Original subtitles

[narrator] It's one of the greatest alien abduction stories of all time.

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

In 1975, six men in northeast Arizona

witnessed their crew mate kidnapped by a UFO.

I hollered out, "They got him!"

[narrator] But was Travis Walton

really taken by aliens or did his crewmates

have something to do with his disappearance?

[John] The sheriff kept telling me,

"If you just tell us where the body is?

"If you just tell us where the body is?

We can all go home."

[reporter 1] The six men who reportedly eye witnessed the incident

have taken lie detector tests.

[narrator] The story became an international sensation,

inspiring books, and a Hollywood movie,

and it ripped apart a small town.

This doesn't sound like a true tale to me.

[narrator] What happened to Travis Walton

that fateful night?

What torture was he subjected to?

Forty five years later, shocking new evidence

Forty five years later, shocking new evidence

reveals the true story behind...

Fire in the Sky,

the abduction of Travis Walton.

[dramatic music playing]

[man 1] A.P.R.O.

The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization

in Tucson, Arizona.

They were seeing several hundred reports of UFO

sightings each year from all over the world.

But one of the most bizarre reports came recently

from A.P.R.O.'s own backyard,

the town of Snowflake, Arizona.

[chainsaw buzzing]

[narrator] The story begins on an ordinary day.

[narrator] The story begins on an ordinary day.

A seven men logging crew packs up after hours

of hard work in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

[John] It was a typical day of working hard out there.

We worked up until the sun started going down.

And by the time we got all loaded up

and ready to go, it was getting fairly dark.

[narrator] The tight-knit crew begins

the rough 30-mile drive back home to Snowflake, Arizona.

Foreman Mike Rogers is behind the wheel

when the men noticed something strange.

We hadn't gone very far.

I mean, maybe a quarter of a mile.

The guys started seeing a light through the trees.

[Steve] There was a bright light

[Steve] There was a bright light

over to the right of us and we couldn't really tell what it was.

[John] I first thought it was the Moon.

I turned, I looked over the other way

and there's the Moon, you know?

[narrator] Could it be a hunter's campfire?

An airplane crash?

The answer is even more terrifying.

Right when you come around that bend

it just hits you all at once.

It was just like a saucer

just sat in the air, not moving.

It was, uh, softly glowing.

Like from the inside out.

[narrator] Twenty-two-year-old Travis Walton

in the passenger seat startles everyone.

Before Mike even stopped,

Travis had, had the door open and was getting out.

[Mike] Travis took off in a fairly brisk walk up towards it.

[Mike] Travis took off in a fairly brisk walk up towards it.

And he stood there for just a few seconds

and this thing started making noise.

[eerie sound]

It was shocking, very shocking.

I heard this noise, I go, "Oh, crap."

I felt this rumble, you know, in the steering wheel.

That spooked me.

[indistinct shouting]

We were yelling, "Come on, get back in here!"

Travis, come back!

[John] We were all terrified.

[John] We were all terrified.

And all of the sudden, this bluish light came out.

The woods lit up like a bluish green.

It zapped him in the chest.

He flies back about 15 feet at least.

His body bounces off the ground.

Mike turns on the pickup and takes off.

[Mike] There was blind panic.

White knuckles.

We went down the road about a quarter of a mile...

...then I hit the brakes.

[tires screeching]

[indistinct chatter]

The guys in the truck were saying,

"What are you stopping for?

That thing could be chasing us," you know?

And I said, "We left Travis back there.

So, we have to go back."

That's when I became hysterical, basically.

Go back, right now.

Go back, right now.

You don't know what it was.

We have to go back and get him.

While we were outside of the truck we saw a flash.

Now, I assumed it was that craft.

Just in a straight, just... Like that.

[Steve] Everybody got their courage back

till we saw it take off.

[John] Couldn't leave Travis out there.

You just don't leave a guy behind.

[Mike] We went back...

...very slow.

Buddy!

Travis!

[John] We walked around the perimeter

looking in the bushes and that, you know,

to see if he had crawled off.

-Travis. -Travis!

Travis!

Travis!

[John] But he was nowhere to be found.

That's when Mike, he kinda fell down

That's when Mike, he kinda fell down

to the ground and kinda lost it.

I broke down.

I broke down because Travis wasn't there.

He was my best friend.

[narrator] Guilt-ridden, terrified

and in way over their heads,

and in way over their heads,

the crew members decide to call law enforcement for help.

[Mike] We all got back in the truck, and we left.

And that was a very, very emotional trip.

All right, there's telephone.

[Steve] There's this phone at the sub station

as we get coming off the dirt road.

We called the sheriff's apartment.

We called the sheriff's apartment.

[narrator] The first officer arriving on scene

is Navajo County sheriff's deputy, Chuck Ellison.

[Chuck Ellison] They were obviously very upset.

And I tried to get just as close to each one of them

as I could to see if I could detect odors

of marihuana, alcohol...

I didn't detect any.

[narrator] Sensing something amiss,

Ellison talks to each member of the crew.

Ellison talks to each member of the crew.

Starting with foreman Mike Rogers.

[John] Mike, he was the boss, you know?

He called the shots and how things go,

where you're gonna go, you know, and all that.

[narrator] The missing man, Travis Walton,

dated Mike's sister, Dana.

Also in the crew is Mike's brother-in-law John Goulette.

John's the kind of person who gets along with everybody.

[John] I've known Travis for a long, long time.

I met him when he was a teenager

when I came up there to stay with Katie and Mike.

[narrator] Goulette brought two other friends onto the crew.

Dwayne Smith and Allen Dalis.

Allen Dalis was a... Mike said, "the black sheep."

here on the crew.

[John] He was a character. He was...

You know, he had his run ins

with the law and that, you know.

[narrator] Rounding up the crew are 26-year-old

Kenny Peterson and 17-year-old's Steve Pierce.

I was the gofer, you know?

'Cause I was the youngest.

[narrator] When the frightened crew members tell Deputy Ellison

that Travis was attacked by a UFO,

Ellison calls in his superior,

Sheriff Marlin Gillespie.

[Shelley Moore] Marlin Gillespie was my father.

He was the sheriff of Navajo County for many years.

He was the sheriff of Navajo County for many years.

At the time that the incident occurred

they called my father out

to involve him and other deputies.

[Steve] Sheriff Gillespie showed up

and we told him what happened,

and he was looking around for beer bottles and stuff,

'cause he didn't really believe our story.

[Shelley] He thought that these men saw something.

That part he believed because he said they were scared,

but he wasn't sure were they scared

because of what they had done

because of what they had done

or were they really scared because what they believed

that Travis had been taken by a UFO?

[Steve] He looked at Mike, he says,

"You gotta go back and I want two volunteers

to come back with me.

The other three, I want you to go back to Snowflake

and don't leave town."

