Irrespective of which part of the world we belong to, the existing belief system, the influence of pop culture, and social consciousness have hardwired our thought process in such a way that we tend to categorize anything inexplicable or extraordinary as either a metaphysical or extraterrestrial occurrence. People fear what they don’t understand; the fear leads them to seek answers in the most unlikely places—most often in the vast expanse of the cold cosmos. The idea of advanced life forms existing out there is fascinating enough, and the preconceived notions about such higher intelligence interacting with human civilization over a long period of time in secrecy have given birth to numerous conspiracy theories and speculated connections—the roots of which go much deeper than we assume. Netflix’s latest documentary series, Investigation Alien, starring veteran investigative journalist George Knapp, tries to get to the roots to assess whether there is some level of truth to these prevalent ideas about extraterrestrial connections, as the series chronicles the globetrotting adventures of George and his associates, who go to great lengths to question eyewitnesses, established researchers, and military personnel. In the light of a series of hearings involving UFOs and UAPs in the United States Congress since the last two years, the discussions regarding alien life have seemingly transcended from pastime gossip to questions about international security, and George is willing to get to the bottom of it.
Entering the Rabbit Hole
Much of the documentary series is guided by the perspective of George Knapp, a senior investigative journalist based in Las Vegas who has dedicated a major part of his life to researching alien-related phenomena. During the initial phase of his career, George was unaware of the extensive accounts of eyewitnesses who claim to have seen UFOs and the efforts of the government to cover up any related information and details about the series of inexplicable events being documented around the world that seem to share a pattern, until aviator John Lear approached him with his detailed research regarding the topic. Lear’s research introduced George to the rabbit hole that is the investigation of the UFOs and UAPs, and he found himself confronting some obvious questions—if such life forms indeed exist, what do they seek from humans, or from this planet for that matter, and what is the supposed reason behind the government’s active effort to maintain secrecy regarding the topic? The existing mythos regarding Area 51, the stories about the government preserving and reverse-engineering alien tech, everything added fuel to George’s curiosity, and so since the last four decades he has tried to bring his investigation to the mainstream media, which refused to take his work, like a number of others’ research regarding extraterrestrials, seriously. That changed when NASA and the United States Congress allowed very public discussions regarding the topic, and George began his quest to validate the claims anew.
Two major associates of George helped him to question eyewitnesses and take notes of real-life incidents by being present with him throughout his adventure: former CIA case agent Doug Laux, and first female combat pilot Vernice Armour. Doug and Vernice provide a much needed third-person perspective to the investigation, as despite having strong integrity as a journalist, George’s personal bias is bound to make its presence felt in the research.
Case of Cattle Mutilations
In the first segment, the duo of George and Doug investigate the mysterious case of cattle mutilations, which has been a recurrent problem for the farmers since the late 1970s. In such incidents, livestock are found drained of blood, with their vital organs removed with surgical precision—and the nature of the killings suggests no conventional predator was involved in the case. As the duo ventures to two neighboring counties in Oregon and interrogates ranchers who have lost their cattle in this bizarre way, one of the ranchers whom George was questioning, Dave Hunt, reveals he has witnessed the presence of UFOs in the nearby vicinity, along with strange crop circles in the farmland areas. Dave’s son reveals a video clip where a suspected unidentified humanoid organism is seen in the wilderness—the presence of which strangely doesn’t startle a wild buck at the scene. When the question of credibility arises, it should be remembered that the ranchers, who are the victims along with their cattle in this scenario, don’t gain any form of fame or profit by sharing their plight with the world. The problems they face are very real and entail troubling consequences, and without any possible explanations available, the supposed evidence of strange activities seems to be directing us towards a vague possibility of alien presence. George is stumped with the question that if alien presence is indeed the reason behind such incidents, then what does it convey about their perspective towards humankind? Do they consider humans to be test subjects like the livestock as well? To find an answer to this, George and Vernice ventured to Brazil, where back in the 1970s in the city of Colares, the presence of a number of UFOs and extraterrestrials tormented the local populace, and even now some part of the country is actively affected by the presence of unknown cosmic denizens.
