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(wind gently blowing)
(melancholy music)
(sighing)
(music swelling)
(spaceship humming)
(airy music)
(birds chirping)
(light music)
- Hi, Nelson.
Nelson, are you back yet?
Nelson?
(sighing)
(phone keys clacking)
Yeah, hi.
No, there's no emergency.
He's gone, he's dead.
The name is Rudd.
Nelson Rudd.
My name?
Larkspur, Laurie Larkspur.
- So on the surface, Chetco's bold announcement
may seem like a win-win
for consumers, for industry and for the environment.
But there's a deeper, and for some
more troubling question.
Has the company violated national security
by incorporating classified technology
into its design?
Is it using those secrets
to gain an unfair competitive advantage?
A number of aerospace and defense insiders tell us
that antigravity planes and discs
have been a reality for more than half a century.
But given the draconian secrecy
surrounding the programs in which they exist,
we may never know the truth.
One thing is certain.
By making its announcement,
Chetco has let at least
part of the genie out of the bottle.
And we who stand to benefit can only hope
they don't recork it.
Lila?
- And that was Jeremy Rudd with his weekly science update.
(lightly tense music) (siren blaring in distance)
- [Jeremy] It's a hole in the dam and it's gonna get bigger.
They can't make it go away.
- If it cuts into Exxon Mobil's profits
they'll find a way, trust me.
You know, if the people really wanted all this stuff,
anti-gravity planes, and free energy,
I assume one needs the other?
- I would say.
Flying saucers don't fly on gas.
- Whoah, whoah, back up.
Who said anything about flying saucers?
- Same principle.
And my report never mentioned them, thanks very much.
- Mention flying saucers and you're a crackpot.
Immediately, okay?
Full stop.
- When is that gonna change?
I mean, is this or is this not why we exist?
To cover what the corporate media won't?
- I'm not sure it's the right question to be asking.
What if the real question is
what should the people know?
- [Jeremy] Oh my god.
- How much do they really wanna know?
I mean, if all this stuff about UFOs is true,
and I believe that some of it is,
if our government has treaties with aliens,
I mean, who the hell is ready to hear that?
I'm not sure that I am.
(phone ringing)
What does that mean for our so-called civilization?
- [Jeremy] I've never known you to be an apologist
for a cover-up.
- Well, when it comes to aliens, I may well be.
- Rudd.
What?
When?
How?
Okay.
Can you email me your contact,
wait a minute, who are you?
Larkspur, like the flower?
(sighing)
Yeah, J.Rudd at ThePeoplesDigest.com, The People's Digest.
Thank you.
Yeah, I appreciate your call.
My father died.
- Oh, Jesus.
- The old lion's gone.
No fuss, just a massive coronary.
- So sorry.
You didn't get a chance to reconnect.
- Oh, that was my fault.
He tried more than once.
They want me to go out there and settle the estate.
Whatever that means.
- Who's they?
- Oh, the trustee, lawyer
and my father's assistant.
(bell dinging) (train horn blaring)
(somber music)
[Jeremy] Good morning.
It's Jeremy Rudd.
- We're very sorry for your loss, sir.
- Thank you.
- Are you familiar with our guest guidelines?
- Ahh, no.
- Jeans and denims are prohibited
in all public areas.
So is cellphone use.
Exercise attire in the gym only.
- Okay, thanks.
- Mrs. Delmonico's expecting you.
I circled the house on the map.
- Take care.
- [Security Guard] You have a good day.
- Solid bronze doors, like a fortress.
Oh, your father was treasured by this community.
- And what did he do to make himself that?
- Well, he was just a peach to be around.
Considerate, cheerful.
- Cheerful, my father?
- Oh, his Christmas parties
were the highlight of the season.
He invited everyone.
Staff from the club, friends of friends, his helpers
all mingled here with the elite.
- Like who?
I'm just curious.
- I mean, this very house was built for a great president,
as I'm sure you know.
- [Jeremy] Yeah, he must have been great advertising.
- The club has never needed advertising, Mr. Rudd.
And General Eisenhower was a lot more than that.
I had the pleasure of meeting him when I was young.
- My father was supposedly an Air Force liaison
to his National Security Council staff after Korea.
Youngest guy in the room.
- [Mrs. Delmonico] That tells you a lot, doesn't it?
- Like, what?
- That they trusted him, obviously.
- [Jeremy] Yes.
- What a gem of a house this is.
Now some people prefer the fairway views
but I'm sure you'll agree
that the vistas from Valhalla Heights can't be beat.
- [Jeremy] Beautiful.
(sighing)
(typewriter clacking)
- Excuse me, Jeremy?
- Blue flower.
- I could have met you at the house.
- I haven't quite settled in over there at Valhalla.
Thanks for coming.
What's in the box?
- His ashes.
- That was fast.
- I can show you where he wanted them scattered.
I also brought the permit to dispose.
- Ah, you need a permit?
- You can't just scatter human remains anywhere.
- How would anyone know?
- I didn't make the rules.
Do you mind if I sit down?
- [Jeremy] Please, come on.
Drink?
- [Laurie] Sure, that'd be great.
- Scotch?
I've put quite a dent in their Glenmorangie.
Here, take mine, it's fresh.
(Laurie laughs)
- It was your father's favorite.
- [Jeremy] Uh huh.
So, you worked for him, what, every day?
- Yeah, whenever he needed me.
He also had a housekeeper.
- [Jeremy] Well, sounds like a good gig for you.
- It was.
He was definitely independent but he valued company.
For example, going to the theater.
- A lot of good theater out here at Palm Desert?
- Do you always write on this?
- Oh, yeah, it was a bad habit.
Now unfortunately I find it prudent.
- I hear you.
Who the hell wants to get hacked?
- And my notes are always with me
or stored off-site, never on a computer
even if it's air-gapped.
- Smart man.
Well, I have the mailbox keys for you
and all the security codes.
All the sheets in the house should be clean.
- Don't be offended, I brought my own.
I like them starched.
- Your father did, too.
Tell me you didn't know that.
- I didn't know that.
Or maybe I'm forgetting it.
I do remember quite vividly the blue paper
in which the sheets came wrapped from the French laundry.
We made kites out of it.
- Well, I'll leave you to your writing.
It's nice to meet you.
- And you too.
Thank you.
Wait a minute.
Good God, I don't want this around.
Can we scatter it?
- Now?
(light music)
- Where are you taking me, Laurie Larkspur?
- What's with all the questions?
- It's my default position.
So what do you do when you're not
assisting retired Air Force generals?
Default?
- Computers.
A lot of oldsters in this town
that can barely push a button.
Your dad was one of them.
- You helped him with his computer?
Don't you need some sort of clearance
to see that stuff?
- I wasn't allowed to open any documents.
That part of his life was off limits.
Ask no questions, know what I mean?
- Yeah, it all seems pretty loose to me.
I would have asked questions, Laurie.
- I live right over there behind those mountains.
The high desert.
- For what its worth,
you're all running out of water equally fast.
This it?
Something you wanna say?
- I'll save it for the memorial.
Just, goodbye Nelson.
- Goodbye, my father.
Goodbye, all my fathers.
(coyote howling in distance)
- 20 years, has it really been that long?
- Hmm, we've had some contact.
Some years back he threatened me with a libel suit
if I used his name.
In a piece I wrote on biological weapons development.
- And you used his name?
- Oh yes I did.
And he, they retaliated.
Whoever "they" are.
- Retaliated how?
- Suffice it to say, I try not to drive.
If I have to rent a car like out here
I know exactly what to look for under the hood.
- Sounds like an ordeal.
- I don't mean to scare you.
- Do you tend to do that?
- No, I'm normally perfectly congenial.
And I'm a very good cook.
I'll cook for you sometime if you're lucky.
- Sure.
As long as you know that your reputation precedes you.
- Which reputation is that?
- [Laurie] The whole kit and caboodle, buddy.
- Okay.
[Laurie Laughs]
Thank you.
