unforum

[vapor]

I wasn't sure where else to put this and didn't think it warranted it's own topic. For those of you that have never heard the Art Bell broadcast of the supposed Area 51 employee who refers to aliens as malignant extra dimensional beings, prepare to be creeped out

http://www.metatech.org/Art%20Bell%20Area%2051%20Call.mp3

I don't think extra-dimensional beings would be very cinematic. Probably not the angle the writers/producers of Super 8 would go. but it does kind of make me wonder...

The Art Bell broadcast was in 1997.

The guy on the phone says the beings were contacted by a precursor to the space program.

The Space Program got its roots some time in the late 1940s but didn't begin in earnest until the 50s. One could say a precursor to the space program existed in 1946 with a series of launches of V2 rockets. This is only a year before the Roswell crash.

I'm not quite sure where I'm headed with this. Just wanted to throw it out there because it seems like a fun line of speculation.

[FilmEdge]

I have heard this call before, must have been online like this. It is pretty creepy to hear this guy's desperation, and if he was faking it, he's a darned good actor. Quite reminiscent of Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast.

I don't know if I'd mark the V2 rocket era as a precursor to the "space program", at least how we would define that today. I believe it was aimed (no pun) more at military missile applications than space exploration, simply because of the lacking computer or manned-mission technology available after the war. One reason why the actual space race didn't start for 20 more years — the physics may have existed in the 40s, but with no way yet to apply them to a true space program.

At any rate, I wonder if even the time frame of the 1970s is too 'early' for an extra-dimensional baddy in SUPER 8?

I don't know how much even scientists knew or conceptualized about extra dimensions let alone extra-dimensional beings in that era. I'd have to research that a bit to say more with any accuracy... though likely someone here may know more about this question already.

Even so, I don't recall too much talk about extra-dimensional theory or reality even in the late '70s. Certainly less so in popular culture entertainment to 'sell' it dramatically to audiences of the time. I'm unsure if the physics were even "there" by 1977-79 — i.e. how would we have known then that a creature *was* extra-dimensional unless it told us so?

All those unknowns (to me) aside, I have one tiny nagging idea it won't be an extra-dimensional baddy this time around: Abrams covered a lot of that same ground in STAR TREK with time travel and alternate dimensions/universes. Not sure he or K&O did a great job of dramatizing that clearly in the film, so it might even be harder to explain via 1970s characters who aren't steeped in quantum theory in that era, etc.

As you say, a fun line of speculation and certainly nothing to rule out at all this early! Speculation leaves all doors open for now, which is cool.

[carson1213]

deviant art pic

[GabeGideon]

Some Measurements

[Euchre]

Re: deviant art pic

[FilmEdge]

I wasn't impressed with Clovergeist either. Salt licks available in the lobby.