1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The ultimate extraterrestrial encounter ever captured on film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is Spielberg’s cinematic triumph that inspired so many films in the genre after it. It also inspired television, with an obvious connection to The X-Files.
The X-Files incorporates many of the visual elements from the Speilberg classic and also through answering the question: “Are we alone in the universe?” Carter answers that question on a more negative note than Speilberg does, but none the less created a television masterpiece in the vein that Speilberg did once Close Encounters hit theater screens in 1977.
Even X-Files producer Glen Morgan went as far as stating that he felt the shows pilot was a “merging of Silence of the Lambs and Close Encounters of the Third Kind“, and that was impressive as to how the show had achieved that within its first episode.
Words by Sophie McEvoy