(lightly eerie music)
(organ playing)
Oh, boy.
(exotic musical accents)
Nos No Una Nos Abeo Una.
Yep.
To the guy who saw it coming
and left it for us to clean up.
(train horn blaring) (wheels clanking)
- Hey! (crowd applauding)
- [Reporter] Welcome to California!
How's your game, General?
- Could stand improvement.
- [Reporter] What'd you shoot today?
- Mmm, I haven't been out yet.
I'll let you know when I am.
- Well, what'd you shoot last time you were here?
- If it weren't for the 11th green,
I'd probably have shot an 88.
(crowd laughing)
- [Woman] Where's Mamie?
- Well she'll be out soon.
It's a bit early yet. You know how women can be.
(crowd cheering)
There she is.
- Thank you so much for coming.
You are making us feel so welcomed.
- [Eisenhower] Yes indeed.
And it's great to... - Oh, thank you.
(military marching music)
- Where is this from?
- Oh, it's part of that side
that Moaney collected in Chicago.
- Of course it is.
How many are we tonight?
- Six.
- Just what I like.
- Delores, we're fine for now.
But you'll heat the oven at four?
- Yes, Mrs. Eisenhower.
- Thanks, Delores.
Seasoning is making me hungry.
- Well.
How was lunch?
- Just well.
Except I hardly felt like going back for another nine.
- Well, you'll just sit in the car
as long as you need to.
- Believe you me,
that's just what I did.
Any calls?
- Yes, but they'll wait.
- No.
I better do Washington before it's too late.
- Now why'd I know you'd say that?
- Mr. Secretary, I'll tell you the same thing
I told you last autumn,
you don't want to be in Vietnam the next 20 years.
And you got Congressmen saying these things publicly,
it's just making it harder.
- [Bob] We realize that, sir.
- Well, untie Westmoreland's hands.
- [Bob] General, this is only partly
concerning Indochina.
That's the official reason for my call of course.
General, have you heard of the town
of Kecksburg in Pennsylvania?
- Sure, it's a couple hours from my farm.
- [Bob] There was an incident at Kecksburg
some months ago.
A crashed object.
- A disc?
- [Bob] It was acorn-shaped.
Big acorn.
- It's a curious shape.
- [Bob] What's also curious, General
is that the craft apparently contained a map.
The map apparently contained a marking
that could be interpreted as your farm in Gettysburg.
- [Eisenhower] I'm sure that was a misinterpretation.
- [Bob] Perhaps.
I don't have all of the details.
I was simply asked by the special group
to request your clarification.
- You think they were coming to visit me?
- [Bob] Why else would they have your address?
Figuratively speaking, sorry.
- Mr. Secretary, I've made it resoundingly clear
I want nothing to do with that group.
- [Bob] Is there any room to interpret
your position as less than categorical?
- None.
And if the President wants my advice,
have him pick up the phone and call me
like he always does, huh?
- [Bob] General, I'm sure you can appreciate
that President Johnson has no role
in the group at this point.
- Which is precisely why I want nothing to do with it.
Good evening, Mr. Secretary.
- [Bob] I'm just conveying a request-
(phone clacking)
- Not that dirty business again.
- Give him credit for being relentless.
- [Mamie] I'm gonna close your blinds.
- Oh.
Thank you, darling.
- [Mamie] Now, you think you can relax?
- I can try.
(mystical music)
- [President] General.
(birds chirping)
- Mmm.
You never do needlepoint in this room.
- Change of pace.
- You're like a vision, divine.
- Well, somebody slept well.
- I declare, something smells scrumptious.
- I hope it tastes half as good.
- [Moaney] (knocking) General?
I got your jacket and slacks.
- That's fine, Moaney.
I'll dress myself.
- [Moaney] I'll leave them in your dressing room, sir.
- Thank you.
You buy this in town?
- I did.
Desmond's.
- Oh, it suits you well.
Very je ne se quois.
- Mmm.
Oh, two hours till guests.
- [Eisenhower] Plenty of time to mount an offensive.
- Honey, you're already dressed!
- Don't you worry.
- Oh.
Now who's that mysterious stranger?
- [Eisenhower] No idea.
- [Mamie] Hmm, come on, let's go.
(several indistinct voices talking over each other)
- Hello, hi.
- [Eisenhower] Oh, Thalia, what a lovely dress.
- Hello, Mamie.
- Very good.
(meat cooking on grill)
- Good lord, this is like a pound.
I'm gonna kill these old boys.
- Trust me, these boys like 'em big.
- Well, then I'll oblige 'em.
On your orders.
- I used to grill with Nelson all the time.
- [Jeremy] Oh yeah?
- Mhmm.
- And did he- (can hissing)
(Laurie gasping and laughing)
Shit.
- It's okay, don't worry.
Your dad has plenty of pants like those in his closet.
I think he was a 36.
- Well, I'm a 34, thank you.
I can barely walk in the son-of-a-bitch's room at this point
to tell you the truth.
- What are you so afraid of?
- [Jeremy] How should I know?
- Might do you some good to find out.
- Listen, Blue Flower of Valhalla,
office hours are over now.
- Okay.
(loungey jazz music)
- Burgers, ladies and gentlemen.
- All right, burgers! - About time.
- Who wants another transfusion?
Should I mix up a batch?
- Absolutely. - Yes sir.
- Very good.
- Transfusions?
- 'Ike's Transfusion' is the official name.
I'll show you.
I just learned.
Vodka.
For this crowd, more vodka.
Equal parts Welch's grape
and some good brewed ginger ale.
Drop in a lime wedge.
According to the bartender at the clubhouse,
that got Ike through his winters.
- Then it must be good.
Cheers.
- Cheers.
- I see you two have met.
- Larry Jacobsen.
- Jeremy Rudd.
I'm glad you could make it.
- I was deeply saddened to hear about Nelson.
He was like a grandfather and a brother to me.
I had just flown down to Groom Lake from Vegas.
It was my first time at the Ranch,
still my post-doc year.
Nelson sits me down the very first day
to read me into my compartment.
"You know, Larry", he says.
"You seem like a normal guy like the rest of us.
"And at some point a normal guy is bound to be drunk
"at a party.
"And he is bound to have an urge to come clean,
"just share everything."
(guitar strumming)
"And I want you to know, we really don't care.
"We won't hurt you.
"But in fairness, you should know
"that we will kill your wife, your children,
"your mom, your dad, your miniature fucking pony."
(laughing)
"And your best friends one by one."
(crowd laughing)
"But you'll be okay."
(laughing) He was ready to kill me.
My first day, he was gonna kill me. (laughing)
- Nelson was nothing if not quick on his feet.
Good example.
We were down at Quantico for a security conference.
We had just played a fast nine holes on the course.
We run in to the outgoing Vice President,
this was a few years back.
I congratulate him.
And I point out with my usual tact,
well sir, the fact that a colored socialist
has the self-preservation instinct
to appoint an ex-Marine Commandant
to be his National Security Advisor,
doesn't that give you hope?
(crowd boos)
At which point the Vice President turns to Nelson
and asks, "I didn't just hear the General
"refer to the new President of the United States
"as a colored socialist, did I?"
Without missing a beat, Nelson comes back.
"No, Mr. Vice President.
"The General has been unusually flatulent
"on the course today.
"That must have been what you heard."
(subdued crowd laughter)
And with that,
(farting)
- Oh.
- I need another Transfusion.
- Yeah, of brain cells.
- Allow me to stir you one, General.
- [Jacobsen] I'm sorry, it just came out that way,
now it just comes out that way.
- Well I may live to regret my words
when I wind up leading the next issue of the Peking Digest,
your esteemed broadcast.
- Actually it's The People's Digest, sir.
- Another memory lapse.
And you and the socialist go back a long way, don't you?
That expensive prep school in Hawaii
that daddy sent your ungrateful little ass to.
From what I hear,
the socialist isn't taking your phone calls these days.
Is that another example
of his self-preservation instinct?
