Original subtitles

Ezekiel saw the wheel.

This is the wheel he said he saw.

These are unidentified flying objects that people say they are seeing now.

Are they proof that we are being visited by civilizations from other stars?

Or just what are they?

The United States Air Force began an investigation

of this high strangeness in a search for the truth.

What you are about to see is part of that 20-year search.

Oh, Vanessa, I am just tickled pink over this new tape recorder you sent.

It is so much more fun talking back and forth to you this way

than writing those darn letters that I never get around to.

And you don't realize how much I enjoy hearing your voice in Jim's and Mary's,

especially now that I'm back on duty up here at the lookout tower.

Hold on a second.

I thought I heard something strange.

I better not start getting cabin fever my first week back.

Now, isn't that silly? I'm here all by myself, and I'm hearing things.

June 3rd.

Date in my memory book.

Made you making it possible for me to savor food with names I can't pronounce,

can't translate, and to totally ignore those numbers on the right side of the menu.

I'll get it back when football comes.

Evening, Major. How you doing, Harry? See,

they got you out here in the boondocks this week, don't they, Peters?

Are you kidding, Major? An old jackrabbit with

his tongue hanging out just crawled by.

Asked me where I could fill his canteen.

Go have a good night now, yeah?

In that case, could you please tell me about the kale, Mayor?

Mates, for your information, the Calamire is only $12.50.

Wait till Ohio State and Michigan, Harry.

At the Elysee, we poach our Calmar in most delicate white wines.

A hint of bay leaf, a sprinkling of capers, and a bouquet of scampi.

We're lucky to have some just flown in today, sir. Nice change from the mess hall.

But underneath the white wine and the poach, what is the kill mark?

Oh, only the most tender squid, sir. A great delicacy.

You mean squid with those ten gruesome... A squid, sir.

Like in Captain Nemo.

Ours are somewhat smaller.

We didn't order another round.

Compliments of the lady of the bar for the major and the sergeant.

I don't know her, do I? Who is she? It's Teresa Ball. Teresa?

Fasten your seatbelts.

Evening, Teresa.

Harry.

I don't know if you know Major Jay Gatlin, my... Not as well as I'd like.

No, I do not.

Hello. How are you? Thank you very much for the drink.

I don't think I've had a lady buy me a drink before.

Oh, well, ladies are doing lots of things these

days that they didn't used to, Major.

That's very true.

I realize that you two cannot be drinking while in uniform together. Regulation,

isn't it? But I certainly admit that a man looks

at his best in a uniform. Don't you agree?

Yes.

Class A. Ribbons, wings, and you, Harry.

Where have you been lately? I've missed you.

Oh, we were in Wisconsin about a week ago on a major.

There's an emergency call from the base.

Thank you. Excuse me.

Do you have my new number, Harry?

I'm only giving my new one out to my very close friends.

You know, my phone has been ringing off the hook. Take this down, huh?

Incredible. We were just there at 1940 hours.

Tell the general we're on our way back.

7-7. 8-4. 8-4.

Base operations. There was a sighting a half hour ago. Back gate.

We were just there.

Yeah.

Sorry, Teresa. We're going to have to scratch this one.

You foreign technology fellas get spooked every time somebody sees a model airplane.

Thank you. Look, no UFO is going to sit down at right

pat. So come on, Jake, let's have a good time.

Rain check, Teresa.

Why don't you investigate that?

Now that looks like a pretty good flying saucer to me.

What the heck?

Mage?

Look for detail, Harry. Listen hard.

What the hell is it?

Anybody have a camera? Mine's in our car.

Yeah.

Symmetrical, so...

Three rows of small lights at the circumference, red and yellow. It's green, too.

I see green. Look at that port.

It's pure white.

It's not symmetrical. It's cigar-shaped.

100 feet high. More.

Trailing wires. See those cables below the fuselage?

It's Major Gatlin. Give me Wright-Patterson, Murgerson.

Ed, Jake Gatlin. I've got a UFO sighting.

Yes, me.

Call Fort Lee and ask Regent for an intercept. I'm 20 miles east of the base.

Very low altitude craft traveling northwest, maybe 150 knots.

Unknown. Absolutely unknown.

¶¶

You sure you want to pick this up now? We can go over it in a couple of hours.

No, Major, I want to. It's okay. Not that bad in daylight.

