3. The Government The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)
Were not really supposed to like the government in The Day The Earth Stood Still. After all, theyre not nice to Klaatu, who they imprison and torture while demanding to know precisely what hes doing on Earth. This in turn makes Klaatu judge humans and command the giant robot he brought with him (GORT) to go murder-crazy, demolishing all humans and non-organic matter with a swarm of locusts. But picture all this from the humans side they firstly realise that theres an asteroid of some sort heading toward them, only to see it slow down and land in Central Park, at which point a giant freaking robot and an unknown life-form step out. Of course youre going to surround whatever that thing is with an army, and you might even feel vindicated when a bloody great robot steps out. Then when said alien now Keanu Reeves-ified says he represents a large group of aliens, youre guaranteed to be scared. Youve not only had the bombshell of were not alone in the universe dropped on you, you then learn theres a load of aliens out there in some sort of conglomerate. Its a lot to take in is what Im saying, and you could probably excuse the hair-trigger save-the-species reactions with the very real trauma youve suffered. Your reaction didnt even matter anyway, because Klaatu had a sleeper agent who was going to tell him to kill everyone regardless. The fact Klaatu turns out to be just as threatening as everyone fears, killing countless millions, demolishing huge swathes of America and depriving Planet Earth of electricity just serves to vindicate why we were all so scared of him in the first place. Id say its a good call on the governments part.