Original subtitles

These are unidentified flying objects.

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

Or just what are they? ¶¶

Hey, take it easy, pal. We got those guys from Kansas City

who charted us tomorrow to catch fish.

It ain't for us to be more hungover than them.

Will you listen? We're finally on the lucky streak.

You're nuts, you know that? You're nuts. Will you cut some fish?

Hmm.

Good morning, Dr. Marshall.

Linda, you start giving service like this,

and you're liable to be asked to do it all summer. Now, come here so early.

You and Eve got some experiments you didn't tell me about?

Nope.

The sun woke me up early this morning. A mockingbird was broadcasting,

and I just couldn't get back to sleep.

So I decided to score some points with you and trot in here

early and finish up the paperwork on those saturation tests.

You grad students are getting better every year.

Listen, I want to be considered for next summer, too.

Well, now that is possible.

You've been here for a month, and you haven't drowned any fish yet.

Cutter's coming in. Somebody said there's been a bad accident off the coast.

It's Gus. Gus, are you all right? What happened?

Yeah, I'm okay. Consider it.

Well, where's Sandy?

Well, John, what happened?

The Neptune had an accident last night, Paul.

An accident?

Draper was really busted up.

We had to helicopter him to the hospital.

Keeley says they were rammed.

Rammed?

Keeley says a UFO dived in the water and tore a hole in the hull.

Saturday, October 14th. Ruth, number nine, Golf Dinner Country Club. Sally,

number eight, Golf Dinner Country Club. Please note, Ruth had to cancel out.

Sorry.

Well, I'm not.

Safe.

All squared away, Captain. Terrific.

Nothing on the agenda, Harry. Nary a whit.

They keep giving us empty weekends like this.

I'm gonna start to feel like it's a vegan.

Every once in a while, that's healthy. Empty weekends are good for the circulation.

I expect to feel very much healthier Monday morning.

I see you're wearing a new sweater, sir.

Yeah, it's very observant.

No, you left a price tag on it.

Just a sec.

You have something lined up for the weekend, Harry?

Tomorrow.

Want to have dinner with Ken's folks over in Bellbrook?

Aunt Rublee says she's gonna bake some gooseberry pies. Gooseberry pies?

They're fantastic, sir. I mean, they're fantastic.

You never ate gooseberry pie?

Nor gooseberry tarts, nor gooseberry preserves.

Well, y'all do, sir. Look, I can invite you over.

Aunt Rublee would be tickled pink.

That's considerate of you, thank you, but I pass. Harry,

I'm playing golf this afternoon with a girl who is

at least an eight, maybe a nine, and then dinner.

And barring pilot error, I should be occupied all day Sunday, too.

A nine, sir?

So help me, Harry.

Sir, do, uh, don't enlisted men get nines?

Sergeant, as part of your ongoing education with me, officers get nines.

Enlisted men get gooseberry pies.

See you Monday morning.

Monday morning, and not a second before 0730.

Roger Blue Book, Sergeant Fitz here.

A UFO rammed the boat?

Roger, Patterson departure.

ATC clears Blue Book One to climb to 4,000 to intercept the creep intersection.

Then begin climb to cruise altitude flight level 380, Juliet 80, flight plan route.

Blue Book One, thank you, and roger on number one for the active.

Sir, what's our ETA, California?

Winds are favorable, Harry. With one refueling stop included, figure 4 plus 40.

Clear the rails, Harry. Canopy coming down.

Clear, Captain.

How about letting me be a four-man scope pilot today?

Okay.

During takeoff roll, call out air speeds on 10 knot intervals beginning at 90 knots.

Yes, sir. You got it.

Patterson, departure. Blue Book One turning on active and rolling.

90 knots. 130. 140. That's it here.

We rotate now.

Gear coming up.

Flaps.

Instruments all green. No siphoning.

Climb speed 300. That's what I like about this little bird, sir.

It does get with it. There ain't no doubt about it.

Captain Ryan, I guess I had a closed mind about their story,

but when I saw the damage to that hall, I opened it up in a hurry.

That is underwater damage, isn't it, Commander? Listen,

did your people have any other confirmations

about anything it might have been that night?

There was a commercial pilot flying from Honolulu

to San Francisco about 1,900 hours,

which is approximately the time.

Reported what he thought was a bolide several hundred miles to the southeast. Now,

that was the only sighting.

But at 40,000 feet, at that distance,

it's impossible to get an accurate estimate of speed or direction or size.

Well, Coast Guard got nothing, Captain.