Just start at the beginning, Jeff.

Okay.

I clocked you through exactly 1942 hours, and I went on writing a letter.

I turned the radio on. At first, I thought it was full of static.

That sound was like nothing on earth.

That's it.

After that, I called base security. I don't mind telling you, I was shook.

They came out. Talked to the judge advocate yet?

Airman fires a weapon, automatic investigation.

They billed me 18 cents per round fired. I'm on the hook for 54 cents.

Jeff, why don't you draw some sketches of what it looked like?

Must have been justified, wasn't it?

I ain't snapping off three rounds and something thinks it's gonna kill you.

That's understandable, isn't it? You keep saying it'll never happen to you.

Well, it happened to me.

They're kind of like the one at the restaurant,

but I'm surprised they're so different, aren't you?

Yeah.

If you saw it approaching, then from below, then speeding off...

You said it made that little maneuver before the lights went out.

I thought somewhere along the line he'd bring out that it was cigar-shaped. Harry,

what we saw was not cigar-shaped at all. It was almost round.

It was round like it had trailing wires.

Mage, that was smooth as a baby's bottom. No wires, no nothing.

I never saw any green lights either.

I saw... You think you saw.

Pardon me, sir, but what I saw and what somebody else out there saw was... Oh, man.

Perceptions, huh, Herring?

I guess so, sir. I guess we're not too different

from all those people we've interviewed.

No one had any background information on this farmer, Arlie McCoy?

He reported his sighting less than 24 hours ago,

and already he's hollering about an Air Force cover-up.

He's making a statement to the free press of the U.S.

of A., the state of Ohio, and the county of Boone.

And he's making it in front of the post office.

What else do you need for opens?

Come on, Mage, we keep everything open, including our minds, right?

Now, after I finally get through to the switchboard,

and this sassy operator that our taxes support,

and our taxes are gonna pension off,

what do you think she sniffs at me when I tell her I just seen a flying saucer?

Anyway, to this minute, to this very minute,

I have not done one iota of interviewing me.

They said they got a whole staff investigating UFOs.

They said they're going to interview me immediately.

But I ain't seen nobody.

And do you know why?

Yeah, because they cover up this like they cover up everything.

They want to keep it from us.

They're trying to hide the fact that there's real,

honest-to-hallelujah flying saucers flying around up there.

That's not quite accurate, Mr. McCoy.

We don't have anything to cover up,

but it does take a while to respond to all the calls.

We're responding to yours right now.

You mean you heard about this press conference?

Yes, sir, we did.

But they're going to cover it up. You can bet your bottom dollar on that.

McCoy, can we go someplace private? We'd like to hear your story. Everything.

For the record.

Private?

I'm going to tell it to the whole world.

And that whole world begins right here and right now.

Get your pencils sharp, fellas. Okay, I'm disking the South 40.

It's an hour past sundown.

That darn thing tried to kill me.

It was them laser beams.

I got away. I hid behind the barn.

Then I seen it zoom off toward Dayton.

Scooting along a thousand miles an hour. Now,

there ain't an airplane or anything on this earth can fly like that.

Harley, we agree on politics, but that tale sounds like horse malarkey to me.

Now you listen to me, Cockrum.

I'm telling the truth.

On my mother's grave, my father's poke,

and my right to be judged by the almighty truth. Come on, Arlie.

You ran your tractor in a ditch, now you're just trying to make an excuse.

Don't you start second-guessing me, Mac Stacy.

I'm telling you exactly what I saw.

You sure you're not just trying to get a little attention here?

Now press conferences, laser beams...

Now, what's your angle, huh?

Okay, so I am only a poor dirt farmer,

and not some hotshot mash pilot that flew over Korea like you.

But I'm honest, that's for darn sure.

I raised my family, I worked my farm,

and I sure as shootin' ain't goin' broke like you and that charter service of yours.

So you just attend to your business, and I'll attend to mine.

All right, Arlie, anything you say.

Just don't count on believin' those pipe dreams.

Are you flyboys going to bury this,

or are you going to say it's a weather balloon or maybe a star?

Mr. McCoy, we would like to get a few more details.

Details? What kind of details? I told you, size, color, shape, speed.

It's good to call a coffee shop. We'll talk about it there.

All right.

He's getting toward dinner time.

