History Main / WeComeInPeaceShootToKill

* ''[[{{Superman}} Action Comics]]''. [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas An ancient and wise race]] is doomed by [[EarthShatteringKaboom planetary destruction]]. Their greatest scientist [[IgnoredExpert is ignored by his peers]], so he sends his infant son, the LastOfHisKind, to Earth, where his ship lands in a field outside a town called Smallville ... And because this is the [[FantasticRacism institutionally anti-alien]] Earth of the 31st century, Jun and Mara blast the infant with a laser-rifle and bury the remains behind the barn. They're still talking about how right they were to do so some months later, when they get killed in passing by a deranged AlternateUniverse Superboy. [[KarmicDeath That's karma for you]].

** FromACertainPointOfView, the Yuuzhan Vong ''do'' come in peace. The closest translation for "peace" in the Yuuzhan Vong language is "appropriate submission of the conquered to the conqueror."

* Classic '50s sci-fi movie ''Film/ItCameFromOuterSpace'' derives its central tension from which of these two scenarios it's ultimately going to be, and the awful weight of responsibility in navigating such a situation. The aliens ''claim'' they mean us no harm and just want to fix their spaceship, and that the people who have gone missing from around town have been taken as hostages to ensure that nobody interferes with their repairs. The human townsfolk are torn between TheSheriff who doesn't buy the aliens' story and an [[ScienceHero astronomer]] who wants to give them a chance and recover the hostages ([[WeHaveYourWife one of whom is his wife]]). [[spoiler: The astronomer is ultimately correct, and he's able to defuse the situation with minimal loss of life. The hostages are freed and the aliens are able to go home.]] Given the time period in which the movie came out, the Cold War RealitySubtext of it all is not especially subtle, but very compelling nonetheless.

* ''The Nano Flower'' by Creator/PeterFHamilton. [[HonestCorporateExecutive Julia Evan]]'s husband Royan discovers some alien microbes and decides to experiment with them. Unfortunately they gain sentience and try to assimilate Royan when he tries to terminate the experiment, but end in a MexicanStandoff as [[BodyHorror Royan is partly-absorbed]] but could still detonate the gamma mines he's set up if the alien tries to complete the process. They agree each will send [[OnePhoneCall one message]] to the outside world; one to Julia Evans and the other to a CorruptCorporateExecutive, with both of them pitching the argument for the alien's survival vs. destruction to whoever turns up.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E10TheSpringfieldFiles The Springfield Files]]", the trope is parodied when an alien (which later turns out to be Mr. Burns, made to look like an alien [[ItMakesSenseInContext through various circumstances]]) greets the people of Springfield:

* WesternAnimation/DangerMouse and Penfold are the welcoming party for an alien spacecraft and its occupant (episode "The Aliens Are Coming"). The alien occupant isn't so much malevolent as he is mischievous, having fun at DM and Penfold's expense.

** [[Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill2008 The 2008 remake]] zig-zags the Trope: [[spoiler:Klaatu's mission on this version is to KillAllHumans [[GreenAesop because we are a serious ecological threat to Earth]],]] but the way the United States Government treats him from the moment he accidentally gets shot (including being detained, interrogated, any information he gives told outright will be made classified, told he will ''never'' talk to the world's governments and apparently was going to be poisoned) [[spoiler:don't do much to make him believe his decision is wrong until Helen begs him to reconsider and the Professor brings up the logic that Klaatu's race was NotSoDifferent a long time ago.]]

* In the backstory of the ''Literature/KrisLongknife'' series, the humans and Iteeche first encountered each other when the Iteeche attacked outlying colonies without warning. After a bloody border conflict the two species agreed to ignore each other and established [[TheNeutralZone a demilitarized zone that neither was allowed to fly through]]. That's the official story on both sides anyway: [[spoiler:What ''really'' happened was that the attacks went in both directions, having been committed by ''Iteeche and human SpacePirates''. These pirates then lied to their respective governments when reaction forces moved in to defend the colonies; the two navies collided and [[PoorCommunicationKills lack of shared communications frequencies and unwillingness to negotiate]] did the rest. After figuring out some of what was really going on, Ray Longknife and Roth'sum'We'sum'Quin managed to make contact with each other and negotiate TheNeutralZone, and the two species went their separate ways, [[NotSoDifferent all the while with both their respective publics convinced that the other side had intended their extermination and they had survived by the skin of their teeth]].]]

* On ''Series/BabylonFive'', such an incident kicked off the pre-series Earth-Minbari War. [[spoiler:During the first contact between Earth and Minbari starships, the Minbari approach with gunports open, a cultural gesture of respect. The Earth captain overreacts -- the Minbari accidentally jam the Humans' jump drives with their scanners -- and assumes hostile intent. HilarityEnsues.]]

* Subverted by ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''. The friendly alien protagonists live in constant [[TheyWouldCutYouUp fear of being experimented on]] by "primitive" Earth scientists and use this as the justification for their {{Masquerade}}. The subversion comes in how paranoid they are about this happening even though none of the human characters even ''suspect'' they're aliens. Well, except for that one psycho played by Kathy Bates, but it turns out she had a habit of killing innocent people she incorrectly suspected of being aliens.

* Subverted quite nicely in ''Series/EarthFinalConflict''. When the show starts the aliens do have a great deal of influence, but many humans are still untrusting. More significantly, while the aliens do have a hidden agenda, it's not so much EVIL as a gambit driven by a desire to survive.
** Not even ONE gambit, but [[GambitPileup several]], which generally end up anything from failing to being near-cataclysms (having so many of them, often working at cross-purposes, getting in each other's way, or at the least diverting important resources from each other turns out ''not'' being a great idea. Go figure).

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'': "Republican Space Rangers" mocks this trope to hell and back as part of the satire.

