Before We Vanish centers around three aliens in human bodies who have been sent to earth to understand humanity in order to overtake it. They gather “conceptions” from human minds, the actual concept of a term thereby robbing whomever they took it from of their understanding of the term. The three aliens are initially working separately with human guides, who only half believe what’s going on at first, but commingle their knowledge once they meet face to face. According to the aliens, they don’t “take” (the word they use for concept-stealing) from guides so it’s through the interactions with other people that the guides witness the ritual and begin to understand what’s happening.

Small mentions of the fate of humanity regardless of the invasion crop up throughout the movie. One character makes a comment of how we only have about a hundred years left anyway so what difference does it make if aliens take over. Two of the aliens who are most cavalier towards the extinction of humans both ended up in teenage bodies, funnily enough, while the third, Shinji (Ryuhei Matsuda), is disguised as a full adult. Shinji becomes intrigued by humanity and connected to his human form’s wife Narumi (Masami Nagasawa). As his guide, Narumi witnesses him taking from her sister, her boss, and strangers but not from her. As the invasion moves closer, Narumi begs him to take one single concept from her: love. She tells him that he can’t truly understand humanity without it. Shinji is overwhelmed by the feeling, and due to the commingling of the alien minds and knowledge, the invasion is abruptly called off. There is a mildly happy ending where we see humanity fixing itself together, undercut by the sadness shared between Shinji and Narumi who has now lost the concept of love permanently. Before We Vanish sees an unremovable moral core inside us, but also fears what might be lost to save it.

Of course, a more pressing future fear is the fear of technology and the effect it’s having on our minds. Cyberpunk indie film Mindhack: #savetheworld (2017) focuses on the search for our consciousness and how technology could help us find the spark that created life. Mason (Chris Mason) is a hacker who is trying to save the world. He also happens to talk to a Tyler Durden-esque mental projection named Finn (Scott Mechlowicz) who seems to have figured out living better than the brain he’s residing in. After Mason successfully makes a digital map of his brain, a glowing orb appears above his head. Finn touches it in spite of Mason’s clear objections, and what follows is pretty much that episode of Futurama where Bender becomes human punctuated by some sharp, philosophical musings about sensations, our minds, and the nature of pleasure.