- General, I daresay the legend of your bellicosity
has not been overstated.
- Gentlemen, I think we need some more music.
- Nor has the legend of your error-ridden
wildly inventive, some might say treasonous,
I definitely say limp-dicked reportage.
- All right, thank you.
Enough. (glass shattering)
(bashing)
Ow!
- [Man] Whoah, whoah, whoah, boys!
- Oh, for chrissakes.
- [Man] We're not cavemen!
- [Jacobsen] You feeling cold at all?
- [Jeremy] No.
- [Jacobsen] Can you open your mouth?
- (sighing) Sort of.
- You might want to put some pressure on this, okay?
- The hell was I thinking?
- Probably the same thing we're all thinking.
- That man was head of Air Force Intelligence Command?
That's a real eye opener.
- You know, if I may say so,
he is someone to regard with caution.
- Really?
- I can tell you that he an a couple of the other guys,
they took quite an interest in your Chetco Aircraft piece.
- You think my father saw it?
- Can't say for sure, but they're a tightly knit bunch.
- So I gather.
Maybe you can explain some of his mission patches to me?
- I could try.
NRO has to win the award for creepiest.
You tell me what a three-headed serpent
wrapped around the globe means, huh?
I have no idea.
- Like ancient cave drawings.
Decipher a whole civilization.
What, NRO?
- National Reconnaissance Office.
You know they managed to keep their existence
secret for 30 years?
Now this one's a little more obvious.
TENCAP, Tactical Exploration of National Capabilities.
- (chuckling) There's some wiggle room in that phrase,
National Capabilities.
What's with the alien face and all the weird chevrons?
- Oderint Dum Metuant,
that must have something to do with it.
- My Latin's a notch down from my Swahili, do you...
- I believe it relates to Emperor Caligula.
Let them hate so long as they fear,
some such nonsense.
I see you take shorthand.
I'm impressed.
- I'm impressed you can read it upside down.
- Well it's spookery 101.
- What about the inverted triangle?
- You know, I'm gonna get you a doctor.
- No, nope, I don't do doctors.
- [Jacobsen] You're about as stubborn as your old man.
- Nope.
- [Jacobsen] I'll fetch you some ice at least, how about that?
(light music)
- [President] It may come as little comfort
to learn from this quarter
the esteem in which your father was held
by many in the armed services.
The only time I met him was once with you.
This must have been first half of our senior year.
(sound of home movie projector)
He was visiting from the mainland.
You asked me to ride out to Hickam Field with you.
There was no mistaking how much his political views
diverged from yours, and by extension from mine.
I can only imagine it was never easy to be that dude's son.
But he was nothing if not fascinating.
Humbly, I pray, old friend
that his passing may allow you in some measure
as the view from these digs has allowed me,
better to reconcile all the perspectives
that weave humanity's tapestry.
(keys jangling and fountains)
(knocking and door opening)
- [Ben] Golf or music, Mr. President.
- Let's do golf.
My game yesterday was a shambles.
- [Ben] Wakeup call?
- Never!
- Oh, sounds good!
- About an hour before dinner.
- Roger that.
- Thanks, Ben.
(door opening and closing)
(sound of surf outside)
(chill music)
- [Narrator] Welcome.
We invite you to lie back, relax, breathe deeply.
Inner serenity is the key to performance
in the outer world.
Whether you seek a better game of golf
or a greater sense of oneness with the universe.
These binaural beats will help you
to get in touch with deeper levels of awareness.
Enjoy.
(guests chattering)
- Glad to see you again.
- [Mamie] Oh we were just finishing.
Please.
- Your usual win, General?
- Remains to be seen.
No matter.
Come here.
- Could use some advice.
One lame duck to another.
- Intention always gets you answers, doesn't it?
When it doesn't get you into trouble.
- What's it, 50 years since you died?
This thing's become a monster.
- [Eisenhower] I thought I spelled it out.
- You did.
Its deep state's only getting deeper,
all because of a handful of dastardly men.
- That's one way of looking at it.
- But not yours.
You see, this is why I need your perspective, General.
- Who are those dastardly men?
Ask yourself that.
And why is it they hold any sway?
Ask yourself that, hmm?
- The Justice Department has indicted
five top executives and engineers
of Chetco Aircraft Corporation under the Espionage Act.
This comes just one week after a Federal Judge
found those same individuals in contempt of court
for refusing to comply
with an injunction issued earlier this month.
Both actions arose after Chetco announced
it would manufacture what it calls, quote:
'the world's first electrogravitic performance enhancer
for commercial airliners, the Ipotane.'
- I thought this might go differently.
- [Lila] Can you record something analyzing the indictments?
- I'd rather wait
on a long piece I'm doing.
I think the Atlantic might take it at 6,000 words.
- That's great, but I need analysis now.
What about the White House?
- Lila.
I don't have POTUS's cell phone.
I don't think he has one anymore.
- He's gonna have to take questions sometime, yeah?
Ah, good point.
By the way, what the hell happened to your face?
- What?
Oh, yeah.
It's an odd world, let me tell you.
We had a little get-together the other night.
Lot of drinking, kind of a wake without a body.
- [Lila] Who's we?
- A few of the old man's cronies.
The girl who worked for him did the organizing.
She's a good kid and we've hung out a bit.
- Not a good idea, you're vulnerable.
- She's part of the story somehow.
- [Lila] Which story?
- I'm getting the feeling it's all one goddamn story.
I'm reading Larry Jacobsen's book.
You read it?
- No.
- You said you loved Tesla tech.
- Not by way of his lying mouth.
- You seem to know a thing or two about him.
- Yeah I wish I didn't.
He tried to hit on me at a UFO conference once.
- I didn't realize you go to UFO conferences.
- Yeah I've been to a couple.
I don't really advertise it.
- It's nothing to be ashamed of.
- Then why are you making the case?
- I'm just curious.
- Yeah he was there giving one of those insider talks,
trying to titillate people with disinformation.
- Why'd we invite him to the memorial?
- We didn't.
- He just showed up?
- Well he was your father's protege, kinda.
I assume that story he told you about Area 51 was true.
- Did my father confirm it?
- Not to me.
I knew they worked there together, but,
- On what?
- Don't know.
Why don't you ask Larry Jacobsen?
- Oh I will.
I doubt he'll tell me.
- All I know is he's a spook
and they themselves don't know when they're lying.
- I find these people and what they do
disconcerting to say the least.
- Welcome to your father's world.
- The hell is that?
- Hey there.
Welcome, thanks for stopping by.
- Thanks for having us.
- Sure.
Let me know if you have any questions.
- Thank you.
- [Shop Owner] Mhmm.
- Excuse me, who is the artist here?
- Ah, good question.
Luckily for you, the price reflects it.
- Reflects that it's unsigned?
- Yeah.
It's unsigned, but that is a gorgeous painting.
I really love it.
- How much?
(birds chirping)
Are you seeing this?
Who the hell painted this?
Some local.
Right?
- Definitely wasn't Nelson, I can vouch for that.
- No.
- Maybe somebody in the clubhouse knows.
So you're taking that back to the rambling brownstone?
- Damn right I am.
It's brick, actually, brickstone.
You should come visit.
Plenty of room.
- You know I've never been east of Flagstaff?
- [Jeremy] What?
- Yeah.
So many places that I wanted to visit.
- [Jeremy] What's stopping you?
- It's complicated.
But I'll get around to it.
- When you do, that'll be hanging in your guest bedroom.
Wanna eat?
- Sure.
(somber music)
- [Eisenhower] It's hard to get the hair right.
- It's even harder to keep it straight,
I'll tell you that.
- At least you have something to keep straight.
- You know what I miss most
since we left the White House?
Having a barber right there whenever you need him.
- That's right.
What about a negro cowboy?
What would he do if there wasn't a barber around?
- He'd cut it himself.
- [Eisenhower] Think so?
- [Moaney] Or take some pomade from his saddlebag,
slick it down, it gets too long.
