All language subtitles for ancient.aliens.s14e20.The Storming of Area 51.720p.web.h264-tbs

NARRATOR:
In 2019, a call went out

to storm the gates
of the world's most top secret

military installation.

NICK POPE:
This was the place

that people were attempting
to back engineer

extraterrestrial technology.

NARRATOR:
Millions responded.

JEREMY CORBELL:
This information
had been percolating

for 30 years, and then bam!
A perfect storm.

BILL BIRNES:
On the Internet, on the radio,

promoters were talking
about let's storm Area 51.

NARRATOR:
The military vowed
to protect the base

by any means necessary.

The DoD said

we would bomb millennials

if they actually tried to storm
the gates of Area 51.

NARRATOR:
But still, thousands
met the call to action.

What's behind those gates
is one of the last mysteries.

I want the government to release
the records now, today.

NARRATOR:
Was this the beginning
of a movement

that will finally tear down
the walls of government secrecy

and expose the truth

about an extraterrestrial
presence on planet Earth?

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
People are interested

in the extraterrestrial
question,

and they want answers.

NARRATOR:
There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is
the promise of truth.

It demands
we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is
right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

College student Matty Roberts
creates a post on Facebook.

In it, Roberts calls on
his friends to storm

the top secret
U.S. military base

called Area 51,

a place
that has long been rumored

to be housing crashed
extraterrestrial spacecraft.

As part of the post,
Roberts invites his readers

to click to indicate
if they're attending.

I had shared it to my own
personal Facebook page,

and I think it amassed
probably about 40 RSVPs,

the people that were interested

or had tagged themselves
as going.

NARRATOR:
Roberts has no idea

whether the post
will simply reach his own circle

of friends and acquaintances
on Facebook

or if it will spread further
into cyberspace.

He gets his answer
two days later

when his phone begins buzzing
with RSVP notifications.

First a few hundred.

Then a few thousand.

ROBERTS:
It just kept
kind of snowballing.

And it took about three days
for it to really take off,

and it just took off
like wildfire.

And then that's when
it got posted on reddit.

And when it got posted
on reddit,

it really took off.

NARRATOR:
Within a week,

the number of RSVPs soars
to over a million.

And then on July 11,
the news got ahold of it.

Now a new Facebook event
talks about organizing

a large mob to raid the base.

They were trying to organize
a big mob to storm Area 51,

where all the aliens are.

Officials are saying stay away,

this is not something
you want to go to.

REPORTER:
There are even signs that warn
it's a restricted area,

that it's unlawful to enter
the area without permission,

and that use of deadly force
is authorized.

In short, don't go.

NARRATOR:
News commentators point out that
if even a small fraction

of those who responded show up,

the proposed storming could
quickly turn violent.

Alarmed at the overwhelming
response to Roberts' post,

U.S. military officials
issue a warning.

In ominous language,
it states that

"The U.S. Air Force
always stands ready

to protect America
and its assets."

Within days, Matty Roberts
gets a visit from the FBI.

ROBERTS:
FBI did show up to my house.

They asked me to send them
anybody that's trying

to radicalize this thing,

in the form of actually
storming the base,

and actually causing harm
to people.

They were really concerned about
people sending me death threats.

NARRATOR:
In the wake of the FBI's visit,

Roberts claims that he was
joking all along,

and that he never
actually intended

for anyone to heed his call.

ROBERTS:
I was just kind of like,
I didn't think anybody was gonna

take it too seriously 'cause
when I created the event

on Facebook,
it was meant as a joke,

kind of, like, tongue in cheek.

Never intended for it
to go this far.

It was terrifying.

NARRATOR:
But whether Roberts wanted
people to take him seriously

or not, by early July,
it seemed nothing could derail

what he had set in motion.

Matty Roberts' original post
has now been reposted

hundreds of thousands of times.

Over two million people
have indicated

they plan to descend
on Area 51 in September,

and storm the top secret base.

No one has any idea how many
might actually attend,

and both the government and the
media gear up to blame Roberts

if things turn into
an ugly confrontation

between the military and tens of
thousands of UFO enthusiasts.

