Screen Junkies » the darkest hour

7 Surprising Ways to Kill Aliens

Wookie Johnson — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

If there’s one thing that movies have taught me, it’s that every foe has an Achilles’ Heel. No matter how unstoppable or menacing they seem, even the worst have a guaranteed take-down. Godzilla is weakened by the Anti-Nuclear Bacteria. Johnny Lawrence is susceptible to the Crane Kick. And Prince Goro can’t take a punch to the nuts.

Why should aliens be any different? Since they are usually extra strong or protected from conventional Earth weapons, it benefits to think outside the box when combating an alien menace.

Microbes – War of the Worlds

The Tripod aliens in War of the Worlds came on pretty strong, forcing man to scurry and hide like animals in whichever dark corners they could find. Between disengaging all electronics and turning humans into a bloody mulch, they seemed unstoppable. Luckily for us, it turns out they’re total pussies when it comes to germs. The aliens were quickly weakened and killed off by the microbes we interact with daily. I still think getting a bad cold sucks though.

Water – Signs

M. Night Shyamalan is a filmmaker with a perpetual target on his back. That’s not to say that it hasn’t been earned. For instance, with Signs he decided to show the more human side of an alien invasion. The problem here was not the storytelling. It was the alien race’s weakness. In the third act, the aliens who had previously remained cloaked in shadows came out of hiding to terrorize humans for some kind of reason that only the aliens know. When they proved impervious to the effects of a baseball bat, it was revealed that they reacted to water like it was acid. Why they would travel to a world whose surface is 70% water is also a mystery. Durr, aliens.

Microwaves – The Darkest Hour

How do you kill what you can’t see? During a business trip to Moscow, invisible aliens invade with weaponry that turns man to dust. While struggling to stay alive, a band of survivors discover that the aliens can be weakened by microwaves. These survivors build microwave guns to help them turn the fight against these invaders. Crazy science. How do you like that, aliens?

‘The Darkest Hour’ Actress Rachael Taylor

Screen Junkies — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:30:13 +0000

Rachael Taylor teams up with Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby to fight an alien invasion in The Darkest Hour. Taylor, best known for her role as the attractive, science-minded girl from the first Transformers film, recently had a starring role in the short-lived television reboot of the Charlie’s Angels franchise. Next, she’ll appear in Sarah Jessica Parker‘s upcoming HBO series, Washingtonienne.

‘The Darkest Hour’ Actress Olivia Thirlby

Screen Junkies — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:20:51 +0000

Olivia Thirlby may be going mainstream. Best known for roles in indie flicks like Juno and The Wackness, Thirlby will star this week in effects-heavy alien invasion movie The Darkest Hour. Joining her is fellow indie notable Emile Hirsch, who plays the male lead. Despite the bigger-budget nature of the film, Darkest Hour looks like it’ll fly largely under the radar, with little buzz surrounding its upcoming release. Next year, Thirlby will appear in Dredd and Nobody Walks.

Emile Hirsch Battles Invisible Aliens In ‘The Darkest Hour’ Trailer

Wookie Johnson — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:01:19 +0000

Well, this one’s interesting. It’s the first trailer for Chris Gorak’s The Darkest Hour and it finds a clever way to not make the attacking aliens the same cliche insectoid design that we’ve seen so much of in recent years. It does so by not showing them at all. They are invisible aliens. Kind of like ghosts but with an organized agenda.

And though it’s just Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Rachael Taylor, Max Minghella, and Joel Kinnaman literally running away from nothing, it still looks pretty good. Definitely like the way that the aliens disintegrate their victims by pulling them into their force-fields. We’ve been discussing it here at Screen Junkies HQ and it doesn’t seem like a bad way to go. Way better than drowning.

Olivia Thirlby Joins ‘The Darkest Hour’

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olivia Thirlby seems ready to break away from her moody indie roots. The star of The Wackness, Juno, and movies I rent accidentally on Netflix has just been cast in Chris Gorak’s The Dark Hour. In the film, she’ll play an American traveller in Moscow when aliens invade unexpectedly. Thirlby will fight for survival alongside other tourists in the sci-fi epic from the production designer turned director. Between all the random attacks and driving on the wrong side of the road, it doesn’t sound that much different than a trip to Detroit.

Filming will begin this summer in Moscow at producer Timur Bekmambetov‘s custom-built production facility where film shoots you. (THR)