I guess you boys will be picking up the check, seeing as how it's official business.

I just want to know why the Office of Special Investigation

is tailing Sergeant Fitz and me.

The surveillance was ordered by the General. Why?

I mean, is there something that we've done to justify being investigated by the OSI?

The General has to be sure.

He's got a lot of people asking him questions, too.

Did you ever think of it that way?

The entire project has to make sure that you're not getting prejudice.

We're leaning backward to make sure we document every small, possible,

tiniest piece of evidence.

Including the fact that you had consumed a glass of wine,

an airman fits a scotch and soda, and that there was a second round in front of you?

Your guys are good, sir.

They are really good.

And so is somebody else who outranks the general,

and believe it or not, there's a lot of them.

Taxpayers, any one of whom could make an issue out of that.

The ounce and a half of booze and the glass of wine are in the report.

I did not audit the bar checks of the 46 others who

said they saw the same thing as Harry and I saw.

Jed, listen.

If you didn't have a lot of fans in this organization,

do you think that you'd be doing what you are doing?

You know what I'm telling you? This is just a little special.

Now, do you think you can handle anything that anybody's likely to throw at you?

Sir, tell the general that I've been in this man's Air Force too long.

There isn't any place anybody can hit me that isn't scar tissue.

Tell me, ma'am, how many times a day do you make that climb?

Four, four, five. Want a race?

Major's your pigeon for sucker bats.

This is Sergeant Fitz. I'm Major Gatlin. Nice to meet you in person, ma'am.

Nice to know you.

Come on in. Sit down. Catch your breath.

Come on, right over there.

Oh, thank you.

Go on, sit down.

Let me do the talking for a minute.

I know after we talked on the phone, you called the district ranger.

And when Barney started explaining to you about a grandmother who

spends 28 days out of every 30 perched up in a lookout tower,

you gotta figure this old dame's some kind of a nut, right?

Oh, I wouldn't say that. I think anybody who wants to enjoy

this fantastic view all the time is pretty smart.

Flattery will get you almost anywhere, Major.

Oh, you know what I mean. Heck, even my kids think I'm a screwball.

Well, the Ranger did go into detail about your routine,

and it certainly is isolated.

And it's got to be lonely, and loneliness can't affect one's perceptions.

No offense, Mrs. Butler.

No offense taken. Now, we both know where we stand.

But I think I have proof that I am not seeing things or hearing things.

Like what, ma'am?

Well, from what I've read about your work, and believe you me,

I have time to read plenty.

I think I have what you define as hard evidence.

That is the term, isn't it? Hard evidence?

That depends. What have you got?

Well, I was taping a letter to my daughter when

this thing came in at about 195 degrees, right over there.

So I put this down to pick up my binoculars, of course.

But it kept right on recording. And I think the sound is pretty clear.

I know you can horse around with tapes. I mean, I don't know how you do it,

but I know it can be done.

But I swear, I swear, this is the original.

That isn't often you get real solid evidence, is it?

That's not, ma'am.

Well, listen, you tell me.

I'm up here all by myself, and I'm here.

That is the same sound, isn't it? Gotta be. I'll never forget that sound.

You mean you heard this before?

Where?

Who else heard it?

Several people.

But this provides corroborative evidence.

And you've been a trained observer, Mrs. Butler.

You're the best news we've had in ages.

You want to start at the beginning?

Well, like I said, I was taping this letter to my daughter, Vanessa.

She lives up in Anchorage with her husband.

And I was taping this letter, and I heard this fantastic roar.

Hold on, gal.

Barney, you won't believe what I just saw.

And after it went around the tower, I watched it real close.

I kept the Osborne fire finder trained on that thing when it went out of sight.

And it disappeared behind that ridge right over there. See?

Here, take a look.

Look through this little hole right up through here and you'll see it.

See?

That ridge is three miles away.

Now that's the second ridge.

Mm-hmm.

You see this contour right here?

That contour there.

I hope you'll let us take the tape with us, Mrs. Butler.

Well, will I get it back?

I mean, I'd sure like to keep it for a souvenir.

Of course.

All right, on one condition.

What's that?

You bring it back in person.

You know, I'd kind of forgotten how nice it is

to have a couple of gentlemen in my parlor.

How about a cup of tea?

New team. You know, Mage, the energy crisis and all,

it'd be a heck of a lot simpler if all four of us just carpooled.

