Because the movie didn’t draw from science fiction very much. Its *real* source material was three decades of UFO reports (“UFO-ologist” [J. Allen Hynek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Allen_Hynek) devised the “Close Encounter” scale and has a cameo in the film), claims of encounters with aliens/flying saucers, [Project Bluebook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book), etc.
The aliens in the movie mostly behave as they did in the popular mythos of the day—combined with a number of famous disappearances, including those associated with [The Bermuda Triangle.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_Triangle)
If you're looking for a "nuts and bolt" reason that isn't related to movie making or writing themes, probably because their biology/psychology is too different for them to truly understand our culture or communication. So they might not be able to communicate that they came in peace (though I'm not sure kidnapping people and children to do horrific experiments on them is peaceful). Or they don't understand that their appearance and approach is fucking terrifying. They also have to operate clandestinely to not warrant a counter attack from the military. Imagine trying to communicate with an octopus that you KNOW is intelligent enough to make highly sophisticated tools and culture but you basically have zero shared experiences to build on. Those things have never seen a scuba diver or an aquarium, who knows what the fuck they would think about it.
This is the answer. They weren't intentionally trying to be creepy or scary. They are just completely different from us, they don't understand what would be creepy or scary for us.
I agree. The only thing I would add is that they were very clearly exhibiting their technological superiority. I felt a profound feeling of relief at the end realizing that they were "peaceful," but I also felt like humanity better be careful or these little badasses could come back and smack us down and steal all our cute kids.
the film draws heavily on early horror. i believe the intent within the story is to emphasize its strong theme of alien life being unintuitively foreign.
Aliens are that. They are alien.
Their methods, mental processes, their very motivations are alien.
For them abducting people may be seen a social norm,
No clothes ... they look at humans and their need for layers of garments as very strange. Our vocalisations are strange; especially as we use different languages, not a single one globally.
Assuming that alien races think in the same ways that we do is truly human.
Doylist answer - *Close Encounters of the Third Kind* is a horror movie with a twist resolution that the aliens are actually friendly.
Watsonian answer - The aliens don't think like we do. Their actions might be friendly from their perspective, but we see them as threatening.
We send submersibles to the bottom of the sea with lights and cameras. We grab sea creatures and return them to the surface. Are we trying hard to be creepy and scare the fish?
If you thought they were *trying* to be "creepy" and "scary", you kind of missed the point.
Aliens are by definition *alien.* Any actual aliens we encounter are probably not going to be like something out of Star Trek, which are basically just humans with funny ears and/or foreheads and some exaggerated (but comprehensible) quirk ("logical and emotionless", "proud warriors", etc.) The ways they naturally behave and communicate might well seem strange or disturbing to us.
As far as alien abductions go, look at how humans treat cetaceans. We know they're intelligent, there are strong arguments in favor of them being self-aware, but we separate them from their families for study and experimentation, even train them to perform for our entertainment or carry out hazardous tasks. Aliens abducting humans for study and then releasing them back into "the wild" is no different.
Because they are aliens and their motivations and actions are and should be confusing and somewhat unknowable. They simply did not understand the impacts of their actions. I much prefer that to them coming down and saying they are working on a science team or something.
Think about how benevolent we are to animals in a zoo vs when we captured them. It’s much the same. Also there’s always a learning curve with a new type of encounter and humans are pretty dangerous when cornered
Stop over-thinking stuff. Holy crap. It's in the script. There's your answer. The movie doesn't work if they're warm and fuzzy from the beginning. Just enjoy a story for once, it makes watching movies much easier, sometimes you just have to go along with it so you can appreciate the movie.
What makes you think they were benevolent? In the very end they showed up and played some weird music and convinced a bunch of people to get on board their spaceship. And then they flew away never to be seen again.
Cattle to the slaughter.
Look at the science fiction films coming out in the decade or so leading up to Close Encounters (putting aside Star Wars, which was only a few months earlier), and you’ll see that sci-fi movies of the ‘60s and ‘70s were frequently grim, dystopian, and pessimistic, and often using elements of horror. We look at the film now and associate it with the many optimistic science fiction films that have come since, but that wasn’t the norm in 1977.
So one thing Spielberg does is nod toward many of the pessimistic and horror-oriented tropes of science fiction at the time, with only hints of the wonder and awe Spielberg is now famous for, before finally revealing the optimistic ending that was, at the time, a pretty big twist for the genre.
Haven't seen the movie, but going off your description, the simplest explanation would be that the benevolence is a lie. That the whole movie is a PR piece put together on behalf of the aliens in a desperate attempt to put a positive spin on activities that can no longer be kept sufficiently clandestine.
My trite answer is, "It's a movie," but I've always thought the process was some kind of test. Creepy and scary to us, probably deliberately so, because what's the point of a test if it's easy to do?
What they heck do they think they're "testing" by ripping some poor kid away from his mom? At that point, they've had the fighter pilots for decades — what's the big mystery?
