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?

Super. Look at this return.

Look out your moving target indicator.

Who the heck is that?

I show no traffic.

Man, that is a big target.

Barely moving.

Los Angeles approach to unidentified traffic over Long Beach. Come in, over.

I'll see if AFR can give us flight level on that.

Wait a minute.

It's gone, Super.

It went right off the scope in the vicinity of the Whitman Tower.

Chuck, it's starting.

Janet, where's the little iron pot? I want to melt some butter for the popcorn.

Let's see, the iron pan.

I think the movers put it in this big box.

Mommy!

Daddy!

What's wrong?

Mom!

Oh.

I have it again, at 2,500 feet, drifting inland.

Morning, Captain. Coolidge.

Roosevelt.

Truman.

Eisenhower.

Kennedy.

Johnson. You having me exercise in your stomach or your memory?

Can't stand the counting. It's boring.

Nixon.

Ford.

Carter.

I was gonna use the names of the beautiful women I've dated, but...

But you can't do 300 repetitions.

Harry, I'm in pain. At least let me do my own punchlines.

Well, I know this is gonna hurt you, Captain,

but your workout's gonna have to wait till we get back from California.

Bless you.

We had a sighting in Los Angeles last night, three separate cases of Mr.

Emerson Keyes and Mr. H. Rasson.

It was a weekend in L.A. too, Harry. Too much party, maybe?

The third witness was an air traffic controller

at Los Angeles International Airport.

We don't keep continuous records of activities in this sector,

but this monitor is tied into our computer,

and we can simulate just about anything we want.

Okay, I think it's just about ready.

All right, this is the way it looked.

We first saw it out here at about 2,500. Then it started moving west like this.

Until it got here, where it lost altitude, and disappeared.

What's this right here? Well, that's the Whitman Tower.

One of our other witnesses lives in that tower.

No kidding.

That blip, you sure that's the way that actually looked?

Almost exactly.

And it looked the same when it reappeared further south.

See something, Captain? I don't know. It's strange.

Almost like it's not... solid.

Solid or not, Captain, it didn't respond to any of our radio challenges.

And it sure wasn't on any flight plan.

I know why you hesitate, Mr. Murphy, but believe me,

I have privileged information on this subject. Please buy it. Now.

Please.

Thank you. Thank you.

Forgive me, gentlemen, for receiving you in my bedroom,

but like your American writer Mark Twain, I find, I think, much better in bed.

I guess we all have our favorite places to think, sir. Yes, indeed.

Well, uh...

Shall we get on with it?

Where do we start?

Fine, Mr. Rashoon.

If you don't mind, the sergeant will record what you have to say.

Just tell us what happened.

Well, it was last night.

Do you remember the time, sir?

No.

Yes, it was 11.40.

I was waiting on a call, so I looked at my watch.

I had the feeling they were coming from the other side of the building.

Now I am very curious about strange phenomena, gentlemen.

I just had to get a better look.

My neighbor, Mr. Ryerson, opened the door.

The expression I saw on Mr. Ryerson's face, I cannot describe it,

but I knew he had seen a lot more than I. More of what, sir?

Well, of the spaceship, of course.

Did I not mention the ship when I reported the incident to your office?

Yes, sir, you did. But you personally didn't see a spaceship.

I saw only the beams of light, but they, they saw a great deal more.

Mr. Ryerson? Oh, boy, the Air Force.

Yes?

I guess he did it, huh?

Well, if you mean Mr. Rashoon. Yes, I mean Mr. Rashoon.

Look, I know you have a job to do,

but I don't feature having my wife and child go through this whole thing again.

Through this whole thing, you mean the sighting of the UFO?

Yeah.

Right outside my living room window. No more than four feet away.

If that's the case, sir, it's very unique,

and I promise your family a minimum of disturbance.

All right, come in. Thank you, sir.

I'll take your hats. Thank you.

Thanks.

Chuck, I thought we decided not to... Janet, I'll make those decisions.

Gentlemen, my wife Janet, our daughter Billy... I'm Captain Ryan.

This is Sergeant Fitz. Hello, Billy.

Set, will you?

Thank you.

I promise you, Mrs. Rison, this won't take long,

and you can stop any time it becomes too disturbing.

It's already disturbing.

Would you mind, Mrs. Ryerson, if the sergeant took your testimony in another room?

Oh, sure. Split us up, get two different stories, just like cops on TV.

Jan.

You know, it's starting already, Chuck.

