Sobchack states that there is a cultural shift that occurred in the 70’s and 80’s that changed the representation of the alien view. This shift was in both mainstream and marginal American sci-fi films. As stated by sobchack about the shift “To maintain not that aliens are like us, but rather that aliens are us” (pg297). This new postmodern view had the country changing the view of aliens as human with a friendlier aspect rather than the “unknown” that sci-fi films have previously depicted aliens. Examples would be movies like the Terminator where the Terminator takes a human form but is really a robot or E.T where the alien takes on a more friendly and protective roll. This cultural shift in the 70’s and 80’s was because of the more peaceful atmosphere the country was in compared to the paranoia from the 40’and 50’s. Movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing are good examples of films from the 50’s that illustrate paranoia and fear. The country started to escape the paranoia of warfare, radiation, and nuclear war after World War II and the Vietnam War when the country could relax again. With the country out of war and the fear gone in the people sci-fi movies had to interest audiences in a different approach. This is why the cultural shift and the shift of the alien view changed in films in the 70’s and 80’s.

Afro-futurism would be the cultural struggles that African-Americans have dealt with and incorporating in a technological future. Dery defines this term by “African-American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future” (pg 180). This concept can be seen in movies like Brother from Another Planet and even in comic strips like Milestone “Media’s Hardware.” In these examples there are both technological and futuristic features in the films, also both show the cultural struggle African-Americans have been through or go through.