Operation Prato in Brazil
In the late 1970s, in Colares, Brazil, a significantly high number of people were seemingly attacked by a light source from strange hovering objects in the sky, which left scars on their bodies. The incidents were serious enough for Brazil’s military to intervene, as Captain Hollanda led Operation Prato, which went on for four months. Even though the military wrapped up their investigation with no substantial findings, twenty years later Hollanda gave an interview to Ufologists, where he allegedly admitted the presence of extraterrestrials, and three months after his confession, he ended up taking his own life under mysterious circumstances. After questioning one of the sailors who was assigned the duty of transporting Hollanda from the city to a nearby island, where a military outpost was located, Vernice learns that UFOs were seen going in and outside of the ocean, as well as the fact that American presence during the operation was prominent. Upon prying further, indications of the CIA’s involvement are pretty clear as well. Also, even in the present day, a similar situation is still taking place in the country, as the city of Barcanera is revealed to have become a UFO hotspot. Jhonny, a local, shows a recording to George and Vernice, which tracks the strange movements of a hovering fireball in the sky, and additionally, crop circle-like structures are also seen in the nearby vicinity. The strange occurrences in Brazil draw a connection between UFOs and submarine depths, which now takes George to naval archaeologist Rory Kramer, a former member of DOD who claims to have felt the presence of Unidentified Submerged Objects (USO) near the Channel Islands.
Submarine Connection
Aside from the incidents in Brazil, the famous Tic Tac UFO sighting by top Navy officials and the Jellyfish UAP recording captured by a marine operative seem to indicate that the submarine depths might have been acting as a refuge to the extraterrestrials for a long time—after all, the darkness of both ocean trenches and the cosmic landscape remain barely explored even after so many expeditions. George and Doug decide to venture to the Gulf of Mexico, where USO presence is considered to be pretty common, and they visit Tampico, a coastal city of Mexico, where the presence of otherworldly organisms is seen as a boon. According to local belief and local UFO expert Juan Carlos, the recurrent appearance of UFOs and USOs in the area has completely nullified oceanic calamities. Doug interrogates local sailors, who assume the reason for alien visits to be the mineral-rich ocean water, and one of the sailors even claims to have had his boat nearly sabotaged by a USO. George and Doug decide to use a magnetometer to check for unusual readings on the magnetic spectrum, and as they send their findings to be tested by an oceanographer, strange negative readings are found in certain areas.
On the other hand, determined to assist George, Rory Kramer decides to pair up with his diving partner Anthony Reynolds as the duo decides to take a look at the depths near the Channel Islands—specifically near a sacred nativ site where frequent presence of USOs is reported. On the ocean floor they find strange structures and formations that don’t seem naturally created, and later on Kramer decides to use ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) to probe even deeper into the trenches. At this point they find themselves being watched by what seems to be a USO, which vanishes underwater as suddenly as it had been spotted on the horizon.
Government Pushback and Cover-ups
George’s investigation seems to be sailing smoothly when a major hindrance props up in the form of the Pentagon straight up denying any credible sighting or evidence instances through statements issued by DOD and AARO. This is a major blow to George’s investigation and overall UFO-related research, as people who witnessed or experienced extraterrestrial phenomena, who already felt stigmatized by preconceived notions regarding such events and were subjected to threats by the government, will now feel even more discouraged to come forward and share their piece. Given how much assumed evidence, statements, and casefiles he has gone through during his four-decade-long career, George is quick to come to the conclusion that the government is lying to cover up the obvious involvement of unknown visitors. As for the reason George believes they have alien tech at their disposal, it is logical for them to deny the existence of otherworldly entities in fear of mass panic or competition from other nations to acquire such tech. So far, the active efforts on the part of the CIA and United States government to eliminate evidence pertaining to UFOs and similar objects have been quite evident to George, and throughout the series, this factor always remains present. In order for George to present a counterargument against the statement issued by the Pentagon, he needs to come up with tangible information, and that too with haste.