Forget about them. Let's get on back.

Turn this car to the motor pool, and I'll pick you up at the barracks in my car.

We'll stop at the office and then grab some chow.

Best thing I heard all day, mate.

There is no mistaking that sound, is there? She got it. Chance of a million.

I have a hunch everybody we interview is going to recognize it right away.

Well, lose some, win some.

Oh, man. 37 civilians. What a day.

Now, can we grab some dinner?

You still owe me, remember? As soon as we give her tape to the lab.

What's all that? Look.

What is that stuff? Got me?

Give me a flashlight.

Interview 24. The crazy sound, strange navigation lights,

but no burst of light from the fuselage. Number 25.

Ear-splitting sound, unusual flying lights.

No illumination from below.

Right, Major, but I still don't... Look,

only the people who were down there at the restaurant saw the shower of lights.

Or the explosion, as that young kid called it. McCoy didn't see it.

Peters didn't see it at the gate. And he didn't see it from the tower.

Okay, but, uh... So those pieces of confetti...

Or whatever they were on the car could have landed

there while we were parked down there.

The confetti gave off a brief light source after it was

charged from the light in the car or the flashlight.

Okay, this is the area. Run the light around.

All right, shut it off. Well, I'll be.

Any color lights, red lights, blue, green, yellow.

We're trying to find out if any supplier sold

an unusual amount of small, powerful balls.

We're not sure. A month, two months, in the past year.

Just anything unusual.

Yes, sir.

Okay, thank you very much.

How we doing?

I've called practically all over this area,

and nobody remembers selling an unusual number of light bulbs,

colored or otherwise, except Christmas tree lights, you know?

Yeah.

I'm stymied, too.

Well, that's not going to satisfy the Major, Harry.

Yeah, tell me about it.

He knows it's a hoax. I know it's a hoax.

How was it done? How did they do it?

Major, that confetti was treated with fluorescent paint all right.

Captain Juergens located the manufacturer.

That's as far as I got.

Nobody can track down a single can of fluorescent paint.

Well, at least we know how they did it.

Surprise me.

Give me some more good news.

Supplies, wiring, light bulbs, special building materials.

Nothing unusual has turned up so far. Not in Dayton.

Not in the major shopping centers.

It's a stone wall.

How you doing?

Not bad.

Let's give it to him in stereo, Johnny. Come on.

We took it apart and separated 14 different tracks.

Recognize that?

Sure not on the top 40 country western.

That's part of our sound?

We have to speed it up to 140 IPS.

Now, mix in some more long hair.

Long hair for sure.

This one was tough to find.

Like almost impossible. We lose up to 211.9.

Point, man.

How fast do you speed that up?

We don't.

We slow it down to six or eight, don't we, Johnny?

Put them all together and spell weirdo.

That's it, only not quite.

Something's missing, right?

Can't put my finger on it.

That's the sound, but not exactly.

Yeah, that's it. That's it.

Now, what's that last one in Don't Tell Me Johnny Cash? Nope.

Johnny killed the first three.

Hughes 500, turbine power chop.

7.10 p.m., Arlen McCoy plowing his field here.

Twenty minutes later, and 38 miles from there,

we have the guard sighting at the back gate. Check.

About 150 knots airspeed. Okay.

Move to the restaurant. 8.40 p.m.

That doesn't check, Major.

No, it doesn't.

The restaurant's no more than 15 miles from the gate.

But we didn't see it until 8.30.

Whatever it was, it sure went darn slow after it left the back gate.

Okay, that's one piece of the puzzle that doesn't sink.

What's next?

Good old Annie Butler up in her lookout tower.

Time?

Say, 60 miles from the restaurant. Whatever it was, it got its airspeed back, huh?

Annie's reading puts the UFO going out of sight about here, over that ridge.

Round trip, huh, Major?

Let's see if we can cancel their ticket.

Okay, this heading to right past back gate.

Nades, look at that.

Next to the road.

Looks like the ground's all chewed up.

Why do you suppose that crash is smashed down like that?

Some evidence.

I got a hunch that Peters didn't completely miss

when he fired those shots at that saucer.

And I got a hunch we just explained why the timing was out of sync.

Okay, straight to the lookout tower, about 280 degrees.