- [Eisenhower] That's right.
- You know, speaking of cowboys,
Mr. Zanuck sent over his new western picture.
- Really?
- Yes sir.
In case you feel like a movie tonight.
- (sighing) Maybe tomorrow.
I might take a tablet.
Didn't sleep well.
- General, if that new picture's anything
like Mr. Zanuck's last picture,
you won't need no sleeping tablet.
- That's right. (laughing)
(chill music)
(urgent music)
- [Newsreel Announcer] James V. Forrestal becomes America's
first Secretary of Defense.
Now that the long battle for unification of the services
has been won,
the former Navy Secretary has this to say.
- The National Security Act of 1947
constitutes the most decisive step
taken by the United States
in the foreign nation of a national military policy
since the foundation of the republic.
It is a law which represents an accommodation
between many divergent points of view.
But it is a workable law.
It is a step which will help to maintain peace.
But if war ever should come again
it will help us to deal with it swiftly and effectively.
America will be safer because of it.
- They should have called it the 'Flying Saucer Mayhem Act'.
- What Forrestal had to deal with,
I mean, Navy's intransigence all through then,
the unification battles,
strikes me as outright insubordination.
- Of course it was, the backroom boys.
One thing for sure about them,
those dastardly men you complain about
is their tendency toward insubordination.
- They're always gonna find a way
to do their own thing their own way.
Boy do I know that.
- Navy had a lot of backroom boys, I'm sure you knew that.
They weren't about to give away their planes
to some upstart Air Force.
And they sure as hell weren't gonna give away
their piece of the saucer pie.
- [President] Saucer pie?
Meaning roundcraft, ET's operational hardware?
- [Eisenhower] The gadgets.
They were meaningless at first.
We didn't understand how they worked, nobody did,
not even the Germans we brought over.
- So, gadgets led to agreements
with the ETs.
- No, no, no, you're getting ahead of yourself.
In '47 we had a monopoly on the most powerful
gadget on earth.
And Truman wanted to keep it that way.
- [Reporter] The shockwave will arrive shortly.
- But from what I understand,
didn't the visitors show up for the most part
to keep us from using the bomb?
- [Eisenhower] They had an eye on us after Japan,
that's for sure.
And they were willing to show us
how easily they could disable anything
with a nuclear warhead that we tried to send up.
- But the public didn't know this.
How were you planning on dealing with the public?
- That was always the elephant in the room.
Hmm.
One thing for sure, you couldn't tell the public
the whole story.
Because we didn't know the whole story!
The backroom boys didn't know the whole story.
But...
The visitors helped us.
They gave the public a mystery.
It was all about acclimatization, Mr. President.
Controlled acclimatization.
- [Jacobsen] Oh, looking better, my friend.
- Oh yeah?
- Much better.
And, I brought you a gift.
You know, some men are embarrassed to buy makeup.
But this stuff can cover just about anything.
Straight out of Hollywood. (Jeremy laughs)
- Oh, thank you.
You doing well?
- Busy.
- [Jeremy] Doing what, dare I ask?
- This and that.
- [Jeremy] That's what I get for asking.
- [Jacobsen] How's the big essay coming?
- It's coming.
- Oh, touché.
- That Chetco story didn't play out like I thought.
You want coffee?
- [Jacobsen] I'd love one.
- I mean the whole,
it's impossible to report on.
It's all speculation.
Nobody's ever even seen
this goddamn airplane of theirs, the Ipotane?
- I have.
- No one outside the black world, I mean.
- Didn't realize you had company.
(Laurie clears throat)
Hello.
- You're his golf date?
- I'm not saying there's much I can say
about Chetco necessarily.
- Well, I wish you would.
You've got nosebleed clearances, don't you?
- [Jacobsen] Nosebleed clearances can be a curse.
- Laurie's here organizing my father's papers.
Princeton's taking them.
- Yes, I know.
Unfortunately, all the good stuff's locked away
in special access programs.
Born secret, forever secret,
no mandatory declassification date.
- Well that's fucked up, excuse my French.
- [Jacobsen] Oh, I'm with you a hundred percent, buddy.
(kettle whistling)
- Wait.
- Take my word, he's not gullible.
You may end up giving away your crown jewels
without even knowing it.
- You have no idea how miserable I can make your life.
- And you have no idea what Nelson told me about you
and your family.
- You're so lucky Nelson didn't ask too many questions
about you, cunning little vixen.
- Go fuck yourself.
- And there it is.
- [Jeremy] You having coffee, Laurie?
- No.
I've gotta go.
I have a client.
See you later.
- Yeah, sure, thanks.
Thanks again.
So.
You've seen the Ipotane?
You fly in it?
- I have flown in it.
I haven't piloted it.
- That's what I meant of course.
- You might wanna see this.
It's conventional at first.
Then, at cruising altitude,
the jet engines ionize their exhaust in such a way
that it creates an electrostatic charge
across the leading edge of the wing.
15 million volts of performance enhancement.
Think of it as creating a sort of gravity well
that pulls the plane into it.
Yes, in that sense it's very much like a classic
flying disc. A roundcraft, if you will.
- You and Lila, I can't talk about flying discs.
How does it maintain its lift?
- By shielding itself from gravity.
- Okay.
That's the other problem with reporting on this.
- Well it's only a problem if you're stuck
in the old physics.
Are you stuck in the old physics?
- Well I don't want to be.
- Good.
Because we can't get very far if you are.
Images, Mr. Rudd.
Images can go a long way
toward clearing things up.
- Okay, I'm attentive.
- Do we have the tee off at ten?
Your dad charged me with safekeeping this stuff.
I like to think he trusted me.
- Was he expecting to go somewhere?
(Jacobsen laughs)
(storage cabinet opening)
- You should really have the key.
It's technically yours now.
- Do I want the key, Professor?
- I think you might.
- [Jeremy] What the hell is that?
(heavy container creaking)
- (grunting) Memorabilia.
I planned a little showing.
Shall we?
(light mysterious music)
(heavy container creaking)
- [Video Narrator] 25 offshoots or suckers
during the first 10 or 15 years of its life.
It usually requires from five
- [Jeremy] It's the best date shake I've ever had.
It's the only date shake I've ever had.
- [Jacobsen] No one ever leaves here without saying that.
- That was my father's?
- Yeah.
Thank the stars everything still works around here.
- [Video Narrator] After it's planted,
it requires an additional eight to 15 years-
(film projector clatter)
- Patrick Air Force Base, '58.
ICBM launch test.
It's a huge 48-inch lens.
And the missile is heading east across the ocean.
14,000 miles an hour, into subspace.
If you look in the upper right corner of the frame,
a luminous object traveling even faster appears.
And it directs a beam at the missile in several places.
This is a charged particle beam of some sort,
completely disabling it.
- Disables the guidance system?
- [Jacobsen] It shut off the yaw gyro.
There was no warhead on the missile, of course.
But if there had been, we have every reason to believe
that the arming and fuzing mechanism
would have also been disabled.
- [Jeremy] Un-fucking believable.
- [Jacobsen] And no one was hurt.
- [Jeremy] Have they declassified this?
- You've gotta be kidding me.
Well, there's more.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
- [Jacobsen] Mr. Rudd.
- No, you're gonna force me to sign
some sort of inadvertent disclosure agreement.
- I am not gonna force you to sign anything.
Relax, please.
(lightly tense music)
(film projector clatter)
- [Jeremy] Is that ours or theirs?
- [Jacobsen] Well, if 'by theirs' you mean the Russians.
- I don't mean the Russians.
- This is Maitland Air Force Base, February '55.
You can verify the date from the edgeprint
of the original negative.
That's straight out of the camera.
- [Jeremy] Ike?
- [Jacobsen] Mhmm.
(clattering)
Hey.
- [Jeremy] Fuck.
- [Jacobsen] There, there.
You need a Xanax?
- Hmm, no.
- [Jacobsen] Okay.
This can be an emotional experience.
