started
in his "War of the Worlds" novel

is an idea that has really
fascinated us ever since...

The idea that
everything we know

could be destroyed
in an instant.

And then, all of a sudden,
Hollywood played into that

through the sci-fi genre
with a lot of movies

in which these aliens
are coming to destroy us

in very sort of overt,
bombastic ways.

And like "Invasion
of the Body Snatchers,"

in a much more subtle,
subversive type of way.

They're here already!
You're next!

"Invasion of
the Body Snatchers"

is a lot scarier,
in some ways,

than your aliens
swooping in from the sky,

"War of the Worlds"-type
of battle,

because you don't really know
who's an alien, who's not.

Is that me?

"Invasion
of the Body Snatchers"

is about a conspiracy

in which people
are being replaced

by aliens from outer space

and generating new
versions of themselves

in pods that take them over.

But
something is missing.

They don't have
your individuality

or maybe some other
kind of human spark

that make us most spectacularly,
magically human.

It's 1956,

and certainly the film
has been talked about

and considered in relation
to the threat of communism,

the lockstep kind of ideology

where everybody
had to be the same.

The term at the time
was "creeping conformity."

Who hasn't felt that,

where you're just
talking to somebody,

and they're not them?

And you know, you're looking
at them saying,

"You're not the person I know.

You've been taken over."

Is that him?
Yeah.

Really it's sort of
like a metaphor.

Do you really want to feel
or do you not want to feel?

Would you rather
just go through life

living in that gray area,

with no real expression
for himself?

Jack! Jack!

Jack!

Science fiction
enables us

to deal with that fear
and that terror,

and that is
subconscious motivations,

without getting
too close to home.

It's a powerful metaphor,
and it's an awful warning.

They're coming!
Listen to me!

You're next!
We're in danger!

Please, listen to me!
Something terrible!

They're already here!

You're next!

Do you take it as read
that aliens exist?

Or... Or is it a wait-and-see
kind of thing?

I think, for me, I think
any statistical analysis...

If you're going to go
by statistics

and you look at Carl Sagan
looking at the idea

of what are
the mathematics behind

"Is there life
on other planets?"...

Those same statistics
are going to tell you

that, yes, there have been
civilizations that possi...

If there have been... if there
is intelligent life out there.

But I also think

that one of the hardest things
to wrap your head around,

in terms of our place
in the universe,

is if we are intended to connect
with other planets

or other civilizations,
they're so far away.

There is some chance
that in the next few decades,

we will get the signal
from some spectacularly distant,

spectacularly
exotic civilization.

And everything on Earth will,
as a consequence, change.

Holy...

Carl Sagan was
so consumed with the idea

that there was life elsewhere,
it drove him to write

a fabulous story about it
in "Contact."

What Carl really was about
was communicating.

He thrived on how people
and how species and how tribes

and how cultures communicate.

That was his thing.

'Cause was going to communicate
with the stars.

Communication becomes one of
the most important themes

in science fiction.
At the same time,

it becomes one of
the most important puzzles

in science fiction.

In "Stanislaw Lem Solaris,"

we're faced with
a sentient ocean.

What does Solaris want
from us?

Why do you think it has
to want something?

In "Star Trek,"
an amorphous cloud.

I do not understand.

And in Arthur C. Clarke's
"Childhood's End,"

communication can be tough,
and the aliens look like this.

There is no need
to be afraid.

One of the best stories
about alien communication

in modern science fiction
is Ted Chiang's

"Story Of Your Life,"

which became one of the best
science-fiction films

of the last few years,
"Arrival."

Now, that's
a proper introduction.

I really loved "Arrival,"

because it was
all about communication

and how many times communication
was just thrown out

before you see it work.

It's
so impressionistic, right?

I mean, it's hard work
to bring to the screen.

I thought that brought
its unique challenges.

And I thought they succeeded
in a really cool way.

Ted Chiang's
original story,

"Story Of Your Life,"

is that we are contacted
by an alien race, the heptapods.

And they seem to want to
exchange information with us.

