Discussion Film / TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951

Moved to the discussion page because this is a discussion, not a trope example. If you can come to an agreement on an example description, please add that back on the work page.

• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The main twist of the movie's "alien invasion" is that Klaatu is really a peaceful ambassador sent to deliver a warning that humans need to straighten up and fly right. From the perspective of the interplanetary federation that Klaatu serves, Earth is basically their equivalent of a hostile rogue nation, with warlike tendencies and expansionist policies. Klaatu specifically says that the reason they decided to contact Earth now is because recent advances in rocketry and nuclear weapons indicated that humans were on the verge of expanding into outer space, and they feared that they would spread their aggression with them (the film was made six years before Sputnik launched). He also specifically underlines that they will not intervene in how humans conduct internal affairs on their own planet.
  • A thoroughly Broken Aesop considering Klaatu arrives with zero warning, shuts down all power on Earth (with the exception of hospitals and in-flight airplanes) — which potentially caused thousands of deaths — all to deliver a message of complete annihilation if they do anything remotely "threatening" to a planet they didn't even know existed solely because Earth has the theoretical capability to attack them, not because of any action Earth intentionally or unintentionally made against them. This makes Klaatu's planet look extremely hostile and xenophobic, ruining the film's intended message.
  • Klaatu warns humanity that if they continue on their present path of war and conflict, they will eventually become a danger to the galactic community and will have to be destroyed. The humans react aggressively towards his actions which they perceive as threatening, such as the surprise gift and the temporary (but carefully non-lethal) electricity shutoff.

This film is not an example of Not So Different. The trope requires not only that characters be not-different, but that one or more of them recognises this and remarks on it in the story. No such recognition occurs in this film.

This film is not an example of Aliens Are Bastards. The trope is about unambiguously monstrous and hostile aliens, aliens who try to wipe out the human race or take over the planet. It's not about aliens who walk around looking at the sights, have a few quiet conversations, and then go home.

You are of course entitled to have your own opinion about whether the aliens are as good as the filmmakers thought they were, but please try to keep your conclusions separate from what's actually in the film.