1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 In 2019, a call went out to storm the gates 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:09,000 of the world's most top-secret military installation. 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,000 This was the place that people were attempting 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:17,000 to back-engineer extraterrestrial technology. 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,000 Millions responded. 6 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,000 This information had been percolating for 30 years, 7 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,000 and then, bam, a perfect storm. 8 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:27,000 On the Internet, on the radio, 9 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:31,000 promoters were talking about, let's storm Area 51. 10 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:36,000 The military vowed to protect the base by any means necessary. 11 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,000 The DOD said we would bomb millennials 12 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,000 if they actually tried to storm the gates of Area 51. 13 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,000 But still, thousands met the call to action. 14 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,000 What's behind those gates is one of the last mysteries. 15 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,000 I want the government to release the records now, today. 16 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,000 Was this the beginning of a movement 17 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:58,000 that will finally tear down the walls of government secrecy 18 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:02,000 and expose the truth about an extraterrestrial presence 19 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:04,000 on planet Earth? 20 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,000 People are interested in the extraterrestrial questions, 21 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,000 and they want answers. 22 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:17,000 There is a doorway in the universe. 23 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:21,000 Beyond it is the promise of truth. 24 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:27,000 It demands we question everything we have ever been taught. 25 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,000 The evidence is all around us. 26 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:35,000 The future is right before our eyes. 27 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,000 We are not alone. 28 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,000 We have never been alone. 29 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:51,000 BAKERSFIELD, CA 30 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:55,000 July 2019 31 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:00,000 College student Maddie Roberts creates a post on Facebook. 32 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,000 In it, Roberts calls on his friends to storm 33 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,000 the top secret U.S. military base called Area 51, 34 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,000 a place that has long been rumored to be housing 35 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,000 crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft. 36 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,000 As part of the post, Roberts invites his readers to click 37 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,000 to indicate if they're attending. 38 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,000 I had shared it to my own personal Facebook page, 39 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,000 and I think it amassed probably about 40 RSVPs, 40 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:30,000 the people that were interested or had tagged themselves as going. 41 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:34,000 Roberts has no idea whether the post will simply reach 42 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:38,000 his own circle of friends and acquaintances on Facebook, 43 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:42,000 or if it will spread further into cyberspace. 44 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,000 He gets his answer two days later when his phone begins 45 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000 buzzing with RSVP notifications. 46 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,000 First a few hundred, then a few thousand. 47 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,000 It just kept kind of snowballing. 48 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,000 It took about three days for it to really take off, 49 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,000 and it just took off like wildfire, 50 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,000 and then that's when it got posted on Reddit. 51 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,000 And when it got posted on Reddit, it really took off. 52 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:10,000 Within a week, the number of RSVPs soars to over a million. 53 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,000 And then on July 11th, the news got ahold of it. 54 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:19,000 Now a new Facebook event talks about organizing a large mob to raid the base. 55 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000 We're trying to organize a big mob to storm Area 51 56 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:23,000 where all the aliens are. 57 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,000 Officials are saying, stay away. 58 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,000 This is not something you want to go to. 59 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,000 There are even signs that warn it's a restricted area, 60 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,000 that it's unlawful to enter the area without permission, 61 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,000 and that use of deadly force is authorized. 62 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,000 In short, don't go. 63 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:43,000 News commentators point out that if even a small fraction of those who responded show up, 64 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,000 the proposed storming could quickly turn violent. 65 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:53,000 Alarmed at the overwhelming response to Robert's post, 66 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:57,000 U.S. military officials issue a warning. 67 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:01,000 In ominous language, it states that the U.S. Air Force 68 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:05,000 always stands ready to protect America and its assets. 69 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:10,000 Within days, Matty Roberts gets a visit from the FBI. 70 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,000 FBI did show up to my house. 71 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,000 They asked me to send them anybody that's trying to radicalize this thing 72 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,000 in the form of actually storming the base and actually causing harm to people. 