Honey, for crying out loud, they have procedures to follow.

It's no problem, folks. We can talk to you in a group if you like.

Why don't you sit beside your mom and dad, Billy?

No, I don't want to. Do I have to?

No, Billy, you don't have to.

Honey, why don't you go into your room and play, okay?

Why don't you start at the beginning, Mr. Harrison?

Well, it was late last night.

I was in the dining room making popcorn.

We just moved in a couple of days ago, so...

Jan was helping me find a pan to melt butter.

So you would say, ma'am, that the object circled the building at regular intervals?

As if it were under control, Sergeant.

Under control, ma'am?

Yes.

A few minutes later, we saw them.

Is it from outer space, Daddy?

It scared Billy to death.

I don't want her involved.

I understand.

We'll get back to you as fast as we can.

I'll get your hats.

Uh, Captain, I'm sorry about my attitude at first.

If we can be of any further help.

Thank you.

We'll try to keep our interviews to a minimum.

Goodbye.

What do you make of the Ryerson story, Captain?

I don't know, Harry. Something sure has those people spooked.

A city of six million people, and only three saw anything.

And that's because they live above the fog level.

That's one for the books.

Mr. Emerson Keyes?

Naturally. I'm Captain Ben Ryan. This is Sergeant Harry. Oh, yes.

Come in. Come in.

I'll wager I know why you've come.

And I must say, the Army is certainly prompt with its inquiries.

Air Force, sir.

Army, Air Force, Navy, it's all pretty much the same, isn't it?

Not during football season.

I ignore sports.

But regardless, I'm happy to meet you.

Won't you sit down? Thank you.

When I called my old friend Captain Harding at LAPD,

I had no idea it was going to generate a formal inquiry.

Have you told anyone else about your sighting, sir? Yes,

I just finished talking with some adolescent at the Daily Journal. Oh,

I lost my temper. You'd think a story like mine would be worth gold to them, but no.

Excuse me, sir, but you called a newspaper to give your account of the sighting?

Yes, of course. Why?

Well, most people are a little hesitant to tell

the general public about spotting a UFO.

Captain, I was a publisher of experimental fiction and poetry for 40 years.

I have ceased to care what the general public thinks of me.

Sir, we'd like to hear about your account of the sighting in your own words.

The sergeant will record it if you don't mind.

Very well.

Maybe you should start at the beginning?

I know how to begin a story, Captain.

Can you point out exactly where you saw the object, Mr. Keyes?

Certainly.

Right there.

Between the islands and the Queen Mary. 225.

How far out in the water, sir?

Well, that's difficult to say.

Beyond the island, certainly.

Sure is a fine view, Mr. Keyes.

I bet those apartments in the bay aren't cheap.

Those are not apartments, Sergeant. Those are oil wells.

They built those frames around them to cover the derricks.

Mr. Keyes, I noticed you have a videotape recorder.

Did you tape the show last night by any chance? Yes, I did.

I like to keep a permanent record of the better shows.

I'm afraid that's mostly static, though. Well,

could we borrow the tape for a couple of days?

Yes, of course. Thank you.

Sergeant, you finished?

Yes, sir.

You are?

Mr. Keyes, thank you again for your cooperation. And the tape.

By the way, the television.

Is that cable or antenna?

It's cable.

Thank you.

One minute. Can you tell me what I saw? At the moment, it's unknown.

I told you earlier that I don't care anymore what the general public thinks of me.

But I do cherish the public's right to know.

I have connections in the media, gentlemen.

Don't try to cover this up.

Mr. Keyes, you'll have every opportunity to judge our findings for yourself.

Goodbye, sir.

Good day.

Your chief engineer up here, Mr. Webster? That's right.

We leased the tower to broadcasting cable companies. Quite a beat. Isn't it just?

Last night, Mr. Webster, anything unusual happen?

Sure as heck did.

We had heavy interference with the TV and microwave signal.

Only lasted about five minutes,

but that phone was ringing off its hook from all over the county.

It was pretty strange.

Any idea what caused it?

Not a one.

The TV cable antenna, it's still having trouble.

Yeah, I think there's something caught up there.

We'd sure like to take a look at that something.

So would I. There's no way anyone's gonna get up there

until I can switch to alternate microline paths. How long will that take?

Two, three hours.

You guys investigate flying saucers, is that what you said?

We investigate unidentified flying objects and related phenomena.

Okay.

Keep in touch.

Hi, here we are.