One of the things
I wanted to do with my story,

that I hadn't seen in a lot
of other science fiction

was to actually
depict the process

of learning an alien language,

when you actually have
to painstakingly

work out vocabulary
and grammar.

Okay, this is where
you want to get to, right?

That is the question.
Okay.

"What is
your purpose on Earth?"

This is the question
we're all trying to get to,

and crossing
that language barrier

may mean the difference
between the end of the Earth

and the dawning of a new idea.

What does it say?

"Offer weapon."

The distinction
between tool and weapon

becomes crucial.

It turns out, of course,
that what they intend

is not at all a weapon
but a tool... in fact, a gift.

And the gift is
their language.

And so
it becomes a story

not so much
about an alien invasion

but about communication,
about two species

trying to connect
with each other.

The key part of it is
that this is nonlinear...

There's no beginning and no end.

All the elements are there,

and you see it
immediately as a whole.

In fact, you see your whole life
laid out in front of you.

And the more she
understands their language,

the more she understands
their consciousness.

And because their consciousness
transcends time,

she starts to remember
the future.

The aliens in "Arrival,"
they are a way of talking

about a radically different
mode of cognition,

different ways of thinking,

different ways of looking
at the universe.

There's an age-old question of
how language relates to thought,

and how language
might influence thought.

You know, I was doing some
reading about this idea

that if you immerse yourself
into a foreign language,

that you can actually
rewire your brain.

Yeah, the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis.

The movie
explicitly references

something called
the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

What it says is, your language
creates habits of speech,

and those habits of speech

translate into
habits of thought.

And so your language makes
you habitually think

in certain ways,

which have a significant impact
on the way you see the world.

The question is, how much?

I believe that our language

absolutely does inform
our reality and shape it.

I would think that the way
that the heptapods' language

really reshapes Louise's
experience of time

is an extreme of that.

But I do believe
that the language

that we constantly recycle
in our own world

absolutely shapes our reality
and can be our own prison.

What I find beautiful
about the end of "Arrival"

is that Louise knows

that her future is going to
bring a lot of pain and joy

if she falls in love,
if she has a baby,

and when that baby dies.

She knows she's going to
make mistakes

that are going to
drive her husband away,

and yet she chooses that pain.

It's this idea of knowing
that what you're about to do

is going to bring you pain,

but knowing that
the happy moments

are going to be worth it.

And that's a really
beautiful thought.

I talk to kids,
and they say, "Well,

where'd you get the idea
for all those aliens?

Where'd you think that up?"

I said, "Well, go
to the aquarium.

You're going to see them
all there."

-That's what I did on "Avatar."
-Yeah.

I took the ocean,
I took all my diving,

and I just brought it
into...

To me, that's one of the most
brilliant things in "Avatar."

One of the biggest problems
you have in science fiction,

with movies... they don't
have it in books or anything...

But in movies, you have to
create a real world,

and it's a real world
that doesn't exist.

It's really, really hard,
and it takes a long, long time.

Right.
Because you've got to create

something that's
truly unusual and different,

but familiar
so you believe it.

Yeah.

And so, after a while,
it can fry your brain.

But now that we've got
digital technology,

you can think of anything.

I always find the morphology

of the anatomy of aliens
interesting.

You know,
science fiction writers,

they're like these
imagination engines.

That's what they are.

Maybe they have
four limbs as we do.

Maybe they look like a spider,

which seems to be
a very popular choice.

Maybe they look like
an octopus or a squid.

I always like to look at nature,

but when coming up
with any creature,

it's always, you want
to create some kind of,

like, aspect of reference.

Where are you coming from?

What is this creature
going to evoke?

It's not just about biology,

but it's about our own
psychology, as well.

And that's our job, is to...

Is to give tactility
to the creatures

so that you evoke
the desired response,

whether it's one of awe, joy,
or love or what it might be.

Obviously, you can make them
very friendly

by giving them big eyes
and big foreheads...

The cute features that
we see in modern humans.

But aliens that are scary
to human beings

seem to always be
slimy and reptilian

for that revulsion response.

In literature,

you can sort of describe
something in vague terms.

You know, maybe
H.P. Lovecraft would say

that, "I gazed upon its visage,
and it sickened my soul,"

or whatever he would say,

but that's not really
a real description.