In order to take the pressure
off of himself

and his associates, Roberts asks
that his followers call off

any plans to actually invade
the base on September 20.

Instead, he announces
an alternative idea:

a peaceful celebration
called Alienstock,

which he begins organizing in
the tiny town of Rachel, Nevada,

just outside Area 51.

He promises a festival of music,
art and all things alien.

POPE: In the weeks before the
event, there are efforts aimed

at scaling down the rhetoric and
averting a potential tragedy.

BIRNES:
The government just did a whole
counter-media program,

letting folks know that they're
not taking this as a game,

they don't think it's funny.

No, it's not Woodstock.

You want to have a rock festival
outside of Rachel?

Hey, have a nice day, right?

But you cross Area 51,
we take it seriously.

You will be arrested,
prosecuted,

likely convicted
and sent to jail.

NARRATOR: Ten days before
the event, two Dutch YouTubers

penetrate the Area 51 perimeter,

hiking three miles
into the restricted area.

Their arrests make national
headlines, and add to concerns

that the upcoming gathering
could easily get out of hand.

POPE:
Astoundingly, they were
sentenced to a year in jail.

The message was clear: we are
going to come down on you hard.

KEVIN ALMEIDA:
I think behind those gates

is something that
nobody can explain,

not even the people
that work there.

I have no answers,
but I'm gonna find out.

That's why I came here,
3,000 miles,

to find out those answers.

NARRATOR:
On the day the event begins,

the Department of Defense posts
an ominous tweet.

It features a picture
of a B-2 bomber,

along with a heading that states
that this is the last thing

millennials will see if they
attempt the Area 51 raid today.

The tweet is quickly deleted.

They made a case of saying
that it would be considered

an act of terrorism.

Even saying we would
bomb millennials

if they actually tried to
storm the gates of Area 51.

That was a little severe.

POPE:
Now, they cleverly didn't
exactly say what would happen,

but there was a palpable threat
left hanging in the air.

NARRATOR:
Faced with the military's
willingness to defend Area 51

at all costs, many potential
attendees change their plans

and decide not to attend.

But while the government
warnings are largely effective,

on the night of September 20,

nearly 100 people refuse
to be intimidated,

and gather at the gates.

ZACK ETKIND: I think behind the
gate there could very well be,

uh, technology that
the government is not

informing us of.

There's a lot of people that
are, like, watching this event

being like, "This is the night.

This is the night
we find some aliens."

They can't catch us all!

(crowd shouting)

KYLE KALLMAN:
People are prepared for
a bloodbath,

but I have seen nothing.

The cops have been out
in a show of force,

and they are gonna make it
very unpleasant

for anybody who crosses.

NARRATOR:
Both sides show restraint,

and a potentially deadly
confrontation is averted.

Only two people are detained by
authorities for minor offenses.

Over the next three days,
approximately 3,000 more people

make the journey to Area 51
in a show of solidarity,

and in protest
of government secrecy.

There's a huge alien community
around the world.

It was a matter of time before
this was gonna happen.

I don't think the government's
being honest,

'cause I think they would
freak us out if they told us

what was inside that big ol'
mountain there.

NARRATOR:
But there are many who believe
that without the serious threat

of military action,
the turnout might have been

significantly larger.

MARTELL:
The government caused
a lot of confusion,

and pretty much discouraged
most people

from showing up to the event.

POPE:
In the days and weeks leading
up to September the 20th,

there was a mass
of confusing reports about

what might actually take place.

And one wonders, did this play
into the hands of the government

and work to their advantage?

NARRATOR:
If government threats did indeed
suppress the turnout

at the Area 51 festivals,
what could they be protecting?

Is it only military secrets...
or something else?

For ancient astronaut theorists,
the answer is obvious.

So it seems a lot of people are
asking the same question:

what is it that the government
is hiding at Area 51?

LINDA MOULTON HOWE:
The United States began

with a policy of lies
and denial.

Let's call it for what it is--
counterintelligence.

UFOs and ETs have been
at the top

of the counterintelligence list
since World War II.

