In every sci-fi film ever

Classic example is the original Star Trek ep "Court Martial" where Kirk is on trial. His lawyer's closing statement goes on about human laws and rights throughout the ages: the Code of Hammurabi, the Magna Carta, the US constitution, the Martian declaration of independence and the "Statutes of Alpha 3"

Watching wing commander, came here to post "unguided hyperspace jumps" and it's the first post in the thread! What a terrible movie.

* heroes sentenced to work in hellish outer-space mines
* planet-overthrowing rebellion consists, as far as we can see, of eight (8) people in random mad-max getup living in one (1) cave
* life-sucking/parasitic/zombie creature that scientists gradually realize is composed of pure energy

A+

lol

Maybe also the triumph of humans vs said protean energy entity (HAL?) vis a vis man’s “humanity,” emotion, instincts, perseverance

Right. Also

Strategic location of and destruction of alien power supply unveils these pretentious, often toga-wearing interstellar intellectuals to be in fact some kind of puny, looked-down-upon life form, some sort of street pigeons of space.

Earlier tonight overheard my girlfriend, an addictive consumer of junk sci fi, angrily exclaim from the next room:

“Come ON! Why is it always a HIVE mind??”

You want maybe a Hadoop Mind?

226 alien looking exactly like a human except with e.g. blue or orange skin

227 puzzle, code, language or devastating situation barely solvable using current Earth technology within 1-24 hours

232. As plot is stalling out, supporting scientist character pops in to report that they've finished running some tests on the creature, comatose survivor, mysterious signal, or strange energy pulse they picked up from the spaceship earlier. They don't quite know what to make of it, but the heroes had better come take a look.
232a. The comatose survivor has finally woken up and is acting very strangely...

233. Breathless back-of-envelope calculations of how quickly a creature that multiplies at this rate could spread to cover the planet.

234 Female 'other' (alien, robot, whatever) turns out to be evil.