73 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,000 They were really concerned about people sending me death threats. 74 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,000 In the wake of the FBI's visit, 75 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,000 Roberts claims that he was joking all along 76 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:33,000 and that he never actually intended for anyone to heed his call. 77 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:34,000 I was just kind of like, 78 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,000 I didn't think anybody was going to take it too seriously 79 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,000 because if I created the event on Facebook, 80 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:41,000 it was meant as a joke, kind of like tongue-in-cheek. 81 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,000 Never intended for it to go this far. 82 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,000 It was terrifying. 83 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:50,000 But whether Roberts wanted people to take him seriously or not, 84 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:55,000 by early July, it seemed nothing could derail what he had said in motion. 85 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:01,000 August 2019. 86 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:07,000 Matty Roberts' original post has now been reposted hundreds of thousands of times. 87 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:14,000 Over 2 million people have indicated they plan to descend on Area 51 in September 88 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:17,000 and storm the top secret base. 89 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,000 No one has any idea how many might actually attend 90 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,000 and both the government and the media gear up to blame Roberts 91 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:29,000 if things turn into an ugly confrontation between the military 92 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:33,000 and tens of thousands of UFO enthusiasts. 93 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:38,000 In order to take the pressure off of himself and his associates, 94 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:40,000 Roberts asks that his followers 95 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:45,000 call off any plans to actually invade the base on September 20th. 96 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:49,000 Instead, he announces an alternative idea, 97 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:52,000 a peaceful celebration called Alien Stock, 98 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:56,000 which he begins organizing in the tiny town of Rachel, Nevada, 99 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:59,000 just outside Area 51. 100 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:04,000 He promises a festival of music, art, and all things alien. 101 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:10,000 In the weeks before the event, there are efforts aimed at scaling down the rhetoric 102 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,000 and averting a potential tragedy. 103 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,000 The government just did a whole counter-media program, 104 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:20,000 letting folks know that they're not taking this as a game. 105 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:22,000 They don't think it's funny. 106 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,000 No, it's not Woodstock. 107 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,000 You want to have a rock festival outside of Rachel? 108 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:29,000 Hey, have a nice day, right? 109 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:33,000 But you crossed Area 51, we take it seriously. 110 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:39,000 You will be arrested, prosecuted, likely convicted, and sent to jail. 111 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:42,000 Ten days before the event, 112 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:46,000 two Dutch YouTubers penetrate the Area 51 perimeter, 113 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,000 hiking three miles into the restricted area. 114 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:54,000 Their arrests make national headlines 115 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:59,000 and add to concerns that the upcoming gathering could easily get out of hand. 116 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:06,000 Astoundingly, they were sentenced to a year in jail. 117 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:09,000 The message was clear. 118 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,000 We are going to come down on you hard. 119 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:17,000 September 20th, 2019. 120 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:25,000 I think behind those gates is something that nobody can explain. 121 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,000 Not even the people that work there. 122 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,000 I have no answers, but I'm going to find out. 123 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:32,000 That's why I came here, 3,000 miles, to find out those answers. 124 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:34,000 On the day the event begins, 125 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:37,000 the Department of Defense posts an ominous tweet. 126 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:41,000 It features a picture of a B2 bomber, 127 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:45,000 along with a heading that states that this is the last thing millennials will see 128 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,000 if they attempt the Area 51 raid today. 129 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,000 The tweet is quickly deleted. 130 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:55,000 They made a case of saying that it would be considered an act of terrorism, 131 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,000 even saying we would bomb millennials 132 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,000 if they actually tried to storm the game. 133 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:03,000 We would bomb millennials if they actually tried to storm the gates of Area 51. 134 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:05,000 That was a little severe. 135 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:09,000 Now, they cleverly didn't exactly say what would happen, 136 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:13,000 but there was a palpable threat left hanging in the air. 137 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:19,000 Faced with the military's willingness to defend Area 51 at all costs, 138 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:24,000 many potential attendees changed their plans and decide not to attend. 