[narrator] Mike Rogers, Allen Dalis

and Kenny Peterson lead the sheriff

and his deputies to the site.

There's no trace of Travis.

Or the alleged craft.

I could not see a skid mark of any kind, like,

as if some kind of aircraft that touched on the ground.

I could not see a footprint of any kind.

I couldn't detect any odors.

I didn't see any burns,

and I said, "Well, we may as well leave because he's not here."

[narrator] Without industrial lightning equipment

[narrator] Without industrial lightning equipment

or a huge force of officers,

the small-town sheriff's hands are tied.

He'll have to wait until morning to launch a search party

to find out if Travis Walton is injured,

dead or is it possible

that he was abducted by aliens?

[instrumental music playing]

[narrator] Twenty-two-year-old Travis Walton is missing.

Travis' older brother, Don, recalls the night

that changed his family's life forever.

[Don] Mother came over to my home about three o'clock in the morning.

Mama's pretty hysterical when she got there.

She kept repeating, "They got him. They got him."

I didn't know what to think.

[narrator] Across town, the other crewmen's families

anxiously await the arrival of their loved ones.

[Angie] I was at Mike's house because

Mike's then wife, Katie, and I were putting on a quilt.

We were gonna make this big ole quilt for a wedding,

and Mike didn't come home when he normally does.

Once it's dark you can't saw trees out in the woods.

We were starting to get kind of worried about him.

We were starting to get kind of worried about him.

Katie's younger brother worked with Mike, too.

John Goulette,

so she was worried about him as well.

[narrator] But when Mike finally does make it home,

his family's worries only intensify.

They started telling us what was going on...

[dramatic music playing]

That's when we found out that it was Travis

That's when we found out that it was Travis

that was missing, and my brother Mike

looked like he had aged 20-30 years just in that day.

Mike felt this big, huge weight on his shoulders.

He felt responsible for Travis.

[narrator] Mike and Angie's little sister, Dana,

who dated Travis at the time, can't believe what she hears.

Was her boyfriend attacked by an alien ship?

They just told me what happened.

I think they said "UFO."

And I was, you know, kind of shocked about what happened.

Like, it was hard to believe.

But it was really scary,

I was really worried about Travis,

but I could tell those guys were telling the truth.

They seemed very traumatized.

It scares the hell out of you

because your reality just becomes so different.

[dramatic music playing]

[serene music playing]

[narrator] As rays of early morning sunlight

stretch across Navajo County, Arizona,

the sleepy town of Snowflake

awakens to an unearthly, unsolved mystery.

When we got up the next morning, you know,

my mother had let us know that my father was investigating

my mother had let us know that my father was investigating

something that had happened

out in the woods and that somebody had been abducted

by a UFO.

[narrator] News of Travis Walton's UFO abduction

spreads like wildfire.

I've always thought there could be UFO,

but, uh... That story's kinda farfetched.

We've seen 'em.

-You've seen 'em? -Yeah.

This doesn't sound like a true tale to me.

[Tammy Mills] My father was the deputy sheriff in Navajo County.

I remember my father coming home

and talking about it and he was rolling his eyes,

and talking about it and he was rolling his eyes,

like... Hmm.

[Shelley] There was a lot of skepticism.

Most people were having a hard time believing it.

[John] It's a very religious community.

The elders of the church and that,

they were telling people, "Hey, you know,

this ain't true. You all don't believe it."

[Mike] My wife didn't know whether to believe it

or not, you know?

She was skeptical, you know?

[narrator] As the town of Snowflake debates

the existence of aliens and UFOs,

the rest of the world

focusses their attention on human space flight.

[man 2 over radio] Moving out. Clear the tower.

[man 3 over radio] Roger. Tower clear.

[narrator] Just seven years earlier, Apollo 11 first landed humans

on the Moon, and just a few months earlier,

in July of 1975,

the decade's long space race between the United States

the decade's long space race between the United States

and the Soviet Union

officially came to a peaceful end.

Proving that space exploration could overcome

such earth-bound conflicts as politics and nationalism.

Yet as mankind casts its hopeful eyes

to the sky, other mysteries from deepest space emerge.

to the sky, other mysteries from deepest space emerge.

Reports of UFO sightings and alien abductions

were on the rise in the mid-1970s.

1975 in particular was a, uh, an active year for UFOs.

Across the country there were sightings,

and we call this a flap.

It's a period of activity researchers,

uh, look for patterns as to why this particular location,

why this time?

[narrator] The state of Arizona routinely ranks

among the top areas in the world

for UFO-related events.

[Ben Hansen] If you go back to the summer of '47

there's newspaper articles of a craft

similar to what was described in Roswell

that happened only weeks or months before.

Then you have 1952, the Marana Air Force Base.

A silvery disk was reported hovering

over the air force base and when they scrambled jets

to try and get to it, it disappeared.

to try and get to it, it disappeared.

[Bryce Zabel] The American Southwest is home

to all kinds of military installations.

It's where we created the first nuclear bombs.

[explosion]

It's where Roswell happened.

Why does all this happen with UFOs?

Because it's so important to the United States government

and to our military projection of power,

and so it would make sense that if another intelligence

and so it would make sense that if another intelligence

was here to find out what makes humans tick,

they might start there.

[narrator] Is there something in the Southwest territory

that attracts extra-planetary explorers?

Authorities in Snowflake don't believe claims

that Travis Walton was abducted by aliens.

But with the loggers whereabout unaccounted for,

law enforcements launches a massive manhunt.

law enforcements launches a massive manhunt.

[Shelley] The sheriff's department went up

on the rim to the Turkey Springs area

where this incident supposedly occurred.

They had the sheriff's posse out looking for him.

[Angie] They had helicopters and they had dogs.

There's people just walking.

They had all kinds of stuff looking for him

and they just looked and looked and looked.

[narrator] Travis' older brother Don,

a forest service employee, joins the search party.

a forest service employee, joins the search party.

It was a madhouse out there.

There's probably 150-200 people

out searching for Travis.

[narrator] The longer they look,

the more law enforcement and Travis' family

become suspicious of foul play.

[Tammy] They were thinking the crew got

in some kind of a skirmish and maybe killed Travis.

in some kind of a skirmish and maybe killed Travis.

[Angie] Travis' family was all looking at Mike,

like, "Okay, Mike, where's our Travis?"

[Don] I thought maybe a bad accident

had happened where the chainsaw may hit his body.

[John] I did the first day, I went out there with them.

They kinda split us up and had us go in different routes.

And each group had a deputy sheriff.

He kept telling me, you know, "If you just tell us

where the body is, we can all go home."

where the body is, we can all go home."

[narrator] Although they reported Travis

was captured by a UFO,

the crew now realize they're suspected of murder.

