No entertainment product has so tantalisingly explored notions of UFO secrecy as The X-Files, which originally ran from 1993 to 2002. The righteous pursuit of ‘UFO truth’ was embodied in the character of Fox Mulder, who was ever just one step away from unravelling his government’s UFO conspiracy and understanding the aliens’ ultimate agenda. This was at the heart of the series’ overarching narrative – the truth was “out there” to be discovered, and individual obsession to the point of religious devotion was key to its discovery.
With The X-Files back on our screens this year, let’s take a look at some more big-and-small-screen entertainment products that have cashed-in on the notion of a grand UFO conspiracy. Here are ten movies and TV shows worth your time in which clandestine agencies take a keen interest in extraterrestrial visitation…
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Spielberg’s UFO epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released in 1977. The movie depicted the USAF and NASA as permanently one step behind the UFO phenomenon, pursuing its rapidly accelerating manifestations around the world while attempting to guess its next move in the hopes of meeting the alien intelligences face-to-face, which ultimately they do, covertly. The public at large is kept in the dark throughout. In one scene, clearly modelled on televised UFO dismissals from Project Blue Book personnel in decades prior, a USAF representative addresses concerned citizens and reporters, assuring them that UFOs are non-existent. Holding up a convincing photograph of a UFO, the rep, Major Benchley, declares: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a flying saucer.” Then, picking up a silver pie plate, he continues, “It’s made of pewter, made in Japan, and thrown across the lawn by one of my children.”
Elaborate cover stories are also put in place, as when a compliant media falsely reports a chemical spill near Devils Tower, requiring total civilian evacuation of the area so no one can witness the government/alien contact.
In Spielberg’s movie, UFO disclosure is for the privileged few only, namely those in officialdom and a handful of contactees who have been compulsively drawn to the site of contact, much to the annoyance of the secret-keepers. What happens after Roy Neary departs on the mothership is never hinted at, but, given the secret nature of alien-human communion we have just witnessed, it is safe to assume that the lid will stay firmly shut on UFO reality in the wider world.
Project U.F.O. (1978–1979)
Almost a decade after it closed, Project Blue Book would get its very own unofficial TV show. Airing between 1978 and 1979, Project U.F.O. drew direct inspiration from real Blue Book files, which had recently been declassified. The episodes revolved around two UFO investigators from the Foreign Technology Division at Wright Patterson Air Force Base (played by William Jordan and William Caskey Swaim) who travel around the country seeking explanations for reported UFO sightings and encounters.
In reality, Blue Book officers went to great lengths to avoid exotic conclusions in their investigations. In the TV show, however, a number of cases examined are strongly suggestive of alien visitation. Boasting former Pentagon spokesman Col. William Coleman as a producer and technical advisor, the show can perhaps be read in hindsight as an unofficial (and thus politically safe) DoD endorsement of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. A few years earlier, Coleman had appeared in Robert Emenegger’s Pentagon-backed pro-UFO documentary, UFOs: Past Present and Future, in which he spoke open-mindedly about the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis. He would further subtly support the ETH the following decade in the broadcast of the controversial UFO Cover-Up?: Live! (1988).
Wavelength (1983)
This low-budget, little-seen movie concerns a UFO being shot down with a laser by the USAF and its friendly alien occupants being held captive at a top secret facility in the desert. There is even a scene in which a dead alien is autopsied by military doctors, which anticipated the infamous ‘Alien Autopsy’ footage widely released in 1995.
Wavelength was written and directed by Mike Gray, who had penned the screenplay for The China Syndrome (1979). UFO researcher David Sankey wrote to Gray in 2009 seeking a response to a rumor in the UFO community that his film had been produced in collaboration with the government and was inspired by an alleged incident in which the US military shot down a UFO in California in the early 1970s.
Sankey wrote to Gray:
Over the years in my role as researcher I have come across many references to statements by a variety of people that the basic storyline plot to Wavelength was actually based on a factual account or incident which took place at ‘Hunter Liggett’, 90 miles south-south-east of Monterey, California. With this in mind, I would like to be direct and ask if there is any truth in these statements and were you influenced in any way by other parties in preparation for the original Wavelength screenplay? By other parties I mean specifically governmental or military personal who may have approached you in an advisory capacity to see that specific details and information should be contained within the film structure.
Gray wrote back to Sankey that same day. His email read, in part:
It was totally my idea without any input from ex-government officials. I simply took the story of the Roswell incident and asked, “What if they were just tourists?” The whole thing was fiction from start to finish. On the other hand, I’ve always been convinced that the government was hiding something about Roswell.
Brother from Another Planet (1984)
Though not really a ‘conspiracy movie,’ John Sayles’ The Brother from Another Planet was the first movie ever to feature the Men in Black of UFO lore. In numerous accounts over the decades, mysterious black-suited men have been described as harassing UFO witnesses, often visiting them at their homes and demanding details of their saucer sightings. Sometimes the men attempt to silence the witnesses through intimidation. Sometimes they show official-looking ID badges for various government or military agencies. In many cases, however, the Men in Black seem barely human, having been described as almost alien in their actions and appearance, often speaking and moving robotically and appearing distinctly out of place in an Earthly environment.
While a number of UFO movies in previous decades had featured black-suited government spooks investigating saucer sightings, it was not until The Brother from Another Planet that the Men in Black were depicted precisely as described in the literature. Here, the MIB (played by John Sayles and David Strathairn) are gaunt, pale-faced figures clad entirely in black, whose behaviour is threatening, robotic, and bizarre, and with good reason – they’re alien bounty hunters in search of the Brother. In the film’s closing credits they are even listed as “Men in Black.”
Director John Sayles paid close attention to the bizarre physical motion of his MIB. In order to convey their otherworldliness, the he filmed their entrance and exit scenes entirely in reverse. The effect is subtle, but creepy…Read More at Mysterious Universe
"According to the “Fair Use” clause of International Copyright Law, the authors declare that the use of the photos, videos and information in this academic research are analyzed for purposes of “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research” according to Section 107 of Title 17 of the US Code."
Replies