139 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:28,000 But while the government warnings are largely effective, 140 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,000 on the night of September 20th, 141 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:35,000 nearly 100 people refused to be intimidated and gather at the gates. 142 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:42,000 I think behind the gate there could very well be technology 143 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:46,000 that the government is not informing us of. 144 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,000 There's a lot of people that are, like, watching this event being like, 145 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,000 this is the night, this is the night we find some aliens. 146 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:55,000 They can't get the code! 147 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:57,000 Woo! 148 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:02,000 People are prepared for a bloodbath, but I've seen nothing. 149 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,000 The cops have been out in a show of force, 150 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:10,000 and they're going to make it very unpleasant for anybody who crosses. 151 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:13,000 Both sides show restraint, 152 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:17,000 and a potentially deadly confrontation is averted. 153 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:22,000 Only two people are detained by authorities for minor offenses. 154 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,000 Over the next three days, 155 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:30,000 approximately 3,000 more people make the journey to Area 51 156 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:35,000 in a show of solidarity and in protest of government secrecy. 157 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,000 There's a huge alien community around the world, 158 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:42,000 it's a matter of time before this was going to happen. 159 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,000 I don't think the government's being honest, 160 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:48,000 because I think they would freak us out if they told us what was inside that big old mountain there. 161 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:53,000 But there are many who believe that without the serious threat of military action, 162 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:57,000 the turnout might have been significantly larger. 163 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:00,000 The government caused a lot of confusion 164 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:04,000 and pretty much discouraged most people from showing up to the event. 165 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:09,000 In the days and weeks leading up to September the 20th, 166 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:14,000 there was a mass of confusing reports about what might actually take place. 167 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:18,000 And one wonders, did this play into the hands of the government 168 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,000 and work to their advantage? 169 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:26,000 If government threats did indeed suppress the turnout at the Area 51 festivals, 170 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:29,000 what could they be protecting? 171 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:33,000 Is it only military secrets or something else? 172 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:38,000 For ancient astronaut theorists, the answer is obvious. 173 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:42,000 So it seems a lot of people are asking the same question. 174 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:46,000 What is it that the government is hiding at Area 51? 175 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:52,000 The United States began with a policy of lies and denial. 176 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,000 Let's call it for what it is. 177 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:57,000 Counterintelligence. 178 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:04,000 UFOs and ETs have been at the top of the counterintelligence list since World War II. 179 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,000 Our government doesn't want us to know the truth. 180 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:12,000 We know for a fact that for over 50 years, 181 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:14,000 not just the U.S. government, 182 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:18,000 but governments from around the world have always denied 183 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,000 the UFO question or the extraterrestrial question. 184 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:27,000 Could the U.S. government be hiding not only crashed UFOs, 185 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:31,000 but even extraterrestrials at Area 51? 186 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:34,000 Perhaps further clues can be found 187 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,000 at the very entrance of the secret base, 188 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:42,000 an entrance that has been strictly off limits for decades. 189 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:50,000 Could Area 51 truly harbor extraterrestrial secrets? 190 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:54,000 And if so, how did it all begin? 191 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,000 Perhaps answers can be found 192 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:00,000 in the murky history of the mysterious Desert Base. 193 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:07,000 We actually have to go back to the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. 194 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:12,000 The government said we can never allow something like this to happen again. 195 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:17,000 So let's move or create some of these installations and facilities 196 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,000 further into the country. 197 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:24,000 Area 51 was built around a salt flat known as Groom Lake. 198 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:28,000 A runway now slices across the dry lake bank. 199 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:33,000 The reason why Groom Lake was chosen was very simple. 200 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:36,000 Groom Lake itself was a dry bed, 201 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:42,000 but it was extremely long and it could double as a huge runway. 202 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:46,000 Some of these aircraft required long runways. 203 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:51,000 For many years, Area 51 enthusiasts were able to watch 204 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:55,000 with higher-powered binocular lenses and see base activity. 