[Chuck] As we started going through these brush piles,

I wanna know if there's anything

in those brush piles that might resemble a body.

Couldn't figure out what would happen to him, where he went, you know?

We were all confused, we couldn't figure out

why we couldn't find a body.

why we couldn't find a body.

[narrator] Travis Walton may have disappeared

without a trace,

but there is evidence

that something very strange happened in those woods.

[Don] Region headquarters in Albuquerque,

they sent a man over at the request

of the sheriff's department to bring a Geiger counter.

Today I am the only living person

who saw the readings on that Geiger counter.

[narrator] Don claims he witnessed the Geiger counter needles spike.

Indicating a high level of radiation

at the alleged UFO site.

[Don] It was off scale.

You could see the difference in the...

What the needle was showing.

It would drop off after, at 100 yards.

That scared me. That kind of radiation.

[Geiger counter crackling]

[narrator] Could high levels of localize radiation

be evidence of an alien craft?

[instrumental music playing]

[reporter 2] Wood cutters said they were riding

in this truck along an isolated mountain road

when suddenly a spaceship hovered over them.

This is what the spaceship looked like according

to one of the men who drew this picture.

Another of the men, 22-year-old Travis Walton

reportedly got out of the truck

and approached the spaceship.

and approached the spaceship.

[narrator] As law enforcement and volunteers scour

the Sitgreaves National Forest for a second day,

the search for Travis Walton and the sensational claim

of his UFO abduction makes headlines around the world.

Media outlets descend upon Walton's hometown

of Snowflake, Arizona.

Our town had never really had any reporters at all,

and then all of the sudden there's like people

and then all of the sudden there's like people

from all over the world, all different countries.

[Angie] It was just the strangest thing

that the word got out that fast.

I think there was even some reporters from Japan.

[reporters clamoring]

[narrator] The media hounds everyone involved in the case.

Including Sheriff Marlin Gillespie.

I just remember the phones were ringing off the hook.

[phone ringing]

No one had pagers, no one had cellphones

and my father couldn't take the phone

and my father couldn't take the phone

off the hook because he depended on that.

They needed to get ahold of them for work.

[narrator] But reporters aren't the only curious visitors

to suddenly appear in Snowflake.

Mysterious out of towners cramp up

amongst the search parties.

You always tell, back then, a government car

because it was just a ugly color.

And the rims always matched the color of the car.

There'd be two guys sitting in there.

There'd be two guys sitting in there.

Suits and sunglasses just watching you.

[Ben] Most people know the Men in Black from pop culture

but there have been historically

verified incidents

where unidentified government agents

follow up on cases like this.

[John] I take off to go somewhere

and by the time I got to where I was gonna go

they were already sitting there waiting.

You know? I don't know how they knew where I was going.

[Bryce] People have suspected over the years

that among that crowd of people that included journalists

that among that crowd of people that included journalists

and UFO observers were people from the United States government

who wanted to know more about this case.

And why would they wanna know more about it?

Because they knew UFOs were real whether they admitted it

to the public or not, but, uh, they thought

that the Travis Walton case was a pretty good case.

[intense music playing]

[narrator] Travis has now been missing for three days.

His loved ones face an agonizing lack of answers.

[Dana] I think everybody got more and more worried.

Everybody was more tense and scared

the longer the time went by.

[narrator] With every passing hour the crew

feels the crushing pressure of suspicion.

feels the crushing pressure of suspicion.

[Steve] I wasn't going out.

I was hiding at a girlfriend's house

and staying away from everybody.

I'd say four out of five people thought, you know,

it was either a hoax or, or was a murder or something.

[narrator] Even without a body,

the sheriff's department investigates the case

as a homicide.

It doesn't take long to zero in on a suspect.

Crew member Allen Dalis.

[Steve] The cops, they found out

about a fight that Travis and Allen Dalis was in.

He'd fight anybody, and he could get pretty ornery.

He didn't like Mike and Travis.

[Don] I was pretty confident in my head at that time

that Allen had something to do with this.

I accused him of killing Travis.

[narrator] Authorities turn up the heat

on the remaining crew members.

on the remaining crew members.

[Tammy] I remember my dad saying

that Marlin Gillespie was questioning the boys down

saying, "Just admit, you killed him.

Just admit it."

[Steve] Flake pulls up and he says,

"We know you didn't do the killing,

but we know for sure that Allen Dalis killed Travis

or Jon Goulette killed him."

[John] Once I figured out what they were doing and what they thought,

you know, I pretty much stayed away from the cops, you know.

[narrator] The sheriff's department

asks Mike Rogers and the other crewmen

asks Mike Rogers and the other crewmen

to submit to a polygraph examination.

Rogers jumps at the chance to clear their names.

We told him, you know, "We'll take polygraph test.

We'll... We'll take sodium pentothal, hypnosis,

anything you can give us because this thing really happened

and we don't like this thing about you accusing us of murder."

[narrator] The men are summoned

to take polygraph tests at the Navajo County

courthouse in nearby Holbrook.

It was scary, really scary

to go into that courthouse.

The courthouse and the jail was the same building.

[Steve] I was more scared the day of the polygraph test

than I was when I saw Travis getting zapped.

[John] I didn't know who was gonna give us this test.

I was thinking, "You know, they could be setting us up.

No matter what, we're probably gonna fail this

No matter what, we're probably gonna fail this

and we'll probably gonna go to jail."

When we went in there we figured we weren't coming out.

This polygraph test went on all day long.

Up until the evening.

Because the test take about two hours a piece.

[narrator] As part of the test, the polygrapher asks

each crewmen the same series of questions three times.

The first three questions regard

The first three questions regard

the alleged murder of Travis Walton.

The subject of the final question

is the UFO.

[Mike] Once the test got underway

he started changing his mind really quickly.

By the time he had tested all of us,

he seemed to be a believer.

[narrator] Five of the six men passed

the lie detector test outright.

Only Allen Dalis' test comes back as inconclusive.

Allen actually passed the first two run throughs of this test.

Allen actually passed the first two run throughs of this test.

It was inconclusive because he pulled himself lose

from a scene in the last run through.

[narrator] The results of the polygraph

stunned everyone in the town of Snowflake.

Perhaps none more so than the polygrapher himself.

I talked to him after the test,

and he indicated to me that... That apparently he was wrong.

Unofficially he said that he believed

Unofficially he said that he believed

that we had told the truth.

[narrator] For five excruciating days,

Travis Walton has been missing.

The skeptical sheriff's department

is back to square one.

If Travis Walton hasn't been murdered

and no one can find his body in the woods,

where could he be?

[suspenseful music playing]

Late that night, the phone rings at Travis' sister's home.

[telephone ringing]

His brother-in-law, Grant, answers.

[Grant] I had come home from work.

Phone rang

and it was a voice on the other side saying,

"This is Travis.