Our government doesn't want us
to know the truth.

TSOUKALOS:
We know for a fact

that for over 50 years,
not just the U.S. government

but governments from around
the world have always denied

the UFO question or
the extraterrestrial question.

NARRATOR:
Could the U.S. government
be hiding

not only crashed UFOs, but even
extraterrestrials at Area 51?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

at the very entrance
of the secret base,

an entrance that has been
strictly off-limits for decades.

NARRATOR:
Could Area 51 truly harbor

extraterrestrial secrets?

And if so, how did it all begin?

Perhaps answers can be found

in the murky history
of the mysterious desert base.

We actually have to go back to
the attack on Pearl Harbor

in December 1941.

The government said

we can never allow something
like this to happen again.

So, let's move or create
some of these installations

and facilities further
into the country.

NARRATOR:
Area 51 was built around
a salt flat known as Groom Lake.

A runway now slices across
the dry lake bed.

The reason why Groom Lake was
chosen was very simple:

Groom Lake itself was a dry bed

but it was extremely long,

and it could double
as a huge runway.

Some of these aircraft
required long runways.

For many years, Area 51
enthusiasts were able to watch

with high-powered binocular
lenses and see base activity.

None of that is possible
anymore.

They've gone to great lengths
to keep whatever's happening

at Area 51 a secret.

NARRATOR:
For the better part
of a century,

the U.S. government denied
the very existence of Area 51.

But why?

The official Area 51
now admitted by the government

is this facility where aircraft
were developed and test-flown.

The U-2 spy plane.

The SR-71 Blackbird,

and of course, more recently,
stealth technology.

So that's the official Area 51--

highly secret, secure, remote.

But then there's
the unofficial Area 51

where people say that there was
an even bigger secret there.

And that was
extraterrestrial technology.

NARRATOR:
To further investigate

what might be hidden
at the secret Area 51 base,

former British Ministry
of Defense officer Nick Pope

and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell

have enlisted the help
of local resident Joerg Arnu.

Joerg, who has lived in nearby
Rachel, Nevada for 15 years,

has been a firsthand witness
to Area 51's recent history.

What's the strangest, uh,
interaction you've seen

of people coming in or out
of the base?

Heavy construction equipment
going into the base

when they were doing
construction.

And also, sometimes you see

military vehicles being dragged
into the base.

They set them up inside

the bombing ranges
for shooting targets.

Um, just pull over here.

There's a sheriff's vehicle
coming our way.

We don't want any trouble.

We don't want to block them.

We don't want to go any further.

POPE:
This is extra security.

I don't think we've ever seen
quite this much.

NARRATOR:
In light of the tension

surrounding
the Storm Area 51 event,

the military has implemented
a zero-tolerance lockdown

at the gate of the secret base.

POPE:
So, here we are.

I think this is about as far
as we can go.

The point of no return, right?

ARNU:
Yes. We cannot go any further.

POPE:
All this barbed wire here,

all the security measures,

this is the point at which

if you take one step further,

the full force of security
will come down on us, right?

Make no mistake,
we step one step

into that territory, and
everything is going to change.

If I came up here,
is anybody going to talk to me?

- Are they going to say
anything to me?
- No.

No. These are signs that
spell out in plain English:

bad things are going to happen
to you if you cross this line.

- POPE: Right.
- ARNU: It's very clear.

So now look,

if we walked past that barrier,

up that road, what would we see?

What would we find?

We would be walking down
about 20 miles of paved road

into the valley that Area 51
is located in.

In between here and the base,

there's more security
checkpoints,

there's more road sensors.

If you were to get to Area 51,

you're standing there
and you look around

and it looks like any other
military Air Force base.

But the good stuff
is all in hangars.

It is not out in the open.

It's not like, you know,
they got the saucer

right there on the runway.

- So, there are hangers
obviously.
- Yeah.

But, uh, there are even rumors

of huge underground facilities,

facilities carved into the sides
of the mountains.

There are people that talk about
underground facilities.

They keep tabs on people
that watch the base.