205 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:57,000 None of that is possible anymore. 206 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:02,000 They've gone to great lengths to keep whatever is happening at Area 51 a secret. 207 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,000 For the better part of a century, 208 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:09,000 the US government denied the very existence of Area 51. 209 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:11,000 But why? 210 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,000 The official Area 51 now admitted by the element 211 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:20,000 is this facility where aircraft were developed and test flown. 212 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:25,000 The U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, 213 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:28,000 and of course, more recently Stealth Technology. 214 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,000 That's the official Area 51. 215 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,000 Highly secret, secure, remote. 216 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,000 But then there's the unofficial Area 51 217 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:43,000 where people say that there was an even bigger secret there. 218 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,000 And that was extraterrestrial technology. 219 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:51,000 Rachel Nevada 220 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:55,000 September 2019 221 00:13:55,000 --> 00:14:01,000 To further investigate what might be hidden at the secret Area 51 base, 222 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:05,000 former British Ministry of Defense Officer Nick Pomp 223 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:10,000 and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell have enlisted the help of local resident, Yorg Arno. 224 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:15,000 Yorg, who has lived in nearby Rachel Nevada for 15 years, 225 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:19,000 has been a first-hand witness to Area 51's recent history. 226 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:25,000 What's the strangest interaction you've seen of people coming in or out of the base? 227 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:29,000 Heavy construction equipment going into the base when they were doing construction. 228 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:34,000 And also sometimes you see military vehicles being dragged into the base. 229 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:38,000 They set them up inside the bombing ranges for shooting targets. 230 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:41,000 Just pull over here. 231 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:43,000 There's a Sheriff's vehicle coming our way. 232 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:46,000 We don't want any trouble. We don't want to block them. 233 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:48,000 We don't want to go any further. 234 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:53,000 This is extra security. I don't think we've ever seen quite this much. 235 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:02,000 In light of the tension surrounding the Storm Area 51 event, 236 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:08,000 the military has implemented a zero-tolerance lockdown at the gate of the secret base. 237 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:14,000 So, here we are. I think this is about as far as we can go. 238 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,000 The point of no return, right? 239 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,000 Yes. We cannot go any further. 240 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:23,000 All this barbed wire here, all these security measures. 241 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:28,000 This is the point at which, if you take one step further, 242 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:32,000 the full force of security will come down on us, right? 243 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:37,000 Make no mistake. We step one step into their territory and everything is going to change. 244 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:40,000 If I came up here, is anybody going to talk to me? 245 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:42,000 Are they going to say anything to me? 246 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:45,000 No. These are signs that spell out in plain English, 247 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,000 bad things are going to happen to you if you cross this line. 248 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,000 Right. It's very clear. 249 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:55,000 So, now look. If we walked past that barrier, up that road, 250 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:58,000 what would we see? What would we find? 251 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,000 We would be walking down about 20 miles, a paved road, 252 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:06,000 into the valley that Area 51 is located in. 253 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,000 In between here and the base, there's more security checkpoints, 254 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,000 there's more road sensors. 255 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:18,000 If you were to get to Area 51, you're standing there and you look around, 256 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,000 and it looks like any other military air force base. 257 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:24,000 But the good stuff is all in hangars. 258 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,000 It is not out in the open. 259 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:29,000 It's not like, you know, they got the saucer right there on the runway. 260 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:35,000 So, there are hangars, obviously, but there are even rumors of huge underground facilities, 261 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,000 facilities carved into the sides of the mountains. 262 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:42,000 There are people that talk about underground facilities. 263 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:45,000 They keep tabs on people that watch the base. 264 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:48,000 They know exactly when somebody's up at Tikabu Peak, for instance, 265 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:50,000 one of the view spots of the base. 266 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,000 Located 26 miles from the Area 51 base, 267 00:16:54,000 --> 00:17:01,000 Tikabu Peak is the only public land where people can actually see the Groom Lake runway and hangars. 268 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,000 And they know exactly, okay, right now is a good moment to fly all good stuff, 269 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:07,000 and that's when they bring out the good stuff. 270 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:10,000 I've actually been on Tikabu Peak when they did a test flight, 271 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:13,000 and it was the most amazing thing. 