M. Keith Booker, the author of several studies of film and television, offers a guide to the leading science fiction movies since the 1950s. Each of his chapters is devoted to a film – fifteen in total – and follows the pattern of plot summary, note on sources, interpretation, and indication of that work's legacy. The summaries are helpful and clear but the interpretive commentary will probably be of more interest to the reader because in every case Booker relates the films to their cultural context. Thus The Day the Earth Stood Still emerges as courageously pacifist since it was released against the background of the Korean War. Because of its stand against militarism the Department of Defense refused assistance (as they were later to do with Dr. Strangelove). Booker shows the self-reference of some of these films, describing Forbidden Planet as a “virtual compendium of pulp science fiction films from the 1950s” (43). He also traces out the development of the subject of aliens throughout this period, relating Invasion of the Body Snatchers to fears of increasing homogenization in American life.

Two main developments are noted in these films. Increasingly they are not single entities but the first in a series of sequels, which modify, recycle or exploit the popularity of the original. Also, Booker stresses the combination of different genres within the same work. Alien, for instance, draws on horror film conventions but challenges the stereotyped image of the heroine. Blade Runner similarly makes extended use of the detective story blended in with science fiction. What gives this survey energy is its engagement with the strengths and weaknesses of each film. Close Encounters of the Third Kind has a significant religious dimension but never questions its stereotypes; on the other hand, it does present film as a medium for the fabulous far superior to television. A comparable attention to the medium itself comes out also in Blade Runner, which loses some aspects of Dick's original novel but which incorporates elements of film noir, optical imagery and a postmodern variety of urban architecture. One final advantage to Alternate Americas is its inclusion of summaries of the critical debates over these films. The Matrix must surely qualify as the most analysed movie, with no less than six book-length studies.