They know exactly when
somebody's up on Tikaboo Peak,

for instance, one of
the view spots of the base.

NARRATOR:
Located 26 miles
from the Area 51 base,

Tikaboo Peak
is the only public land

where people can actually see
the Groom Lake runway

and hangars.

And they know exactly, "Okay,
right now is a good moment

to fly our good stuff,"

and that's when they bring out
the good stuff.

I've actually been
on Tikaboo Peak

when they did a test-flight

and it was
the most amazing thing.

We look at the base
and all of a sudden,

in the middle of the night,
all the runway lights come on.

I mean, it's-it's the most
amazing thing to watch.

All of a sudden,
the-the desert in front of you,

below you, becomes alive.

You see a light taxiing
to the runway,

the light takes off,

the runway lights go out,
the light goes out,

and that was the end of that.

I mean, literally feet
above the runway,

the lights just went out.

- That's ultra-high security.
- Yes.

And whatever that thing was,

- clearly they were really
trying to protect it...
- Yes.

...and minimizing that anyone
could get eyes on it.

Correct.

NARRATOR:
Could claims
that the U.S. military

discovered otherworldly
spacecraft be true?

Might some of post-war America's

greatest technological
accomplishments

have been the result

of reverse engineering
alien vehicles?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and insist that the truth
about Area 51

was actually revealed
decades ago,

not by UFO enthusiasts
or whistle-blowers,

but by two of the men
most responsible

for maintaining the government's
most vital secrets.

NARRATOR:
In the midst of World War II,

the government presses the
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation

to develop the next generation
of military planes--

jet fighters designed to
outflank propeller aircraft

and help turn the tide of war.

A team headed by
Lockheed engineer

Clarence "Kelly" Johnson

delivers the first production
model in just 143 days.

Their P-80 Shooting Star

initiates the jet age
for the U.S. military.

Kelly Johnson's secret research
and development team

ultimately becomes known...

as "Skunk Works."

DOLAN:
Clarence Kelly Johnson

was the first head of Lockheed's
Skunk Works division

back in the '50s and '60s,
up until 1975.

He's the developer
of the U-2 spy plane

which was able to fly
at the incredible altitude

of 80,000 feet,

equipped with
photographic capabilities

that were astonishing.

And he is a great legend in the
aviation community, for sure.

NARRATOR:
Despite his mainstream
credentials,

Johnson becomes
the primary witness

to a now-famous UFO sighting
in Agoura, California,

on December 16, 1953.

His report of the encounter,

and his personal sketches
of the craft,

were preserved
by Project Blue Book,

the U.S. government's
official account

of the UFO phenomenon
at the time.

DOLAN:
He was with some of
his colleagues at the time

when he saw a very,
very unusual object

that he could not explain
in any kind of technology

that was familiar to him
at the time.

NARRATOR:
During an era of official
skepticism about UFOs,

Johnson risks his career

by reporting the sighting
to his superiors.

But instead of being penalized
or demoted,

Johnson is seemingly rewarded
two years later,

when he plays a pivotal role
in founding America's

most secret military base:
Area 51.

Kelly Johnson was the person
that identified

the location where Area 51 is
as a good strategic location.

It is fundamentally located
in the right part of the world

without prying eyes.

NARRATOR:
But was Area 51 founded merely
to test experimental aircraft,

as the military insists?

Or did Kelly Johnson choose
the location as the best place

to reverse engineer
the very alien spacecraft

he believed he saw
with his own eyes?

Kelly Johnson died in 1990,

without ever disclosing
the secrets of Area 51.

But a key person
in his inner circle

openly expressed his belief
that extraterrestrials

are present on Earth.

Aviation designer
Benjamin Robert Rich

succeeds Kelly Johnson as the
second director of Skunk Works.

He will eventually become known
as the "father of stealth."

Ben Rich was one
of the real legends

of the history
of American aviation,

and-and the classified world
in general.

And he's famously known
as the man

who's really behind the design
of the F-117A Nighthawk.

That's the stealth fighter

which would revolutionize
aviation in the 1980s and 90s.

