It wraps its scaly, black body along the pipes and walls and drips lethal acid from its wounds. It has bionic hearing, a long slash of a tail, and hunts its victims like prey. When it finds them, it opens its mouth in a malevolentShowing a wish to do evil to others.  grin, to reveal rows of sharp, terrible teeth.

This is the xenomorph, the antagonistA character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or threat. of the Alien franchise. It returned to screens this summer with the requel Alien: Romulus, a film about a band of maverick cosmic adventurers who stumble upon an abandoned spaceship, only to find more than they bargained for.

The Alien franchise contains nine feature-length films dating from 1979 to today. But what makes this series about evil aliens hunting hapless humans, seemingly for no reason, so compelling?

Some call it our oldest conspiracy theory - the idea that there are extraterrestrial beings, and we may even have already encountered them. The Epicurean philosophers of antiquity considered it likely that there was extraterrestrial life. Nicholas Cusa, a medieval cardinal, wrote freely of the existence of different planets in the universe with the potential for alien existence. In 1835, the New York Sun claimed that life had been spotted on the Moon.

And now the alien conspiracists have a powerful new ally in the form of Donald Trump. The presidential hopeful revealed that, if elected, he will release more confidential footage of UFOs.

Some say it is hardly a surprise: alien conspiracies are a shorthand for the same anti-establishment views that have become Trump's political trademark. It is likely to be a hit policy among his target audience, though some surveys suggest it may even attract bipartisan support.

For those who agree with his forceful diatribes about the "corrupt government cartel", the "Fake News media" and the financial corporations which seek only to "enrich themselves", it is not hard to believe that those in power would hide "the truth of alien visitation" from the common man, to serve their own political and commercial interests.¹ Experts fear that populist leaders could continue to wield this narrative to detract from more important issues.

The prevalence of such views is rising, despite the lack of any corroborating evidence. In 2019, a Gallup poll revealed that almost 70% of Americans believed that "the US government knows more about UFOs than it is telling".² Faith in alien escapades may even be negatively correlated with faith in government.

It is not only a feature of the USA, where 24% of Americans claim to have seen a UFO, and two-thirds believe in aliens.³ The figures for the UK are too dissimilar. Around half of Britons believe that aliens exist, while 7% claim to have seen a UFO.⁴

Some think we cannot afford to write it off. Aliens, they say, are an expression of our alienation - from government, politics, and the democratic process. We cannot afford to let our faith in a better world crumble as we reach for the stars.

Is belief in aliens actively dangerous?

Yes: As belief in aliens rises, people feel entitled to ask the government to address this non-issue. We should be focusing on the important policies pertaining to the climate crisis, war and the rise of the far-right, not fabricated nonsense about little green men.

No: Certainly, it is disappointing that so many are willing to accept that the government could be engaged in a cover-up to hide the existence of aliens. But there is nothing wrong with an innocent belief in alien life.

Or... Believing in aliens is not "dangerous", nor even a conspiracy theory. It is incredibly unlikely that the universe is infinite and yet has not spawned any other life forms at all. We have simply not invested enough in finding them.