272 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:17,000 We look at the base, and all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, 273 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,000 all the runway lights come on. 274 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,000 I mean, it's the most amazing thing to watch. 275 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:25,000 All of a sudden, the desert in front of you, below you, becomes alive. 276 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:29,000 You see a light taxiing to the runway, the light takes off, 277 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:35,000 the runway lights go out, the light goes out, and that was the end of that. 278 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:39,000 I mean, literally, feet above the runway, the lights just went on. 279 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:41,000 That's ultra-high security. 280 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:46,000 I mean, whatever that thing was, clearly, they were really trying to protect it 281 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:50,000 and minimizing that anyone could get eyes on it. 282 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:52,000 Correct. 283 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:58,000 Could claims that the US military discovered otherworldly spacecraft be true? 284 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:02,000 Might some of post-war America's greatest technological accomplishments 285 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:07,000 have been the result of reverse-engineering alien vehicles? 286 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,000 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, 287 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:17,000 and insist that the truth about Area 51 was actually revealed decades ago, 288 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,000 not by UFO enthusiasts or whistleblowers, 289 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:27,000 but by two of the men most responsible for maintaining the government's most vital secrets. 290 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:34,000 Burbank, California. 291 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:38,000 June 1943. 292 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:44,000 In the midst of World War II, the government presses the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation 293 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,000 to develop the next generation of military planes. 294 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:56,000 Jet fighters designed to outline propeller aircraft and help turn the tide of war. 295 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,000 A team headed by Lockheed engineer Clarence Kelly Johnson 296 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:06,000 delivers the first production model in just 143 days. 297 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:13,000 Their P-80 shooting star initiates the Gen H for the US military. 298 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:21,000 Kelly Johnson's secret research and development team ultimately becomes known as Skunk Works. 299 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:26,000 Clarence Kelly Johnson was the first head of Lockheed's Skunk Works division 300 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:30,000 back in the 50s and 60s, up until 1975. 301 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,000 He's the developer of the U-2 spy plane, 302 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:37,000 which was able to fly at the incredible altitude of 80,000 feet, 303 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:40,000 equipped with photographic capabilities that were astonishing, 304 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:45,000 and he is a great legend in the aviation community for sure. 305 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:48,000 Despite his mainstream credentials, 306 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:54,000 Johnson becomes the primary witness to a now-famous UFO sighting in Agura, California, 307 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:58,000 on December 16, 1953. 308 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:04,000 His report of the encounter and his personal sketches of the craft were preserved by Project Blue Book, 309 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:10,000 the US government's official account of the UFO phenomenon at the time. 310 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:15,000 He was with some of his colleagues at the time when he saw a very, very unusual object 311 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:21,000 that he could not explain in any kind of technology that was familiar to him at the time. 312 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:31,000 During an era of official skepticism about UFOs, Johnson risks his career by reporting the sighting to his superiors. 313 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:37,000 But instead of being penalized or demoted, Johnson is seemingly rewarded two years later 314 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:45,000 when he plays a pivotal role in founding America's most secret military base, Area 51. 315 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:53,000 Kelly Johnson was the person that identified the location where Area 51 is as a good strategic location. 316 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:59,000 It is fundamentally located in the right part of the world without prying eyes. 317 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:07,000 But was Area 51 founded merely to test experimental aircraft as the military insists? 318 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:12,000 Or did Kelly Johnson choose the location as the best place? 319 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:21,000 To reverse engineer the very alien spacecraft, he believed he saw with his own eyes. 320 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:29,000 Kelly Johnson died in 1990 without ever disclosing the secrets of Area 51. 321 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:40,000 But a key person in his inner circle openly expressed his belief that extraterrestrials are present on Earth. 322 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:46,000 Burbeck, California, 1975. 323 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:53,000 Aviation designer Benjamin Robert Rich succeeds Kelly Johnson as the second director of Skunk Works. 324 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:58,000 He will eventually become known as the father of stealth. 325 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:05,000 Ben Rich was one of the real legends of the history of American aviation and the classified world in general. 326 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:13,000 And he's famously known as the man who was really behind the design of the F-117A Night Hawk, that's the stealth fighter. 