The public’s perception of UFOs shifted in 2017 after a New York Times article revealed a secret Pentagon UFO investigation program. The Times’ revelations may have improved ufology’s credibility, but the subject has yet to shed its association with conspiracy theorists and crackpots.
Writer-director Caroline Cory’s new documentary A Tear in the Sky builds a case for the existence of UFOs by steering clear of ufology’s fringe topics like crop circles and ancient aliens. Instead, Cory uses the U.S. Navy’s recently declassified UAP ( Unidentified Aerial Phenomena ) encounters to bolster the film’s credibility and approach skeptics with cold hard facts.
A Tear in the Sky attempts to solve the UFO mystery by placing a world-class team of investigators in a UFO hotspot. And sure, countless paranormal investigation TV shows have tried the same thing. However, this doc doesn’t waste time chasing impossible to capture supernatural phenomena like yetis or chupacabras. The film’s team of scientists and career researchers means business, utilizing military-grade equipment to collect quantifiable data on anomalous lights in the sky.
A Tear in the Sky Video Review
The research team embarks on a five-day study aiming to capture UAP data around California’s southern coast (Catalina, Laguna, and Long Beach). I won’t spoil what the team discovers, but I will say they don’t come back empty-handed.
A Tear in the Sky is mostly grounded by UFO documentary standards. After all, this is a genre littered with titles like The Bigfoot Alien Connection Revealed . While this film makes some bold claims, these statements stem from the team’s methodical, well-documented study. There are no alien abduction tales or speculating about cosmic space brothers.
The doc features familiar faces from the UFO community such as Kevin Day, Gary Voorhis, Kevin Knuth, John B. Alexander, Travis Taylor, and Steven Greenstreet. The casting didn’t stop at #UFO Twitter celebrities, either. A Tear in the Sky also stars theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, who delivers some open-minded takes on making contact with extraterrestrial life.
Cory bookends the movie with appearances from sci-fi legend William Shatner. Shatner sits down with Cory to wax on about the profound ramifications of her investigation. Shatner doesn’t say anything of consequence about the existence of aliens or UAPs. His segments come off like bits of fluff that exist to market the movie.
A Tear in the Sky does its damndest to come across as a legit scientific investigation, but a few things gnawed at me (like casting Shatner). There’s a level of theatricality that hurts the doc’s credibility.
Even though I enjoyed the movie, I couldn’t shake its carnival barker vibe. The premise screams out, “Step right up, purchase a ticket (or a DVD), and discover the mysteries of the universe.” At the end of the day, this authentic investigation still feels manipulative. I get it, A Tear in the Sky is a documentary. It’s packaged as entertainment to spread awareness about UAPs while making a profit.
But imagine a group of scientists made a breakthrough in cancer research and shot a documentary about it before sharing the news with the world. It also doesn’t help that A Tear in the Sky uses the same cinematic language as trashy reality series like Ghost Hunters and Unidentified with Demi Lovato .
In one scene, scientists use their expensive gear to look into the night sky. It’s an unremarkable action, but the epic score tells us otherwise. The background music wouldn’t be out of place during the climax of a Michael Bay movie. It’s as though the film is afraid to let the research speak for itself.
Last June, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its Preliminary Assessment on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. The nine-page document acknowledged the UAP reality while withholding critical details for the classified version of the report.
The United States government confirmed the existence of UAPs, but it’s keeping the details close to its vest. If the public wants answers to the modern UFO mystery (are they drones, foreign adversaries, rare weather phenomena), it will take passionate, open-minded people like the UAPX investigators in this movie.
There’s no doubt folks like Gary Voorhis, Kevin Knuth, and Travis Taylor are working their asses off for a cause they believe in. But A Tear in the Sky’s reality show packaging gives me pause. Cory seems a bit too comfortable in the role of ufology guru. She carries herself with a degree of certainty about the universe’s mysteries, which doesn’t jive with the scientific rigour at the heart of the movie.
