Super 8: 18 Possible Plots

The Plot: After a mysterious cargo is lost during a truck/train smash - as seen in Super 8 's teaser trailer - an alien killer is unleashed in Indiana's capital.

A cop, a scientist and a hunter join forces to go after it. But when they film the beast, all bets are off. Now it's after them. And it's hungry.

Spielbergian Nod: The cop has his Super 8 camera trained on a mountain gorge, when the gargantuan alien blocks the view.

Looking up, he remarks, "We're gonna need a bigger lens."

The Plot: An alien is on the run... but he's a shapeshifter. How are the authorites gonna get him back?

By chance, a Super 8 enthusiast discovers that that the film format reveals the alien's true form like an X-ray.

Now there's just the small matter of filming...well, everybody on Earth.

Spielbergian Nod: The shifty shifter is caught trying to leave the country...as a pilot.

The Plot: A bunch of kids mucking about with their Super 8 camera spot a... something creeping across the frame.

Further investigation reveals an injured alien, which the kids hide as the Feds arrive in force to find the creature.

Things are going great, until the incriminating reel of film is discovered...

Spielbergian Nod: The kids try to feed the alien with candy. Which is prompty projectile vomited back in their faces.

What do you think this is, E.T. ?

The Plot: The mysterious container seen in the trailer turns out to contain...a horde of pint-sized, but ravenous, alien fiends.

Now they're out to eat the kids who caught him on film, before they can hand over the proof to the authorities.

Spielbergian Nod: Amblin's Gremlins provides the inspiration for the film's grisliest set-piece.

The goblins settle back to watch the Super 8 footage taken of them...while chowing down on human flesh.

The Plot: The trailer's truck/train smash isn't just a cool set-piece, but the film's raison d'etre.

Whatever's in that box causes crashes wherever it goes; a team of amateur thrill-seekers hit the highways looking for the cause.

Spielbergian Nod: The box hunters capture an image of a petrol tanker en route to a collision.

Replaying the footage, they're disturbed by what they see. Or rather, what they don't see. In true Duel style, it's driverless.

The Plot: Here's a curveball: this one is set in the present day, when Super 8 film is discovered showing where the container from the trailer was buried after it was lost in 1979.

The Army is quickly sent in to dig the thing out, but one scientist suspects that all hell is about to break out when it does - so he steals it.

Spielbergian Nod: A covert nighttime raid on the dig site nearly comes unstuck when the geek thief stirs up a nest of pissed off vipers.

He calmly brushes them aside. You didn't seriously think he'd be scared of snakes, did you?

The Plot: The reason the Government wanted to keep that box under wraps? It causes footage shot on Super 8 to reveal future events.

Suddenly, America is gripped by the filming bug - and skeletons come tumbling out of a community's cupboard before they've even become skeletons.

Spielbergian Nod: The inevitable Minority Report riff, as the hero-cop's home movies peg him as a killer-to-be.

Can he doctor the footage to hide his guilt using homemade FX and a sock puppet?

The Plot: A bunch of kids find an old Super 8 film in the loft suggesting there's an alien spaceship hidden in nearby caves.

Trouble is, the CIA are also on the hunt for the lair - the race is on to get there first.

Spielbergian Nod: A la the Spielberg-created The Goonies , the aliens have left some surprises to stop unwary intruders from stumbling upon their secret.

The Plot: An alien visitor has landed in America, but the Government won't let him go until they've cannibalised his spaceship.

Stuck on Earth, he becomes a minor celebrity, inviting the attention of a documentary filmmaker.

Spielbergian Nod: Against the odds, the alien meets cute with a glamorous laydee and charms her with his naive charm.

Could this dark, dystopian vision of confinement be morphing into a cheery rom-com?

The Plot: The trailer's mysterious container provokes panic in a nearby town, as the inhabitants become convinced an alien invasion is imminent.

The townsfolk drum up a camera-wielding posse to get proof - but until then, rumour and hearsay control the day.

Spielbergian Nod: As hysteria grips the city, tensions burst into a comedic scrap - just like the one in Steven's 1941 .

The Plot: No aliens this time - the big secret is a genetically engineered dino-warrior, and it's loose.

The networks will pay millions for footage of a real-life jurassic classic, and suddenly every chancer with a camera is risking being dined on to get the money shot.

Spielbergian Nod: Jurassic Park 's famed glass tremor redux.

As a cameraman frames the perfect shot...suddenly the ground shakes and the entire screen wobbles.

The Plot: Another variant on the rogue alien cargo premise, but this time from the POV of the private security force hired to get him back.

There's eight of 'em, and they're...er...super.

Spielbergian Nod: The 8 find their prey in a small village; unfortunately, so have a rival faction of aliens who are hunting him down.

Makes Saving Private Ryan 's battles look like a playground skirmish.

The Plot: A government android is AWOL after the crash seen in the trailer.

Determined not to go back to institutionalised drudgery, he attempts to pass as a bona-fide human by studying stolen Super 8 film.

Instead, his weirdness unnerves everybody he meets and leaves him even more lost and alone.

Spielbergian Nod: After the android's programming goes haywire, he tries to befriend a teddy bear.

The Plot: One alien prisoner, lost in transit.

One fucking massive alien invasion force, threatening planet-wide carnage if they don't get their mate back.

One all-American family, whose home movies offer the only clue as to where the catalyst for war might be.

Spielbergian Nod: The family tries to flee the battlefield - little realising that the aliens are now after their film reels.

The Plot: That pesky cargo exerts a strange influence on a sleepy town, as its Super 8 footage comes to life.

This is especially traumatic for a bunch of child filmmakers, who suddenly find themselves reenacting their amateur horror flick for real.

Spielbergian Nod: With a set-up reminscient of Spielberg project Poltergeist , it's only fair to pay due homage.

So it is that amongst the evils bursting from the movie to terrorise the movie-makers is a creepy clown.

The Plot: All across America, amateur filmmakers notice that a strange symbol keeps cropping up in the frame.

As they band together, they crack the code and head to Yosemite to meet an alien visitation.

Spielbergian Nod: A cameraman absent-mindedly replicates the symbol with pasta.

It's a more versatile foodstuff than mashed potato, you see.

The Plot: An escaped creature rocks up in a small town, where its presence enrages the population.

A gang sees the opportunity for mischief and goes on a crime spree, faking Super 8 footage to frame the beast.

Things are heading for an intergalactic lynching.

Spielbergian Nod: The monster is caught and put on trial, but a young lawyer senses all is not well with the prosecution case.

The Plot: That container from the trailer? A nuclear-powered incubator used to grow alien clones.

Trouble is, nobody told its latest owner, who thinks he's bought a second-hand fridge.

Now, he has an army of sentient foods to contend with.

Spielbergian Nod: It's. A. Nuclear. Fridge.

Y'know, like that bit with the fridge and the nuclear blast in the last Indiana Jones movie.

C'mon, you can't deny it forever.