U.S. Military Spent $11 Million to Squash ‘Extraterrestrial’ Raid That Never Happened

A viral joke on Facebook turned into a serious situation for the United States military. 

Netflix’s latest Trainwreck documentary, Storm Area 51, revisits the 2019 internet meme where 21-year-old Matty Roberts created a satirical Facebook event encouraging people to raid Area 51 in search of extraterrestrial life.

Now 26, Roberts, who was inspired by an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, calls the event, named “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” the “ultimate shitpost,” in the documentary.

What began as a joke started to have real consequences as the post went viral and officials at the classified U.S. Air Force base Area 51 got wind of the event. Ultimately, it attracted the attention of over two million people, leading the military to overestimate the number of people who would actually storm the training facility that’s located outside the small, remote town of Rachel, Nev., which has a population of under 100 people.

The threat of the large crowd storming the area left many unnerved, including military personnel. 

The two-part documentary, out July 29, dives into the perspectives of several people involved, from Roberts to citizens of Rachel to a local sheriff and a military colonel. 

The documentary reveals at the end that the military spent about $11 million to prepare for the raid. The number is first shared by Zeke Spector, a former senior producer at Vice who made a video of himself at the event, which ended up attracting around 150 “raiders,” with none of them actually entering the facility. 

“Eleven million dollars? That’s how much the military lost? For what, added security? What the f—? That’s insane,” Spector says with a laugh. 

The cameras cut to Col. Cavan Craddock, who, with a straight face, defends the exorbitant spending. “You can easily say, ‘Well, we shouldn’t have done it. We shouldn’t have wasted those resources.’ My argument will be that there was too wide a range of possibilities, with the worse case scenario being a mass casualty event,” he explains.

“I will defend to the final day that we did not overspend in our preparation for it,” the colonel adds. 

On September 20, 2019, the day of the event, an alien-themed festival in Rachel was the far bigger draw, attracting over 3,000 people, per the documentary. Others gathered in Las Vegas for an event supported by Roberts. 

Craddock remembers the chaotic energy at the base during the event, despite the low attendance. “It started approaching 3 a.m. on September 20, and I started getting hyper-concerned about what was going on,” he says. “On the original Facebook post, this was the point they were going to storm the gate. All of our forces are ready, we’re monitoring the situation really closely. We’re starting to see some increased activity. We’re fully prepared for whatever’s going to happen.”

After the clock struck 3 a.m., the crowd began to run towards the gate, as they said they would in the Facebook post. However, they stopped before breaching the facility. 

“Yeah, it was a joke,” local sheriff Kerry Lee recalls with a sigh of relief. “They got their moment of fame. They got their picture, and it was done.”

Craddock then reveals that the military “spent months preparing for this event and that was it. That was the biggest activity we saw.”

Earlier in the documentary, the colonel gives insight into why the threat was taken seriously.

Craddock explains that the military base is guarded by people referred to as “our defenders.” He says they are “very very good at their jobs” and are authorized to protect the area against “all enemies, foreign and domestic,” even if it requires the use of force.

“So, when I heard a bunch of tinfoil-hat–wearing conspiracy theorists are going to Naruto-run across the desert to come see aliens, my initial reaction was ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ I have got enough going on and I don’t need this,” he continues.

“We just don’t have the capacity and capability to root out every single one of those individuals to figure out who is a threat and who is not,” Craddock says, adding that he consulted a higher-up about the event and was directed to “keep this thing under control and stop it from escalating.”

“We decided to go very aggressive against it. Get a message out there to let folks know that it’s not a good idea,” he says.

Prior to the event, the military released a message warning people not to attempt to enter the base and emphasized that officials would protect the facility against trespassers.

In the second episode, Craddock says that the military’s plan was “to treat all attendees as hostile until proven otherwise.”

“Imagine someone in the crowd has a gun. If people start shooting and suddenly hundreds, maybe thousands of people get shot during this event, then you’re looking at one of the most deadliest mass shootings in the history of our nation,” he notes. 

As the event neared, the military was in contact with Roberts and other event organizers, and encouraged them to cancel their plans. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), at one point, even paid a visit to Roberts and his mother, to question them about their intentions. 

During the FBI meeting, Roberts recalls being told that it was “my ass if anybody decided to go in there and storm this base.”

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The documentary also features interviews with nearby hotel owner and Alienstock planner Connie West, ufologist Jeremy Corbell, YouTuber Ben Schneider and more. 

The Trainwreck series launched in 2022 and has released a total of nine installments. Previous documentaries include Trainwreck: P.I. Moms, about a failed reality series following a group of moms who work as private investigators, and Trainwreck: Balloon Boy, which revisits the 2009 hoax in which a 6-year-old boy was thought to be trapped inside a homemade flying saucer. 

Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 is now streaming on Netflix.