Come and get me."

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] Travis Walton has been missing for five days.

When Travis' brother-in-law, Grant, answers a late-night

phone call, he assumes it's a prank.

[Grant] And I said, "Yeah, right."

I get ready to hang up he said,

"No, no, no, no, please don't hang up."

And, so then I started listening

And, so then I started listening

and then the conversation ended.

I got my wife out of bed, we went to her mother's place.

His brother Duane was there visiting.

We got in the truck, drove to Heber

where he described where he was.

I must've passed out 'cause it seemed like almost

immediately they were, um... Headlights of the truck

were shining into the phone booth

and my brother came over there and lifted me up.

And I was just hysterical.

He sort of lifted me into the truck

and I was just breaking down, just disintegrating.

[narrator] In this rare archival interview

Travis recalls the events leading up to the phone call.

[narrator] Wandering the road for what feels

like hours, Travis recognizes

the lights of Heber, Arizona, in the distance.

[Travis] I ran down into the town

and called my family.

"Come and get me."

[narrator] On the way back to Snowflake,

Travis struggles to piece together his experience.

[Travis] One of the biggest shocks I had to deal with

when I was returned was finding out

that this brief period of time

that this brief period of time

had somehow taken over five days.

My brother, he asked me to feel my face

and I had a, had a... You know, weeks growth.

I was... It really took my mind just to reel at that

because as far as I knew it was the same night.

I was trying to describe what I'd experienced,

but I was just making it worst.

And he finally said, "Don't try to talk right now."

He talked about how scared the family had been.

He talked about how scared the family had been.

[narrator] For Travis' family, the past week

has been an emotional roller coaster.

[Grant] Everybody was relieved,

but they were still kind of in a shock mode.

It didn't affect me as much as it did my wife,

and she still doesn't wanna be bothered with it.

[Angie] When Travis came back

we were all so relieved.

At the same time the story was so hard

At the same time the story was so hard

to fit in to your realm of reality, you know?

[narrator] Even decades later, the trauma of those five days

still weighs heavy on Travis and his now wife Dana.

[Dana] I was really, really worried,

and scared that you... What happened to you,

I didn't know if you'd ever be returned.

I didn't know if you'd ever be returned.

Specially the more days went by,

gets more and more scary.

Well...

[Travis] Did you ever think for a minute

that maybe the guys or Mike or something

-were covering up a killing, a murder? -No.

No, I never thought that.

Yep.

I even went out to the window, and I looked up on the sky

and I said, "Will you please bring Travis back?"

[sobbing]

-I'm sorry. -That must've hurt you.

[narrator] With Travis in such a fragile state,

his brother Duane is determined to protect him

from any intense scrutiny by the media

from any intense scrutiny by the media

or law enforcement.

Desperate for assistance, he reaches out

to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization

or A.P.R.O.

A Tucson based UFO investigative group.

[Ben] Jim and Coral Lorenzen really assembled A.P.R.O.

with the key focus of having a credible

and scientific, unbiased perspective.

That's why they brought in medical doctors,

they brought in, uh, scientists that were respected

they brought in, uh, scientists that were respected

in their fields and consulted with them

whenever they did a case.

[Travis] My brother Duane, he had contacted

Jim Lorenzen, the head

of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization

who had a couple of medical doctors

in their Phoenix membership

who agreed to do an examination.

[narrator] In the dead of night,

Duane Walton secretly sneaks Travis out of Snowflake.

A.P.R.O. arranged for Travis to go to a hotel in Phoenix.

He checked in under an assumed name

and then they sent over two A.P.R.O.

affiliated medical doctors.

[Don] They didn't want any leaks

of what was happening with Travis

with his, uh, medical condition,

and, and all the testing.

[narrator] Before medical tests are performed,

Travis tell the physicians what he remembered

from the night of November 5th, 1975,

from the night of November 5th, 1975,

starting with the moment he exited the truck.

[Travis] It just was kind of a... A sort of an impulse.

Seeing this object there...

For some reason I just kind of assumed

that it was gonna take off before I got very far.

We could hear a real low rumbling sort of a sound.

Pounding, you know, like a heartbeat sort of a thing.

Pounding, you know, like a heartbeat sort of a thing.

And then some real high frequency sorts of sounds.

Very hard to describe these sounds.

The closer I got, it suddenly got louder,

and it started to move.

I was startled and out of fear I just jumped for cover.

Then I was figuring out, "Boy, I've really got myself

Then I was figuring out, "Boy, I've really got myself

in a bad situation here."

I stood up with the idea of running back to the truck,

but as soon as I raised up,

that's when I felt this stunning force.

[narrator] The next thing Travis remembers

is waking up on the side of the road five days later.

is waking up on the side of the road five days later.

To make sense of the missing time in between,

Travis agrees to undergo a controversial

technique called regressive hypnosis.

Regressive hypnosis has been used, uh,

popularly since the Betty and Barney Hill

abduction in 1961.

Tapes of Betty and Barney

while abducted are still chilling even today.

Oh. Oh!

[narrator] An hypnosis session is scheduled with A.P.R.O.'s

director of research, Dr. James Harder.

In the meantime, Travis' doctors perform

a battery of tests.

[Travis] Blood and urine samples were taken

that were put through the county medical examiners

that were put through the county medical examiners

drug screen that's extremely good at detecting

traces of drugs of which there were none.

[narrator] Despite A.P.R.O.'s and the family's best efforts,

Travis' reappearance does not remain secret for long.

The operator who patched Travis through to call

his sister's house listened in on the call.

Remember, this is 1975, where they actually did have

operators who patched people through.

She recognized the name as he tried to make this,

uh, collect call from Travis Walton,

that this was big news.

So she takes that information

and leaks it to the sheriff's office.

[Shelley] His family was fully aware that there had been

an ensuing search for Travis,

and yet they chose not to let the law enforcement community,

um, know that he had been found.

[narrator] Travis' family feels he is

too emotionally unstable to face questioning

from the sheriff's department.

from the sheriff's department.

For the first few days after his return,

Travis' brother Duane acts as the family's spokesperson.

[reporter 3] Obviously, Duane, you know your own brother

probably better than anybody else.

Do you believe the story?

I've never seen him play a practical joke in his adult life.

[narrator] The veracious media runs with the story.

Before long, it's international news.

Well, now the story that has been hitting

the headlines all over the United States

is the one we told you about last week,

is the one we told you about last week,

of the man who disappeared after seeing

what his friends thought was a flying saucer.

After a five days search by police,

Travis Walton has turned up unharmed and he says

that he was taken aboard a spaceship but the police,

of course, no way of checking his story.

