The Man Who Fell to Earth

Nicolas Roeg’s cult sci-fi stars David Bowie as an alien attempting to amass a fortune to save his home planet, but unable to escape his decadent earthly lifestyle.

David Bowie cemented his unearthly persona in Nicolas Roeg’s startling cult film; playing in alien stranded on earth while on a mission to find water for his own world, he initiates a plan to amass a fortune to help save his home planet.

Perfectly cast in a role that suits his aloof acting style, Bowie portrays the alien as a detached observer of human folly, decadently devouring 1970s culture on multiple television sets. But it’s Nicholas Roeg’s direction that defines The Man Who Fell to Earth as a cult sci-fi classic, in a film full of startling compositions, inspired editing and a warped alien's perspective of 20th-century insanity.