Barsons should be down in any minute.

Yeah, I hope you're in a better mood.

Good morning.

Good morning. Hi.

You picked a good spot, Captain. It's certainly very convenient for us.

Good.

Well, we wanted you to come down and meet us to get

your reaction to some new evidence we've found.

You have found something.

Found out there'd been many complaints of broadcast interference

at the time the UFO was circling your building.

There was definitely interference at the time you said the UFO appeared.

However... However, though it confirms the time of the sighting,

there was no pattern to the disturbances.

It was just random static.

I don't understand.

What the captain is saying, ma'am,

is that the UFO could not have circled your

building at a constant speed, as you claim.

It's a small point, but it's our first evidence of any significance.

But it did. It went around like a record player.

Gentlemen, let me tell you something.

Television waves can be kind of fluky.

Blind spots, shadows.

We're going to stick by our testimony.

We try to conduct our investigations with an open mind.

They're not designed to prove you wrong.

We understand that, Captain.

May I ask your line of work, Mr. Ryerson?

Electronics.

Microcircuitry.

He's being modest. Chuck developed a new process

for doping semiconductors to make microcircuits.

An absolute breakthrough.

Speaking of which, gentlemen, if you'll excuse us, we have a luncheon to attend.

I'm sorry, Captain, if we were a bit hostile when we first met.

If you have any more results that you want to run by us, just give us a call.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Nice folks.

This time.

It's like they're completely different people.

They're open, friendly, and willing to help.

It's quite a contrast to their first meeting.

The only similarity was their business with the hands.

You noticed that, too?

Maybe it was just a shock wearing off. Maybe.

But he was right about the TV flukes. That

doesn't knock their story down, absolutely.

And the time frame fits together pretty neatly.

Yes, sir.

11.39 p.m., LAX radar tracks the UFO near the Whitman Tower.

Loses it at 1141.

That's just the time the Ryerson's and Mr.

Rassoon see something buzzing the top of the building.

TV interference between 1141 and 1144.

That stops when it comes down the side of the building to visit the Ryerson's.

They see it for another five until 1149, and radar picks it up again moving south,

tracks it out over the ocean, then loses it at 1158, just about the time Mr.

Keyes sees it beyond the Long Beach Harbor.

But radar doesn't pick it up the third time,

when Keyes said it blasted off straight up.

Well, if it was climbing as fast as Keyes said, Radar might have missed it.

I bet I know what you're looking for.

Here it is.

Emerson Keyes' noted publisher. Harry, listen to this.

In a possibly related incident, patrons at Frankie's Waterfront,

a tavern in Portugal Village in San Pedro,

reported conversations with a man who claimed to have

seen a similar craft over the ocean at the same time.

They were unable to provide the man's name.

Sure, I was working Saturday.

Worked my tail off, I can tell you. Well,

do you remember the customer who sighted the UFO?

I only heard this and that of what he was saying.

I don't think I'd pay much attention to that.

The guy was a little, uh... Who called the newspaper?

Some of the regulars.

They thought it was a big joke, you know.

So the CIT, the man who saw it, he wasn't a regular?

I never saw him before.

Or since.

He was a salesman, I think. He carried a big case,

like it was filled with samples, you know.

He was drinking Manhattans.

Could he have paid by credit card?

Possible.

Could we look through your receipts for that day?

Well, sure. I guess so.

I'll duck in back and get them.

Hoping for a piece of luck, sir? It could be. You stay with the luck,

and I'm gonna go make a couple of phone calls,

and I'll meet you back at that little outside coffee shop around the corner.

Yes, sir. There you go, Sarge.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

That's okay.

Now let me ask you, what does a Manhattan run around here?

A buck and a half.

And seems like I remember him buying a round once.

So what I'm looking for is a receipt with a bunch of 150s and one big round.

Oh, I forgot to tell you.

What?

All drinks are 150.

Captain Ryan, meet Mr. Silas Cobb. Mr. Cobb, Captain.

Mr. Cobb's our mysterious salesman who saw the UFO. Oh, I sure as heck did.

Harry, you're a magician. No, sir, I just got lucky.

Got Mr. Cobb's name off a sales slip, took

a chance and called his home in St. Louis.

Fortunately, he called his wife last night and told her he saw a UFO.

And Lucy gave the sergeant my hotel address here in the city.

Double lucky, really. You know, I was due to fly out tonight. You bet it was.

Mr. Cobb, you ready to take that walk?

You bet.