Okay, what was the lookout lady's reading? 195 degrees. Fly the course. 195 degrees.

Okay, this is where Annie lost it.

Major, is that anything?

Yeah, that's me.

I'm Gadlin. This is Sergeant Fitz. We're from Wright-Patt. Yeah, yeah.

What's on your mind?

Didn't we see you at the post office Wednesday, Mr. Stacey?

We sure did.

You showed up just like me at Arlie McCoy's fancy interview.

Can we step into your office?

Yeah, come on in.

Thank you.

What happened, Major? You confirm that as a new interceptor or what?

What do you think it was?

Now that you've had time to read and think about it.

Wait a minute. Hold on. They're paying you to come up with the answers.

You certainly had your doubts about Mr. McCoy's story.

Well, sure I did, didn't you?

And we think we know why you were positive it wasn't a UFO.

Or a new interceptor.

Tell me more.

You seem to like music as well as you like flying.

You certainly like classical music.

I guess I could bluff it out to next Christmas if I wanted to,

but if you come up with those three, wow.

How did you figure it out it was me that did it?

Mr. Stacy, why don't you tell me why you did it?

You see, I am losing my business here. I'm losing everything.

The GI Bill's running out.

They're not clamoring at me for helicopter lessons anymore.

I got no charter business.

Every note I've got is due. They already repossessed my other chopper.

It's desperate. Just desperate and trying to save

my business. To save it this way? A hoax?

I had no idea all this was going to happen.

I was going to make one more flight over Dayton. Just one more flight. Now,

that flight the other night, that was just experimental.

But I was going to fly over Dayton.

And all those flashing lights were going to turn

into a sign that said Stacy's Flight Instruction.

I just thought I could bail myself out if I could

get a little extra advertising, that's all.

I still haven't got it figured.

I know we didn't see a chopper.

The chopper was lifting the UFO you saw.

There.

I built that saucer myself. Did the plans and everything. Started from scratch.

It took me months because I was working by myself.

But all the parts.

We checked every wholesaler and retailer in the area. Electrical contractors.

No, no, I got those parts in the mail. Everywhere from New Jersey to California.

But how did you make it that nobody saw the chopper from the ground?

Come on, I'll show you.

Non-reflective cloth. 100 mile an hour tape.

By that scale model, the real saucer must be 15 feet across. Exactly 5 meters,

Major. That's a very good guess.

You just lifted off with it.

That took flying. Well, I made my share of pickups under fire in Korea.

How'd you control the sound system?

Come on, I'll show you.

Well, there she is, the one and only.

She's soloed once and washed out.

You control the lights from your cockpit? Yeah, yeah, all that's remote.

That's our sound.

Manus the chopper.

I'll say this, Mr. Stacy,

you've got to be good to get all that operating

in the air without wrecking everything, including yourself.

Well, I am good.

I'm just a very lousy businessman.

What all happened at Rye Patterson's back gate?

What all happened was I almost got myself shot down. That's what happened.

That guy started firing. I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe it when I got hit either.

I knew I was in trouble, so I just shut down the

lights. I let the sound go, and I just moved off.

He knocked out part of the electrical system.

I had to put it down for emergency repairs.

Yeah, we found your landing spot.

But what about all that confetti? Fluorescent. Charged

with a spot from above. Look it.

Well, that's how it works, gentlemen.

That's how it works, and I'm sorry.

I know it's a little late now, but I just want you to know that I am sorry about it.

You were that desperate?

Well, to save everything I got, you're damn right.

I got the best leg that money can buy,

but there's not an outfit in the country that'll

hire a chopper pilot with an artificial leg.

You can still fly. I'll hand you that.

Well, thank you.

I feel like I can do better now than I could before I lost my leg.

Well, what happens?

Channels. Mr. Stacy, we send everything to the

proper authorities. You know about channels.

Oh, yes, sir. I know all about channels just like you do.

The only thing is, I think I'm in a spot you fellas don't have any experience in.

What's that?

I'm between a rock and a hard place.

Something tells me you've never been there.

Ah, gentlemen, your table by the window. Please.

I trust there will not be the same kind of a floor show for all of us.

Well, I guess she won't be sending us any drinks tonight.

You ever try the squid?

Major, I got news for you.

I'm gonna have me one of them fine big hamburgers they got right next to burnt,

and I ain't even taking a peek at that one.