NARRATOR:
Another aviation expert
and colleague, Jim Goodall,

heard rumors that Ben Rich
had information

confirming the existence
of UFOs,

so he decided to ask,
point blank,

what this legendary head
of Skunk Works really believed.

JIM GOODALL:
Mr. Ben Rich
was a friend of mine,

and just before he passed away,
I asked him, I said,

"Do you believe in UFOs?"

He said, he said, "Jim,

"we have things
out in the desert

"that are 50 years beyond
what you can comprehend.

"Not what you think
you can build in 50 years,

"but what you can comprehend.

"And if you've seen movies
like Star Trek and Star Wars,

we've been there, done that."

To me, I think it was
a deathbed confession.

CORBELL:
This is a man that would know

what technologies we have
in our inventory as humans

and what we don't.

Ben Rich was a believer in UFOs.

I think beyond believer,
I think he knew.

NARRATOR:
But of all the people
who worked at Area 51,

perhaps the most famous,
or infamous, is Bob Lazar.

No one has been more
inflammatory, or controversial.

As far as alien enthusiasts
are concerned,

Lazar has done more to turn

a previously unknown
military base

in the middle
of an obscure Nevada desert

into the white-hot center of
America's obsession with UFOs,

aliens and government
conspiracies.

But who is Bob Lazar?

And what did he see at Area 51?

Who among us has not heard about
an alleged UFO cover-up?

NARRATOR:
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.

The man claims to work at the
secret military installation

that the U.S. government
still maintains does not exist.

And according to him,
the base does, in fact,

hold extraterrestrial
spacecraft.

GEORGE KNAPP: Exactly what's
going on up there?

BOB LAZAR: Well, there's
several, uh, actually nine, uh,

flying saucers, flying disks,

uh, that are out there
of extraterrestrial origin.

POPE:
Here was someone

who claimed to have worked
at Area 51,

back engineering
alien technology.

UFOs that had crashed,
possibly at Roswell,

and trying to figure out
how they worked.

And then maybe
building one ourselves.

NARRATOR:
Frightened that the government

might try to harm him
if he remains anonymous,

the whistle-blower
and reporter George Knapp

wrestle with the idea
of revealing his name.

The day that we unveiled
his identity to the world,

he's in the station
and he grabs the tape,

he said, "I've changed my mind,
not gonna do it."

Right up to the end,
he was fighting it

and arguing with himself
about whether it's a good idea,

even though his life
had been threatened,

his life had been
turned upside down.

NARRATOR:
In the end,
the whistle-blower decided

to come out from the shadows

and reveal his name-- Bob Lazar.

The one good thing Bob Lazar did
was came forward

with George Knapp
in 1989 on May 15,

and by doing that,
he protected himself.

He was scared for his life,
and he protected himself

by telling you what happened
to him in one shot, straight up.

NARRATOR:
From that day onward,

Bob Lazar has remained the most
controversial UFO whistle-blower

in history, and going public
came at a heavy price.

A price many believe was exacted
by a government

determined to hide the truth
about Area 51.

Not only was Bob's house
broken into and they'd

move stuff around, they'd write
things on the, on the wall.

He's got an Uzi
peeking out the window.

The fear was real.

The threats that were made
against him were real.

The surveillance was real.

NARRATOR:
Faced with such harassment,

Lazar retreated
from public view for decades.

I don't like being
in the public eye.

I don't have money
for doing this,

and quite frankly,
I could make up a better lie,

but I have no motivation to lie.

NARRATOR:
But if Bob Lazar's claims
are true,

just how much could he expose

about what's really going on
at Area 51?

On December 4, 2018,

Lazar finally decided
to end years of silence

and tell his full story
to filmmaker Jeremy Corbell

in an explosive
documentary entitled

Bob Lazar: Area 51
and Flying Saucers.

LAZAR:
In the late 1980s,

the U.S. government
had recovered alien spacecraft,

several of them,

and the technology,
in the Nevada desert

that they were keeping quiet
and analyzing.

That's a fact.

That's all my story was,

was that I was just one of the
people working on these craft.

