Dive into the mysterious world of UFOs and extraterrestrial encounters! We're counting down the most fascinating, mind-bending, and thought-provoking alien documentaries that explore the possibility of life beyond our planet. From government conspiracies to incredible eyewitness accounts, these films will make you question everything you thought you knew about aliens!
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00:00If life can exist here, it could exist on any number of worlds in the universe.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most captivating documentaries
00:14and docuseries that cover the fascinating possibilities of visits from extraterrestrials.
00:20We were told not to talk about it, so we didn't. What we saw out there was definitely unidentifiable.
00:30Number 20. Aerial Phenomenon.
00:32I was not so frightened in the war zones of Angola or Rwanda as I was when this story hit.
00:40In 1994, roughly 60 schoolchildren in Zimbabwe claimed to have witnessed something that changed
00:46their lives. They talked about a visit from silver-flying saucers and otherworldly beings
00:51draped in black, all before the dismissal bell.
00:54I certainly believe the children were some extremely interesting pictures,
00:58and there's certainly some of the things they've told me they couldn't have known about. Impossible.
01:02Aerial Phenomenon is a captivating documentary that delves into the story of these students'
01:07incredible assertions. The film unearths the children's testimonies while examining the
01:12profound psychological and emotional impact on all of those involved. Directed with both
01:17skepticism and curiosity, Aerial Phenomenon raises compelling questions about extraterrestrial
01:23encounters and of the faith that the people put in their witnesses. With its masterful
01:28selection of interviews and individual stories, the documentary expertly emphasizes themes of
01:34memory, truth, and the shared human experience.
01:37If I had to describe that day, the first thing that I remember is the light and the sound is
01:41the main thing that just strikes me, and then the two shadows, but especially the sound and
01:48the light. The light because it was so bright, the sound because it scared me.
01:51Number 19. Westall 66, A Suburban UFO Mystery. When it comes to unexplained UFO sightings,
01:59this one had a lot of witnesses. In this case, the witnesses were a group of over 200 suburban
02:05high schoolers and their teacher who saw a UFO fly over their school in broad daylight.
02:11I just happened to be looking out the window, thinking how to fudge my science report.
02:16What I saw directly south was something that I'd never seen before.
02:21A few of the former students feature in this documentary about the experience,
02:25recounting their memories of the flying saucer purportedly descending near their school in 1966.
02:31Just gradually lifted, lifted up and then went off towards the pines.
02:35To further convince viewers of the odd encounter, the director attempts to retrieve news footage of
02:40the day, only to find that it has been mysteriously removed from the station's archive. Spooky!
02:47It still would take me to my grave. What the hell was that?
02:51Number 18. Bob Lazar, Area 51 and Flying Saucers.
02:56My name's Bob Lazar. I'm known for working at a classified base known as S4 out in the Nevada
03:04Desert near Area 51. And there, we reverse engineered alien spacecraft.
03:11Your mileage may vary with this one depending on how much stock you put into Bob Lazar and
03:15his famous story. For those of you who don't know, Bob Lazar is perhaps the most notorious
03:20alien conspiracy theorist in the world, as he claims to have both seen aliens and worked on
03:26alien spacecraft near Area 51. And even though his story has been tossed aside by both skeptics
03:32and ufologists, this doc about his claims that aired on Netflix gave him a monumental platform
03:39to spread his story. The big thing is the suppression
03:42of extremely advanced technology and the suppression of unknown science.
03:49For newcomers looking to explore one of the most popular extraterrestrial conspiracy theories ever,
03:55start here. And quite frankly, I could make up a better lie, but I have no motivation to lie.
04:01Number 17. Sean Ryder on UFOs. You may know Sean Ryder as the frontman for Happy Mondays,
04:08a rock dance indie group that was extremely popular in the UK in the late 80s and early 90s.
04:14What you may not know is that he claims to have personally encountered aliens.
04:18I saw a ball of light whizzing about in the night sky as I stood at a bus stop.