(Jeremy's labored breathing)
- [Jeremy] What happens next?
- Well therein lies a vast tale, my dear friend.
Your father.
- No.
- Like a few of us in the organization,
believed that it was time for this to be made public.
This belongs to you, my friend.
- This is bullshit.
(tense drum roll)
- [Eisenhower] More than once,
things almost went differently.
(somber music)
- [Forrestal] You think Project Shamrock's the only
time bomb we're sitting on?
- [Kennedy] I'll take your word for it.
And I'm flattered you'd think I'd have any sort of pull
with my fellow congressmen.
- [Forrestal] You don't need pull, Jack.
You have the Speech or Debate Clause.
You can bring it up on the House floor
and they can't prosecute you.
- No, but they can censure me, vote me out.
Or worse.
- Realize that all the security apparatus
of these United States could wind up in the shitter.
- Sure you want me to hear this?
You've got a lot more to lose than I do.
- This country's got a lot to lose.
And I won't let it happen.
Not on my watch.
(bag zipping)
For the love of Mike,
won't you read some of this
into the Congressional Record?
- [Kennedy] Is this related to what we discussed in Germany
two years ago?
Those balls of light?
- Related, I presume.
But a lot has happened since then.
Read the Estimate.
- [Eisenhower] Forrestal had a Jesuit's secretiveness.
But what the backroom boys didn't count on,
he also had a Jesuit's annoying sense of morality.
He could think this thing through.
He realized it would be impossible
to keep this secret forever.
(tense music and drum roll)
- [Hank] Drink up, Jim.
- Mr. Secretary, if you don't mind.
- You're a hero, Jim.
That's how Josephine and the boys will remember you.
That's how the country will remember you.
They'll name a ship after you, maybe a college.
What would you think of that, pal?
Time's running out.
If you don't take care of this,
you know what's gonna happen to Jo and the boys.
- It's too short.
- You're a hero, Jim.
And you have my word.
No harm to Jo and the boys.
(somber music)
- Forgive me.
(crashing)
(woman screaming)
- Did you realize what had happened?
- I knew he was overworked, confused even.
Later I got more information.
The question was, who was next?
Could it be Truman if he changed his mind,
decided to spill the beans?
- I can't imagine Truman ever anticipating
an indefinite secrecy about ETs.
- That's right, I don't believe he did.
You had men, good men,
having reactions within themselves
that they couldn't control.
They couldn't even begin to understand.
It may be hard for you to fathom, Mr. President,
but 'War of the Worlds' was still a fresh memory
to those men.
(light music)
- The safest kind of wildlife.
- (laughing) Doves.
- There's kind of an angle to this.
Why would they put a bench?
Sorry, stay over there.
Don't be so close to me.
Back off.
Caudiciforms, non-cacti succulent plants
with the large bulbous bases.
- Hmm.
- [Jeremy] You knew that.
(gasping)
He's all over us,
this guy. - Yes.
He scared me.
- We might have overstayed our welcome.
Do we owe you any more?
- Not at all.
- Did you...
Do you know this person?
- Oh, in that picture?
No, I don't know the person, but,
- Do you mind if I see it?
- My parents knew him.
Love to show it to you.
- He was known only as 'Swami'.
For nearly a decade he could be seen
meditating beneath the serenity of the cacti.
- You say your parents knew him?
- [Clark Moorten] Yes.
He used to visit the garden.
- When his time in the desert was over
he disappeared as mysteriously as when he arrived.
You never asked my father about the photo?
- I think he thought of it as good luck.
- [Jeremy] Like this guy was his guru or something?
- No, like a rabbit's foot.
Like 'Swami's got my back.'
I think he's said that once or twice.
- 'Swami's got my back'?!
(Laurie laughing)
No, that's the kind of photo a guru gives
to a devotee.
- [Laurie] Honestly I think he thought of it as a joke.
Like the little pink tea cozy that belonged
to Mrs. Eisenhower.
- [Jeremy] I'm not familiar with Mamie's tea cozy.
- I'll point it out to you.
It's in the kitchen.
- So are you saying the photo might have been there
before my father bought the house?
- Could have been.
I know a lot of the furniture was.
- Oh, here we go, there you are.
Nope, don't turn around.
They've been there for a while.
(tense music)
(tire squeals)
(chuckling)
Hey there, fellas.
(camera clicking)
(intense music)
Get out.
Get out!
(tires screeching)
Get on!
You okay?
- [Laurie] Yeah.
- That was interesting.
You've seen that car before?
- No.
Oh god. - It's all right.
- Let's get out of the road.
(chill music)
- It was no longer about humanity's readiness.
It was about opportunism and turf wars.
Inconceivable amounts of money
funneled into defense contractors
who became guardians of the secrets.
(tense music)
False signals were transmitted,
one agency misled another.
And by the time my successor took office
and began to dissect the components,
so much could be hidden from the president, you see?
- But he had his resources like you had.
- [Eisenhower] That's right, but the backroom boys
had more of 'em.
(mysterious music)
- Whenever I ask about any of it,
the ET Industrial Complex, if you will,
the briefing I get
is like a puzzle.
They're leaving me to fill in the blanks.
- But they give you just enough,
just enough to convince you the secrecy needs to continue
and often they don't give you the true reasons
for the secrecy.
- Yeah they mix it up with the big tease,
that's for sure.
You gotta laugh, though.
I get invited to this room at Fort Belvoir, right?
Who's the briefing officer, Major General so-and-so.
Odd looking guy, dark glasses,
a lot of flags on his uniform.
Now he's got the tickets, let me tell ya.
All of them.
- The scope tells us the unit has reached
a zero-value crossover point.
I will now switch in the clamp feedback system
for self-powering
while simultaneously disconnecting the external current
that powered the device during its startup phase.
I will now add a load.
(clunk and escalating machine noise)
- What's it doing?
- Generating electricity, Mr. President.
Obviously.
- Out of thin air?
- You could say that.
It is self-powering a hundred percent
of its loads and losses.
It will continue to do so indefinitely,
subject only to mechanical shaft wear.
(President chuckles)
- You know we don't grant patents
on perpetual motion, right?
And a few other things that defy the laws of physics?
- I'm well aware of that.
This, and other devices like it
have existed on your plan-
They've existed for well over a hundred years.
- Why is it locked up in a place like this?
When it could be out there in the world, doing good,
getting us off oil?!
- It'll happen when you're ready.
- When I'm ready?
- When the world is ready, Mr. President.
- Who is he to say when the world is ready?
Then come to find out,
every president for the past 40 years
has been given the same briefing
by the same briefing officer,
the same damn box.
- And I bet you the fellow looks just like he did
40 years ago.
- Hold on, it gets better.
Later, the guy's name turns up on a list
of non-terrestrial flag officers.
- You'd met your first spaceman.
- [President] Let me tell you, that blew my mind
more than the box.
- [Lars] But did that not strengthen your resolve
to lessen the secrecy?
- It certainly confirmed the situation.
Wait, who are you?
- This is Lars.
Our nickname, of course.
It's about time you two met.
Lars is the fellow who came to visit us
at Maitland that day.
- How do you do, sir?
- Mr. President.
Your resolve.
- I'm afraid, like a lot of things,
I had to check it at the door.
(static on screen)
- [Laurie] Next time you have him tailed,
try not to get me killed.
- Be that as it may,
make sure your alternative media darling
doesn't wind up with keys to the store
wittingly or unwittingly.
- Why do we care?
- He keeps notes or recordings
of what Larry Jacobsen tells him?
- He keeps notes on everything
including me, I'm sure.
- Get them.
- Will that help me get out of this arrangement?
- [Jeremy] And here comes the fashion statement.
Oh my god. - Oh. (Laurie laughs)
- Nope, nope.
- [Laurie] Yes.
- No, no, no. - Yes. (chuckling)
- [Jeremy] He's tall.
- [Laurie] So when did he change?
- He's a man who got divorced,
didn't see his family much.
He'd fly back from the mainland
a couple of times a year.