That's why I'm about ready to believe their crazy story.

Has Blue Book ever had UFOs like this before?

We've investigated unknowns underwater, and UFOs that's crashed in the ocean,

but never one that dove under the water and then attacked a boat.

Wait till you two see it with your own eyes. Now, here she is, gentlemen.

Wow, looks like somebody's lobbing shells at her.

Now listen, I haven't ruled out explosives.

We keep track of a heck of a lot of stuff, both underwater and on top of it.

But we can't spot it all, foreign and domestic.

Mander looks like they started repairs, then stopped when you had her impounded.

We removed the V-drive, of course, but we lost part of the hull.

How far has the Coast Guard gone, Commander?

Well, we only got her out of the water day before yesterday, Captain.

So I asked the Pacific Institute lab to analyze

whatever it was on the stern and hull.

They're government consultants?

We contract with the Institute.

It's convenient. They're right next door.

Basically, they do research in sea farming.

Mariculture, improving yields of food.

Paul Marshall does very meticulous work. He's got a good staff.

Listen, Commander, do you happen to know the people that were aboard?

Draper and Keeley?

Deep-sea charters.

A couple of hard-working guys trying to make a go

of the charter business. Good sailors. Reliable?

Credible? Credible, unless they've been celebrating.

Is there anything that either of you would like to add?

Anything you can think of?

I'll just go on the record that we're both glad just to be here, Captain.

You were both lucky, all right. Would it be okay if we played that back again?

It's a good idea. Just in case we forgot something.

Marina Hospital, 1830 hours, 19 October.

Why don't you start, Mr. Draper?

Sure.

Well, you know, it was just at sunset on the 13th.

The Institute bunch had finished and were heading back to shore.

Gus and I were going to grill an albacorn and hit the sack.

Oh, man.

Hey, take it easy, pal. We got those guys from Kansas City

who charted us tomorrow to catch fish.

I'd hate for us to be more hungover than them.

We're finally on a lucky streak. You're nuts, you know that? You're nuts.

Oh, yeah? Go cook some fish.

Look up! Get up there!

Now, Ben's part!

I put out a mayday. The Coast Guard literally saved our lives and our boat.

We're just as anxious as you are to find out what happened out at the reef.

The reef's essential to us. We've been working out there for over three years now.

Miss Summers, your institute boat left the reef about sunset?

That's right.

Gus and Sandy were at anchor. Everything was perfectly normal.

You didn't see anything abnormal around the reef

all day, on the water, while you were diving?

Not a thing.

Professor Marshall, you all have spent so much time at that reef.

Do you remember anything in the past?

Any unusual underwater activity?

Anything close to Draper's UFO?

Well, even I've seen bolides out over the ocean,

but nothing like Draper described, no.

Captain, has anybody mentioned how much Sandy might have chuggalugged that night?

They said they'd had a couple, yes.

Well, Sandy Draper never stopped at two in his life.

That's a rotten implication, Linda.

Eve, you think everybody's perfect.

Nevertheless, something tore up their boat. Maybe he did it for the insurance.

They just got in the title. That doesn't make sense. Well,

it makes about as much sense as a UFO.

Dr. Marshall, I've finished plotting the underwater locations.

I think I'll start filling the scuba tanks.

Won't you fill mine, too, please?

Sure, that's about all I'm good for around here.

These red pins indicate thermographs,

which monitor underwater temperatures at various levels down to about 20 fathoms.

The salinometers show the changes salt content makes

to a whole series of underwater plant life.

Now, these sonoboys record audio patterns from

passing ships and other undersea activity,

which conceivably might affect plant growth.

Pardon me, but these... the sonoboys...

Is that 24-hour monitoring of all underwater sounds?

Around the clock.

You think that the sound of the impact, whatever, could tell you what did it?

It'd be a miracle.

Those magicians back at Wright-Patt every once in a while come up with one.

I wonder if we could have the recordings from these three.

Now remember, the boat is less than a year old.

Those barramunds have hand-laid up hulls.

Transoms are double reinforced.

We estimate that whatever rammed her hit an area about five feet high by eight

feet wide with a ram force well over a thousand pounds per square inch.

Easy.

Mr. Draper estimated the UFOs at being about 70 or 80 feet across.

Nothing inconsistent so far.

Help!

Where's Dean?

Oh, she's caught in the rocks. They crept us underwater. Help me get some tanks.

Are any of those things full? They sure are.

How much air does she have left?

When I left her my tank, about a thousand pounds, there can't be much left.

