Danish director Michael Madsen asks a parade of military, scientific and philosophical talking heads to reveal how we would treat an alien encounter.

The documentarian casts an amused but never mocking look at how we would handle things if beings from another planet landed on Earth. An eclectic range of experts – military personnel, scientists, and philosophers – muse on the challenges such an extraterrestrial visit might present. How should one assess the intentions of the visitors, and communicate with them? How much should the public be told about their arrival? In what ways would an alien intelligence and biology differ from our own?

These and many more questions are addressed, although some viewers may come away wondering mostly about what exactly the United Nations’ Office for Outer Space Affairs do with themselves while they wait for aliens to show up. Stylish slow-motion footage and staged sequences add texture and break up the monotony of what is at heart a talking heads-based work.

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