04:23I knew there and then I'd seen a UFO. His lifelong obsession with the idea of
04:27extraterrestrials led to a documentary where he interviewed people who have also claimed
04:32to have seen or been abducted by aliens. It's not really convincing if you don't believe in
04:37aliens in the first place, but regardless of your views on that, no one can deny that these stories
04:42are hella entertaining. What I saw, just moving side to side, zigzagging off.
04:50Number 16. Connected, the hidden science of everything. On its surface, this docu-series
04:56doesn't appear to have anything to do with UFOs. It covers a variety of topics, from poop to nukes,
05:02with scientists discussing how each subject connects us with our surrounding universe.
05:06Clouds reflect sunlight, so that has a strong cooling effect on the Earth's surface underneath.
05:11But if we're connected to the universe, wouldn't we also be connected to alien life?
05:15Shortly after the series' release, one viewer found what they believed to be a flying saucer
05:20in the episode Covering Clouds. It's difficult to make out the object as it races past a plane,
05:29but its similarity to UFO depictions in sci-fi films is uncanny. While some have complained
05:36about the series' overly enthusiastic host, we still think it's a worthwhile watch for
05:41those looking to feel closer to the world, or worlds, around them.
05:46Number 15. UFOs and nukes, the secret link revealed. Focusing on a series of declassified
05:53documents about unidentified flying objects seen at nuclear testing sites, UFOs and nukes isn't the
05:59flashiest documentary to delve into the potential existence of aliens, but it's thought-provoking
06:04nonetheless. It was instant go, instant stop. That object did things that no airplane, helicopter,
06:14or any other system that we had in existence could do. The film places a lot of importance
06:20on the credibility of its witnesses, all of whom held important roles at nuclear weapons
06:25facilities within the U.S. He called back about five minutes later. This time he was screaming
06:31into the phone saying they're looking at a red glowing object hovering just above our front gate.
06:39The former employees primarily described seeing typically shaped saucer UFOs, with solid red or
06:45orange coloring, and claimed that they tampered with their crucial high-risk work. And there's a
06:50beam of reddish light going down to it. I assume they were taking data with that beam. It wasn't
06:55destructive as far as I know. It had to be a data collection thing. I'm sure they scanned the warhead
07:00or something. Recreations of each witness's account help give viewers a better idea of what may have
07:05been seen, while documents detailing similar experiences in the Soviet Union serve to
07:11strengthen the link between UFOs and nuclear power. Number 14. Curse of the man who sees UFOs.
07:19Three weeks later, something else really interested out, related, so let's go check that out.
07:25That's not my car. Cristo Ropolo hasn't had an easy life. His father and fiance both died,
07:32his brother stole his money, and his mother disowned him when he tried to convince her to
07:37mitigate the situation with his sibling. After facing so many hardships, it's not hard to see
07:43why he would look to the stars for solace. So I make sounds from pictures of UFOs. So then what
07:48do you do with that? Then I put it into a song. And yet, the documentarian at the helm of Curse of
07:56the man who sees UFOs never suggests Ropolo's beliefs come from anything other than a genuine
08:02place. You can't see them in the daytime is because they're working and moving around in
08:07a spectrum of light. Oh, that was gorgeous. Though he admits to often playing the scully to Ropolo's
08:14moulder, he admits that the things he saw with him are genuinely strange and unexplainable. I
08:19found myself playing scully to his motor more often than not. But I don't deny that I saw some
08:24weird stuff, too. It's a doc that will leave you wondering if the truth really is out there in
08:30Monterey, California. We never found the origins of the screams, and this creeps me out. Something
08:36weird was going on, and I couldn't explain it. I walked away wondering if Cristo was just a
08:40magnet for the bizarre or if Monterey had a dark sci-fi secret below the surface.
08:45Number 13. The secret NASA transmissions, the smoking gun. History will surely go on to determine
08:52the truth, provided that is others within the scientific community are equally prepared to
08:58explore the limitless possibilities now before them. If you were looking for proof that
09:02extraterrestrials exist, you may as well go straight to NASA. And that's exactly what this
09:06documentary does. This one chronicles the history of astronauts sighting UFOs, but it also contains
09:13the titular and mind-bending smoking gun. That is, imagery taken from video cameras installed on
09:20space shuttle missions. The documentary takes the raw footage from those cameras and presents them
09:25to the viewer in a clear manner. Whereas lesser documentaries would scream, look, that's totally
09:31a UFO, this one allows you to analyze the footage and decide for yourself. Did NASA capture
09:37extraterrestrial life on camera? Maybe, maybe not. You'll just have to watch and find out.
