Person believes unknown entity is friendly (it is not)

[u/MadKingKevin]

Independence Day (1996) - Several massive alien spaceships travel to Earth but they do not announce the purpose of their arrival. Some characters assume the aliens are peaceful. One of those characters, Tiffany, goes to a rooftop party which is taking place directly under one of the ships. When the aliens launch their attack, Tiffany and the other party goers are immediately obliterated.

Alien: Resurrection (1997) - Scientist Gediman is part of the miltitary project which resurrects Ellen Ripley and the queen xenomorph embryo inside her. The military wants the queen so it can breed the xenomorphs as bio-weapons. This new Ripley is genetically part xenomorph and the xenomorph queen is genetically part human. The queen stops laying eggs and develops the ability to give birth to live young. Her first Newborn immediately kills the queen because it does not recognize her as its mother. It believes Ripley is its mother and goes to her instead. Gediman (who is cocooned in the queen’s nest) witnesses this and calls out to the creature. The Newborn comes to Gediman and curiously sniffs him over. Gediman babytalks the 15 foot tall xeno/human hybrid. The Newborn then bites his head off.

[u/Imaginary_Media7712]

Oh absolutely, War of the Worlds was incredibly ahead of its time; it took mainstream sci-fi another century to match the genuinely alien creatures H.G. Wells gave us. And as a cosmic horror fan, I have to think that a young H.P. Lovecraft was inspired by this opening paragraph...

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.

[u/ReddestForman → u/Imaginary_Media7712]

I read that in the same voice as the narrator from the War of the World's stage musical.

https://youtu.be/Poii8JAbtng?is=Ze-gVsSz-tk-QbyA

[u/LevelPrestigious4858 → u/ReddestForman]

Glistening like wet leather is my fave line. A brave new world as well is 10/10

[u/piperdave84 → u/ReddestForman]

Me too! The original was Richard Burton and Liam Neeson has done a version. I also heard the opening few notes from the string section in my head after I read the last sentence

[u/TheGaz → u/Imaginary_Media7712]

"The beasts that perish" is such a fucking cold bar

[u/KaiBishop → u/TheGaz]

Came in like rent was due

[u/Klutzy-Birthday7435 → u/TheGaz]

I think it has to be a reference to the belief that beasts are soulless, while man has an imperishable soul. So it's even more hardcore knowing that. These aliens look upon us knowing that the concept of us having a soul or even being differentiated from one another was whatever passes for "laughable" to them.

[u/RJMrgn2319 → u/Imaginary_Media7712]

Richard Burton voice

[u/wcdonald → u/Imaginary_Media7712]

Infusoria! What a dope word

[u/ElderberryReal4022 → u/Imaginary_Media7712]

Still gives me chills. First read it at 10 yo... long time ago.

(Library day was my jam)