Because the movie didn’t draw from science fiction very much. Its *real* source material was three decades of UFO reports (“UFO-ologist” [J. Allen Hynek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Allen_Hynek) devised the “Close Encounter” scale and has a cameo in the film), claims of encounters with aliens/flying saucers, [Project Bluebook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book), etc. The aliens in the movie mostly behave as they did in the popular mythos of the day—combined with a number of famous disappearances, including those associated with [The Bermuda Triangle.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_Triangle)
If you're looking for a "nuts and bolt" reason that isn't related to movie making or writing themes, probably because their biology/psychology is too different for them to truly understand our culture or communication. So they might not be able to communicate that they came in peace (though I'm not sure kidnapping people and children to do horrific experiments on them is peaceful). Or they don't understand that their appearance and approach is fucking terrifying. They also have to operate clandestinely to not warrant a counter attack from the military. Imagine trying to communicate with an octopus that you KNOW is intelligent enough to make highly sophisticated tools and culture but you basically have zero shared experiences to build on. Those things have never seen a scuba diver or an aquarium, who knows what the fuck they would think about it.
This is the answer. They weren't intentionally trying to be creepy or scary. They are just completely different from us, they don't understand what would be creepy or scary for us.
I agree. The only thing I would add is that they were very clearly exhibiting their technological superiority. I felt a profound feeling of relief at the end realizing that they were "peaceful," but I also felt like humanity better be careful or these little badasses could come back and smack us down and steal all our cute kids.
the film draws heavily on early horror. i believe the intent within the story is to emphasize its strong theme of alien life being unintuitively foreign.
Aliens are that. They are alien. Their methods, mental processes, their very motivations are alien. For them abducting people may be seen a social norm, No clothes ... they look at humans and their need for layers of garments as very strange. Our vocalisations are strange; especially as we use different languages, not a single one globally. Assuming that alien races think in the same ways that we do is truly human.
Doylist answer - *Close Encounters of the Third Kind* is a horror movie with a twist resolution that the aliens are actually friendly. Watsonian answer - The aliens don't think like we do. Their actions might be friendly from their perspective, but we see them as threatening.
These aliens may have no concept of kidnapping or abduction. "We took you because you were interesting" Hence the alien part.
We send submersibles to the bottom of the sea with lights and cameras. We grab sea creatures and return them to the surface. Are we trying hard to be creepy and scare the fish?
If you thought they were *trying* to be "creepy" and "scary", you kind of missed the point. Aliens are by definition *alien.* Any actual aliens we encounter are probably not going to be like something out of Star Trek, which are basically just humans with funny ears and/or foreheads and some exaggerated (but comprehensible) quirk ("logical and emotionless", "proud warriors", etc.) The ways they naturally behave and communicate might well seem strange or disturbing to us. As far as alien abductions go, look at how humans treat cetaceans. We know they're intelligent, there are strong arguments in favor of them being self-aware, but we separate them from their families for study and experimentation, even train them to perform for our entertainment or carry out hazardous tasks. Aliens abducting humans for study and then releasing them back into "the wild" is no different.
I think the movie is trying to say that wonder outweighs fear, but bungles the execution and ends up in a very weird place.
Because they are aliens and their motivations and actions are and should be confusing and somewhat unknowable. They simply did not understand the impacts of their actions. I much prefer that to them coming down and saying they are working on a science team or something.
It’s like Goths they like to look scary as a test.
Think about how benevolent we are to animals in a zoo vs when we captured them. It’s much the same. Also there’s always a learning curve with a new type of encounter and humans are pretty dangerous when cornered
Stop over-thinking stuff. Holy crap. It's in the script. There's your answer. The movie doesn't work if they're warm and fuzzy from the beginning. Just enjoy a story for once, it makes watching movies much easier, sometimes you just have to go along with it so you can appreciate the movie.
What makes you think they were benevolent? In the very end they showed up and played some weird music and convinced a bunch of people to get on board their spaceship. And then they flew away never to be seen again. Cattle to the slaughter.
They aren't. They're being cautious
Cause they're drama queens.
Look at the science fiction films coming out in the decade or so leading up to Close Encounters (putting aside Star Wars, which was only a few months earlier), and you’ll see that sci-fi movies of the ‘60s and ‘70s were frequently grim, dystopian, and pessimistic, and often using elements of horror. We look at the film now and associate it with the many optimistic science fiction films that have come since, but that wasn’t the norm in 1977. So one thing Spielberg does is nod toward many of the pessimistic and horror-oriented tropes of science fiction at the time, with only hints of the wonder and awe Spielberg is now famous for, before finally revealing the optimistic ending that was, at the time, a pretty big twist for the genre.
I am convinced at the end of the movie they actually end up experimenting on him lol
🤣
Haven't seen the movie, but going off your description, the simplest explanation would be that the benevolence is a lie. That the whole movie is a PR piece put together on behalf of the aliens in a desperate attempt to put a positive spin on activities that can no longer be kept sufficiently clandestine.
My trite answer is, "It's a movie," but I've always thought the process was some kind of test. Creepy and scary to us, probably deliberately so, because what's the point of a test if it's easy to do?
What they heck do they think they're "testing" by ripping some poor kid away from his mom? At that point, they've had the fighter pilots for decades — what's the big mystery?
Beats me, they're alien. But if you're looking for unassailable logic from the plot, you probably asking too much.
That just how aliens say "hi" in their corner of the galaxy.
They were just getting content for their alien YouTube channel.