09:43And then they continue as if nothing happened, as if nothing had happened, yet it's right on tape,
09:50audio, video, and you see the object they're referring to. Number 12. Mirage Men. Mirage Men is a
09:58different kind of UFO documentary, and it's all the more interesting for it. It follows the titular
10:04government agents, specifically retired special agent Richard Doty. Doty worked for the United
10:09States Air Force Office of Special Investigations and claims that he and his team helped perpetuate
10:16and spread UFO mythology. Would we use perception to help shroud what we're trying to protect?
10:24Absolutely. They did this by spreading misinformation and manipulating famous
10:29ufologists, all to draw the public attention away from clandestine Cold War technologies
10:35and experiments. If they're convinced that it's from Venus, then there's no way it could be our
10:39military. Well, hey, you know, that's, that's awesome. Hell yes. The government has always
10:43claimed that aliens do not exist. Regardless of whether or not that's true, they leave out an
10:49important part of the story. They're practically responsible for fostering the very idea that they
10:54do. Whatever is going on, it's happening at a government level. Everything that I do is being
10:59watched. Number 11. Alien autopsy. Fact or fiction? This is purportedly an alien. I question whether
11:07you would just spend two hours on it. One would surely spend weeks, months, if not years. In 1947,
11:16something happened in Roswell, New Mexico, but it likely wasn't this. Alien autopsy aired on Fox in
11:221995, purporting to be a documentary film about its title subject. Although it has since been
11:28debunked, with its filmmakers admitting to faking its content, the impact it had on viewers cannot
11:34be dismissed. It captured their imaginations and sparked heated debates across the country about
11:40its supposed legitimacy. You cannot fake a motion picture that easily. It would require an amount of
11:47technical know-how of sophistication that would make the operation not worthwhile. Due to the
11:52film's popularity, Fox quickly scheduled two reruns of alien autopsy to follow the initial airing,
11:58promising that the new broadcasts would add more footage for the public to dissect. Each one brought
12:04in more views than the last, and helped ignite a public interest in extraterrestrial life that has
12:10lasted into the present day. The organic quality of the legs and the feet, all that looks very good.
12:18Number 10. Unacknowledged. This got kicked up to the intelligence community. So by 1992, I was
12:26getting visits from the head of army intelligence, people inside the national security agency, and
12:31other three-lettered agency. Unacknowledged primarily concerns Stephen M. Greer, perhaps one
12:36of the most famous prominent ufologists in the world. Greer is the creator of both the Center for
12:41the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Disclosure Project. In the service of the latter,
12:47this doc contains a bunch of original purported UFO footage, and looks to expose high-level
12:52governmental operations meant to sustain UFO secrecy. At the time, in development. And the second
12:58item, B, flying saucers exist, period. C, their modus operandi is unknown, but concentrated effort is being
13:06made by a small group headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush. It presents historical events in a new
13:11light, and directly points a finger at many prominent and well-known government officials.
13:16As with many alien documentaries, it presents what it deems compelling evidence to suggest
13:21an official cover-up, and is recommended viewing for believers and skeptics alike. From professional
13:26debunkers to CIA-funded committees, our trusted academics and scientists have been complicit
13:35in the secrecy. Number nine, Hangar One, The UFO Files. Through the media, we are already sensitized
13:42to the possibility of alien life forms. This documentary concerns the archived files of MUFON.
13:49MUFON stands for the Mutual UFO Network, an organization consisting of thousands of members
13:55across dozens of countries who study alleged UFO sightings. So if you want to hear of the greatest
14:01and most credible UFO sightings of all time, look no further than Hangar One, The UFO Files. Sure,
14:08this all definitely might not transform skeptics into believers, as a lot of these stories are just
14:12as bizarre as you probably imagine. In the late 40s, the U.S. military recovered a spacecraft of
14:18unknown origin that utilized extraordinarily advanced technology for propulsion, communication,
14:25surveillance, and scientific inquiry. But they're told with utter conviction. The recreations are
14:30entertaining, and it's fascinating to get a glimpse into one of the biggest UFO-believing
14:35networks in the world. An alien-created microcircuitry artifact was delivered to Bell Labs.
