Disclosure Day arrives this week and, with UFOs very much on our minds, Alasdair Stuart’s here to recommend some other UFO movies for you. Some of these are slightly obscure, but they can all be streamed or rented and we’ve got those details for you.

Hangar 18 (Streaming on Prime, Pluto)

Steve Bancroft (Gary Collins) and Lew Price (James Hampton) witness a UFO inadvertently kill a fellow astronaut during a shuttle mission. Framed for the death, the two men track the downed UFO down. Hoping to prove their innocence, they’re instead dragged into the political expediencies of an imminent election, the shadowy world of counterintelligence and a secret older than humanity.

Featuring a cameo from the Night Stalker, Darren McGavin, himself as the NASA Deputy Director this is one of my earliest movie memories. It’s aged very badly in the middle, especially the extended highway chase/gunfight that culminates in some deeply weird property damage, but the ending is still fantastic.

The Day The Earth Stood Still

(1951, Streaming on Cultpix, Rentable on Prime Video and Sky)

(2008, streaming on Disney + and 4+, Rentable via Apple, Rakuten and Sky)

A mysterious alien emerges from a spacecraft that makes a very public landing, and the Earth changes forever.

The Robert Wise original is universally regarded as one of the best science fiction movies ever made, and it is. Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal both do excellent work as the two leads and the refreshingly upfront approach and delightful aesthetics mean the movie’s serious message lands.

The remake gets dunked on a lot but I have a lot of time for it. It’s the start of the Keanu Reeves renaissance, and it makes some very gutsy choices, most notably an ending that echoes the original but finds some a different tone. It’s also got a welcome sense of humanity and there’s a couple of beats in the opening especially which are fantastic.

No One Will Save You

(Streaming on Disney +)

Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever) is a seamstress living quietly on the edge of her town and her life. When she kills an alien in her home, Brynn slowly steps back into the world and discovers things have changed…

Brian Duffield’s movie builds and builds even as it drills down into Brynn’s past and a very different take on alien invasions. Almost silent, unflinchingly horrific and surprisingly nuanced and tragic, this is arguably the darkest movie on this list and certainly one of the most rewarding.

The Vast of Night

(Streaming on Prime)

In 1950s Cayuga, New Mexico, teen DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) and his friend Fay (Sierra McCormick) hear a mysterious audio signal and begin taking calls from locals who are seeing something hovering in the sky…

One of those perfect movies that knows exactly what it is and how to get where it needs to go. The mounting sense of dread is brilliantly realised and the collision between the small town and the colossal ideas circling it are intelligently handled. Great performances, incredible atmosphere. All the movies on this list are great, but this may be the best one.

Watch the Skies

(Stream on Prime, rentable on Rakuten, Prime and Sky)

Denise (Inez Dahl Torhaug) is convinced her missing father was abducted by UFOs. She joins, and sometimes opposes, a group of UFO researchers to discover the truth.

One of my favourite movies of recent years, and one that sits directly inside the dichotomy between wanting to believe and being terrified of what happens when you do. Dahl Torhaug is incredible in the lead role and like a lot of movies on this list it takes you into and through and out of where a lot of UFO stories finish. It’s also genuinely very spooky.

UFO

(Rentable on AppleTV, Rakuten, Prime)

Derek Echevaro (Alex Sharp) is a gifted maths student who believes he saw a UFO when he was a child. When another one causes Cincinnati International to shut down, Derek, his professor Rebecca Hendricks (Gillian Anderson) and government operator Franklin Ahls (David Strathairn) are all drawn into the search for the truth.

Zero budget, maximum invention and a clever use of Anderson gives this small scale movie welcome depth and complexity. No one here is just what they seem to be, and the ending edges towards and addresses the fundamental issue of UFO stories, that missing third act.  A lighter, kinder take on ideas expressed in Hangar 18.