The Surprise Film

Conventional wisdom within the ufology community says that the US military and government know all about UFOs and are keeping what they know secret. This may indeed be true but historically the behavior of military and government personnel has been highly inconsistent. There are many documented cases of officials trying to cover up cases and silence witnesses. There are also cases where no attempt to keep anyone quiet was made by any agency. Then there is The Surprise Film (my term) which, in a coverup protocol, makes no sense at all.

The Surprise Film works like this: a group of military personnel is directed to enter a room at a military facility. In the room they are shown a film that quite clearly shows aliens, alien vehicles or both. The clarity of the film is striking. Those who have talked about the films are absolutely convinced of the reality of UFOs. Then the audience is asked to leave. There is no introduction to the film. They are given no instructions or explanations before, during or after the film. They are not asked to be quiet about the film or to agree to any kind of secrecy.

My first encounter with the story of The Surprise Film was when I was a teenager. My father had just returned from training duty with the Navy. His career with the US Navy and The Naval Reserve spanned forty years. As a reservist he spent two weeks every year on active duty. Most often this was aboard ship but on that year he was assigned to The Pentagon. Like the incident described above, he and other officers of similar rank were directed to enter a room and sit down. They were shown a film and afterward told to leave. They were told nothing before, during, or after the film. Before the film my father did not believe in flying saucers. Afterward he did.

A similar occurrence is discussed in the latest issue of The MUFON UFO Journal, January, 2014 No. 549. Access has recently been obtained by MUFON to the research of the late Leonard Stringfield who was interested in UFO crashes and subsequent retrieval of the downed objects. He had received a report from a retired Air Force Colonel who was shown a film during a regularly scheduled briefing, possibly in 1956. The film showed a circular, silver-colored disk on the ground. The interior of the apparent craft was shown as well as at least three short bodies. He stated that no details were given before, during, or after the film. He did say that things discussed during briefings were considered military business and not to be discussed.

I have learned that others have been shown films like this. Most often these are reported to be interceptor gun camera footage of UFOs in flight.

If the Air Force or Army wants to cover up UFOs, why show anyone this kind of film? It's completely counter-intuitive.

Two hypotheses come to mind: 1. a psychological experiment 2. a security test.

The psychological experiment hypothesis is reminiscent of the wild experiments run by the CIA. During the fifties and sixties, for example, the CIA exposed unwitting Americans to LSD to see how they would react. Exposing Americans to apparently conclusive evidence that UFOs are real and that we are not alone in the universe may seem tame by comparison but it's important to remember that, for most people, this revelation would be a life changing event. It would completely reorient how they perceived themselves in the universe.

The experiment would involve first showing the subjects the film and then observing them to see their reactions. It's not unreasonable to suppose they might have been under surveillance for years. The data gathered from such an experiment might be useful in determining when, how, and perhaps if, the American public should be informed about existence of UFOs.

The security test hypothesis is much simpler. Show military people a film in a military environment, then watch them to see who talks. During World War Two, the FBI often tried to coax personnel attached to atomic bomb related projects to talk about their work. Those who did were often reassigned. An experiment like this might suggest who can be trusted with higher security clearances.

Neither of these hypotheses require that the films be genuine. They could be Hollywood type special effect productions. In fact, neither hypothesis requires that the experimenters themselves believe in UFOs. What makes me believe that they possibly were genuine however is the reaction of those who saw these films. They were struck with their clarity. After watching them any doubt vanished. They believed UFOs were real.

I am an enthusiastic fan of science fiction. I've seen every science fiction film I could and enjoyed them thoroughly. Even as a child, however, I could easily pick out which things in the movie was real and which were model or photographic special effects. I could spot the matte lines, recognize rear screen projection, and tell when stop motion animation was used. I'm sure most other people could spot these things as well. If they didn't recognize how a scene was done then at least they were aware that it was some kind of trick. It wasn't until the Nineties that special effects became so advanced that the line between the real and the imagined became difficult for the average viewer to distinguish. Yet no one who has seen The Surprise Film has come forward and said they were shown a Hollywood fake. Rather they believe that what they were shown was undeniably real.