Alien Intervention is a simple indie sci-fi flick. It’s set in the New Mexico desert (but not near Roswell). An alien arrives who can look and talk like a man. He leaves something behind for safekeeping.

Alien Intervention is a low budget operation in every way. The fading motel where it’s set, the cheesy graphics, and the small cast attest to that. But it manages to be full of humor and heart in spite of its limitations.

Young Clive (Mia Akemi Brown) is playing with her camera in the desert one day when a storm hits directly above her, lightning strikes, and a man introduces himself as Mann (Michael Esparza). He gives Clive a blue rock and asks her to safeguard it. He says it’s very powerful.

Seconds later men in suits show up and take Mann away.

Twenty-five years later adult Clive (Carie Kawa), her artist husband Mitch (Daniel Dorr), and her ailing mother (Cynthia Mace) live in an decaying motel they hope to restore to glory and turn into an artists’ retreat. This motel is very close to where Clive met the alien years earlier.

They are broke, the roof leaks, and things are not looking good for the artists’ retreat idea. Mitch wants to move to Santa Fe and forget the whole plan.

That’s when Mann walks up to the door. He looks exactly the same as 25 years ago. He wants the blue stone back. Clive says she buried it but knows where it is. He gives her a big wad of money and rents a room in the motel.

The next day they dig holes in the desert all day. Clive obviously does not know where the stone is.

The last important character, Sam (Gregory Jbara), shows up at the motel. He claims he let Mann out of the “government facility” where he’d been for 25 years. He also had a big wad of money for motel rooms. He wants to let Mann go home.

The interactions between all these characters are interesting and build a big heart at the center of the film. Mann has some abilities that change things around the motel. The film has a quiet but happy ending.

Janet Grillo directed this film, which is more a relationship story than a sci-fi spectacle. Looked at from that angle, the film is a thoughtful look into the lives of a few people who are mostly unnoticed by the world. There are some philosophical life-advice lines in the script that show Clive a way forward as she struggles to fulfill her dreams.

Alien Intervention is streaming on Tubi and Fawesome and can be rented from Prime Video. Here’s the trailer.