14:41Number eight, Love and Saucers. Far too often, UFO documentaries can come across as exploitative of
14:48their subjects. There's a sense that the film is laughing at the people they are portraying,
14:53not with them. Thankfully, this is not the case with Love and Saucers. I don't ask anyone to
14:59believe a word I say in regard to whatever this is. The unconventional tale of romance focuses on
15:05a 72-year-old man who paints pictures of the encounters he claims to have had with aliens
15:10throughout his lifetime, including a female alien that he says is his lover. I see a woman
15:16sitting under a tree, and she gets up and she starts coming toward me. In spite of his unorthodox
15:23beliefs, he appears to be warmly received, not only by the film's documentarian, but by his son
15:29and surrounding neighbors. I admire him that he believes in certain things, and nobody has to
15:36judge nobody else. It's a refreshingly kind-hearted view into a wonderfully weird world that we can
15:43only hope exists in this reality. I knew they were going to come back. I cleaned up the house,
15:50washed the dishes, had to be spick and span. Number seven, The Unexplained. Is it possible
15:57that extraterrestrial spacecraft are repeatedly visiting our planet at so-called UFO hotspots?
16:04The Unexplained covers a variety of bizarre and mystifying topics, from the existence of Mothman
16:10to horrifying deadly cults, but the episodes most relevant to its host's sci-fi background
16:16are those focused on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Those lights that people
16:20saw over the city, that was actually flares that we dropped. The first of these episodes is a fairly
16:26basic primer on conspiracies of government cover-ups, titled The Truth About UFOs. However,
16:32Shatner takes a more in-depth look at the phenomenon in the show's fifth season, in an
16:37episode covering UFO hotspots. Extraterrestrial experts are interviewed about the infamous
16:42Skinwalker Ranch, Phoenix, Arizona, and several other key locations known for their repeat visits
16:48from beyond the stars. Can you replay that? Yeah. Hold on, what did it disappear into? We'll go back
16:53and replay this. Is it a portal? Are we seeing portals open? Number six, The Day Before Disclosure.
17:01Five minutes later, this happens, and the object appears in front of them at a distance of about
17:08400 meters. There's nothing particularly original about The Day Before Disclosure.
17:13It's just a very well-told and impeccably produced documentary that presents some tantalizing
17:19evidence for viewers to chew on. The film clearly shows the outline and the structure of the object,
17:24and also what seems to be the silhouette of two beings inside. It contains a lot of traditional
17:29information, including stories of implants, alien abductions, and interviews with respectable people
17:35like scholars and astronauts. Of course, much like Sean Ryder on UFOs, your enjoyment of this
17:41documentary hinges entirely on whether you believe these people's stories. There's little evidence to
17:47speak of, and skeptics will pounce on the outsized tales. But when the stories are this entertaining,
17:52and when a documentary is this well-made, it's worthy of note. They look sort of like half-human,
17:58half-alien. Sometimes they look more human, actually. Number five, UFOs Past, Present, and Future.
18:06They were forced to come up with an answer to really quiet growing speculation that Mantell
18:11had been killed by hostile aliens and some flying saucer. There's something profoundly unsettling
18:17watching an older alien documentary from the 70s. There's just something creepy about old, grainy,
18:22color-washed footage. As for the nature of this doc's content, it consists of the typical talking
18:28heads and barely discernible UFO footage, and it touches on a lot of popular American UFO stories,
18:33like the Betty and Barney Hill incident. It seems a retired rear admiral had information about a
18:39woman in Upper Maine that purported to have established contact with extraterrestrial beings.
18:45Two naval intelligence officers were sent to investigate. But perhaps the greatest thing about
18:51it is that two of its hosts are Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling and none other than Rocky's
18:57Burgess Meredith. The star power, stories, and interviews all make this documentary well worth
19:02watching. We came back to the room. We were put back in the car the same way as we were taken out.
