I was having a discussion with a client the other day and realized just how much I loved movies where the main plot deals with the lead (has to be human) developing a relationship with either a robot or an alien (but alien and buddy can't communicate).

Also realized there's not a lot of these films around. I tried thinking of some off the top of my head and this was all I could come up with:

1-2. Short Circuit 1 & 2
3. Terminator 2
4. Chappi (never saw this one)
5. District 9 (can't remember if they could talk to each other or not)
6. Alien v Predator (the last act of the film is amazing between the human lead and predator...all communication and collaboration with no words)
7. Transformers (mainly just the first act which to me is the best part of the film where it's just Bumblebee as the car......the chase scene alone brought back memories of T2)


And this is all I can think of...I'm sure there's others but damn this concept and stories always seem so much fun and cover such a wide range but there doesn't seem to be that many of them.

Enemy Mine. Although i think the alien can speak English or at least learns if very quickly

Was thinking more along the lines with adults.

Didn't make that clear....lots of em with kids. Plus ET learns English

Actually the more I think about it ET should count

How could you possibly forget Mac and Me?

Chappi communicates. Still a good movie.

Flight of the Navigator?

Brennus said:

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Enemy Mine. Although i think the alien can speak English or at least learns if very quickly

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Both learn each other's language. Also, the alien carries his 'bible' as a necklace(?) which Dennis Quaid uses to read the alien language as well.

The communicate part of this, and the vague parameters of it, are making this a hard conversation to nail down. Like you have Terminator 2 and Chappie on there and both of those robots can talk perfectly fine and Bumblebee can communicate pretty plainly using the radio.

Other possibilities:
Paul
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Avatar
In a dark way, 2001 A Space Odyssey

Space Camp

Even though they understand each other, you still get a lot of that feeling with Rocket & Groot and Han & Chewie.

jokershady said:

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Was thinking more along the lines with adults.

Didn't make that clear....lots of em with kids. Plus ET learns English

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He learned like six words. Intelligent life my ass.

Yeah, I think in the spirit of what I think he's going for it's gotta be characters that didn't know each other before the movie starts. Like their relationship starts and develops throughout the movie. Also for alien ones I think probably the spirit of what he's going for is it has to be situation where contact with an alien is even kind of surprising in whatever universe the show is set, otherwise an alien is basically just a human that looks weird. Like we're not counting Kirk and Spock obviously.

bobinator said:

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Yeah, I think in the spirit of what I think he's going for it's gotta be characters that didn't know each other before the movie starts. Like their relationship starts and develops throughout the movie. Also for alien ones I think probably the spirit of what he's going for is it has to be situation where contact with an alien is even kind of surprising in whatever universe the show is set, otherwise an alien is basically just a human that looks weird. Like we're not counting Kirk and Spock obviously.

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This. You said it better than I could have.

I'm actually really excited for the upcoming Bumblebee movie cause it looks like it'll fall into this category big time.

Technically, Thor Ragnarok.

Flubber

The Iron Giant

So more a "boy and his dog" trope, rather than a lost in translation one (i.e. Arrival wouldn't fit)?

Champ Bailey said:

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Paul Rudd is a national treasure

I hope he does it again when promoting AntMan