Released in 1980, Hangar 18 was arguably Hollywood’s first UFO conspiracy movie. Its plot features many aspects of the real-life UFO enigma, including specific details from allegedly authentic top-secret UFO-related government documentation.

Hangar 18 continues to provoke discussion within the UFO community, in part for the fact that it was released in 1980. It was in this year that details of the Roswell incident began to filter into the popular consciousness with the publication of Charles Berlitz and William Moore’s The Roswell Incident—the first book on the Roswell subject. Equally significant in 1980, and undoubtedly connected to the Roswell developments, was the quiet insertion into the UFO community of the term “MJ-Twelve.” This term, along with its variant, “Majestic Twelve,” has now assumed permanent residency in popular culture, having featured in films, TV shows, comic books and video games.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD…

Hangar contents

Hangar 18 begins in Earth orbit as NASA is preparing to launch a satellite under the watchful eye of the US military. Just as the satellite is launched from the space shuttle, however, it collides with a UFO, killing a NASA astronaut in the launch bay. This is witnessed by the other crew in the shuttle, our heroes Bancroft and Price, (played by Gary Collins and James Hampton). Upon their return to Earth the men seek answers but soon realize their government has instigated a cover-up, and that they too are being kept in the dark.

We learn that, following the collision in orbit, the UFO made a controlled landing in the Arizona desert, where it was captured by the US military. The craft is soon transported to the top secret Hangar 18, where it is studied by NASA scientists (lead by Darren McGavin). Onboard the craft, the scientists make a series of startling discoveries:

• The alien pilots, although dead, are physically undamaged and are almost exactly human in appearance. The scientists conclude that the aliens visited Earth in ancient times, that they were seen as gods, and that they interbred with Earth women and “jump-started” human life as we know it today.
• A human woman is also onboard the craft in stasis. When removed by doctors, the woman awakens in a state of terror. We assume she is an abductee.
• In the ship’s data files, the scientists find glyphs similar to those used by ancient Earth civilizations. The scientists also discover extensive aerial surveillance footage of Earth’s power plants, military bases and major cities. The aliens, it seems, have been taking an active interest in our technological capabilities.

Meanwhile, Bancroft and Price are dogged in their pursuit of the truth and are targeted by the government for assassination. Price is killed, but Bancroft survives and eventually finds his way to Hangar 18 and aboard the alien spacecraft. Around this point, the NASA scientists finally decipher the alien glyphs, which indicate that the beings were planning to return to Earth en masse in the near future.

Before any of this information has a chance to sink-in, government agents fly a remote-controlled jet filled with explosives into Hangar 18, the goal being to kill all involved in the cover-up, thereby permanently burying the secret. However, unbeknownst to the government hit squad, several of the NASA scientists, as well as Bancroft, are inside the alien craft when the hanger explodes. The craft, it turns out, is invincible, and the survivors inside decide to let the truth be known. The film ends with UFO Disclosure.

Ancient Astronauts and Christianity

Hangar 18’s depiction of human-looking extraterrestrials is particularly interesting, as is the idea that these beings jumpstarted the human race—these very same details were to appear three years later in a “secret” Air Force report shown to UFO writer and journalist Linda Moulton Howe as part of her preparation for a documentary on UFOs.

On 9 April 1983, during a meeting at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, Air Force Office of Special Investigations Officer Richard Doty presented Howe with a document, the front cover of which read:

“BRIEFING PAPER FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON THE SUBJECT OF UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAVs)”

Doty told Howe that she was to read the document at the request of his superiors, but stressed that she was forbidden from taking the document with her and from taking notes of any kind.

The weighty document detailed many aspects of the UFO phenomenon and included a list of UFO crash/retrievals. The list included two separate incidents near the Roswell region in 1947, and another in 1949, which resulted in the capture of a live extraterrestrial that was taken to Los Alamos National Laboratories. Apparently, the being was held captive before it died of unknown causes in 1952. Other crashes listed in the document included Aztec New Mexico, Kingman Arizona, and Loredo Texas.

Most shocking to Howe was a paragraph that said the extraterrestrials had manipulated DNA in an evolving primate species to create Homo sapiens. Elsewhere in the document it was noted that the ETs had created a being on Earth whose purpose was to teach humans about love and non-violence. Howe was astonished: “We are talking about Jesus Christ,” she said to Doty, who said nothing in response, but who, she asserts, looked deeply uncomfortable.

The author and researcher Mike Clelland has pointed out that the parallels between the content of Hangar 18 and the report shown to Linda Moulton Howe are so striking that “The document that Howe saw could very well have been written by Darren McGavin’s character from what he learned in the movie.” Clelland observes:

We have a reporter [LMH] being shown a secret document by the Air Force in 1983, the conclusion is that they [officialdom] wanted this information floated out to the public. Three years earlier we have the movie Hangar 18 “floating” out the same information in the guise of an action film.