327 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:19,000 Which revolutionized aviation in the 1980s and 90s. 328 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:28,000 Another aviation expert and colleague, Jim Goodall, heard rumors that Ben Rich had information confirming the existence of UFOs. 329 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:35,000 So he decided to ask point blank what this legendary head of Skunk Works really believed. 330 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,000 Mr. Ben Rich was a friend of mine. 331 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:44,000 And just before he passed away, I asked him, I said, do you believe in UFOs? 332 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:51,000 He said, Jim, we have things out in the desert that are 50 years beyond what you can comprehend. 333 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:55,000 Not what you think you can build in 50 years, but what you can comprehend. 334 00:22:55,000 --> 00:23:02,000 And if you've seen movies like Star Trek and Star Wars, we've been there, done that. 335 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:06,000 To me, I think it was a death bed confession. 336 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:13,000 This is a man that would know what technologies we have in our inventory as humans and what we don't. 337 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:20,000 Ben Rich was a believer in UFOs. I think beyond believer. I think he knew. 338 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:29,000 But of all the people who worked at Area 51, perhaps the most famous or infamous is Bomb Lazar. 339 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:33,000 No one has been more inflammatory or controversial. 340 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:43,000 As far as alien enthusiasts are concerned, Lazar has done more to turn a previously unknown military base in the middle of an obscured Nevada desert 341 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:51,000 into the White Hot Center of America's obsession with UFOs, aliens and government conspiracies. 342 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:58,000 But who is Bomb Lazar? And what did he see at Area 51? 343 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:06,000 Las Vegas, Nevada, May 15, 1989. 344 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:10,000 Who among us has not heard about an alleged UFO cover-up? 345 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:21,000 On local TV station KLAS, investigative reporter George Knapp interviews a man going by the name Dennis and shot in silhouette to hide his identity. 346 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:28,000 The man claims to work at the secret military installation that the US government still maintains does not exist. 347 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:35,000 And according to him, the base does, in fact, hold extraterrestrial spacecraft. 348 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:39,000 Exactly what's going on up there? 349 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:48,000 Well, there's several, actually nine flying saucers, flying discs that are out there of extraterrestrial origin. 350 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:57,000 Here was someone who claimed to have worked at Area 51 back engineering alien technology. 351 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:03,000 UFOs that had crashed possibly at Roswell and trying to figure out how they worked. 352 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:07,000 And then maybe building one ourselves. 353 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:20,000 Frightened that the government might try to harm him if he remains anonymous, the whistleblower and reporter George Knapp wrestle with the idea of revealing his name. 354 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:27,000 The day that we unveiled his identity to the world, he's in the station and he grabs the tape. 355 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,000 He said, I've changed my mind. I'm not going to do it. 356 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:35,000 Right up to the end, he was fighting it and arguing with himself about whether it's a good idea. 357 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,000 Even though his life had been threatened, his life had been turned upside down. 358 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:47,000 In the end, the whistleblower decided to come out of the shadows and reveal his name, Bob Lazar. 359 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:53,000 The one good thing Bob Lazar did was came forward with George Knapp in 1989 on May 15th. 360 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,000 And by doing that, he protected himself. 361 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:04,000 He was scared for his life and he protected himself by telling you what happened to him in one shot straight up. 362 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:12,000 From that day onward, Bob Lazar has remained the most controversial UFO whistleblower in history. 363 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:16,000 And going public came at a heavy price. 364 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:24,000 A price many believe was exacted by a government determined to hide the truth about Area 51. 365 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:30,000 Not only was Bob's house broken into and they'd move stuff around, they'd write things on the wall. 366 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:34,000 He's got a newsy peeking out the window. The fear was real. 367 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,000 The threats that were made against him were real. The surveillance was real. 368 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:45,000 Faced with such harassment, Lazar retreated from public view for decades. 369 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,000 I don't like being in the public eye. I don't have money for doing this. 370 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:55,000 And quite frankly, I could make up a better lie, but I have no motivation to lie. 371 00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:04,000 But if Bob Lazar's claims are true, just how much could he expose about what's really going on at Area 51? 372 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:16,000 On December 4th, 2018, Lazar finally decided to win years of silence and tell his full story to filmmaker Jeremy Corbell 373 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:23,000 in an explosive documentary entitled Bob Lazar, Area 51, and Flying Saucers. 374 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:32,000 In the late 1980s, the US government had recovered alien spacecraft, several of them, 375 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:38,000 and the technology in the Nevada desert that they were keeping quiet and analyzing. 376 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:47,000 That's the fact. That's all my story was, was that I was just one of the people working on these craft. 377 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:55,000 That probably wouldn't be this awareness of Area 51 without Bob Lazar. 378 00:27:55,000 --> 00:28:01,000 And now we have the film, and suddenly he's back in the media and the public eye. 379 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:10,000 The most extraordinary technology that Lazar claims to have encountered at Area 51 was an alien reactor, 380 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:14,000 one that he believes has the potential to change the world. 