6 First Contact Sci-Fi Movies That Are Even Better Than Project Hail Mary

Published Sep 20, 2026, 7:15 PM EDT Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant, CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more. Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor. He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre. To learn more, visit his website at shawnlealos.net. Project Hail Mary was a huge success when it was released in theaters in 2026. The movie stars Ryan Gosling as Grace, a middle school teacher who is also a former molecular biologist. Scientists from all over the world recruit him because his past research could help save the Earth, as an alien microbe is dimming the sun, which will cause catastrophic global cooling. He is then sent into space to set a plan in motion to save the planet. When Grace reaches his destination, he is the only survivor on his flight, and then he meets an extraterrestrial being who has also been sent to save his planet. This first contact moment in Project Hail Mary was one of its most popular moments, with the alien, Rocky, a standout character. While the movie made $685.3 million at the box office and has a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score, it isn't the best first contact movie. Throughout movie history, there have been several movies that touch on the idea of meeting aliens for the first time. These include stories of wonder, peaceful interactions, and in some cases, outright hostility and war. Some of the sci-fi first contact movies are actual cinematic masterpieces, and while Project Hail Mary is great, these movies are all better when all is said and done. ​Annihilation (2018) Released in 2018, Annihilation was a sci-fi movie written and directed by Alex Garland and adapted from Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 novel of the same name. The first contact in this movie is about an alien life form showing up on Earth and creating a giant dome called the Shimmer. Before the movie starts, a team is sent in to investigate what is happening in the Shimmer, but they never return. The movie is an interesting story with an all-female team featuring a cast led by Natalie Portman (Lena), who learns her husband is the only survivor from the first team. Every woman on the team has skills in either science or the military, and what they find is beyond what they even expected. This is a rare sci-fi movie where the alien is not humanoid in any sense. It is darker and is harder sci-fi than Project Hail Mary. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 sci-fi movie that offers a look at humanity's first contact with aliens when a spacecraft lands on Earth with a warning for humans. Directed by Robert Wise and based on Harry Bates's 1940 short story "Farewell to the Master," this movie has an alien named Klaatu approach humans with his towering robot Gort. This movie is a story about escalating conflict when it's not needed. When the United States military reaches out with hostility toward Klaatu, it backfires on humanity. Klaatu decides to go undercover to see if all humans are this aggressive, and he learns a horrible lesson. After humans murder Klaatu because he is an alien, Gort brings him back to life, and he informs humans that bigger forces than him will deal with any other acts of aggression. This first contact movie shows how humanity's violent ways will always doom them. One of the most underrated and lesser-known first contact movies was released in 1997 with the Jodie Foster movie Contact. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on the 1985 novel by Carl Sagan, Foster stars as a SETI scientist named Ellie Arroway who discovers the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. This is a first-contact movie whose aliens are far away, as Ellie discovers a radio signal from the Vega star system, which contains the instructions for a transport machine. This then allows Ellie to actually make contact and meet this alien intelligence. This is a very scientific sci-fi movie, which shares a similarity with Project Hail Mary, but the difference is it shows how governments, scientists, and religious organizations react to the news of alien life. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) Steven Spielberg's first big success was the horror movie Jaws, but after that, he showed that he could also make a smart, quiet, sci-fi masterpiece as well. In 1977, Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released, and it remains one of Spielberg's best sci-fi movies dealing with first contact. This movie is all about aliens arriving on Earth for the first time and the excitement that comes with the upcoming event. This is also a personal story, as the main character is Roy (Richard Dreyfuss), a blue-collar Indiana worker who has visions of a mountain, which is where the aliens will arrive in the future. The entire obsession with first contact tears Roy away from his family, and he eventually chooses his obsession with aliens over even his wife and three children. The eventual alien arrival is one of the most beautiful moments ever filmed. Arrival (2016) Denis Villeneuve has really made his name in the sci-fi genre with movies like Blade Runner 2049 and his Dune franchise. However, before making any of those movies, Villeneuve directed the sci-fi drama masterpiece Arrival. This movie has the aliens arrive on Earth, and tensions rise as the world's countries worry about what the aliens are there for. One linguist has to decipher their language before militaries attack them. Amy Adams stars as Louise, the linguist trying to figure out what the aliens are on Earth for, and Jeremy Renner stars as Ian, a theoretical physicist working alongside her. This movie has a dense story, and the plot mostly focuses on Louise and Ian and their work on both figuring out what the aliens want and Louise making the ultimate decision when she does learn the truth. It is very similar to Project Hail Mary but with a deeper meaning. The best first contact movie ever made is another Steven Spielberg film. While Close Encounters of the Third Kind is the more mature movie and has deeper meaning, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is the most successful and beloved first contact movie. E.T. was so successful when released that it doomed more pessimistic sci-fi movies like Blade Runner and The Thing because audiences wanted more of E.T.'s optimism. E.T. follows the story of an alien scientist on Earth collecting plant samples, only to find himself stranded. The government then sends agents out to find and capture him, and it is up to a group of kids to keep the alien safe until he can return home. Once again, this is a movie about humans reacting aggressively during the time of first contact, but it is such a great mainstream release that has stood the test of time.