I remember I was walking back to the car after a long day of making calls,

and it started getting chilly.

And I stopped to button my coat.

Yeah.

Yeah, this is the spot, though.

That's pretty consistent, right, Sergeant?

Yes, sir.

You mean someone else saw it?

We have a witness in Long Beach who told exactly the same story. Now,

you say you sighted it between the lighthouse and the buoy. Right.

That should give us a pretty good LOP.

That's the line of position, Mr. Cobb.

We have a compass reading from another witness,

and now with yours we can triangulate and get

a pretty good fix on the position of the UFO.

Reads out at 188 degrees, sir.

Nothing out there but blue water.

Let's get a recent history on that patch of blue water, Sergeant.

There's the lot of the Deputy Harbormaster, Captain. I

worked Saturday nights. I was here.

Let me see these coordinates again.

Ah, yes.

Was there something out there at that time, sir? 50,000 tons of something.

The Nakia Maru, that's her right out there.

She slipped a rudder cable about two days out.

We radioed her captain to stand off Santa Catalina Island for repairs,

but he evidently misunderstood.

So all of a sudden that night, about 2,200 hours, there she was,

five miles off the breakwater.

No way to steer. Wind's blowing her right down on the beach.

And loaded with a very fancy cargo, too.

Oil, detergents, and chemical dyes.

I sent out tugs to hold her for a while.

Then I got on the horn to our best marine construction firm.

They had a special low-profile hydraulic jack designed,

especially to force those rudder cables back on their tracks.

But in order to transfer it to the deck of a ship in 8 to 10 foot of sea,

we had to use a helicopter.

That must have been a rough mission. Night, fog, wind, the waves.

Yeah, 20-odd winds, and that darn jack swinging back and forth in that cable,

just like Paul Bunyan's yo-yo.

It took them 15 minutes trying to get that onto the deck.

Running lights, searchlights beaming down from the chopper.

Oversized rotor spinning in a circular shape.

You got the picture.

So do I. But I tell you, Captain,

that thing took off straight up like no helicopter I ever saw.

Well, that's right.

One of our pilots fractured his wrist when it broke. When what broke?

The cargo cable.

Snapped like a shoelace.

Now, the chopper was at maximum thrust,

and it just sort of bounced right up in reaction.

That jack went right through a steel deck and sank in the hold carrying the die.

Boy, whoever said seeing was believing.

Thank you very much for your help, sir. Not at all, Captain. Anytime,

gentlemen. Especially on Saturdays.

Thanks, Ernie.

Now, are you satisfied, Mr. Cobb, that that explanation fits what you saw?

Well, I'm convinced that is what I saw, Captain. The

more I think about it, the more sense it makes.

Sorry I couldn't come up with something more exotic.

Oh, that's okay. We've still got an exotic file open.

Thank you very much again for your time and your help,

sir. You bet. So long, Sergeant. Goodbye, sir.

Kevin, what you said about an exotic file still open,

you think we're looking at two separate incidents then? Oh, it's got to be, Harry.

That radar blip was ten times the size a cargo chopper would cause.

And no pilot in his right mind is going to fly ten miles off course in a 20-knot

wind carrying a thousand-pound cargo on a sling to play tag with a skyscraper.

No, sir.

Our problem is that we assumed it was one object from the beginning.

I think it's time we talked to Mr. Webster again.

¶¶

It's gusting too hard. You better get him down.

Come on down, Harry! Too much wind!

I can't hear you, sir. Harry!

Very strange.

Polyvinyl chloride?

That would be my guess.

Look at this. A valve.

Tied with a square knot.

Maybe they got boy scouts on Mars.

I think we'll start looking a little closer to home. Anybody here?

Oh, sir, we're looking for the manager of Steiner Enterprises.

Airport?

Yes, sir, I'm Captain Ryan. This is Sergeant Fitz at Project Blue Book.

I'm Joe Steiner, owner.

Who would anybody else work this hard?

Mr. Steiner, you're a distributor for novelty items and stage props, is that right?

Yes.

What's this all about?

Do you handle this item, sir?

Yes.

Sir, is it possible that you might have sold a large quantity

of these balloons recently for aerial advertising display? Uh-oh.

Sir?

I sold a large number of these to Big Dan Donovan.

Yes.

What's his address, sir?

You're not from around here, are you, Sergeant? No, sir.

Big Dan Donovan is one of the largest used car dealers in Los Angeles.

And that means the world.

He's always got some gimmick for bringing in the people.