381 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:21,000 The first time they showed me the reactor in operation, but just seeing something like that 382 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,000 immediately starts that whole chain reaction in your mind going, 383 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:31,000 wow, wait, if you can do this, you don't like jet and rocket engines anymore, that means there's no use for cars. 384 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:38,000 I mean, boom, the whole thing changes the entire world, the economy, everything would go end on end, 385 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:44,000 just if we had an answer to how that machine worked, that I was sitting there touching. 386 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:54,000 Jeremy Corbell's documentary caused a sensation, bringing Bob Lazar and Area 51 into the spotlight once again. 387 00:28:54,000 --> 00:29:00,000 Ultimately, it provided the spark that ignited the storm Area 51 movement. 388 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:06,000 We're all here thanks to Bob Lazar and his good work and bravery, to be honest. 389 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:12,000 I think, you know, with the Internet, we're just going to continue to see more and more people explore the ideas. 390 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:16,000 It's going to grow hotter and hotter as people continue to question. 391 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:25,000 Is the U.S. government still operating a long-standing campaign to suppress the truth about Area 51? 392 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:31,000 Perhaps further clues can be found in information exposed by other whistleblowers. 393 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:42,000 Whistleblowers who claim that Bob Lazar isn't the only one who has discovered the truth and then been harassed and discredited by the U.S. government. 394 00:29:48,000 --> 00:30:00,000 Critics of Bob Lazar and his audacious claims about alien craft being studied at Area 51 insist that there is no proof of him ever having worked at the top secret military facility. 395 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,000 They suggest that his stories are simply made up. 396 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:14,000 But a powerful new witness has come forward to corroborate Lazar's story, former Air Force pilot David Freehoff. 397 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,000 It's only been for me personally in the last few years. 398 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:29,000 All of a sudden, Bob Lazar's statements and all the things he had said have gelled now to the point where I think he's very credible. 399 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:38,000 While critics routinely claim that Lazar's supporters lack any credibility, they can hardly make that claim about Freehoff. 400 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:46,000 Beale Air Force Base, 1967 401 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:59,000 U.S. Air Force Captain David Freehoff joins an elite group of pilots flying America's most sophisticated spy plane, the SR-71. 402 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,000 I was an SR-71 pilot for four and a half years. 403 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:09,000 The aircraft, as far as performance went, it was an hour from coast to coast. 404 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:13,000 It would warp your mind with that kind of performance. 405 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:24,000 And you just felt so proud that you had an opportunity to fly that airplane and to be a part of that unit and those people. It was family. 406 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:34,000 No one is surprised when the military assigns such an elite pilot to duty at America's most top secret Air Force Base. 407 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:41,000 I worked at Area 51 for six years from 1979 to 1985. 408 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:48,000 You had to have a special clearance, a top secret, SBI, special background investigation. 409 00:31:48,000 --> 00:32:01,000 Fortunately, I had gotten that while I was flying the SR, so it was an easy transition for me to move from the SR-71 and my clearances and all over into Area 51. 410 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:14,000 Along with his colleagues, Freehoff commuted each day from McCarran Airport in Las Vegas to Area 51 using a mysterious government carrier named Janet Airlines. 411 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:21,000 One of the great stories about Area 51 comes from engineer TD Barnes. Here's what he said. 412 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:33,000 If there are UFOs being reverse engineered at this base, I wouldn't know about it because you flew out in an airline, Janet Airlines, and the windows were blacked out. You didn't know where you were going. 413 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:44,000 Freehoff noticed that on his daily commutes, a select group of scientists and military personnel also boarded the Janet 737 in Las Vegas. 414 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:56,000 When the plane landed at Area 51, this group boarded a bus and headed to an even more secretive facility codenamed Site 4 or S4. 415 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:08,000 When I was there, we knew about S4, but we didn't know what they did. All we knew was there were certain people who got on the 737 in the morning, and we got to Area 51. 416 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:15,000 They would take and go off in a different direction than a bus, and then we went on to the north, going up towards the hangars. 417 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:36,000 Freehoff never knew exactly what was going on at Site 4 during his time at Area 51, but when he heard Bob Lazar's story years later, he found that Lazar's description of flying to Area 51 on a Janet 737 and traveling to S4 rang true in every detail. 418 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:55,000 When I heard Bob Lazar describe getting on the 737 and fly to Area 51 and get off and go through the terminal and go to S4, and everything he talked about and the way he put it, he sounded totally believable to me. 419 00:33:55,000 --> 00:34:08,000 Critics contend that no actual eyewitnesses have ever come forward to confirm that Lazar worked at Area 51, much less at Site 4, but Freehoff claims otherwise. 420 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:39,000 To come out, that there were in fact UFOs in our possession, and that he was revealing the capability to perhaps our enemies that we in fact were alien technologies. 421 00:34:40,000 --> 00:35:03,000 But Dave Freehoff is not the only highly regarded aviation expert to corroborate Bob Lazar's explosive story. Jim Goodall is a U.S. Air Force veteran, military historian and investigative author who befriended Bob Lazar before Lazar was hired to work at Area 51. 422 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:12,000 That then, Lazar worked at the Sandia Nuclear Lab in Albuquerque and was a vocal UFO skeptic. 