How did it happen? Our second dive, she seemed to be caught in some kelp,

and she was just getting free when her leg jammed in a crevice.

She pulled and pulled on it, and her leg started to bleed.

I did I did everything I could, but I knew

I needed some help, so I left her my tank.

That's all I can do.

¶¶

Which sector? X-ray 4.

Anything seem off or strange to you two, sir?

Yeah.

She didn't leave any footprints. No marks on the beach at all.

I was wondering how she got out of the water.

It's far up on the sand.

Is she going to be all right?

Sandy was right. I saw it myself.

Indeed, I saw it myself. I didn't imagine it.

There's a huge thing down there.

It's a saucer.

It's at the bottom of the reef.

Do you feel up to telling us what happened?

Yes, certainly.

I was going to pick up the third boy,

and Eve was checking the oxygen analyzer in the next sector.

I got my detector with no trouble at all.

But when I looked around for Eve, she wasn't there.

A lot of kelp had drifted in.

I guess it had broken loose during that storm Wednesday that came up from Mexico.

Then finally, back of that escarpment, I saw her.

The surge was running fast and very strong, taking her along.

I swam over to her.

I had to keep clear myself, and I thought we were doing all right.

And then somehow she caught her leg, and she couldn't get it out.

I checked her tank gauge.

She was extremely low on air.

I knew she'd run out before I could get help.

I had 19 minutes supply left, so I gave her my tank.

I'm just grateful she's all right.

You didn't see anything at all that might have looked

like the saucer that she tried to tell us about.

No, no, of course not.

Pure terror could make anyone fantasize.

Eve didn't know what she was saying, even what she was doing.

Somehow she got free, somehow she got up on the beach.

I doubt if we'll ever know what really happened.

Doctor, I know you're concerned for this near tragedy,

so if it puts our work off a few days, don't worry about it.

No, it won't, not at all.

We did get the tapes after all, so we should be able to analyze them tomorrow.

Captain Ryan.

Yeah, put her on.

Maybe it fits in. 9th of the 13th, the pilot of Pacific Coastal Flight 103, a 707,

Seattle, San Diego, at exactly 1850 hours, 40 miles north of the Ventura Omni,

inbound on the 322 degree radial.

Well, that's the time frame, all right. What did he say?

Thinks he might have seen a fireball. Direction of travel, approximately 240.

Crossed the sky, relatively flat trajectory,

and disappeared behind one of the Channel Islands.

Any help?

Well, sure it helps. That's a second witness.

All right, now listen. Sergeant Fitz and I are

going to be listening to some underwater tapes.

Whatever the Pacific Institute analysis of them,

I still want them to rush back to Major Selvidge

at Wright-Patt for him to go over them.

Roger. We'll expedite, sir. Anything else?

Just keep feeding us whatever you think's important.

Captain Ryan, think you can wrap it up pretty soon?

I could wrap it up right now if I could find a UFO that runs underwater.

I ran all the tests you wanted.

These tanks and regulators are... they're spotless, clean as a whistle.

Here's the report.

Clean, huh?

All set up, sir.

Oh, Captain Ryan, look, before you start, Now, I don't know what this is all about,

but I hope you don't think that the Air Force is going to

brainwash us into thinking we didn't see what we saw.

We appreciate you coming.

We just think it's possible you may have perceived what

you saw and what you heard somewhat differently, that's all.

Okay, shoot.

Sergeant.

This is a technical film about bolides, fireballs.

Now, you may have seen a fireball like this without knowing that

there are portions of meteors which enter the Earth's atmosphere,

experience explosive temperatures, and survive the atmospheric plunge.

Now, they hit the sea.

And naturally generate great quantities of steam.

Now, this is a rare piece of film,

taken by an astronomer who just happened to have his

camera handy at the right time and the right place.

Most probably, that's what you saw.

Two separate airline crews saw it and gave us a pretty good fix on it.

Okay, so I saw a bull line.

All right, I'll buy that part of it.

But it hit half a mile away or so.

Don't tell me now you got a movie that shows

a chunk of meteor taken off after a boat.

No, but we believe we know what did.

Paul, could you please?

This tape begins at 6.30 p.m. on the 13th.

Sandy, you and Gus both know we've got the bottom

of the reef covered with all kinds of instruments,

including those that monitor underwater sounds.

What is that?

Those are the sounds of tropical albacore, along with various other species.

Hear that?

That's a very large school of golden carp.

Wow.

There's your bolide.

