and costume designs from scratch. This fact also
drove the trend toward sequels. After the 1980’s,
movie sequels became a mainstay of the entertain-
ment industry.
Further Reading
Budra, Paul, and Betty A. Schellenberg, eds.Part
Two: Reflections on the Sequel. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1998. Compilation of essays on lit-
erary and cinematic sequels, including two essays
on cinema of the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Nowlan, Robert A., and Gwendolyn Wright Nolan.
Cinema Sequels and Remakes, 1903-1987. Reprint.
Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2000. Scholarly over-
view of both sequels to and remakes of successful
films.
Stanley, John.Creature Features: The Science Fiction,
Fantasy, and Horror Movie Guide. New York: Berkley
Trade, 2000. Thousands of capsule reviews of
movies from this genre, including sequels.
Thompson, David.The Alien Quartet: A Bloomsbur y
Movie Guide.New York: Bloomsbury USA, 1999.
Analyzes different aspects of theAlienfilms, in-
cluding themes, directors, and the relation of
each film to the others.
Paul Dellinger
See also Academy Awards; Action films;Airplane!;
Aliens;Back to the Future; Cruise, Tom;Empire Strikes
Back, The; Epic films; Film in the United States; Ford,
Harrison; Fox, Michael J.;Ghostbusters; Gibson, Mel;
Horror films; Murphy, Eddie; Murray, Bill;Raiders of
the Lost Ark; Rambo;RoboCop; Schwarzenegger, Ar-
nold; Science-fiction films; Special effects; Spielberg,
Steven;Terminator, The.
SETI Institute
Identification Institution established to search for
signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life
Date Founded in 1984
The SETI Institute launched the most significant public
project dedicated to searching for any evidence that intelli-
gent life exists on other planets.
The stated mission of the SETI (Search for Extra-
Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute is “to explore, un-
derstand and explain nature and the prevalence of
life in the universe.” The institute’s most recognized
project is also named Search for Extra-Terrestrial
Life. It is an attempt to detect any radio transmis-
sions reaching Earth from elsewhere that might
have been generated by alien civilizations. This proj-
ect evolved from Frank Drake’s original 1960 Project
Ozma experiment, which used a radio telescope to
examine the stars Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani near
the 1.420 gigahertz marker frequency. Project Ozma
represented humankind’s first scientific attempt to
detect extraterrestrial intelligence.
The SETI Institute has evolved from its beginning
as a systematic search for intelligent extraterrestrial
radio sources into a multifaceted organization dedi-
cated to gaining a better understanding of life in the
universe. Inspired by its founder Frank Drake and
fired by the charisma of astronomer Carl Sagan, the
SETI Institute came to employ over one hundred sci-
entists from a wide variety of disciplines at its Carl
Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe
and the Center for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence. Although searching for intelligent ex-
traterrestrial life may be the SETI Institute’s highest-
profile project, other studies involve more fun-
damental inquiries into planetary formation and
evolution. The institute’s projects investigate how
life began on Earth and how many other stars in the
Milky Way galaxy may have planets that could sup-
port life. The SETI Institute’s activities were also
popularized Carl Sagan’s novelContact(1985), as
well as by its 1997 film adaptation.
Impact The SETI Institute continued to search for
evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life, employ-
ing new techniques and resources as they became
available. Detection of radio signals from an extra-
terrestrial civilization is not an easy task. Radio as-
tronomers first have to determine what types of star
systems may have planets. Then they have to decide
which radio frequency would be the most logical to
listen to. Once these decisions have been made, they
listen and wait. Computers evolved to make the job
manageable, but even with advances in distributed
computing, the task remained daunting.
Further Reading
Ekers, Ron, et al., eds.SETI 2020: A Roadmap for the
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Mountain View,
Calif.: SETI Institute, 2003.
Shostak, Seth, and Alex Barnett.Cosmic Company:
The Search for Life in the Universe. Cambridge, En-
gland: Cambridge University Press, 2003.866 SETI Institute The Eighties in America