He just got bitter or something.
- [Laurie] 'Cause he didn't wanna leave paradise.
- [Jeremy] Yup.
- [Laurie] Or his beautiful son.
- I doubt I had much to do with this.
Oh, really?
- [Laurie] I loved your hair.
- Somehow I avoided the crew cut.
All right, what other embarrassing things have you seen?
- Well that's it as far as the movies go.
There's a couple of snapshots.
- You mind if I work?
- No, I don't mind if you work.
(light piano music)
(typewriter clacking)
(ringtone: 'Hail to the Chief')
- Rudd.
- [Man On Phone] Sir, I have White House
Deputy Chief of Staff Kat Rollins
calling for Mr. Jeremy Rudd.
- Okay, thank you.
- [Man On Phone] Sir, this is not a secure call.
- All right, I understand.
Hey.
How you doing?
Oh, thanks, that's sweet of you.
I had no idea he was so well liked, frankly.
- [Kat] There are making a stop
on their way back from Hawaii.
Maitland Air Force Base, near where you're staying.
- Maitland?
I didn't see that on the public schedule.
- [Kat] Just got added.
Some remarks to the guys and gals in uniform.
- Oh, brother. (Kat laughing)
And how would that possibly interest me?
- [Kat] Chief just thought you might like to be there.
- Oh, okay, why didn't you say so?
- [Kat] Think we're calling to thank your sorry ass
for the Chetco headache?
- Hey, it is not my fault no one else
is reporting on it.
I'd like to know how it got to this point.
Kat.
Off the record, if you want.
Why didn't anybody stop them sooner?
- [Kat] Asked and answered.
We're trying to stay out of Chetco.
- Is he gonna declassify and end this whole mess?
- [Kat] You know more about this than I do.
- Fine.
Can I bring a guest with me?
- [Kat] Send me the details and I'll find out.
- All right thanks, her name is Laurie Larkspur,
like the flower.
- [Kat] Aw, get her social security number if you can.
Make it easier. - I'll try.
- [Kat] Thank you.
(light music)
- [Jeremy] Sorry.
(planes zooming)
- [Eisenhower] In 1944, Churchill gave me a talk.
He said the 'high cabal' intended to keep all this secret
for two generations.
Now at that time, this seemed reasonable to me
given all the trauma the world had suffered during the war.
But eight years later, once they gave me the presidency,
a lot was changing.
I was warned.
I was warned that the saucer business
could turn in a very ugly direction.
- [Beetle] Sir.
- I take it you're gonna tell me
what I need to know about these damn visitors.
- There's more of them, that's for sure.
Biggest year so far.
They're at all the tests.
We got a report last week
they disabled the fuzing mechanism on an A-bomb.
- Now that's troubling.
Very troubling.
It's bad enough they overfly the Capitol,
bad enough the public sees them,
knows there's not a damn thing we can do.
Public finds out they can shut off an A-bomb?
- You betcha.
- They're gonna ask why can't they just as easily fire one.
What do I tell 'em?
- Nothing, of course.
- That's easy for you to say.
I'm in a press room, some reporter wants to know.
He's got a right to know.
- Like hell he does.
- They can see these things with their own eyes!
- They can see 'em but they're not gonna believe it
until we tell 'em to believe it.
- Sounds like quicksand.
- It's called cognitive dissonance.
And it's how we control this information.
- Goddamn your psychological ops, it's still quicksand.
- We need time.
We need time to develop more leverage with them.
The ones we can
speak with anyway. - Ah, fuck.
It's still quicksand.
(bell dinging and doppler)
For crying out loud,
how do you develop leverage with a spaceman?
- You'll get no argument from me there, boss.
In fact, you need to know, I'm leaving the group.
My seat's gonna be vacant.
- What perfect timing.
- Honestly, I have no other choice.
I'm gonna have to leave it right there.
My advice, if you want it
is get your own man into that group.
Your brother maybe.
- Let me tell you, it'll be a cold day in hell
that my brother leaves academia for your flying saucers.
- You can take this thing with the visitors
any goddamn way you care to take it.
But if you try to clean up this mess,
God forbid you try to make any of it public,
the group will be one step ahead of you at all times.
- If I'm not mistaken, Beetle,
most of those fellows wear the uniform
of this country.
- Trust me, they don't answer to it.
- I find that hard to believe.
- At the very least, you'll never get it
straight from them the way Truman did at first.
Nah, and if you try,
(chuckling) they'll laugh right in your face.
And they'll remind you that any connection
between them and the White House
is paper-thin at this point.
- They're gonna learn fast that I mean business.
- Ike!
Ike!
Don't ever forget Jim Forrestal meant business.
(cup shattering)
They will lie to you.
They will threaten you if they need to.
And how you choose to respond
could damn well determine history.
- [Eisenhower] I felt the way that I felt
the first time I set foot in a concentration camp.
I wanted to react, I wanted to react
in the way any normal American would react.
But I couldn't.
I couldn't because I knew too much.
I knew the way things really work.
And knowing the way things really work,
I knew that I had work to do.
- [Lila] I feel like we're being set up.
You know, why not just send the footage anonymously?
So they can make it seem like you did something
illegal to induce the disclosure, that's why.
- No, this fell into my lap.
- [Lila] Yeah, it looks otherwise.
- I realize that, but think about what it means.
We've had access to anti-gravity technology
for what, more than 60 years.
This footage, believe me.
It illustrates that beautifully.
- Hello, Earth to Jeremy.
The whole thing then becomes about proving it's authentic.
Okay and in the process, you just throw the credibility
and your reporting on Chetco
out the window. - Lila, Lila.
This stuff is credible,
specially when the forensics check out, believe me.
I mean, it may be unbelievable
but I guarantee you it's authentic.
- It's a distraction, for Christ's sake.
(doorbell dinging) - Hold on.
Hey, come in.
I'm on with Lila. - Oh.
- Who's in the room?
- [Jacobsen] Did you get her legal opinion?
- Lila Parnell, Larry Jacobsen.
- Well.
- [Lila] How do you do?
- My huge pleasure to meet the engine
behind America's finest newscast.
- [Lila] Okay, very kind, Professor.
- Be careful, he's a flatterer.
- [Lila] To answer your question, I'm having lunch
with a lawyer in half an hour.
- Oh.
Well allow me to save you some money.
It's highly unlikely the government would charge you.
You know, you're a bonafide news outlet.
You're adding value to the information.
There are strong First Amendment precedents.
No criminal intent on your part.
If, on the other hand, Mr. Rudd chooses
to retain his father's memorabilia,
he could be seen as a co-conspirator.
- What?
- In the theft of classified government property.
- I didn't talk to him for 20 years.
How is that conspiracy?
- Well, given the facts and circumstances
it might not be hard
to build a case. - No, no, no, no, no.
- Gentlemen, I need to get going.
- If I may say so,
you need to see the footage.
May I send a plane for you?
- A plane, for me?
No, there has to be some other way.
- I'm afraid not.
- That all sounds very cloak and dagger, Professor.
You know, we do have a secure dropbox.
- Don't kid yourself what's secure, Ms. Parnell.
- Ah, right.
I'll get back with you.
- She winked at me.
What do you think that means?
- [Jeremy] Probably that she likes you.
- Or she's afraid.
Hopefully her lawyer doesn't make her more so.
- [Jeremy] I can't play golf today.
- (grumbling) No.
No, it's more important that you get your bearings.
- I thought I had 'em.
Take that with you, please.
- As you wish.
- [Jeremy] I'm not gonna help you carry it, even.
- You know what makes me sad, my friend,
if I may call you that?
You know, if you don't use this film,
we'll offer it to another outlet.
And of course they'll take it.
And of course, they'll sensationalize it to death.
And then what?
It becomes another act in the circus,
another pipe in the mighty Wurlitzer
I guess you'd say.
Without your discernment, without your analysis,
without what I know is your commitment to honesty,
then this just disappears into folklore.