Rising Sunn

In 1971, Sunn Classic Pictures started to produce and distribute feature films and documentaries about UFOs (with an emphasis on Ancient Astronauts) and other paranormal/psychic phenomena. Titles included the aforementioned Ancient Astronaut-themed The Outer Space Connection (1975), The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena (1976), The Bermuda Triangle (1979), based on Charles Berlitz’s non-fiction book linking UFOs to the disappearance of ships and aircraft; Beyond Death’s Door (1979), about life after death; and, in 1980, Hangar 18. Sunn Classic Pictures also had a strong focus on religious documentaries, with titles including: In Search of Noah’s Ark (1976), In Search of Historic Jesus (1979), and a TV series that ran from 1978 to 1979 called Greatest Heroes of the Bible.

The Mormon connection

Sunn Classic Pictures was established in Utah as a Mormon-run company with Raylan Jensen as its first President. Many of the studio’s writers, producers, and directors also were Mormons, including Robert Starling (writer of In Search of Historic Jesus, and who in later life would make an educational documentary about the Mormon Church), and Charles E. Sellier Jr., one of Sunn’s most successful writer/producers and also a co-founder of the studio with Raylan Jensen. As a producer, Sellier would make only family-friendly G-rated films “out of Mormon conviction.” His credits for Sunn notably included The Bermuda Triangle and Hangar 18. In 1997, Sellier wrote UFO, a non-fiction book examining the UFO enigma in the context of a government cover-up.

It makes sense that a Mormon-run film studio should exhibit an interest in UFOs. Mormon cosmology holds that the Earth is not unique, but just one of many inhabited planets, each created by Jesus for the purpose of bringing about immortality and eternal life. Mormon leaders have taught that the inhabitants of these planets are almost identical in appearance to humans – just as the alien beings in Hangar 18 are extremely human-like (a point dwelt upon in the film’s plot).

Also worthy of mention in this discussion is “Kolob,” a heavenly body described in Mormon scripture as a star, but which is generally regarded by Mormons as a planet. It is said to be the closest place in the universe to the throne of God. In the context of science-fiction, the popular Ancient Astronaut-flavoured TV series Battlestar Galactica (1978–1979 and 2004–2009) incorporates many Mormon cosmological beliefs into its overarching narrative. This is because the creator of the show, Glen Larson, was himself a Mormon. In the TV series, the planet Kobol (as opposed to Kolob) is the birth place of the human race where the “Lords of Kobol” are held sacred.

Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, San Diego, California.

An LDS educational agenda?

In the Mormon text, Doctrines of Salvation (1:62), tenth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), Joseph Fielding Smith, states:

“We are not the only people that the Lord has created. We have brothers and sisters on other earths. They look like us because they, too, are the children of God and were created in his image, for they are also his offspring.”

Smith began his LDS Presidency in 1970, the year prior to the establishment of Sunn Classic Pictures.

Also relevant is a quote by LDS Apostle Neal A. Maxwell. In his book, A Wonderful Flood of Light (p.25), Maxwell wrote: “We do not know how many inhabited worlds there are, or where they are. But certainly we are not alone.” Between 1970 and 1976, the formative years of Sunn Classic Pictures, Maxwell served as the LDS Commissioner of Church Education, which is responsible for providing religious and secular education for people of all ages, both LDS and non-LDS.

The question is…

The key question relating to Sunn Classic Pictures (and one that, for now, remains unanswered) is this: was the studio’s alien-themed output simply a reflection of Mormon ideals and beliefs held by the studio’s core writers/producers/directors (as well as an attempt on their part to cash in on the ever-popular subject of UFOs), or, was it a more lofty strategy on the part of Mormon Church itself to subtly educate the public about an aspect of the Mormon faith which, in the century of the UFO, was becoming both increasingly taboo and increasingly relevant (i.e. life on other planets and its possible links to humanity)?

Whatever the truth behind its production, Hangar 18 remains a fascinating and entertaining movie—a must-see for any self-respecting UFO conspiracy buff. Check it out.

When former The Simpsons guest star Stephen Hawking passed in March, he left behind a lifetime worth of invaluable contributions to the world of theoretical astrophysics. Aside from his distinguished life’s work, Hawking left behind his last unpublished paper which simplifies the mind-bending concept of the multiverse by reaching the conclusion that there exists a finite number of universes and they all share the same laws of physics. How did Hawking reach this conclusion? For one, he performed decades of careful mathematical calculations, of course. Yet an odd detail from his memorial service set to be held in June could suggest Hawking had help from the future.

When the first details about Hawking’s memorial service were made public, tens of thousands of people from over 50 countries applied for admission. At the service, Hawking’s ashes will be interred between the remains of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. While filling out the ballot for the service, one applicant noticed that the birth date field on the application allows any date can be chosen up to December 31, 2038. Are the service’s organizers expecting visitors from the future?

Wormholes have long been suggested as a possible means of traveling through time.

When asked about the odd date choices, a spokesman for the Stephen Hawking Foundation said they are leaving the possibility of time travelers open just in case:

We cannot exclude the possibility of time travel as it has not been disproven to our satisfaction. All things are possible until proven otherwise. But so far we have had applications from all round the world, and we do mean round – there are no flat-Earthers here.

