If aliens are the one thing that can terrify you senseless, you can rest assured knowing that many of the movies about aliens based on true stories are actually only very loosely based on real life. Not knowing the back story before you watch an alien movie can add to the creepy element of the film, but many people like to know just how much of the movie is actually true either before or after they watch it.
The Fourth Kind
This feature starring Milla Jovovich claims to be based on true events in Nome, Alaska.
The Movie Story
This 2009 thriller features Milla Jovovich, Charlotte Milchard, and Will Patton. It's set in Alaska, where a number of mysterious abductions occurred since the 1960s. A psychologist begins taping video sessions with some of her patients and discovers chilling evidence that supports the theory that alien abductions do occur.
The True Story
The Fourth Kind is loosely based on a series of disappearances in Nome, Alaska. The FBI believes the disappearances were a result of combining excessive alcohol and the harsh winter climates, and family members suspect a serial killer was involved, according to Anchorage Daily News. Though the movie is supposedly based on a psychologist's "archival footage," that same article reports that no one has heard of the psychologist that did the research.
Fire in the Sky
Could alien abduction be a possibility outside of Hollywood? This movie, a Hollywood version of the Travis Walton story, suggests it might.
The Movie Story
Fire in the Sky was released in 1993 and stars D.B. Sweeney, Robert Patrick, and Craig Sheffer. It covers the 1975 abduction of Travis Walton in Snowflake, Arizona. A group of friends and co-workers claim their friend was abducted while they were on their way home after working to clear an area of the woods. No one believes them and instead, the friends are blamed for murder. When the missing man returns, he can't remember what has happened, but the memories slowly leak into his consciousness.
The True Story
The movie is actually based on a book, Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience, by the man who was supposedly abducted. It's a first-hand account of what happened on November 5, 1975, and describes what happened after he woke up on the spaceship. The stories of Walton and his friends passed polygraph tests, but journalist Philip J. Klass attempted to debunk the story in his own book, UFOs: The Public Deceived.
Apollo 18
If you only remember Apollo 18 from the movies and not from an actual space mission, there's a reason why. NASA explains the mission wasn't technically cancelled, but renumbered to fit within the existing NASA strategy.
The Movie Story
The tagline of this 2012 movie is, "Discover the reason we never went back." It covers a secret 1970s mission, Apollo 18, that followed the "last" manned mission to the moon. NASA supposedly cancelled the mission, but it went ahead, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. The movie presents recently discovered footage from the mission, and it shows proof of alien life.
The True Story
This movie is based on the theory that the Apollo 18 mission was not actually cancelled at all. The footage is supposed to be from the actual mission, discovered by Russian documentary filmmaker, Timur Bekmambetov.
K-Pax: Based on a Novel, Not a True Story
Many people believe K-Pax was based on a true story. It wasn't.
The Movie Story
This 2001 movie stars Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, and Mary McCormack and covers the story of a mental patient named Prot who claims to be from another planet, K-PAX. Therapy and other treatments don't seem to make any difference, and the psychologist races to discover the truth about Prot before he returns to his home planet as he claims he will be doing soon. Because of Prot's knowledge, demeanor, and the ineffectiveness of treatment, experts in the field find themselves opening their minds to the possibility that Prot really is who he says he is.
The True Story
This movie isn't one of the alien films based on a true story, but it is sometimes mistaken for one. The film is, however, based on a book of the same name by Gene Brewer. The book is presented as if it's a psychologist's case study on a man suffering from split-personality disorder. The patient is Robert, a man whose wife and child were killed, and Prot is his other personality, an alien from K-PAX.
Blurring the Lines
Part of the appeal of some alien movies is not knowing just how true the stories are that they're based on. Even reading the background for the inspiration can't tell you-for sure-how true an alien movie based on a true story is. That lack of concrete knowledge can make a thriller about extra-terrestrials so much creepier than your average scary movie.