[narrator] As law enforcement

and journalists scramble hear the story firsthand,

Travis remains sequestered in a Phoenix hotel room

reliving his experience of abject horror.

reliving his experience of abject horror.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] On November 14th, 1975,

four days after his return, Travis Walton

meets with Dr. James Harder

at the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization

in a Phoenix hotel room.

Surrounded by his loved ones,

Dana and his brother Duane, Travis prepares to go undergo

Dana and his brother Duane, Travis prepares to go undergo

a technique called regressive hypnosis

to help him face his most petrifying memories.

[fan squeaking]

[narrator] Physically, Travis is sitting on the hotel room sofa...

...but mentally, Dr. Harder takes him back to the moment

he was abducted on board the alien ship

and the next terrifying five days of missing time.

and the next terrifying five days of missing time.

Visualize just what's in front of you there.

Tell me what it is that your eyes see.

[Travis] I was laying on my back.

I came to slowly...

At first I thought I was in a hospital.

I felt like there was something seriously wrong.

I felt like there was something seriously wrong.

There was a light above me.

It wasn't so bright I couldn't look at it, but it sort of,

uh, interfered with seeing other things around me.

But I was looking around to see where I was.

It was a very small space,

but there was something lying on my chest.

There seem to be, you know, some kind of, uh,

There seem to be, you know, some kind of, uh,

light coming from it.

When I looked beyond the edge of that, I saw faces,

but it was so blurry that I kind of assumed

it was like, uh, doctors wearing, uh, surgical masks.

It was only a matter of seconds

before I realized that these weren't human doctors.

This was an alien face.

They were about five foot tall, no hair,

They were about five foot tall, no hair,

very white skin,

small features except for large eyes.

[narrator] The beings Travis encounters,

they're a striking resemblance

to grey aliens reported in other UFO abduction stories.

Greys are the most common description

of some of these others that have been visiting us.

Three and a half to four feet tall,

big black eyes,

larger heads, not much of a nose,

larger heads, not much of a nose,

not much of a mouth.

Spindly little things, that's what he saw.

[narrator] To Travis, this strange appearance

and blank expressions are unnerving.

[Travis] The feeling of pain, the feeling of suffocation,

at the same time they expressed no emotion

to their face.

It seemed threatening.

I just freaked out at that point.

I just freaked out at that point.

And jumped off of the table there.

And when I did, this device fell off.

[narrator] Travis' survival instincts kick in full force.

[Travis] It was were just fight or flight

and I grabbed, um, rod or tube

and just started swinging to the air.

The only opening in the room was beyond them.

[narrator] Suddenly and without warning,

the aliens change course.

[Travis] They left the room.

I was afraid they'd come back,

so I left there, uh, looking for a way out.

The whole craft was lit up in a way that I would consider

to be pretty, pretty dim by, you know, human standards.

I felt like there was an insufficient amount of air.

Like I couldn't get enough air just breathing.

Air was thin but humid.

[narrator] Struggling to see and desperate for air,

Travis comes across another door.

The room appears to be empty except for a single chair.

As Travis approaches, he notices the light

in the room shift.

[Travis] There was some kind of a projection

or some kind of a viewing thing

in this room where you could see a map of stars.

The points of lights that came through it

were not real visible until I got near the chair.

Away from the chair the walls didn't seem

to have those points of lights so much.

[narrator] Could it be some kind of control room?

Travis looks for any means of escape.

Travis looks for any means of escape.

[Travis] On the arm of the chair was a screen

and some colored spots, uh, I took to be buttons.

I was just thinking these buttons

might open one of these doorway looking things.

Foolishly assuming that a door

would just be opened to the air,

and I could drop to the ground, you know?

Fifteen-20 feet.

I could handle that just to get out of there.

[narrator] The buttons have no effect.

[narrator] The buttons have no effect.

Travis has no choice but to look for another way out.

Just then he notices, he's not alone.

The form looks oddly familiar.

Could it be human?

In a Phoenix hotel room,

Travis Walton's loved ones sit in stunned silence

as he recounts the traumatic nightmare

of being trapped aboard a UFO.

I didn't actually hear the story

until he was put under hypnosis,

and I was in the room with him when...

So when he told the story it was really...

Shocking, it was scary to me, what he had to go through.

[narrator] After trying in vain to open a doorway

or escape hatch,

Travis has no choice but to return to the corridor

and search for another means of escape,

only this time, there's something or someone

blocking his way.

[Travis] There was a what I took to be a human being.

I immediately just assume this was air force, NASA,

somebody, you know, there to intervene

somebody, you know, there to intervene

and, uh, take me away from these creatures.

[narrator] In a rare, archival interview,

Travis describes his encounter with the being.

This was a... A human-looking person.

They'd pass in a crowd as an individual.

He was bigger than me, taller, and more muscular.

Very large individual.

Very large individual.

I went up and, uh, tried to talk to this guy

and, uh, he didn't answer me.

When I started yelling questions,

trying to tell him, "What are these things?

Where am I?" You know,

"Get me out of here."

All those kind of things, he didn't really seem to,

uh, be responding to anything I was saying.

[narrator] Instead, the suited stranger

takes Travis by the arm

and escorts him further down the corridor.

and escorts him further down the corridor.

[Travis] I went down the hallway with him,

very dimly lit, but lit from above.

When we came to a door,

I did not see this human-looking individual

do anything to make the door open, but it did.

[narrator] Travis and his enigmatic escort

entered what appears to be some kind of an air lock.

We went into a little booth-like section of the hallway.

[narrator] Then, Travis is overcome

by a sudden shift in the environment.

[Travis] I could feel that the air

coming in was cooler.

I could breathe better,

and that the outside light was so much brighter by comparison.

[narrator] Travis describes being ushered

from something like an alien aircraft hanger

in the seldom seen BBC documentary.

[Travis] He let me out of this craft,

which appeared to be parked inside of a,

a larger building, or a larger craft.

He just took me right out of there

down a hallway to a room

where there were some other people who looked like him.

[narrator] These two beings are not wearing helmets,

giving Travis a clear look

at what ufologists refer to as "Nordic aliens."

at what ufologists refer to as "Nordic aliens."

Tall, human-like figures, Scandinavian in appearance.

In the pantheon of aliens that keep getting

described by people who have had

abduction experiences you have primarily the greys...

...but you also have something called the Nordic.

The Nordic has come to represent basically

a human-looking alien.

In Travis' case, the Nordic he saw was about six feet two inches tall,

In Travis' case, the Nordic he saw was about six feet two inches tall,

kind of brownish, blondish hair.

Basically, like a Caucasian. Could've been from Sweden.

[narrator] Travis' attention quickly shifts

to an examination table in the center of the room.

The mysterious being in the space suit

pushes him toward it.

[Travis] He seemed to be trying to get me

to get on the table

and I was very much resisting that.

and I was very much resisting that.

I became alarmed that he was not answering my questions.