Michael Herrera, a former marine, approaches George with his account of witnessing a 300-foot-long flying object in the wilderness of Indonesia, which he assumes to have been a man-made craft that was created by reverse-engineering alien tech. However, at the same time he mentions not having any sort of evidence to corroborate his claim or come up with more eyewitnesses as he is concerned about their safety given how shadowy the organization of the government is making their presence felt to people who have witnessed UFO-related incidents. George and Doug visit Council Bluffs in Iowa, where they find pieces of molten alien tech (assumed) recovered from a local, Mike Moore, but his claim is challenged by Darell Livengood, who claims to have used thermal welder to produce alien spacecraft sighting illusions. However, Darell’s claims are proven false as the contents of the molten metal don’t match the byproduct of thermite incinerat89 Beatriz, a Swedish astronomer, presents star maps through the ages to George, as it is seen that certain satellite-like objects appeared and vanished in the night sky long before human space exploration reached a notable milestone.
Phoenix Lights
While statements from singular eyewitnesses have a stronger possibility of deliberate or unwanted error, things change when a large mass of people witnesses something at the exact point of time of the occurrence of an event, which happened in Phoenix City, Arizona, in 1997, as thousands of people saw clusters of yellow-orangeish lights formed in a V-shaped structure and hovering in the night sky, covering a huge area. Actor Kurt Russell, who was aboard an aircraft at that period of time, had claimed in a talk show that he’d witnessed the presence of an UFO on the horizon, corroborating the claims of numerous civilians, army vets, and ground crew of the nearby Sky Harbor airport. The Phoenix Lights had allegedly a strange, comforting effect on the witnesses, a number of whom claim to have received a message from the alien presence trying to convey that they are no threat to humanity. This obviously appears to be contrasting in comparison to the presence of extraterrestrials in Brazil and inevitably raises the question of multiple alien civilizations trying to attempt contact with the denizens of this planet. George learns from Clive Christopher, who used to work at Sky Harbour airport, about the authorities putting pressure on witnesses to stay silent and confiscating evidence and videos even months after the incident took place. Clive shows some recent pictures taken by him of possible UFO sightings, where the presence of a black chopper seems prominent. In fact, a black military helicopter appears in areas where most of the sightings are reported, even with the case of cattle mutilation, which raises suspicion about government involvement. George’s research even reveals possible alien sightings and involvement at nuclear test sites, where dismantling of nuclear warheads by an alien presence was witnessed by on-duty soldiers. George remembers coming across something similar while going through a case file of the Russian defense department—and comes up with this wild assumption that aliens could initiate the Third World War if they wanted to.
Time-traveling humans?
One of the most outlandish theories about alien presence comes up when George interviews Mike Masters, a professor of anthropology, who claims aliens are humans from a distant future who want to preserve the earth to ensure their continued existence, but keep themselves hidden and do not interfere in human affairs so as not to trigger the grandfather paradox. His opinions are based on simulations of human evolution, as humans from the far future could resemble the widely popular appearance of generic greyish, bulgy-eyed, bald humanoid aliens.
Jonathan Dover, a Navajo ranger, takes George to Capitol Reef, where ancient petroglyphs and barrier-style pictographs made by Native American tribes millennia ago bear a resemblance to conventional alien appearances. At present, the Hopi and Zunu tribes regard these wall-etched arts as the representation of the sacred way of life of their ancestors. In that sense, equating ancient works of art and testaments of native culture to evidence of alien presence seems a bit disrespectful in my opinion, kind of what hokey History Channel documentaries like “Ancient Aliens” used to do.
Did George Knapp’s Counter Report Change Congress’ Stance on UFO?
Accumulating a gigantic volume of researched casefile, witness accounts, and assumed evidence of UFO appearances, George submits his counter report against the Pentagon to Congress. Tim Burchett, one of the UFO believer representatives in the House of Congress, assures George that he is working in the right direction after all and that there are UFO retrieval agencies at work as well, but at the same time, he refuses to directly share the information given the extreme confidentiality existing regarding the topic. Whether or not George’s investigation allows the political minds to change their stance regarding revealing the information on extraterrestrials remains unknown, as the documentary series ends after George submits his report. It doesn’t matter whether we believe in the presence of such incidents, choose to stand by, or refute the claims of others, but one thing can be said for certain: the United States government has been entirely too proactive in hiding and erasing details of a series of incidents that needed much less urgency than it needed to address the prevalent problems plaguing the world, thanks to the handiworks of first-world nations. Pondering whether or not aliens exist, whether their presence means disaster for humans or not, is a luxury that the majority of the world’s populace cannot afford, given the immediate threat this planet will place, not of the outsiders but of the one’s plaguing it for a long time.