For an artist, you have to
bring that to life.

And I think the single artist

who has most successfully
defined

this importance
of the look of a creature,

in my opinion,
has got to be H.R. Giger,

who designed
the original Xenomorph.

I was
industrial designer.

It helped me very much
to design a creature.

The Xenomorphs have
a fantastic basic design

that employ all sorts
of psychosexual imagery,

as well as death imagery,

and you know, the phallic head
and its life cycle

that basically starts with rape.

What the hell is that?

When
I first met Ridley Scott,

he pulled out
all these drawings.

It was a very sinister world,

and not a world
I'd ever seen in a film.

In fact, I remember thinking,

"I don't see how you can make
a film look like this."

If you look
at Ridley's movie,

you know, it hasn't dated.

And I think that plays
to a lot of strengths

of Giger's design for the alien.

You know, it's really
a man's life's work

that Ridley got to take
and put onscreen.

I feel pretty strongly
that you created

the best alien movie
in history.

Most beasts are not very good.
Yeah.

Or repetitions of other
creatures that we have seen.

Films have been ruined
by showing the beast finally.

As Steven did in "Jaws,"
the shock was exclusive

to two or three frames,
like that.

Yeah, yeah.

"Our biggest problem will be
to make this work," I said,

"because I haven't
got digital.

It's all going to be
a guy in a suit."

We didn't have any of
that stuff back then.

No. But in this,
he's present.

I can't cut around him.
Yeah.

I have to see him.
But you did it.

With your eye and your taste,
and you recognized the value

of Hans Ruedi Giger's
psychosexual bio-mechanoid.

Yes, the trick there is
one picture from necronomicon.

From Giger's book.
It's the profile.

This is the painting
of the alien

that Ridley Scott wanted
to have for his film.

It was like showing me
a dirty postcard.

He said, "Look at that."

I went, "Holy good God!"
Yeah.

And from that,
the person that drew it

said they were
uncomfortable by it.

It was obscene.
I said, "Obscene's good."

Yeah.

Disturbing and obscene
is very good.

Sexually disturbing
is very good.

Yeah. Play the fear.
Play the fear.

The film was all about
evolution of fear.

Most of the Xenomorphs
combined both masculine

and feminine
sexual characteristics,

and that's terrifying to us

because one of the ways
we make sense

of the monstrous and of others

is by trying
to map them in some way

that matches our own
understanding of existence.

And one of the key ways
that we think about humanity

is in terms of gender.

It's the first question we ask
when we hear a new baby is born.

The problem with the aliens
is that they blend together,

the two, and so are no longer
understandable and controllable.

Now put your hands
on the dome

like you're stroking it.

Remember, like,
that Giger thing?

Ridley met
Badejo Bolaji at a pub.

He was an art student.
He was about 7'4".

His limbs were so
beautiful and exotic

that he already looked like
he was from another world.

The days when Bolaji came in,
we didn't hang out with him.

He is the unknown.

And it's a really a combination
of strange beauty and elegance

and sex and violence

that I think make the
Xenomorph a great monster.

For me, what was,
and still is,

beautiful about science fiction

is, could you have the big,
giant summer blockbuster package

but be diving into serious
religious or political

or social concepts

that sparks people
to get together

and to communicate and evolve?

And anytime you can
actually do that,

I think that, you know,
we've done our job.

Aliens get to be
the carrier

for some of our guilts and fears

around the treatment
of other people.

For some folks, it's easier
to identify with the aliens

than with the main characters.

Come on! Get out!
Get out!

Come on! Get outside!
Move!

In "District 9,"
you have aliens

who are stranded on Earth
and become refugees.

They become stranded above
the city of Johannesburg,

which has this whole
history of apartheid.

And it's done like
it's a documentary.

I thought that was brilliant.

They're spending so much money
to keep them here,

when they could be
spending it on other things.

But at least... at least

they're keeping them
separate from us.

And I think they must fix
that ship, and they must go.

Hello, hello.
Hello, hello.

We follow a government
bureaucrat, Wikus.

Okay.

