Humanity has fought off hundreds of alien invasions in the movies. But how would we cope if the fantasy became reality?

As part of our Apocalypse Fortnight, we spoke to ex-Ministry of Defence and MoD UFO specialist Nick Pope about the ideal response to sixteen cinematic alien invasions.

1. The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

The Threat: Silver-suited Klaatu and robot Gort can melt guns, cut power and do advanced maths, but Gort’s pant-lines still show.

The Fallout: Park-dwellers panic. Cops go berserk.Scared state troopers get trigger-itchy but Gort melts guns. Klaatu freezes lifts and turns lights out.

The Solution (Nick): “I think things would have gone better if not for the trigger-happy soldier!

That said, while not as hell-bent on destruction as some sci-fi aliens, there’s a clear threat here from Klaatu and our response would be to stress our belief in freedom, self determination, etc.

I think we’d have a chance of negotiating ourselves out of this one.”

2. The War of the Worlds (1953)

The Threat: Manta-ray flying machines protected by force fields, the derigueur invading-alien techno accessory.

The Fallout: Heat rays frazzle friendly approaching earthlings like chips in a pan. Watches stop, lights go out and LA looks like the Blitz.

The Solution (Nick): “OK, no room for negotiation. This is total war and knowing what we know, chemical and biological warfare would be our key to survival.

A dirty kind of warfare, but if our survival depended upon it, we’d have no qualms. It’s clearly them or us.”

3. Predator (1987)

The Threat: Trophy hunters preying on species for sport. Boasting active camouflage, an armoured suit, infrared hunting tech, energy weapons, wrist blades and an area-wipe-out self-destruct mechanism among their toys.

The Fallout: Having skinned a Green Beret team in the jungle, the Predator wallops a squad of US Army Special Forces.

The Solution (Nick): “If you want to survive, drop your weapons or get pregnant [see Predator 2]. I think mutual respect is the key here, as we saw in Alien Vs Predator.

Let’s fight with these guys, not against them. Team them up with the SAS and go after Bin Laden and his murderous Al-Qaeda/Taliban chums.”