Alien Hunter (2003).

Director: Ron Krauss
Body Count: 10, 1 dog, 1 alien

Get those visions of men in camoflauge hunting down evil aliens out of you mind, because, well thats not what this movie is about (I know, I know – why would they name it that if it wasn’t about killing aliens…beyond me). The movie is about some Antarctic scientists that find a frozen alien and set it free. The twist, its friendly yet it carries a flesh eating virus that tends to kill off the people. The government knows all this (of course) and has plans on nuking the whole place. What I don’t get: apparently this same virus got out at Roswell (yes THE Roswell), and didn’t kill off mankind, so if the virus couldn’t escape the New Mexico Desert how does it plan on getting off Antarctica? AND why are we obsessed with Aliens with organic technology? AND why is the transmission that says not to open the capsule encrypted out the wazoo and in English once decrypted? If you don’t want someone to open something why would you write it in code?

Alien hunting law:

1. How about a little good old fashioned space law: Julian (played by James Spader . . . yeah THE James Spader) used to be involved with SETI . . . until the government pulled the funding.

2. More space law: one character states that “NASA obsessed with selling Congress on Planetary colonization.” Don’t hold your breath on that particular apprpriation.

3. They are going to nuke Antarctica. There is a treaty known as the Antartcic Treaty that states that the Antarctic is for Peaceful Purposes. Seems to me that this might be a bold move for just the American’s and the Russians. There would be a bit of an International law issue and fall out.

4. And as always when those Aliens come out Metalaw comes in. How do we treat a friendly Alien with a nasty virus?

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Communion (1989)

Director: Philippe Mora
Body Count: 0

Based on Whitley Streiber’s book by the same name, Communion charts Streiber’s alleged abduction by Aliens and the effects that it had on him and his family. Streiber, played by Christopher Walken, is abducted and researched by aliens from his country get away. He and his family must then cope with the psychological impact of the event. The movie looks a bit dated now; the aliens look more like they came out of Jim Henson’s puppet shop than like real creatures, and the abduction scenes are like Monty Python skits . . . Mony Python skits with Christopher Walken.

Abduction law:

1. Whitley’s wife says that the shrink should be trusted because she gives “evidence [that] is accepted in court.”

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Bad Taste (1987)

Director: Peter Jackson

It is only when one watches Peter Jackson’s early films that you are awe struck by the fact that a production company would entrust massive amounts of money to him to make the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is a leap of faith of epic proportions. These early works are generally juvenile and poorly made, but they do have something about them that make them strangely endearing.

In Bad Taste a group of aliens has landed on earth and has harvested an entire town full of people in order to take them back and use them as the new Fast Food on their planet. Luckily there is a government team that is assigned to investigate. It then turns into an all out blood bath between man and alien.

Law in bad taste:

1. As always when there is a government entity that has legal authority over extraterrestrials we get an issue of metalaw. No one in the film really worries about it as they commence to kicking alien butts (which are real saggy).

2. The Government agency is authorized to use violence when there is a threat to the Earth or the Moon. This could be a question of space law. Can the “peaceful purposes” clause in the Outer Space Treaty be breached in order to defend the moon against human eating aliens (maybe that’ll be in part two)?

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The Core (2003)

Director: Jon Amiel
This horrible little action adventure film has the United States creating a weapon that stops the core of the Earth from spinning. This is going to lead to the end of the world because . . . well because that is what happens when the center of the earth stops spinning. As a solution to this pesky problem, the US government enlists a team of scientists and geologists to build a craft that can go to the center of the earth and set off nuclear explosions to get the core going again (I know it sounds like a bad Jules Verne novel).

These are the legal quandries:

1. At the beginning a Space Shuttle crashes into downtown Los Angeles. This damage isn’t covered by the Liability Convention. Just what sort of insurance is NASA toting?

2. The United States developed the weapon on the grounds of Mutually Assured Destruction. Seems to fit.

3. The guys are cruising around in a ship underground. Now, granting that the ship is made out of a material called unobtainium that ain’t remotely real, just how far down does national soveriegnty go.

4. The United States saves the world, but also destroyed part of it first. How much state responsibility is gonna apply to the destruction of Rome?

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