This is Wikus Van De Merwe
from MNU,

and we are here to serve you
an eviction notice.

He is forced
to become an alien

and see what it's like to be
put into one of these camps

and to be cast out
of human culture.

He is oppressed.

He is spit on.

He's turned into
a government experiment.

We shot
in Johannesburg,

and the shacks that we shot in
were real people's homes.

All of these shacks around here, all of these
residents were moved somewhere else in JoBurg,

which is exactly what happens to
the aliens in the film.

Writing District 9

set in South Africa

it never could have been any
other way.

It was terrible, terrible. Like I get
goosebumps even talking about that.

Xenophobia was just
at its peak at that time...

South Africans attacking
people from Zimbabwe

that were fleeing their country

and coming down
looking for work.

They were putting tires
around their neck

and lighting them on fire

because they were
taking their jobs,

and they were doing that
where we were going to shoot.

That, to me, was
the most sobering moment,

to know that this world
and this fantasy

that you've been writing
actually is happening.

Hang on.

Stop it, stop it!

For some viewers,
it's going to seep in

that a lot of the things

that are being done
to these aliens

are exactly what humans
do to each other.

Many of us come
from communities

that have been marginalized
or already eliminated.

So science fiction
becomes a powerful

means of talking about that,

particularly when it's
doing so deliberately.

Somebody has been
pulled out of the vehicle.

It looks like a human being.

It is the story

of an oppressor
becoming the oppressed.

And ultimately, in my mind,

it's a story of him
gaining his humanity

only after he ceases
to be human.

I think that's

what science fiction
at its best does.

It... It asks those questions.

It asks, "What is it
to be human?"

and, "Are what we call aliens
much more humane than we are?"

Probably the best
example is, in "Avatar,"

humans are clearly the invading,
colonizing, raping,

pillaging,
destroying species.

And it's framed that way
explicitly in the story.

One of the ideas
that "Avatar" plays with

is how the story of
an alien encounter would look

if told from the point of view
of the aliens.

I think that if I
would have approached Neytiri

as an extraterrestrial,

I don't think I would have
ever tapped into her heart.

I needed to look at humans
as the foreign creatures,

as... as... as
the tainted species

that comes here to take.

This story is so simple,
and it's been told before

and we've seen it before.

But I just needed to go
back to the past.

And that was
the most humble journey

I ever embarked on
as an artist,

trying to build a character.

As Grace, I got to play a human

who also exults
in being in her avatar

and in living on the planet
as a Na'vi would.

Jim Cameron has created Pandora
with its indigenous people,

the Na'vi,

as well as this amazing
collection of other species.

And they live in
a primeval world

which is colonized
by a corporation,

not even a country.

It's so powerful because
it is a reflection

of, in fact, the way humans
have conducted themselves,

over the centuries,
all over the world.

No!

When
we're shooting that scene,

Jim wanted us to dig deeper.

We were just crying out
for a fallen tree,

but it wasn't deep enough.

It wasn't as if this tree
was your uncle,

was your grandparent,
was your mother.

It's an extension of your body,

and he wanted to see
that anguish

because at that point,

what the humans are doing
on the planet is wrong.

And they're not welcome.

By that time
in the story,

we're all part Na'vi.

That scene is
really the moment, I think,

that the audience is completely
disengaged from the humans.

And we no longer feel like
we have any sympathy for them.

I think authors try
science fiction specifically

because there's something
that's making them angry

in their current culture
or in their political climate,

and this is a way
for them to shine a light

on what it is
that has them so frustrated.

"Close Encounters" led to...
Led to "E.T."

Which I think of

as kind of
"Close Encounters II,"

the more personal...
But you...

I think of it the same way.

It seems like you took
many of those themes...

Those first-contact themes...

And just made it
very kind of family-centric.

"E.T." was never meant to be

a movie
about extraterrestrials.

It was meant to be a story

about my mom and dad
getting a divorce.

Right.

And so I started
writing a story.

Not a script per se,
but I started writing a story

about what it was like

when your parents
divide the family up

and they move
to different states.

