Of course the reality of an alien presence on Earth would be too big a story not to tell. If you were to take these simple facts and make a film – any film – with the truth behind it, a studio would no doubt accept it and make millions of copies with each one selling. The turning point in history would be so great that the simple words themselves would be worth millions to any executive in Hollywood. Hollywood has absolutely no motivation to cover up the UFO phenomenon – right? Let’s look at it from a different angle.
Hollywood makes films that are speculative. In fact, fiction is rarely little more than pure speculation with a narrative put behind it. As a result, any “what if” question in its own way can have even more truth in relation to the human experience than a detailed historical account of events. So if the entire speculative field of extraterrestrial visitors was suddenly unearthed and objectively understood in a way we could understand, there would actually be less to make films about. And given the number of films coming out about alien abduction, conspiracies, invasions, and contact it may be worthwhile for these same executives to keep the lid on the subject – and even send out a few misleading ideas about it. And this wouldn’t simply apply to Hollywood. Indeed any major motion picture studio would have to find itself leading the audience astray at least a little bit to allow future stories to be told with a bit of creativity. If the films became too homogenized, it would quickly see components of the human experience being expressed only in one way. People would begin to see the fakery for what it was – and risk losing the dreams that brought them to film in the first place.
Of course it’s hard to imagine such a conspiracy arising even if the executives stood to gain in this way. It’s simply too big a story to ignore. But they would occasionally lead the audience astray. Take the number of films whose narrative universes have aliens in them and compare that to the number who blatantly demonstrate that mankind is alone in the universe. And the films exploring the ideas aren’t simply poorly thought out comedies or even that far out in many ways. In fact, the majority of alien invasion scenarios outlined by Hollywood seem to show a world that is otherwise sane and logical except for the fact that aliens are making an appearance. Careful attention is paid to the reactions of the characters in the film as they see the craft or the creatures for the first time. Take any alien contact movie and it is almost guaranteed to have a scene where the characters look awed at the object they are witnessing for the first time. This is not an effect exclusively held by alien films, but it is one of the core staple components of it. It is considered almost universally unchangeable between artists. It strikes at the heart of the unknown and in showing the awed reaction of something alien we see in ourselves how small we are in the vast scope of the universe.
Is there a malicious Hollywood conspiracy to keep alien visitation covered up? It’s difficult to imagine. If there were, it would be too complex and secret to have been uncovered by most of us. But there are indications that seem to suggest something else – and that something can never come out without everything (even Hollywood) changing forever. And that may not be a change they (or we for that matter) are completely ready for.