There probably wouldn't be
this awareness of Area 51

without Bob Lazar.

And now we have the film,
and suddenly

he's back in the media
and the public eye.

NARRATOR:
The most extraordinary
technology that Lazar claims

to have encountered at Area 51

was an alien reactor,
one that he believes

has the potential
to change the world.

LAZAR:
The first time they showed me
the reactor in operation,

just seeing something like that

immediately starts that whole
chain reaction in your mind

going, "Wow, wait,
if you can do this,

"we don't need jet
and rocket engines anymore.

"That means there's-- wait--

there's no use for cars."
I mean, boom,

the whole thing changes.

The entire world economy,
everything,

would go end-on-end,
just if we had

an answer to how
that machine worked

that I was sitting there,
touching.

NARRATOR:
Jeremy Corbell's documentary
caused a sensation,

bringing Bob Lazar and Area 51
into the spotlight once again.

Ultimately,
it provided the spark

that ignited the
Storm Area 51 movement.

ALEX DISCHINGER: We're all here
thanks to Bob Lazar

and, uh, his good work
and bravery, to be honest.

I think, you know,
with the Internet,

we're just gonna continue
to see more and more people

explore the ideas.

It's gonna grow
hotter and hotter

as people continue to question.

NARRATOR:
Is the U.S. government

still operating a longstanding
campaign to suppress

the truth about Area 51?

Perhaps further clues

can be found
in information exposed

by other whistle-blowers.

Whistle-blowers 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.

NARRATOR: 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.

They suggest that his stories

are simply made up.

But a powerful new witness
has come forward

to corroborate Lazar's story,

former Air Force pilot
David Fruehauf.

DAVID FRUEHAUF: It's only been
for me, personally,

in the last few years,

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.

NARRATOR:
While critics routinely claim

that Lazar's supporters
lack any credibility,

they can hardly make that claim
about Fruehauf.

U.S. Air Force Captain
David Fruehauf

joins an elite group of pilots

flying America's
most sophisticated spy plane,

the SR-71.

FRUEHAUF:
I was an SR-71 pilot
for four and a half years.

The aircraft,
as far as performance went,

it was an hour
from coast to coast.

It would warp your mind
with that kind of performance.

And you just felt so proud
that you were--

had an opportunity
to-to fly that airplane

and to be a part of that unit
and those people.

It was family.

NARRATOR: No one is surprised
when the military assigns

such an elite pilot

to duties at America's
most top secret Air Force base.

FRUEHAUF:
I worked at Area 51

for six years,
from 1979 till 1985.

You had to have a special
clearance, a top secret SBI,

Special Background
Investigation.

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.

NARRATOR:
Along with his colleagues,

Fruehauf commuted each day from
McCarran Airport in Las Vegas

to Area 51,

using a mysterious government
carrier named Janet Airlines.

BIRNES:
One of the great stories
about Area 51

comes from engineer TD Barnes.

Here's what he said.

"If there were UFOs
being reversed 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

so you didn't know
where you were going.

NARRATOR:
Fruehauf noticed

that on his daily commutes,

a select group of scientists
and military personnel

also boarded the Janet 737
in Las Vegas.

When the plane landed
at Area 51,

this group boarded a bus

and headed to an even more
secretive facility

code-named Site Four, or S-4.

FRUEHAUF:
When I was there,
we knew about S-4,

but we didn't know
what they did.

All we knew was there was
certain people that got on

the 737 in the morning,
and we got to Area 51,

they would take and go off in
a different direction in a bus

and then we went on
to the north,

going up towards the hangars.

NARRATOR:
Fruehauf never knew exactly
what was going on at Site Four

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 S-4

rang true in every detail.

FRUEHAUF:
When I heard, uh, Bob Lazar
describe getting on the 737

and fly to Area 51 and get off

and go through the terminal
and go to, uh, S-4...

and everything he talked about
and the way he put it,

uh, he sounded totally,
uh, believable to me.

NARRATOR:
Critics contend
that no actual eyewitnesses

have ever come forward

to confirm that Lazar worked at
Area 51, much less at Site Four.

