Invasion: Every Season 1 Alien Easter Egg & Reference

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Apple TV+’s Invasion.

Apple TV+’s Invasion season 1 is packed to the gills with Easter eggs, references, and homages to classic sci-fi alien movies. The epic Apple TV+ sci-fi series takes a decidedly human stance on the story of an alien invasion seen through different cultures’ perspectives from around the world. This is not to say that there is not a significant alien narrative presence pervading Invasion, however, with almost every other episode referencing the wider alien-movie genre through a series of carefully choreographed plot points long before Caspar’s final alien showdown in “Full of Stars.”

Invasion‘s creator and writer is none other than the X-Men franchise’s Simon Kinberg, who is no stranger to imbuing projects with otherworldly elements. Invasion should feel like “War of the Worlds meets Babel,” according to Kinberg during an interview with Screen Rant. The director also stated he conceived Invasion as the first “real mashup of hard science fiction with really patient, emotional drama.“

This vision is certainly prevalent across Invasion‘s inaugural season as Kinberg packs a slew of sci-fi homages into his delicately poised blend of social commentary and alien dread. From shot-for-shot replications of a classic sci-fi movie scene to one-liners referencing the legendary Stanley Kubrick’s work, Invasion is truly a patchwork quilt of the genre-defining films it is based upon. Here’s every season 1 alien Easter egg and reference in Apple TV+’s Invasion.

Invaders From Mars

Invasion‘s “Last Day” connects to not one but two movies of the same name titled Invaders From Mars. William Cameron Menzies’ original and Tobe Hooper’s 1986 remake share striking similarities with Invasion‘s Oklahoma-based storyline. Sheriff Tyson (Sam Neill) looking for lost boys, the pits of sand, and the stingers from beneath are all elements that crossover between Invasion and Invaders From Mars as the Apple TV+ series clearly pays homage to its genre predecessors.

Both Invaders From Mars versions center on a small group of people, including the town sheriff, who investigate a quicksand pit in a cornfield before being sucked into the hole. These same people reappear days later, cold and emotionless, with small, stinger-shaped marks on their necks. The similarities between both iterations of Invaders From Mars and Invasion’s John Tyson plotline are stark, with the Sheriff also investigating a sand-filled hole before being stung in the neck after his townspeople have already been abducted. While Sam Neill’s character is yet to reappear in Apple TV+’s Invasion, these overt similarities mean his rebirth under alien control (akin to Hinata) could very well be on the cards for Invasion season 2.

War Of The Worlds

War of the Worlds (2005) contains a harrowing scene in which Ray Ferrier (Top Gun‘s Tom Cruise) desperately fights to keep his daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) from being discovered by aliens. After losing his son in an airstrike, a bewildered Ray and Rachel seek shelter with Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins) in his basement. It is slowly revealed in subsequent scenes that Ogilvy is mentally unwell, a condition that continues to worsen as the psychological impact of the alien presence takes its toll. Harlan begins madly shouting, cursing the alien invasion, and forcing Ray to kill him before Ogilvy alerts the aliens to their presence.

Invasion episode 6 is an almost like-for-like recreation of this scene, with “Home Invasion” finding Ahmed Malik’s family trapped by Patrick Mitchell (Michael Harney) and his wife in their attic. Patrick threatens the Maliks with a shotgun, holding them hostage, while his wife Kel (Kathryn Erbe) loudly curses the aliens bombarding upstate New York. Kel’s increasingly loud psychotic break attracts the attention of an alien, forcing Aneesha Malik (Golshifteh Farahani) to protect her family and allow Patrick to die and restore calm in the process. While Invasion has traded a damp basement for a creaking attic, every other facet of this subplot plays out identically. Kel’s mad shouting alerts aliens in the same way Harlan does, with Patrick also threatening the Maliks with a shotgun in the same way Harlan does with Ray and Rachel in a telling homage to Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller.

Alien

Kinberg’s Invasion clearly borrows several elements from Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking 1979 movie Alien, or more specifically, from the Xenomorph physiology that exists in the franchise to this day. Just as with Scott’s iconic H.R. Geiger-designed aliens, Invasion‘s otherworldly creatures are jet-black, complete with acidic discharges and corrosive skin that mirror the classic Alien creatures. Invasion hammers home the acidic slime that its alien creatures spout, with several scenes showing this discharge eating away at human flesh and concrete blocks alike.

Invasion also borrows elements from how Ridley Scott’s Alien creatures incubate, with the parasite Aneesha (Golshifeh Farahani) finds in “A Holy Place” using a human host to grow much in the same way as the Xenomorph babies do. While there is no evidence to suggest, to date, that these parasites will explode from chest cavities in Invasion as they do in Alien, there is clear evidence to show that Invasion‘s aliens need humans to thrive on Earth. This sets up the classic sci-fi trope of sacrificing the infected to save humanity for Invasion season 2, a premise every Alien installment has tackled in some capacity since the franchise’s birth in 1979.

2001: A Space Odyssey

“My God, it’s full of stars” is a line associated with a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which the protagonist David Bowman is traveling through the stargate created by the monolith orbiting Jupiter. This awed expression Bowman gives is lifted directly from the film’s screenwriter Arthur C. Clarke’s novelization of the movie and is overtly referenced in Invasion episode 9’s title “Full of Stars,” as well as the episode’s story itself. Not only is Invasion episode 9’s title a direct reference to Kubrick’s classic tale of the cosmos and aliens, but its characters also use the line “full of stars” repeatedly.

In a flashback, Hinata tells Mitsuki that she is like space, stating that space is “burning hot and full of stars.” Mitsuki repeats her lover’s phrase back to her later that same episode as David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” plays over the base’s PA system. Even the usage of David Bowie’s music in Invasion is deliciously deliberate, with the iconic star’s name closely resembling the 2001: Space Odyssey protagonist David Bowman in addition to his enduring cultural significance in Japan, who are credited with saving Earth in “Deaths All Over The World.”

Star Wars

“Full of Stars” also contains a Star Wars reference as overt as sci-fi nods get. At the end of the episode, Caspar (Billy Barratt) saves Trevante (Shamier Anderson) and Jamila (India Brown) from the attacking aliens using his newly discovered psychic abilities, freezing the entire alien population (albeit for a seemingly limited amount of time). As he lays exhausted in Jamila’s arms, she whispers to Caspar that his powers were “some real Jedi s***” in a clear reference to George Lucas’ iconic Force-wielders’ psychic powers in the Star Wars franchise.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

One of the most gruesome and memorable moments from James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day is when John Connor’s (Edward Furlong) parents are impaled by the T-1000’s sharp, liquid limbs as he attempts to contact them over the phone. Invasion‘s aliens move in much the same manner when attacking, with numerous supporting, background, and main characters being skewered by the alien’s limbs that extend and retract at will. The nurse’s death in the Invasion episode “Full of Stars” is the most obvious example here, with the unfortunate character being impaled through the head as she reaches towards Trevante, Caspar, and Jamila in the MRI ward.

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