No more or less fondly remembered
than, say, the alien autopsy hoax.
Which, by the way, wasn't one of ours.
(phone ringing)
- Rudd.
- [Kat] I have to assume you have no idea
who this Laurie Larkspur is?
- Wait, Kat?
What number is this?
- [Kat] It's a phone booth.
And be glad it is.
Do you know who she is?
- She's my father's assistant.
She helps old people fix their computers.
- [Kat] Haha, that is priceless.
- Why?
- [Kat] Your Laurie works for the Department of Energy's
Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence.
Ask me how she got the job.
You of all people should know the case.
- Are you sure you have the right person?
- [Kat] She was an activist charged three years ago
under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
for trying to hack DOE.
That's some wild story about UFOs
preventing a nuclear disaster out at Tonopah.
- That was her?
- [Kat] She was looking for evidence proving it.
Real name is Beatrice Ward.
- Did they convict her?
- [Kat] It was never tried.
Energy got the charges suspended
so they could hire her
under a new identity, of course.
- Well if they hired her,
they must know about the case.
- [Kat] I'm sorry.
I suggest you be very careful what you share with her.
And by the way, the Air Force
doesn't want her anywhere near Maitland.
Neither do we.
- Okay.
(somber music)
[Nelson] Recording.
Recording.
Assistant interviews continued.
Laurie Larskpur, 2:15 p.m.
2:15 p.m.
[Laurie] In Silicon Valley I was a cog
in a very big machine.
Sure, the perks were great
but I wanted my own business.
So when my mom got sick
and I had the chance to help her and move to the desert.
- Well, with all of the retired residents out here,
this is a very strong market potential.
- True.
So would your IT needs represent
a big part of the job?
- Oh that's part of it, yes,
I'm hopeless with computers, but,
I still write longhand.
Most of what I'm doing right now
is writing my memoirs.
I'll make no bones about it, Miss Larkspur.
Is it Miss?
- Yes, but I prefer Laurie.
- Yeah.
There is a social aspect of the job.
I'm looking for someone who's at home in groups
and even older ones.
I'm looking for a gal, frankly,
who's not drawing Social Security.
(both laughing)
I won't ask you to do housekeeping or cooking
or crack my back for that matter.
- Well good, 'cause I wouldn't do that.
- [Nelson] But I would like someone who's flexible enough
to want to step out for dinner once a week or so,
maybe even take in a show.
- [Laurie] That sounds great, actually.
- What about your dad?
Is he out in this neck of the woods?
- My dad and I actually haven't spoken
in quite some time.
In all honesty, General,
he did some stupid things.
Which is why I haven't really stayed in touch with him.
- [Nelson] One would think he would be
very proud to have a daughter like you.
- Why is that?
- [Nelson] Well, you're obviously
a very together young woman.
Your background check is flawless.
And you're certainly a caring person.
What I was saying was with the retired folks, they,
(clacking)
(buzzing - turning on)
(buzzing - turning off)
[Talk Show Host] Tell the truth.
Right after you were inaugurated,
how quickly did you sprint from the podium
to wherever they keep the files on Area 51?
(everyone laughing)
'Cause I know you looked.
'Cause I would look.
- I - I - I gotta tell you.
I - I didn't sprint right after putting my hand
on the bible.
You see?
I mean there were other more important things to do
before running to chase after, you know.
But I will tell you that, uh, uh,
I have seen some stuff.
But I'm really not at liberty to say.
- Oh, okay, but that is saying.
- No, no.
- That is saying something.
My wife has taught me this.
- I know that one too.
But I'll tell you, I'll tell you.
The reason I'm not able to say anything
is because the aliens don't want us to know.
No, no, really, really.
They don't want us to know their secrets
till they WANT us to know their secrets.
It'd ruin their plans.
[President] It's the story of the century.
The press won't take it past the giggle factor.
It's like the ships are on the horizon
and everybody's waiting to be told that they're real.
And then when you try and tell them that they're real,
they complain that you're feeding them disinformation.
If that's not cognitive dissonance, I don't know what is.
- The answer is in one word, fear.
The same fear that allowed Mr. McCarthy to do what he did,
same fear that allows Congress to fund every war.
Fear.
It's what let the backroom boys steal history.
Given their bloodlines,
they assumed it was theirs to steal.
- As a student of history, I'm curious.
Why didn't you stop them, General?
- Oh, I had hoped.
I had hoped maybe I could outflank 'em.
- Obviously I wasn't able to do everything
that I had in mind when I got into the office.
You know, but that's our democracy
and that's the way it works
and that's the way it's supposed to work.
(buzzing - turning on)
(knocking)
(door creaking)
- Hey.
- [Laurie] Hey.
- How you doing?
- Good.
- Gonna be a beautiful sunset.
Do you wanna hike?
- Sure.
Let me just throw my shoes on.
- Okay.
- Hi.
- Hey.
- [Jeremy] I had an unsettling phone call yesterday.
A friend of mine from the White House.
- [Laurie] Oh yeah?
- [Jeremy] President's giving some remarks up in Maitland.
And now I'm personally invited.
- [Laurie] So what's so unsettling?
- [Jeremy] Well, he just added it to his schedule
out of the blue.
I don't know what he's gonna say.
- Suspense.
- Yeah, I'm done with suspense.
Aren't you?
I mean, my father dies, I come out here.
The Chetco piece blows up.
People get indicted for what,
trying to make the world better?
My father's young assistant wants to hang out with me.
My new best friend's a spook who also wants to hang out.
- You know he's not reliable.
- Yeah I don't know what's reliable anymore.
Why are you hanging out with me?
- Well if you have to ask-
- What are you doing with me, Laurie?
- You know, paranoia's your least attractive trait.
- I'm usually pretty good at separating the real
from the not.
It's what I do.
- I'm not doing this.
- Hey.
Can we have a real conversation then, Beatrice?
Would you just talk to me?
- Get off me.
- Beatrice Ward?
I'd love to know if anything was real.
- Fuck off.
- Hi boys.
How we doin'?
(car starting)
There we go.
Bye bye!
Good luck!
For the record.
Department of Energy, previously known
as the Atomic Energy Commission.
These are the geniuses that maintain
the Nevada Test Site.
Over a hundred nuclear tests carried out
above ground at that site, radiological experiments
conducted on United States soldiers and citizens
at that site.
A site, part of that site called Watertown,
also known popularly as Area 51, Groom Lake.
Home for 70 years of special clandestine projects.
One or more of which had their origins
in technology recovered from extraterrestrial objects.
Well nowadays, it's hard to separate the ET hardware
from the you know, our own,
but I imagine they like it that way.
This is technology.
Propulsion technology, energy technology,
antigravitic technology that literally
could save the planet.
But what's the rush?
What remains to be seen is
whether anyone in certain circles has the courage
or the wherewithal to declassify this information
and stop this fucking idiocy once and for all.
The clock is ticking.
(car honking)
Okay.
(serene otherworldly music)
(old film soundtrack noise and beep)
- [Lars] We come to you now as we share a concern
with many civilizations
at the very dangerous undertaking now unfolding
on your planet.
My dear Mr. President,
you are at the helm of a great ship riddled with holes.
We commend you, your steady hand,
your love of all that is good in your people.
But your people's love of competition,
their love of leading others to the precipice
may also lead to the end of your civilization.
We humbly offer now at your request
the knowledge we have gained
of how to harness limitless energy
that does not poison your planet.
We can help lift all the people of your world
in a cradle of prosperity.
To do this, the people of your world
must choose to rise as one.
- Mr. Ambassador, those are beautiful sentiments.
But we have seen very recently
our civilization turned to barbarism.
We simply strive to maintain a balance
that prevents another war of unthinkable destruction.
- It is what you would call a losing battle.
Our world was once very much like yours
with factions keeping one brother from another.
We have evolved into what you would think of
as a unitary consciousness.
A collective that aspires
to greater realms of service by combining
the abilities of many individuals
in the service of the All.
You and your people
are part of that All.