I was obviously terrified and asking,

"Where are you taking me? What's this all about?"

[narrator] Travis fights with all his might,

but the Nordics step in and overpower him

with superhuman strength.

[Travis] Very frightening, I was fighting back

immediately, no longer cooperating.

I thought I was pretty strong in those days,

but they didn't have too much trouble getting me down on the table.

but they didn't have too much trouble getting me down on the table.

They put this mask over my face,

it's kind of like an oxygen mask.

There was no hose connected to it,

they put it over my face

and that was the last thing I knew, I just blacked out.

Next thing I remember was waking up

outside, cold air

outside, cold air

coming into my clothes.

[narrator] In a Phoenix hotel room,

Travis awakens from a trance,

after recounting his harrowing alien abduction experience.

And to his loved ones, it's clear

Travis will never be the same.

[Dana] He seemed really different.

[Dana] He seemed really different.

He seemed traumatized, he seemed kind of scared.

I felt sorry for him in a way,

like I wanted to help him, but I felt helpless.

Like, I couldn't do anything for him.

[narrator] But a trauma of alien contact

was just the beginning.

Travis' story would spark a firestorm of debate

and speculation that ignites

the town of Snowflake and engulfs the entire world.

[dramatic music playing]

After a strenuous battery

of medical tests and regressive hypnotherapy

in Phoenix, Travis Walton returns home to Snowflake.

[Don] When I saw Travis the next time, he was...

He was skinny.

But the relief and the joy that I saw on our mother

But the relief and the joy that I saw on our mother

was awesome.

How she just stood there and cried.

And my mother didn't cry about anything.

But over that she certainly did.

We thought we had lost a family member.

[narrator] The media frenzy,

sparked by the abduction story,

only intensifies as Travis re-emerges.

[Don] Oh, it was a circus.

[Don] Oh, it was a circus.

Mother didn't have a fence around our front yard.

There was probably 100 people out there.

Reporters, all kinds of cameras.

[narrator] In an effort to keep

the camera hounds at bay, a still traumatized Travis

reluctantly grants his first interviews.

[Barbara Frum] Mr. Walton, how are you?

[Travis] I'm feeling a lot better.

[Barbara] Where were you?

[Travis] I don't know. [chuckles softly]

[interviewer] Did you tried to communicate with them?

Well, I tried to communicate with them

but there was no answer.

They never talked to me or anything.

[narrator] The unwanted scrutiny

pushes the town's people to the brink.

[Shelley] I thought the media attention was insane.

There was so much interest in it,

and at the time I just remember thinking to myself,

"How can these people really believe this story?" You know.

Kinda skeptical.

You know, seeing is believing, and I don't see nothing.

You know, seeing is believing, and I don't see nothing.

It was the talk of the town for a long time,

and I think there were people that believed in UFOs

and people that felt that people that believed in UFOs were crazy.

I didn't know if I went to a bar

if somebody's gonna buy me a beer or,

or take a punch at me, you now.

[narrator] New rumors circulate

that this was all a hoax.

The crew, once suspected of murder,

now find themselves scrutinized alongside Travis' family,

now find themselves scrutinized alongside Travis' family,

accused of pulling off a massive con.

[Steve] You couldn't walk through town

without people looking at you.

When he came back they thought it was a big ole joke.

[John] Ten days after that happened I left the area.

Went somewhere where nobody knew me

and didn't know my involvement in that and never told a soul.

[Don] It was tough.

[Don] It was tough.

I think people looked at us in a way

that we were putting on a show.

[narrator] Chief among the skeptics

is a man who would become Travis Walton's nemesis.

The king of UFO debunkers, Phillip Klass.

[Ben] Phillip Klass is probably

the most well-renowned UFO skeptic, uh,

debunker, uh, maybe of all history.

debunker, uh, maybe of all history.

He had devoted a great deal of time

and as a matter of fact had written books ridiculing

the idea that UFOs should be considered serious at all.

In my opinion, the belief in UFOs

will persist as long as there are people on this earth,

uh, but it is a myth.

[Bryce] Now, Phillip Klass was a very bright man, a journalist.

He just didn't buy the Travis Walton story.

He thought these guys made it up,

He thought these guys made it up,

and he set out to prove that anyway that he could.

[narrator] Klass does extensive research

into the Walton story and claims the crew

led by Mike Rogers concocted the UFO scheme

to get out of their logging contract.

We had completed probably over 80% of the contract,

but we were also nearing the completion deadline

on the contract.

[Angie] And they wanted to get it done before the snow

started coming because this was in November.

started coming because this was in November.

So they were trying to hurry up and get it done before it defaulted.

[Travis] The skeptics made much of this

that this whole things was some kind of a scheme

to get out of, uh, finishing the contract,

but it was not at all to Mike's advantage

for the contract to end.

There was a lot of money being held back.

And we had completed most of it,

but once the incident happened there was no way

that the contract was gonna get finished.

[Angie] After that happened,

Mike couldn't get that crew to go back out there.

Maybe some of them might've been willing,

but most of them were not.

[Travis] They brought in another crew

to finish what little we had left.

Much to Mike's financial disadvantage.

[narrator] And if Mike Rogers did think up the UFO story,

how did he get his six crewmates

to go along with his farfetched scheme?

[Bryce] If you really think about it,

the idea that you would conspire with, uh, six or seven people

to tell an outrageous story that would cause people

to think you might be a murderer,

it just defies logic.

[narrator] The level of criticism he and the crew

faced is yet another shock to Travis and his family.

I don't like it when people came out

with accusations against him.

I knew he was telling the truth,

I believed him and that was it.

[Travis] Well, there was from the get-go

a great deal of resistance.

The idea that there could be any life

in the universe, other than human life.

And I think that's a very close minded

and limited thinking.

It's maybe partially motivated out of fear or people

feeling that it was a threat to religious convictions.

But whatever it was, many of the accusations

But whatever it was, many of the accusations

that were levied were easily disproved

because they were contraries to verifiable facts.

[narrator] Yet some allegations would haunt

Travis Walton for years, leading him to wonder

if there's a coordinated campaign underway

to discredit him,

and if so, who's behind it?

and if so, who's behind it?

[instrumental music playing]

In Snowflake, Arizona,

alien abductee Travis Walton and his loved ones

struggle to get some semblance of normal life.

About two years later we were married.

We dated steady for those two years.

Fell in love and decided to get married.

We tried to make it like nothing happened,

We tried to make it like nothing happened,

so we didn't talk about it a lot.

[narrator] But try as they might,

Travis and Dana find themselves hounded

by small town gossip.

You know, I could see people looking at me

in the store and I could tell they were thinking, you know,

things about me.

[Ben] And they start making up rumors

saying, "Well, the crew was probably all using drugs.

They were all hallucinating."

