演化生物学家 Adam Rutherford 探讨了描绘外星生命的科学与电影挑战。基于他在电影《异星智慧》（Life，2017）中的工作（他在其中设计了一个具有 20 亿年［2bn-year］演化历史的类黏菌生物），Adam Rutherford 强调了好莱坞如何经常优先考虑拟人化。由于观众的熟悉度和预算限制，制片厂主管经常要求具有人类般的面孔。因此，像《星际争霸战》（Star Trek）这样的电影使用义肢，而创下票房纪录的《阿凡达》（Avatar）三部曲中的纳美人则类似于风格化的、蓝色皮肤的哺乳动物类人生物，用以代表对殖民主义的道歉，而非科学上合理的生活。
相反地，较新的电影如《挽救计划》（Project Hail Mary）和《降临》（Arrival，2016）探索了更具科学合理性且较少拟人化的概念。《挽救计划》引入了五足的岩石状生物 Rocky，以及消耗星光的单细胞噬星体（astrophages）。Adam Rutherford 指出，单细胞生物是已知宇宙中占主导地位的生命形式，大约在 39 亿年（3.9bn years）前起源于地球。如今，细菌细胞的质量超过了所有海滩上的沙粒总和，其数量也超过了我们自己身体内的人类细胞。因此，在其他星球上的生命在统计上更可能是单细胞的。
然而，接触的机率仍然微乎其微。在地球 39 亿年（3.9bn-year）的生命历史中，人类仅拥有通讯技术 100 年。如果位于大犬座矮星系（Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy）、距离 25,000 光年（25,000 light-years；约 2.36 × 10^17 公里［2.36 × 10^17 km］）的类似行星上发展出生命，仅仅 1,000 年的演化差异就会阻止同步。由于光速的限制，任何讯号传输和回应都需要 50,000 年，这实际上使我们处于孤立状态。最终，像《灭绝》（Annihilation，2018）这样的电影在科学上取得了成功，因为它保持了外星人的不可理解性，反映了人类的自我毁灭冲动，而不是熟悉的范本。
Evolutionary biologist Adam Rutherford discusses the scientific and cinematic challenges of depicting extraterrestrial life. Drawing from his work on *Life* (2017), where he designed a slime-mould-like creature with a 2-billion-year (2bn-year) evolutionary history, Rutherford highlights how Hollywood often prioritizes anthropomorphism. Studio executives frequently demand human-like faces due to audience familiarity and budgetary constraints. Consequently, movies like *Star Trek* use prosthetics, and the record-breaking *Avatar* trilogy features Na'vi aliens that resemble stylized, blue-skinned mammalian humanoids to represent apologies for colonialism, rather than scientifically plausible life.
In contrast, newer films like *Project Hail Mary* and *Arrival* (2016) explore more biologically plausible and less anthropomorphic concepts. *Project Hail Mary* introduces Rocky, a pentapedal rock-like creature, alongside single-celled astrophages that consume starlight. Rutherford notes that single-celled organisms are the dominant life form in the known universe, having originated on Earth approximately 3.9 billion years (3.9bn years) ago. Today, the mass of bacterial cells exceeds grains of sand on all beaches combined, outnumbering human cells within our own bodies. Thus, life on other planets is statistically far more likely to be single-celled.
However, the probability of contact remains infinitesimally low. Humans have only possessed communication technology for 100 years out of Earth's 3.9-billion-year (3.9bn-year) history of life. If a similar planet in the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, located 25,000 light-years (25,000 light-years; approximately 2.36 × 10^17 km) away, developed life, a mere 1,000-year evolutionary discrepancy would prevent synchronization. Due to the speed of light, any signal transmission and response would require 50,000 years, effectively rendering us isolated. Ultimately, movies like *Annihilation* (2018) succeed scientifically by keeping aliens incomprehensible, reflecting human self-destructive impulses rather than familiar templates.