With DISTRICT 9 topping box office charts this month, critics are praising South African-born director Neill Blomkamp for creating an entirely original alien film about a spacecraft that breaks down while hovering over South Africa. Certainly, aliens in popular movies have never landed in Johannesburg before. As Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly writes, the film’s setting calls our attention to the infamous political history of the director’s homeland (Read more.). What other cities have been used as backdrops for popular alien films? Byron Haskin’s incredible WAR OF THE WORLDS takes place in the familiar American locale of Southern California. Similarly, the residents of ‘perfectly normal’ Santa Mira, California suffer from mass hysteria in Don Siegel's classic INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, and a very glamorous New York City serves as setting for the hit movie MEN IN BLACK. Check out a few more of our favorite sci-fi invasion movies and watch familiar American locations get a little more... alien.