[Shelley] We're talking in the '70s

and what really happened

and what really happened

if there was drugs involved, alcohol or whatever.

[narrator] Travis' medical tests reveal

no sign of drugs in his system.

Travis didn't do drugs. Travis hardly even ever drank.

If he did, I don't even think he did drink.

[John] That job was pretty dangerous, actually.

Those chainsaws don't slice you,

they tear chunks of meat out.

You can't get high or drink and do that job, you know.

You can't get high or drink and do that job, you know.

I don't know anybody who could.

[narrator] Despite the naysayers,

Travis and the crew have their champions.

Most notably groups like A.P.R.O.,

who gather and examine evidence to support the abduction claims.

First on their list,

Travis Walton's physical condition.

The people who came and got Travis Walton

found a severely dehydrated guy who didn't look good.

found a severely dehydrated guy who didn't look good.

He was in the same clothes that he was wearing

when he had disappeared

and when they weighed him later,

uh, that next morning, they found out he was at least ten pounds

lighter than when he had gone up in the mountains.

[narrator] Yet Travis' blood test provides the A.P.R.O.

doctors with some striking information.

[Travis] Part of, uh, what they were looking for

was the presence of what they call ketones,

which was to indicate whether my body

which was to indicate whether my body

had been consuming its own reserves, you know,

fat, even muscle in order to maintain life.

[Ben] He did lose ten to 12 pounds

in a short period of time.

He was severely dehydrated

but yet no ketones were present.

So, it is possible that these visitors knew enough

about human biology.

They tried to nourish him in some way.

[narrator] And if he wasn't picked up

after his crewmates left him in the woods,

after his crewmates left him in the woods,

how did Travis survive for those five days?

To believe he was left out

in Sitgreaves National Forest, not only overnight,

but for five days is outrageous.

At night it gets very, very cold.

The guy had a jean jacket and, and a pair of jeans on.

It would've been a tough, tough things to survive.

[narrator] A.P.R.O. researches in Arizona

also uncover evidence

of an increasing level of UFO activity

of an increasing level of UFO activity

in the months leading up to the abduction.

[Ben] We had an event that takes place in May,

just outside the hills of Tucson.

We have a mother with her children who comes across

a silvery glowing object, but most interestingly,

she hears a low rumbling sound

that's very similar to what Travis described

right before this thing appeared to take off.

[narrator] Perhaps the strongest evidence of all

[narrator] Perhaps the strongest evidence of all

comes from the sheriff's department.

[Travis] To have six witnesses all testifying

in detail to the same events, and all passing

lie detector tests from the state police.

[Bryce] People have gone back and forth over the years

about what a polygraph actually means,

but one thing we do know, though, is when somebody passes it

and it's just them, it gives you a certain amount of legitimacy.

But when you have six different people

taking a lie detector test

and they all tell the same story,

your chances that the story they're telling is accurate

is about, uh, a million to one.

[Travis] Dr. James Harder, he was saying

that the evidence to support that this really happened

would've been sufficient to convict a person

of murder in an American court of law.

[narrator] On February 7th, 1976,

[narrator] On February 7th, 1976,

Travis and his brother Duane

take their own lie detector tests.

The results shocked everyone.

In February of 1976,

Travis Walton and his brother Duane

submit to polygraph examinations.

They both pass.

Landing further credibility

to Travis' UFO abduction claims.

For years after the incident,

Travis and his six crew members

Travis and his six crew members

never waver from their story.

Eventually, the tide of public opinion

turns in their favor.

[Bryce] In 1975, when the Walton case is big news,

the government's institutional response to UFOs back then

was, "It's probably not a real thing, don't sweat it.

Go on about your lives."

Now the government says a couple

of really profound things.

First of all, they have confirmed that there are

First of all, they have confirmed that there are

many objects out there and that they're real

and that they're unidentified.

And secondly, they said, "We don't make them."

So, lots of people believed in them before,

but now we have a more of a sense

they are real because our own government is admitting it.

[pilot] Oh, got it!

[narrator] And the attitude in the Southwestern state,

[narrator] And the attitude in the Southwestern state,

known for some of the biggest UFO sightings

in the world has also changed.

I've known, uh, Travis Walton for a long time.

After seeing UFOs in New Mexico, Arizona

and California, I said, "Well, there must be

something that, uh... To what he said."

I do believe that there are UFOs.

But you see things cruising around up there

it's like, "What the heck was that?

it's like, "What the heck was that?

No, okay, is that a satellite? No, it's moving a little bit too fast."

[producer] Do you believe there's something out there?

I think so.

Our tales completely switched around

where four out of five people do believe it now.

Before they didn't.

You know, it was exactly the opposite.

[Steve] I'm sorry that Allen and Dwayne Smith aren't here,

because for years people just thought we were nuts.

Now, you've got people who do believe,

Now, you've got people who do believe,

and Allen and Dwayne Smith aren't here to, to see that.

[narrator] The shift in public perception

began in 1978

when Travis Walton wrote

and published a book about his ordeal.

The Walton Experience is the first book written

by a UFO abductee,

and it's sort of withstood the test of time.

[Ben] My impression of first reading

Travis' book, it was so well written

that he presents the arguments before his case

and against his case

and takes each individual criticism and debunks it one by one.

[Bryce] What it allowed readers to do

for the first time is to get in his head.

This is an honest man, who' trying to tell us

what really happened to him.

[narrator] Travis' story catches the attention

of Hollywood

and on March 12th, 1993,

Paramount Pictures releases Fire in the Sky.

A film based on his book.

[Bryce] Talking about the Travis Walton abduction,

there was X-amount of people that sort of watched it

when it happened real time with news coverage,

there were a few more that read the book,

but then there were a lot more that watched the movie.

And the people who watched the movie

had their minds open

to the possibility that an abduction could happen

because the movie starts with "based on a true story."

[Dana] After the movie was made,

people became more and more enlightened I guess.

More and more people believed.

And more people came up to me and said that they supported us,

so... That was... That was great.

[narrator] The media forces Travis

into the spotlight once more to share

into the spotlight once more to share

the terrifying true story behind the movie.

It was glowing, disk-shaped object.

Uh, it's kinda, like, shaped like two pie pans.

Placed lip to lip with a dome on top

and it was glowing, kind of a golden, uh, yellow color.

[narrator] Like clockwork, Travis' credibility

comes under attack.

All the familiar skeptics re-emerge,

including Philip Klass.

But this time, Travis has the last word.

Are you saying, Phillip, that all seven

of these people are lying?

I'm afraid we have to say that on the basis

of physical evidence.

[Larry King] Meaning?

Physical evidence that should've been there

but was not.

[Larry King] Why are you laughing, Travis?

Well, because this is typical of the sort of reasoning pattern

this man uses in attacking all UFO cases.

