Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

🛸🛸Retrofit UFO Drive In👽👽

Jun 26, 2021

“Since Biblical times, man has witnessed and recorded strange manifestations in the sky. And speculated on the possibilities of visitors from another world.” --Opening lines, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

In a report released just yesterday, June 25, 2021, by the DIrector of National Intelligence entitled “Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” we now know that the intelligence community has explanations for exactly one of the 144 UFO reports recorded between 2004 and 2021. In eleven of those incidents, pilots reported “near-miss” collisions.

The last time we had so many unidentified flying objects reported also came after a global calamity, that being World War II. We were told all sorts of things, even that an actual alien had crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, on June 26, 1947. Over 800 sightings followed and theorists were convinced of a massive government cover-up.

Even a 1994 government report from the US Air Force that the object was a nuclear surveillance balloon test called Project Mogul could not contain the speculation. In 1997, the report was updated to clarify that alien bodies had not fallen from the sky. They were merely crash test dummies.

Right.

Then there is the Nevada Test and Training Range, better known as Area 51, a super secret conspiracy-laden government installation 83 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Exactly what has gone on here has been mythologized over the decades. It is so big it has its own zip code (89001). It is a desert area about the size of Connecticut. A lot of UFOs could be parked there.

Area 51, courtesy of Annie Jacobson, Vox

The government didn’t even acknowledge its existance until a Freedom of Information Act query from 2005 forced their hand in 2013. Protesters demanding full disclosure took to Facebook in 2019 and got two million hits. They planned an event, “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” set for Sept 20, 2019. Between 1,500 and 3,000 assembled nearby and attended a couple of music festivals while a group of 150 journeyed to Area 51 proper. Seven were eventually arrested.

But enough of what has happened, or not happened. It is entirely possible that all over America, people like Richard Dreyfuss have made mountains out of mashed potatoes, trying to figure out what message the visitors bring. Two weeks ago, Retrofit even examined what might happen if UFOs reanimated the dead in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).

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News of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers becomes a global reality

This edition of the Retrofit UFO Drive In reaches even further into the past to piece together what might have transpired before some of us got here. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) has been colorized for modern viewing. It ultimately answers the question of what happens if aliens try to take over Washington D.C.

“Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol. If you didn't know the TV footage was from Jan. 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.” —Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Georgia

Also on tap, one of the first B-Movies about UFOs (aka BUFO), The Flying Saucers (1950) which you can fast forward through and get what’s going on in about a minute and a half.

As we get to Chapter 3 of the Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), realize it could be cut short because of a “Time Bomb.”

Gary Owens made his TV debut on Sept 11, 1965. There are 156 episodes, only one on UFOs.

The UFO theme continues with a great Roger Ramjet cartoon, as well as some newsreels from the first retro round of sightings. Finally, for those who need to find out more about what is happening with UFOs in 2021, the CNN link to the full report that was released yesterday.