19:08Number 4. The Search for Life. The Drake Equation. And I don't know about you, but when I look up,
19:14I can't help but wonder what or who else might be out there. This is a fantastic documentary that
19:20stands out from the pack in a number of intriguing ways. For one thing, it treats the possibility of
19:26alien civilizations in a scientific matter, not so much as grey, massive-headed beings that abduct
19:32and probe you. It explores the famed Drake Equation, a probabilistic argument that was
19:36concocted by astrophysicist Frank Drake in 1961. I've been intrigued that a simple scientific
19:43formula could tell us so much about the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Following a
19:49complicated mathematical equation that the vast majority of laypeople really don't understand,
19:54Drake concluded that there could be anywhere between a thousand and a hundred million
19:59extraterrestrial civilizations in our Milky Way alone. This documentary explores said equation
20:05and its conjectures, offering some quite intriguing theories regarding the existence of alien life.
20:11She's convinced that anything that can survive this intense arsenic bath would have to be
20:16structurally different, would have unique DNA fundamentally separate from life as we know it.
20:22Number 3. A Strange Harvest. Structured like an investigative news report, A Strange Harvest took
20:29a serious look at the serial disfigurement of cows that had plagued ranches since the 1950s.
20:34From everywhere I go they tell me that it's predators, which I do not believe.
20:40Why do you feel differently? Because I don't feel a predator can do these things. While one might
20:44initially assume the perpetrators were predator animals, the witnesses interviewed in this
20:49documentary suggest that the criminal is actually of extraterrestrial origin. The incisions a lot
20:56of times looks like some type of burn or laser. Alternate theories, such as the idea that a
21:01military aircraft could have been tampering with the animals, are tested but ultimately thrown out.
21:06The film even features a therapy session with an alleged UFO abductee who describes seeing the cows
21:13subjected to testing firsthand. In spite of the documentary's journalistic approach, its ideas are
21:18presented with tense and unnerving score. I was horrified at the thought of what could do this
21:24in broad daylight. Number 2. Out of the Blue. Whether you believe that there is life on other
21:30planets or not, unidentified flying objects themselves are undeniably real. Sometimes there
21:35are things flying or floating in the sky that we just can't explain. They're unidentified. We were
21:41told not to talk about it so we didn't. What we saw out there was definitely unidentifiable.
21:50The true debate is whether these objects are manned by alien pilots, and it's a debate that
21:55Out of the Blue confronts head-on. Speaking with scientists, former government employees,
22:01and everyday eyewitnesses, this comprehensive documentary attempts to paint a fuller picture
22:06of UFO sightings around the world as a means of convincing viewers of the existence of
22:10extraterrestrials. Enormous, inexplicable, probably one of the major sightings in modern
22:18history in the country because a lot of people saw it in Maricopa County and I saw it too.
22:22And we never got to the bottom of it. We never found out what, you know, what they were. If
22:27you're looking for some alarmingly convincing evidence but don't have time for a full series,
22:32this is likely the doc for you. Smith was informed that flying saucers exist, and more significantly,
22:39the matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States government,
22:43rating higher even than the H-bomb. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
22:48and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified
22:53for occasional videos or all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings
22:58and switch on your notifications. Number one, alien worlds. If aliens exist,
23:06what would they look like? Alien Worlds rejects the popular idea of little green and grey men,
23:11and instead offers science-based looks at what kinds of creatures may actually be able to survive
23:17on other planets. All living things have the same needs to feed, reproduce, and evolve.
23:38Segments play out like nature documentaries from another world, describing how each of the
23:43invented extraterrestrials might be able to survive in spite of their harsh surroundings.
23:56Far from a solely CGI-based science fiction, the show also makes sure to provide context for each
24:02of the ecosystems it constructs, often using hostile environments on our own Earth as jumping
24:07off points. It's refreshingly creative and the perfect blend of sci-fi and reality for UFO
24:20enthusiasts and animal lovers alike. Did these stories convince you that we've been visited
24:25by extraterrestrials? Let us know in the comments. I'd like to know what we've seen and
24:31then find out what it wanted. Why us? Why us kids?
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