Uh, he's equating the absence of evidence

to be the evidence of absence.

[narrator] The film's release is a moral victory

for Travis Walton and his crewmates.

[Ben] Fire in the Sky.

It wasn't just a close encounters of the third kind

type of movie, this is something based on real life.

This is what happened to a man and six other

of his crewmembers.

We can't just easily dismiss abduction cases

because look at all the evidence in favor of this one.

[narrator] In the aftermath of Fire in the Sky,

a new generation of UFO investigators

take up Travis' cause.

Can they find actual physical evidence

to prove Travis' story

beyond any doubt?

In 2014,

UFO researcher

and documentarian, Ben Hansen,

meets Travis Walton

at the site of his UFO abduction to examine

any remaining evidence of Travis' alien encounter.

Years ago Travis, uh, and I were filming, um,

kind of a survey before we had a conference here.

So, right here is where we determined

through the witnesses and especially Travis' recollection

through the witnesses and especially Travis' recollection

where this object was hovering.

This is the first time we're gonna open it up to the public.

We didn't want the public coming in here,

knowing the location and start taking stuff or planting things.

We wanted to know exactly what kind of evidence,

if anything, was left over.

[narrator] Ben and the research team

take a methodical approach to the date collection.

[Ben] We gritted this whole area and we treated it

like a crime scene.

like a crime scene.

While we're going through everything, the topsoil, uh,

we're looking at rocks to see if they're magnetic,

we come across some of these tree stumps.

Now these have broken off shortly after the incident.

You can actually count back the rings, of course,

and see this tree would've been here 1975.

[narrator] On closer inspection

of the tree rings, Ben and Travis noticed

something very strange indeed.

[Ben] If you think of a tree ring,

[Ben] If you think of a tree ring,

they're usually very equally sized,

uh, concentric circles.

Okay, on all sides.

But these trees had something unique.

The rings on the side facing the clearing

was spaced out further.

Meaning there was a greater volume of growth

on that side of the tree alone.

And we started noticing this as we're going around

And we started noticing this as we're going around

in a circle and came across the discovery

that they all seemed to be pointing

in a direction towards the center.

The epicenter where the craft was hovering.

[narrator] Could radiation from the UFO,

as evidenced by the Geiger counter readings at the site

in 1975, have caused these trees to mutate?

[Ben] I started researching a bit

[Ben] I started researching a bit

and I found a couple of studies

that happened after Chernobyl.

The studies found that these trees grow

exponentially greater than any other time period.

So is that what happened here?

[narrator] At an independent lab in Ohio,

the soil samples taken from the site are tested against

the soil samples taken from the site are tested against

to control group.

The findings blow everyone away.

There was a higher concentration of iron

and other ferrous materials as compared to the controlled

samples which were much further away.

Now what does that mean?

Other, uh, notable UFO cases have indicated sometimes

a trace evidence of ferrous materials

as if something, um, creating a large magnetic field

as if something, um, creating a large magnetic field

was pulling these particles up from the lower layers.

[narrator] Based on these findings,

Ben Hansen and many other open-minded researchers

draw the same conclusion.

The Travis Walton abduction case

offers perhaps the best evidence to date

of alien visitation to planet Earth.

I can say that I fully believe what he experienced

is how he and the crew experiences

very strange event.

[narrator] But as Walton's story continues to be

more accepted as truth, frightening questions remain.

Who are these alien creatures and what do they want?

Travis Walton makes one final trip

from his home in Snowflake to the site of his alien abduction.

It's, It's just, um, kind of a PTSD kind of a thing.

I still feel apprehension.

We're getting close.

We're getting close.

[narrator] For Travis, this is still an emotional journey.

[sighs]

[Travis] This was really a turning point

in my life what happened here.

It's amazing to think how much time has gone by.

It's amazing to think how much time has gone by.

Little did I know, uh,

my life would never be the same.

[narrator] Four decades later,

Travis reflects on what it all means.

[Travis] Well, I had a choice after this incident happened.

Could I just shut up about it and hope people

will forget about it and it'll go away

or get out there and defend myself

and, uh, set the record straight?

Aliens exist, we're not alone in the universe.

I think people need to realize that there is a reality here.

[narrator] And no one knows this better

than the six men who witnessed Travis' alien encounter.

Every one of those crewmen has stood by the story

of that happened throughout their lives

and some of them are no longer with us.

and some of them are no longer with us.

They've had the courage to stand up

to the naysayers and they endured that

from the beginning, even... Even before I was returned.

[Steve] I lived it and it's still hard to believe.

Man, I've been called a liar so many times.

[laughing]

I'm just used to it, I guess. It doesn't really bother me.

If you believe it, you believe it. You don't, you don't.

[John] It's always gonna be there, you know.

And sometime if bothers me a lot,

And sometime if bothers me a lot,

you know, but it did happen and why did it happen?

Why was it us?

[Mike] Everybody was affected differently, you know.

Greatly affected my life, but it's all for the better I think.

For the better.

It was real.

It was real that day.

[Dana] What I would say to skeptics is

walk a mile in my shoes.

walk a mile in my shoes.

They need to do more research,

they need to be more open minded.

[pilot] Oh, got it!

[laughing] Woo-hoo!

[narrator] Now, recent government disclosures

lend further credence to the experiences

of Travis and his fellow crewmembers.

The last three years, basically,

we have seen story after story that establishes,

uh, that UFOs are more real than anybody's ever believed.

[Ben] Perhaps the most important modern-day

revelation from our government is an official

acknowledgement that the phenomenon is real.

Something is going on.

We definitely cannot rule out extraterrestrial.

If the world had felt the same back in 1975,

I don't think that the case would've received

so much negative criticism and ridicule.

[Travis] I think that the reason

the Pentagon disclosures film and statements

the Pentagon disclosures film and statements

that they have evidence, it's basically they're saying,

"It's a matter of fact." It's very..

It's very good progress.

So it's a relief that they're going to come

so far as to say, "Yes, there's something here

and we don't know what it is."

[Bryce] I think that one of the things you're going to see

happening in the next few years are we're gonna have

congressional hearings on this very topic

and I would submit to the senators

and the congress people

who are thinking of putting those hearings together

who are thinking of putting those hearings together

that they might want to consider calling up Travis Walton

and bringing him up to Washington and asking him

to tell his story directly. I think they'd like to hear it.

[Travis] This is the place where my life was changed forever.

Eventually I'm hoping something good will come of it.

At the minimum,

uh, make humans realize that we're not so special,

uh, make humans realize that we're not so special,

uh, that, uh, the world there is.

The fact that these aliens exist after all this time

with vastly superior technology

has to mean that they, uh,

ceased to be war like in attacking each other.

So it's, uh, sort of a message to humanity

to figure out to be a whole lot less savage

and a whole lot smarter about where we're going with all this.