It hit the water some 50 or 60 miles off the Channel Islands, and Dr.

Marshall's underwater recording devices picked it up.

An unusual thing happened at the precise time the bolide was sinking to the bottom.

Now listen to this sound.

Extreme water churning. Violent action.

What the heck is that?

Well, I came to a dead end.

When the people at Wright-Patterson isolated the various components, Oddly enough,

it's quite common along this coast.

It's the gray whale.

Gentlemen.

You heard a gray whale coming at your boat. Whales don't attack boats.

We've cruised right beside them.

If one was terrified because of the bolide,

there isn't anybody who could predict what it would do or wouldn't do.

See, there you go, Captain.

You are trying to talk us into something. It's a piece here and a piece there.

And your answer? The only answer.

Because you won't admit that UFOs do exist.

Captain, now you almost had me convinced, but you are stretching too far.

If you won't believe me...

Will you believe the Coast Guard laboratory?

The Coast Guard analyzed your hull, gentlemen. It wasn't easy.

They finally isolated several small sections,

which microscopic analysis definitely proved were the epidermis of a gray whale.

Commander Bell said he didn't need these. Thought you might like them for souvenirs.

Oh, okay, guys.

There's no way I can argue with that, now, is there?

No cover-up?

Captain, I gotta hand it to you.

You guys really dig, don't you?

Every once in a while, we strike oil.

This time, we'll oil.

This could be a whole chapter in the Blue Book, couldn't it, Captain?

That depends on what Miss Summers tells us now.

Well, I'm gonna tell you exactly what happened. Incredible as it sounds.

After you asked us to recover the tapes,

Linda and I took the Beagle out to the reef about, what, 2.30, was it?

It was clear enough to keep an eye on each other,

although some great masses of kelp had moved from their bed along the reef.

I'd almost finished the separation when I noticed I felt slightly dizzy,

not enough to go back up.

I shook that off, and I felt a little nauseous. I couldn't figure it out.

I remember Linda came over to me to help, but I really couldn't see her.

Tunnel vision hit me.

I knew I was in real trouble.

And then muscle spasms.

I was really blacking out when Linda gave me her tank.

And then, I know I wasn't hallucinating.

First, I saw two beams of light.

And then I saw a huge blue-gray form coming towards me.

It was at least 50 or 60 feet across.

I kept trying to get my leg free.

I was beginning to black out.

Everything was going out of focus.

And then I lost consciousness.

And then the next thing I remember, you were with me on the beach.

Couldn't this have been nitrogen narcosis?

No, Captain.

That's an obvious assumption, but it couldn't have been. First of all,

I wasn't deep enough. I was only 40 feet.

Besides, I've suffered it before. I know the symptoms. It's just not the same.

Linda, is what Eve describes the same way you thought everything

happened while you were still underwater with her?

Exactly, Commander.

Plus, Linda giving me her air.

Miss Summers, please don't think I'm arguing with you.

But aren't all of these typical symptoms of an hallucinatory state?

Captain, that UFO or that sub or whatever you

want to call it was not an hallucination.

I'm a trained diver. I'm a very competent observer.

But an experienced diver can be made to hallucinate.

John, what are you getting at?

He and I are getting at...

More than an investigation of a UFO.

Oh, look, I had an accident. Linda tried to save my life.

Did she?

What's that supposed to mean?

Captain, could I please have those lab reports?

We did an analysis of the contents of the two tanks.

Eve's tank was clean as a whistle.

Miss Summers, your tanks were clean as a whistle because they had pure oxygen.

But divers don't breathe pure oxygen, they breathe air.

Because pure oxygen can be toxic underwater,

even under a couple of atmospheres of pressure.

Deadly, in fact, after a few minutes below 25 feet.

Linda.

You fill those tanks.

Our compressors are normal air.

The Institute has three tanks of pure oxygen.

For resuscitators, for treating bends.

Miss Collins, you're in charge of the fill bench.

Oh, Linda.

I didn't know you were gonna get trapped.

I just wanted to screw up your experiments so that... so it'd be postponed.

I didn't want her to die.

I tried to save her.

Linda, you're going to need legal help.

A lot of help.

I'll cooperate with anyone you say, but you better get started now.

Don't look at me like that, Eve. I just wanted your job, that's all.

Captain Ryan, how are you going to evaluate what happened out at the reef?

How did my leg get free?

And how did I find myself 50 yards up on a perfectly smooth beach with no tracks,

no footprints, no marks of any kind?

Tell me, how did that happen?