10 Alien Invasion Movies Where Humanity Loses

Douglas Adams’ classic sci-fi series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy got a sublime but often overlooked adaptation in 2005, when director Garth Jennings and a smattering of stars hopped aboard the Heart of Gold in search of the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

We follow the human Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), a newbie to intergalactic travel, who finds himself hurtling across the universe in his dressing gown. But while it's all fun and games along the way, it can be easy to forget that it’s an alien invasion that kicks everything off, sending Arthur in search of a solution.

The Vogons, a dull, bureaucratic alien race, arrive above Earth and issue a warning, instructing humanity that their planet must be demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. Scenes of panic and terror erupt below, but alas no amount of squawking and flapping can forestall this foregone conclusion, and in a single flash, our planet is obliterated, its existence a mere memory, only stardust floating into the aether.  And with the grumpy homebody Arthur Dent as one of the only humans remaining, it’s hard to see how this could be tallied up as anything but an absolute loss.