When I was shooting
"Close Encounters,"

and when I did the scene
of the little alien

coming out of the mothership

and doing the Kodaly
hand-sign signals

to Fran�ois Truffaut,
it all came together.

I thought, "Wait a second.

What if that alien doesn't
go back up into the ship?

What if he stayed behind, or
maybe what if he even got lost

and he was marooned here?"
Yeah.

"What would happen
if a child of a divorce

or family of a divorce...
Right.

With a huge hole to fill,
filled the hole

with his new best
extraterrestrial friend?"

Exactly.

One of
my clearest memories,

in terms of an early alien film,
is watching "E.T.," of course,

which was written
by Melissa Mathison.

She told me, actually,
that the original script

did not have him dying,

and that when my dad
passed away,

she was so impacted by that,

that she sort of felt

that she should write that in
for me, in a way,

or for kids who had
suffered loss,

and make it more
than a light affair.

Mom?

Spielberg made a point
of designing E.T.

to be as empathetic-looking
as possible,

to the point that he had
his designer, Carlo Rambaldi,

look at pictures of elderly
people from the Depression

and try to figure out
what made these people

look empathetic
and wise and sad.

And then he said,
"Can you mix in

a little bit
of Albert Einstein?"

It was very important
that E.T. be a face

that would earn your respect
and earn your fondness.

Right.

I didn't want a cute
little character

that would come
out of the gate

making the whole audience
in unison go,

That's the last thing
I wanted.

So that why
I think filmmakers

sometimes have to play tricks
when they portray aliens,

to give them humanlike features,

in order to evoke that kind of
feeling of empathy from us.

And the reason I was
hired for this job

is because I have real long,
thin fingers,

which is my father's fault.

Initially, I was hired
just to do close-ups...

Making the communicator,
turning pages in a book,

touching the plant.

Go down
to the dirt underneath

and dig a little bit.
Let me see you dig a little bit.

And then, the first night,

he kind of fell in love
with my hands,

I guess, is the only
way to put it.

Caprice,
there's the scissors.

Reaching the scissors.

He felt that the combination
of the animatronic creature

and live hands
was the perfect formula.

The hand movement, you know,

was something that created
a sense of engagement,

gave you something to focus on

when you're looking
at this strange body,

and above all,
it gave you a sense

of how human beings
could project onto the other

without any negative
consequences.

I want to see you
really hug.

That's perfect, Henry.
I love that,

with your chin resting on E. T.
Okay.

The last hug in the movie

is one that's
very special to me.

Come.

This was the opportunity that
I actually got to hug Henry.

When Henry is saying
goodbye to E.T.,

I am absolutely sobbing.

Then he's crying,
and I'm crying.

This is what broke
my sister up.

I had not warned her that it
was gonna have a sad ending.

She recalled the fact

that when our mother
used to comfort us,

it was done in the same way

that E. T. Comforts Elliot
at the very end.

So, it's not really a pat,

but it's a kind of
a stroke-pat at the same time.

She said she was hysterical.

They almost had to take her
out of the movie theater,

she was crying so loud.

So, let me ask you
point-blank.

Do you think now,
with your experience

and your view of the world,

that aliens exist?

I... I wanted to believe.

I felt I earned the right
to see a UFO.

I made "E.T."
I made "Close Encounters."

My goodness, I kept
waiting for a sighting.

I have never had
a sighting.

I've met hundreds
of people who have.

You know they want to stay away
from you as far as they can...

They stay away from me.

Because they don't want
to empower this myth

that you're actually a precursor
of an alien invasion.

Well...
You know about this myth, right?

I've heard about this myth.
That you've been...

I know. It's insane.
That you've been intentionally

softening us up
for decades now.

Well, look, you know,
I stay away from sharks.

But I don't want
to stay away from UFOs.

And yet I've never,
ever had the experience.

Well, as a science fiction
writer, that's easy to solve.

This used to be, like,
a really hot tourist place...

And then they left!
For the UFOs.

And then they realized

that they were getting
photographed too much,

so they just
embargoed it, right?

I can almost buy that.

It would almost
help me believe

that aliens did come
here at one time.

That's a great place
to go out.

Thank you, my friend.
Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

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