But Fruehauf claims otherwise.

FRUEHAUF:
I know people

that had worked for me,
that after I left there,

they had seen Bob Lazar there,

and they admitted that
to me recently.

I know that his critics
piled on because obviously,

they did not want the word
to come out that there were,

in fact, uh,
UFOs in our possession,

and that he was
revealing a capability

to perhaps our enemies

that we, in fact, were,
uh, alien technologies.

NARRATOR:
But Dave Fruehauf 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.

Back then, Lazar worked
at the Sandia nuclear lab

in Albuquerque,
and was a vocal UFO skeptic.

I have the distinction of
knowing him for quite a while.

Yeah, he had been working
in developing nuclear weapons

for Sandia.

You couldn't put
a gun to his head

to convince him
that UFOs were real.

NARRATOR:
But Bob Lazar's skepticism

about the existence of UFOs
was about to change.

GOODALL:
A year later or so,

there's a silhouetted guy
talking about

doing reverse engineering
on alien spacecraft,

and that-that silhouette
was Bob Lazar.

NARRATOR:
In an effort to help his friend

prove he worked
at Area 51 and Site Four,

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.

GOODALL:
There's a young, uh, lieutenant
commander behind the desk.

And I handed him
Bob Lazar's W-2.

He looks at it, said,
"Excuse me for a minute."

And he says,
"The admiral will see you now."

I mean an admiral, to go talk
to an Air Force tech sergeant

is really below his level
of interrogation.

And 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
cross my threshold again,

"you'll be the most
sorry son of a bitch NCO

in the United States Air Force,"

as gets Bob's W-2
and he puts it in the shredder.

And he says,
"You are dismissed."

CORBELL:
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.

NARRATOR:
Have the kinds of pressures
exerted against Bob Lazar

continued to obscure the search
for the truth about Area 51?

If so,
will such secrets continue

to remain out of reach
to the activists

of the Storm Area 51 movement?

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.

NARRATOR:
The Storm Area 51 event comes
to an end without incident.

POPE:
Here in Rachel,

people were fearing the worst.

WAYNE DICE:
So everybody's coming out here,

to-to really,
to see what was gonna happen.

We're out here to make it
a safe event for everybody.

I think the order has come down.

We do not want
mass arrests here.

We do not want trouble.

GEORGE HARRIS: You know,
they had a few arrests,

and, uh, other than that,

they didn't have
any incidents at all.

Everybody behaved.

When we look at all
the disinformation

circling the event
of storming Area 51,

from the media, from the
government, from social media,

it made it a convoluted mess

that was easily something that
most people just chose to avoid.

NARRATOR:
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.

POPE:
What we might find,
when we look back on this,

is that this was the beginning

of some sort
of cultural movement.

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...

You're all part of this.
Become active participants,

not passive observers.

POPE:
...and it becomes
a mainstream event.

REDFERN:
I think a lot of people,

particularly due to pop culture,
know of Area 51

and they accept it as gospel

that there really are UFOs
and aliens out there.

That sort of demonstrates how
the public is coming around

to the idea that alien life
is a reality.

KEN LAYNE:
For some people, the events were
a good time and a fun weekend.

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
the military-industrial state.

HOWE:
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.

NARRATOR:
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,

symbolic in that they represent

the government's
wider determination

to cling to secrecy
for as long as possible.

The U.S. government has kept
so many secrets from the people

that I think that's, you know,
a major driving force

for people to come here.

I don't know if this is
a movement that we're seeing,

but the people want
to know the truth, right?

And they want to know if there
are secrets being kept form us.

And I think
if that forms a movement,

that would be awesome.

COLLIN ANDERSON:
What's behind those gates

is one of the last mysteries.

Bottom of the ocean,
Area 51 and aliens.

POPE:
I think the only way
to get the government

to come up with answers
is to keep the pressure on.

Keep demanding answers.

A new generation has to continue
to demand answers,

and do what the past generation
failed to achieve.

NARRATOR:
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.

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.

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 finally reveal that both
in the universe at large

and right here on Earth,

we are not alone.

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