423 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:25,000 I have the distinction of knowing him for quite a while. He had been working and developing nuclear weapons for Sandia. You couldn't put a gun to his head to convince him that UFOs were real. 424 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:32,000 But Bob Lazar's skepticism about the existence of UFOs was about to change. 425 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:43,000 A year later or so, there was a silhouetted guy talking about doing reverse engineering on alien spacecraft, and that silhouette was Bob Lazar. 426 00:35:45,000 --> 00:36:00,000 In an effort to help his friend prove he worked at Area 51 and Site 4, then Sergeant Goodall took Lazar's military tax form to the Office of Naval Investigations at the Pentagon. What happened when he got there was chilling. 427 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:14,000 There was a young Lieutenant Commander behind the desk. I handed him Bob Lazar's W-2. He looks at it, said, excuse me for a minute. He says, the Admiral will see you now. 428 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:23,000 I mean, an Admiral to go talk to an Air Force tech sergeant is really below his level of interrogation. 429 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:38,000 He's looking at Lazar's W-2, and he said, Sergeant, I don't know where in the hell you got this, but if I ever see your face crossed my threshold again, you'll be the most sorry son of a bitch, NCO in the United States Air Force. 430 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:45,000 He looks as he gets Bob's W-2 and he puts it in the shredder. He says, you are dismissed. 431 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:59,000 So he was warned to stop asking questions about Bob Lazar. Anybody trying to seek the truth about Bob Lazar, there was pressure applied on them, and that's just the way it works when you want to try to silence somebody. 432 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:08,000 Have the kinds of pressures exerted against Bob Lazar continue to obscure the search for the truth about Area 51? 433 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:16,000 If so, will such secrets continue to remain out of reach to the activists of the Storm Area 51 movement? 434 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:28,000 As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, that will depend on a new generation of truth seekers and a powerful movement that is just beginning to take shape. 435 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:46,000 The Storm Area 51 event comes to an end without incident. 436 00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,000 Here in Rachel, people are fearing the worst. 437 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:54,000 So everybody's coming out here to really see what was going to happen. We're out here making a safe event for everybody. 438 00:37:54,000 --> 00:38:01,000 I think the order has come down. We do not want mass arrests here. We do not want trouble. 439 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:11,000 You know, they had a few arrests and other than that, they didn't have any incidents at all. Everybody behaved. 440 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:26,000 When we look at all the disinformation circling the event of Storm Area 51, from the media, from the government, from social media, it made a convoluted mess that was easily something that most people just chose to avoid. 441 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:42,000 Amid what some consider to be a concerted government effort to intimidate UFO believers, many doubt whether the Storm Area 51 movement can last, while others hope that this small beginning will blossom into something much larger. 442 00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:53,000 What we might find when we look back on this is that this was the beginning of some sort of cultural movement. 443 00:38:53,000 --> 00:39:05,000 Something that will grow year on year. We might find that it starts as just maybe a small one-off event, but evolves into something with global recognition. 444 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:09,000 You're all part of this. Become active participants about passive observers. 445 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:13,000 And it becomes a mainstream event. 446 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:25,000 I think a lot of people, particularly due to pop culture, know of Area 51, and they accepted as gospel that there really are UFOs and aliens out there. 447 00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:33,000 That sort of demonstrates how the public is coming around to the idea that alien life is a reality. 448 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:40,000 For some people, the events were a good time and a fun weekend. 449 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:56,000 It could turn a handful of people into the next decade's prominent researchers on UFOs and government secrecy, and flying saucers, and government corruption, and a military industrial state. 450 00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:15,000 We are at a revolutionary moment. You've got an entire generation of young people now who have been galvanized, and they will be looking for legitimate, credible news about high strangeness on this planet in numbers that have not happened before. 451 00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:29,000 For many, the gates of Area 51 are both real and symbolic, real in the sense that the gates may hide evidence of an actual alien presence on Earth. 452 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:38,000 Symbolic in that they represent the government's wider determination to cling to secrecy for as long as possible. 453 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:46,000 The US government has kept so many secrets from the people that I think that's a major driving force for people to come here. 454 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:57,000 I don't know if this is a movement that we're seeing, but people want to know the truth, right? And they want to know if there's secrets being kept from us, and I think if that forms a movement, that would be awesome. 455 00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:05,000 What's behind those gates is one of the last mysteries, the bottom of the ocean, Area 51, and aliens. 456 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:14,000 I think the only way to get the government to come up with answers is to keep the pressure on, keep demanding answers. 457 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:22,000 A new generation has to continue to demand answers and do what the past generation failed to achieve. 458 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:34,000 In the end, some believe that the harsh treatment once suffered by Bob Lazar is being repeated today in the government's response to the Storm Area 51 movement. 459 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:45,000 They fear that under the onslaught of official intimidation, the drive for answers will slowly fade, and the secrets of Area 51 will remain hidden. 460 00:41:46,000 --> 00:42:04,000 But others are determined to make this modest event the beginning of a mass movement that will ultimately force open the gates of secrecy to find the reveal that both in the universe at large and right here on Earth, we are not alone.