You see, for some time now
we have chronicled your evolution
from several different time frame points of view.
Including your future.
From now, we observe a deep transition
occurring in your civilization.
From the future of now,
we see you slowly enjoying the changes you've made.
- What's not to like about this guy?
- Have that dialogue, Mr. President.
The public wants that dialogue.
- Can I take Lars with me?
- Would that you could.
Would that I could have.
Lars, unfortunately, can't answer the hard question.
And it's as relevant to you as it was to me.
How do we, humanity, get through this
with our power intact?
And I'm not talking about might.
Our visitors made it clear it couldn't be
about having a military advantage.
It's about every individual's power
to forge his own destiny.
- In other words,
how do we make the people feel
like they're a part of some
creative evolutionary process
as opposed to being jerked around like puppets
by a conspiracy of bankers, bluebloods, the media.
- [Eisenhower] Fill in the blank.
- Fill in the blank.
- General.
With the greatest possible respect,
the idea that our people would ever just accept
the notion of a genetic intervention throughout history-
- Mr. President, your bellyaching is exactly the excuse
we used over and over again
to justify the secrecy!
- The idea that these beings are among us now
influencing world events,
tipping the scales of power,
- Get over it, we're all cosmic mutts here!
It doesn't make us any less as a people.
- Us.
I mean, you're not even physiologically incarnate
at this point.
- Neither am I.
And yet our concern has never been greater.
Nor our love.
- What I was compelled to remind myself
with gratitude every day.
What the people will one day remind themselves
with gratitude is how more than once
without ever tipping a hand,
without asking for a thing in return,
Lars's people and others like them
quietly stopped us from blowing ourselves to kingdom come.
- [Lars] My dear Mr. President.
The many voices you hear in the conduct of your leadership
often seek destruction.
They seek the cessation of humanity's progress.
They seek only their own enrichment
through the domination of others and your Earth Mother.
This you have seen in many guises.
- Jesus.
You can't make this stuff up.
How the hell did he learn our language?
- Berlitz?
- Outlying campus.
- Mr. Ambassador.
- [Jeremy] That's Ike.
Listen.
- What am I seeing now?
- [Lars] What you would call your future.
- It's glorious!
- [Lila] Glorious, did he say?
- And it can be glorious.
- [Lila] Surely someone can authenticate his voice.
- No, that's him.
I'll get an expert to go on camera, it's him.
- Glorious!
- Shit, where's my drink?
- Oh you're gonna wanna be sober for this.
- [Lars] We ask you now to listen to your own heart
and know that it beats with the heart of your people.
And all that is good in your people.
(noise of film running out)
- Well.
Can I -
Can I surmise you're onboard?
- What if my puddle jumper goes down
on the way out of here?
- Well, I can have it sent by armed courier
if you don't mind the spectacle.
- I'll manage, Professor.
- Okay.
(airport parking announcement)
- You were right.
If we don't do this, who will?
- I'll leave you here.
You know, I don't do,
- When the hell are you coming back?
You sorta need to be there.
- Next week, after POTUS's remarks up in Maitland.
- What's your gut telling you?
You think this is part of our story?
- Could be, if he has the balls.
Why else would Kat want me there?
- Just to be clear.
We go with the story regardless
of what the lying SOB says.
- Absolutely.
Be careful.
- [Lila] Yeah, keep me posted.
(music rising)
(anthemic music)
(electrostatic sound of UFO buzzing)
(knocking)
- All loaded, Mr. President.
Shall I take your gym bag?
- Not yet.
Damn, I don't wanna leave this place.
- [Ben] I don't blame you.
- What's the weather like at Maitland?
- Dry and windy tomorrow, sir.
Anything else for now?
- [President] No.
- Wheels up in an hour, sir.
- Roger that.
This breakthrough technology is often inaccessible
due to the secrecy of the Special Access Programs
in which it is developed.
It might as well exist in another world.
In fact, (chuckling)
it might as well exist in another world.
That is why, effective today,
I have issued an executive order
that immediately declassifies certain breakthrough
energy and propulsion technology.
This will in no way undermine our ability
to control the military application of this technology.
What it will do is enable inventors,
talented, eager men and women
to build upon and improve the technology
for the benefit...
To build upon and improve the technology
according to established law
for the benefit of humankind.
(somber music)
As long as there are folks like you,
then I'm confident that our nation will endure,
and hope will overcome fear.
And I'm confident that better days lie ahead.
Thank you very much, everybody.
God bless you.
God bless the United States Armed Forces.
And God bless the United States of America.
(crowd cheering)
(sobbing)
- [Jeremy Voiceover] Nelson Fenimore Rudd
may have had no intention of disseminating
the film he stole.
But even if the friendly spook had kept it secret,
the general had to have known that somebody, someday
would find it.
I like to think that my father knew
we'd find it sooner rather than later.
I like to think somehow that redeems him.
(phone beeping)
That his faithful service to the deep state
was guided by the knowledge that one day
the truth would widely be known.
- Yeah, yeah.
Hey, Rudd.
- [Man On Phone] Mr. Rudd?
Miss Larkspur is here to see you.
- No, thank you.
- [Man On Phone] I'm sorry ma'am, he's unavailable.
- [Laurie] Jeremy, please,
just give me five minutes.
- Wait, is she alone?
- [Man On Phone] Yes sir, I believe she is.
- Send her over.
- I just want you to know that I had no choice with them.
They were ready to send me away for 15 years.
- [Jeremy] Well you must be really dangerous then.
- And for what it's worth,
Nelson knew my whole story.
- [Jeremy] Well, that makes one Rudd who knew it.
- All he said was
tell them anything they wanna hear
because it's not gonna make a damn bit of difference anyway.
- [Jeremy] I need to leave for the station.
- Use this. For the Chetco story.
- [Jeremy] Don't you dare give that to me.
- It shows that it works.
That it was definitely borrowed technology.
- [Jeremy] So is my smartphone, they tell me.
- It's all true, Jeremy.
- Goddamit!
If one more lying person says that to me!
It's all true.
(sighing)
- I'm sorry that the President let you down.
I wanted him to declassify it too.
- Well, can you blame him?
He wants to see his kids grow old,
he doesn't want to contract some rare form of cancer,
he wants a big advance on his memoirs.
- You could have a word with him.
- I'm not sure he's taking my calls right now.
(light whimsical piano music)
- Write your story.
I'll help you in any way that I can.
- Did aliens really stop
whatever the hell that nuclear disaster was out at Tonopah?
- Of course they did.
- Well at least the Enquirer got it right.
- [Young Man] General, what do you think will be the outcome
of Operation Junction City in Vietnam?
- What do I think it'll be?
You're asking the wrong man, son.
- [Young Man] Well if anyone can predict, you can sir.
- From what I understand,
we're trying to crush the Ninth Division of the Vietcong
and I'm sure the rest is classified.
All I know is we've got some very capable
fellows working on it.
- Yes, sir.
The 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions.
I'll be one of them soon.
- [Eisenhower] ROTC?
- No, sir, I got drafted.
I report next week.
- Make us proud.
- [Young Man] I'll do my best, sir.
- That's all you can do.
But let's end this thing soon.
- That's my hope, sir.
- Well everybody, Mamie and I have a big country to cross.
I wanna thank you for being here
and see you next year!
(crowd applauding) - Thank you for coming.
- [Announcer] Amtrak Southwest Chief, bound for Flagstaff,
Albuquerque, Kansas City, Chicago,
and points east, now arriving on Track One.
- [Porter] Evening sir, I am your sleeping car attendant.
Looks like you're about the only one getting on.
Can I take your bags?
- Yeah, thanks.
I brought my own sheets.
I hope you don't mind.
You guys don't starch them anymore.
The smell of the starch helps me sleep.
I know that sounds crazy, but,
- [Porter] No, no, it doesn't sound crazy at all.
Believe me, I wish we still starched them.
Follow me, please.
(train horn blaring)
(orchestral music)