** In ''Spores'' we discover the Evronians are trying the same thing on Earth, trying to lull the United States and a {{Ruritania}} in a sense of peace, with the implied reason being that Earth is the exact opposite of Xerba: the Evronians ''can'' land, but there's no guarantee their soldiers would win (in fact they got their asses handed to them by human troops four times on-screen, one of them showing that Evronians with air support will win, albeith with [[PyrrhicVictory heavy losses]], but as soon as the battle moved into the corridors of the attacked base the US Army needed just a couple minutes of pause to muster a counterattack that won the day with the power of MoreDakka). Also, they know that Earth weapons can shoot down their landing ships (a dozen assault helicopters at short range of one of their heavily armed assault ships were treated as an [[OneHitKO instant victory]] for the helicopters, and a blimp filled with TNT exploding near one of their 'Invasion Hives' in the upper atmosphere was enough to shoot it down), and while they know they can destroy our missiles they have no idea of how many nukes we have, and just one of them going off in a cluster of ships would annihilate them. In fact, one of the Xerbian colony ships that escaped the invasion [[PassingTheSword tried to warn Earth of the invasion and to pass their technology and all information they had on the Evronians]], knowing that their technology and [[HumansAreWarriors humanity's warrior nature]] would be more than a match for the invaders.

* The very first issue of ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' starts with the Evronians overwhelming the last Xerbian stronghold on their homeworld. Two issues later we find out from Xadhoom it was this trope in action: the Evrons, knowing that their army was superior to the Xerbian glorified police force but their ship wouldn't survive against the planetary defenses, sent ambassadors to sign a 'commercial agreement', and as soon as Xerba's planetary defenses were temporarily deactivated as sign of peace the Evronian 'freighters' disgorged hordes of soldiers, overwhelming the Xerbians in a matter of days, with Xadhoom returning on the planet just in time to see the end of the last stronghold.
** In ''Spores'' we discover the Evronians are trying the same thing on Earth, trying to lull the United States and a {{Ruritania}} in a sense of peace, with the implied reason being that Earth is the exact opposite of Xerba: the Evronians ''can'' land, but there's no guarantee their soldiers would win (in fact they got their asses handed to them by human troops four times on-screen, one of them showing that Evronians with air support will win, albeith with [[PyrrhicVictory heavy losses]], but as soon as the battle moved into the corridors of the attacked base the US Army needed just a couple minutes of pause to muster a counterattack that won the day with the power of MoreDakka). Also, they know that Earth weapons can shoot down their landing ships (a dozen assault helicopters at short range of one of their heavily armed assault ships were treated as an [[OneHitKO instant victory]] for the helicopters, and a blimp filled with TNT exploding near one of their 'Invasion Hives' in the upper atmosphere was enough to shoot it down), and while they know they can destroy our missiles they have no idea of how many nukes we have, and just one of them going off in a cluster of ships would annihilate them.

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'':

* The first encounter between humans and the the Kzinti (''The Warriors'', reprintedin the first ''Man-Kzin Wars'' collection) found the peaceful human explorers (whose society had abolished violence and war) on an unarmed ship being slowly roasted by an Kzinti warship whose captain wanted to kill the human crew without destroying their ship, having determined via a telepath that the humans had no real concept of war and have no weapons aboard their ship ... and then one of the humans realizes what is happening, and rotates the human ship to cut the attacking ship in half with [[WeaponizedExhaust the powerful laser the human ship utilizes as both reaction drive and communications device]] and loots the weapons off the wreck. The tag for the series was that humans had decided to study war no more because [[HumansAreWarriors we're too good at it]].

* ''Film/MonstersVsAliens'' parodies this with Gallaxhar's introductory broadcast to Earth, as shown in the page quote. After stating his peaceful intentions, he warns the humans of their impending deaths, and it just gets worse from there.

->''"[[OverlyLongGag So, to recap:]] [[Film/MonstersVsAliens I come in peace, I mean you no harm, and you all will die. Gallaxhar out.]]"''

* This is parodied in Gallaxhar's speech in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens''. The [[WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens2013 animated series]] uses a more subtle version with Coverton acting as a [[TheMole Mole]] for an alien invasion after his attempt to remove Susan's powers failed.

[[folder:Real life]]

* ''VideoGame/PortalRunner'': When the Martians start invading the other worlds, the Martian leader says that they come in peace...while the other Martians are blasting everything in site. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Sarge, who states "Doesn't look so peaceful to me."

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* Displayed quite nicely in ''Film/IndependenceDay'', in which a [[StrawmanPolitical horde of GenreBlind people]] has assembled atop a skyscraper waving "hello and welcome to Earth" placards as the alien spaceship positions itself directly over them... and then fires its massive "[[AppliedPhlebotinum frission]]" cannon, destroying the building and most of the city. Earlier, the government sent a helicopter rigged with [[Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind a grid of flashing lights]] to try and communicate: the aliens promptly blew it out of the sky.

* Used as a cover story by the Grigari in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'''s ''Millennium'' trilogy. The Grigari "mistook Earth's intense sensor scans" for an attack, then "fired a warning shot" that they "didn't realize would overwhelm the planetary defenses". Result: EarthShatteringKaboom.
** According to Diane Duane's ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels, the Vulcans were once invaded by Orion Pirates who "came in peace." Since then, the Romulans (which left Vulcan after that ... [[ItsALongStory long story]]) have been ''a bit'' wary of peaceful intentions, as Starfleet later found out.

->''"Humans of Earth, I come in peace. You need not fear me; I mean you no harm. However, most of you will not survive the next 24 hours."''

->''"Humans of Earth, I come in peace... However, most of you will not survive the next 24 hours."''

->''"People of Earth, we come in peace. However, most of you will not survive these next 24 hours."''