This isn’t the first time a Hawking-related event invited time travelers from a future time. Hawking hosted a “time traveler party” complete with champagne and hors d’ouvres in 2009, hoping someone from the future might show up. Unfortunately, no one did, causing Hawking to remark that this was evidence time travel was not possible. But why would a true time traveler want to put herself under public scrutiny like that? If they’re here, they’re certainly blending in the best they can. Except Elon Musk – that guy’s way too obvious.

Another staple plot device of science fiction may soon be crossing the line into science. Researchers at UCLA have successfully transferred memory from one creature’s brain to another. Is this the solution to finding out where a criminal hid the money?

This revolutionary discovery appears in the current edition of the journal eNeuro. UCLA neurobiologist David Glanzman did not accept the commonly held belief that memories are stored in brain synapses and decided to look for an alternative memory storage locker. He speculated that one existed in RNA (ribonucleic acid), the messenger service for DNA inside cells. To test this theory, Glanzman used electrical shocks to train Aplysia californica to respond defensively when jolted in a certain area.

Aplysia what? OK, the test subjects in this experiment were California sea hares, the giant foot-long hermaphrodite marine snails found along the US Pacific coast. What do giant snails have to remember besides where they parked their shells? Actually, Aplysia californica are favorite lab subjects of neuroscientists because, while their bodies are slow, their brains are quite fast. And with only about 20,000 neurons in them (humans have 100 billion), sea hare brains are easy to study and map.

Aplysia californica sea hare

After training one set of snails to respond when shocked in their siphon (the water intake tube snails use for locomotion, feeding, respiration, and reproduction) and setting up a control group with their siphons wired but not receiving shocks, Glanzman’s team extracted RNA from their brains and injected them into other snails. When tested, the snails receiving RNA from the trained donors had the same reflexive responses while those getting control group RNA did not.

“If memories were stored at synapses, there is no way our experiment would have worked.”

Snail anatomy

That’s important because synapses are not permanent while some memories are. Or at least they are until a person has Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder or other brain problems. While he doesn’t explain how in the study nor the press release from UCLA, Glanzman believes that this RNA transfer can revive lost memories or those that have been shut down by disease.

Of course, it’s a long way from snails to humans (in most cases) and there are still many neuroscientists who are sticking with the ‘memory resides in synapses’ side. But Glanzman’s research is a start. His next step is to identify which specific types of RNA can be used to perform successful memory transfers.

Until then, remember this – Shocked In The Siphon would be a great name for a band.

UFOs seem to be attracted to volcanoes like flies to potato salad that’s been sitting in the hot sun all afternoon, so it was only a matter of time before one was spotted over Kilauea on Hawaii’s Big Island as it grows and spreads its lava outward. The wait is over as an individual has posted a photo of what he claims is a UFO over the volcano. Is it a spacecraft emerging, a drone observing or a bug bugging out before things get worse?

Pedro Ramirez is a self-described ufologist (per his Facebook page) from Mexico City. He posted his image of the alleged UFO over Kilauea on that page and in a video (of the still photo) on YouTube and it has since been picked up by various news and UFO sites like C. UFO M (Centro Ufologico Mediterraneo). He identifies the location where the photo was taken as the Punalu’u beach Black Sand Beach and the photographer was facing towards Kilauea, which is seen in the background with an “oval UFO” above it. In this case, the “photographer” was not Ramirez but a Google vehicle taking pictures for Google Maps.

Without even looking at the UFO under magnification, that’s where the story begins to fall apart. The Google Maps photo had to have been taken long before Kilauea’s latest eruption last week. This could have been months or even years ago. That means there’s no photographer to question about the date, time, speed, was it witnessed or found later, and other pertinent information. All that can be ascertained from the first glance at the photo is that it doesn’t seem to be a rock expelled from the volcano.

So, what is it? Ramirez says in the video post that the object stays solid under magnification (magnified photos are in the video) so he believes it’s solid. That’s quite a leap. That fact that it appears to be an oval with nothing sticking out of it moves speculation away from a drone or a bird, but doesn’t rule out the infamous speck of dirt on the lens. It’s also unclear from the photo if the UFO was moving or stationary.

Ramirez’s claim of “a wave of reports of unidentified objects have arrived from the Island” may be true, but the Google photo doesn’t appear to be one of them. Unfortunately, other photos or videos haven’t seemed to surface yet so his is getting all of the attention and scrutiny. The theory that UFOs seen at volcanoes are aliens in spacecraft observing, possibly protecting or potentially refueling might apply at Kilauea, but the idea that volcanoes are doorways for ships to enter underground bases may not hold up here since Kilauea is a flattened ‘shield’ volcano and the openings are more like fissures than wide lava mouths.

With just a Google Maps photo to go on, the needle on this one is leaning towards drone, dirt or camera anomaly. Let’s hope this doesn’t make fire goddess Pele angry.