The latest one I dreamed up was to take a bunch of these big silver balloons...

Timed together with some silver tape,

forming a large floating automobile shape up over the lot.

It was a great idea for a silver anniversary.

It was too great an idea.

Dan had to have it yesterday.

By the time he picked for my staff to put it together, the wind just wouldn't quit.

If only he could have waited another day.

But he had to have it over the weekend. The wind began to kick up hard.

No time at all. The thing was a giant mess.

I guess you fellas found them, huh?

More like they found us.

I'd say you were lucky. Those balloons had collided

with an aircraft, especially a helicopter.

You don't have to worry, gentlemen.

Big Dan is staying on the ground from now on.

Yes, sir.

Well, I thought we'd cleared that up, but... Well, I'll check on it.

So the balloons lifted off the used car lot and drifted out over the city.

When they got above 2,500 feet, radar picked them up.

Now, radar responds only to surface area, not mass.

So several dozen metal-skinned balloons, many reflecting angles,

the return could produce almost the same target image as a large aircraft.

Now, when the wind brushed them up against the cable TV tower on the mountain,

One of the balloons got caught. The whole mass bobbled around up there,

interfering with transmission in a random pattern.

When it finally freed itself,

it blew all the way over against the side of this building,

which is when the Ryerson saw it.

Now...

Metal surface tape.

Long strands of this were blowing out from the top of the building at the same time.

They picked up the flashes of red light from the aircraft hazard beacons.

That light, reflected from the strips of tape, is what caused your beams of light.

And the whole incident was concealed from a city

of six million people by the fog that night.

You two gentlemen have certainly done your homework.

I'm convinced.

However, there still is one other matter.

Yes, sir.

If the UFO was a mass of balloons, why did the Ryerson's report say in a spacecraft?

Exactly, Sergeant.

Thank you.

Thanks.

I explained things to Keyes. Our appointment with the Ryersons is at 2?

Yes, sir, in about 40 minutes.

You know, Harry, something... something I noticed in their apartment...

for the life of me... Could somebody help me, please?

It's my wife. If she won't move, she won't say

anything to me. She's frozen. She's scared.

Get her away from the window. Well, I've tried.

I can't move her hands. Harry, cover her eyes.

Man, she sure got a hold of this thing.

There. Stop.

Let's let her sit down.

Honey, you OK?

What happened?

She'll be OK now.

Thank you all very much.

You're welcome.

Harry.

Mr. and Mrs. Ryerson, I believe we have some idea what happened on Saturday night.

But first, would you mind calling your daughter in here for a moment?

I'll get her.

No, no, excuse me, but could you just call her from here, please?

Sure.

Billy?

Billy, come here, honey.

Fingers still stiff, Mr. Harrison?

Now, I'd like to reconstruct the events of that evening.

We've established that the object you saw was a mass of silver

balloons released accidentally from an aerial display, an advertising display.

They got tangled in the TV antennas above,

and they bobbled down the outside of the building, just outside your window.

Now, your account of the sighting differs from the known facts in a number of ways,

such as the size of the balloons.

But the most important departure, of course, is the alien beings you saw.

We also believe you saw them.

But we think what you saw were hallucinations.

When your daughter asked, is it from outer space, Dad?

The seed was planted.

Your subconscious mind's filled in the details.

Hallucinations?

Captain, I don't like what you're implying,

that my whole family are a bunch of loonies.

Not at all, sir.

But I called an Air Force psychologist just before coming up here. He agrees.

What happened to you is perfectly natural.

What? What happened to us?

Acrophobia.

The fear of heights.

Now, you've only recently moved into the tower,

and it takes some people time to adjust to living at this altitude.

Have you noticed how Billy clings to the inner walls of the apartment?

The phobia is strongest near the windows.

You were standing near them to see the balloons,

and that triggered the hallucinations.

But is that possible? Possible.

Perfectly common and completely curable.

In fact, there are even veteran pilots who suffer acrophobia. Not from flying,

but from stationary heights.

Irritability.

Loss of appetite.

Both symptoms.

They vanish when you're at ground level.

Like when you had coffee with the sergeant and me.

And all this time I thought this new wealth was coming between us.

And I thought...

Hope we didn't offend you, Mr. Harrison.

No, Sergeant, you haven't offended us in the slightest.

And that makes sense.

We covered this up that night because it reminded

us of the terrible thing that we saw.

And if you're right...

This is that terrible thing that we saw.