An unseen species of hostile aliens are the main antagonists of the 2009 science fiction horror film The Fourth Kind. They are implied to be responsible for several abductions in the town of Nome, Alaska (which in real life has a unusual high number of disappearances, despite having no cases of purported alien abductions or UFO sightings) as well as for driving some people insane, disoriented, disturbed, and violent.
Throughout the movie, which takes place in October 2000, the protagonist Dr. Abigail "Abbey" Tyler hypnotizes some patients who claimed to have contacted those aliens in order to investigate the events based on the memories of the encounters. She eventually finds out that she had been abducted as well.
Appearance
Although the creatures are never shown in the movie, recordings of their distorted voices are heard and a blurry footage of what appears to be the white inside of their spaceship is briefly shown.
Origins
Dr. Awolowa Odusami, a specialist in ancient languages, identified the language in the recordings as Sumerian, an ancient language isolate spoken in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and Syria) approximately between 3000 and 2000 BC. He brings up the theory of ancient astronauts, stating that the Ancient Sumerians possibly had astronautic technology.
In the distorted recordings, the aliens also seem to speak some words in English, but full sentences were barely identified. One of them, spoken in either English or Sumerian, was identified is "I am God".
Here is an analysis of the supposed Sumerian messages in the movie.
Events
In August 2000, two months before the main events of the movie, Tyler was sleeping with her husband Will when she suddenly sees him being stabbed to death by a mysterious, blurry figure. This left her to raise their two children, Ashley and Ronnie.
In October, Tyler conducts filmed hypnotherapy sessions with three patients who claimed to have been visited by alien intruders. They all state to have first seen a white owl looking at them, but their memories later get confused and they end up denying seeing such owl.
The first patient, Tommy Fisher, at some point gets nervous, refuses to continue the therapy and goes home. Later that night, an insane Tommy holds his wife and two children at gunpoint in their home. While the police surround the house, he asks for Tyler's presence and keeps questioning the meaning of "Zimabu Eter". Tyler goes there and tries to prevent Tommy from committing any crimes, but this does not work as he kills his family and himself.
Tyler starts to hypothesize about alien abductions, to which her colleague Dr. Abel Campos is skeptic. Her assistant then gives Tyler a recording that plays Tyler's voice and other distorted, electronic voices speaking an unknown language in what appears to be an episode of intruders in her home attacking her. Tyler contacts Dr. Awolowa Odusami, a colleague of her late husband and specialist in ancient languages, who shows sympathy towards her and interest in what is happening, and travels to Nome. He identifies the language in the recordings as Sumerian.
A second patient named Scott claims to know why Tommy did what he did. Under his request, Tyler hypnotizes his in his home with Campos watching as well. At some point during the hypnosis, he jerks upright and begins hovering above his bed, while a distorted electronic voice coming out of his mouth apparently commands that the "study" be "ended".
Later the police arrive in Tyler's home, and Sheriff August Thompson tells her that Scott had three upper vertebrae completely severed from his experience, and was completely paralyzed. Believing Tyler is conducting insane experiments, August tries to arrest her, but Campos defends her, stating that what they saw was indeed intriguing, and August instead places her under house arrest.
A police officer stays in the outside of Tyler's house watching and recording it with a dash-cam. At some point, the footage captures a large black triangular ship approaching the house. The video then gets extremely distorted, but the officer is heard saying that people were pulled out of the house and calling for backup. The police rush into the house and find Ronnie with a sobbing Tyler, who claims Ashley was abducted. Sheriff August does not believe this and removes Ronnie from her custody. Ronnie goes with them willingly, just telling her to "let go" when she tries to prevent this; it is later revealed that Ronnie still blames Tyler for Ashley's disappearance.
Tyler, wanting to go "directly to the source", decides to make contact with these beings in order to reunite with her daughter. She has Campos hypnotize her and Odusami watch. During the session, Tyler relives the witnessing of Ashley's abduction and parts of her own abduction as well. In a blurry footage, a needle is stung on Tyler's back and it is hinted that they also took some egg cells from her. After she begs the aliens to return Ashley, one of them replies difficult-to-understand sentences, which apparently communicates that Ashley will never be returned and that the creature is a savior and God.
After the session, Campos and Odusami notice something out of camera's view. A voice yells "Zimabu eter!" and then the three of them are abducted. In the aftermath, Tyler wakes up in a hospital, having broke her neck during the abduction. Sheriff August visits her and shows evidence that Will had killed himself with a gun, suggesting that her theory of a murder was merely a delusion.