A Tear in the Sky

The prevailing popular opinion on whether or not there’s intelligent extraterrestrial life has shifted dramatically since I was a child. I remember when the perception was that only people with a screw loose believed in aliens, but now it’s quite the opposite. In the vastness of space, how could there not be something out there? The real question is, are they making contact with us right now?

This is what filmmaker, author, and public speaker Caroline Cory sets out to answer in her documentary, A Tear in the Sky. She takes a team of scientists, as well as former Navy personnel who claim to have witnessed Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs, the shiny new terminology for UFOs), to try to find evidence that extraterrestrials have visited Earth. Cory consults with the legendary Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, on their findings in order to get his opinions on the matter.

Team UAP set up all of their scientific equipment on the rooftops at their two Southern California locations of Laguna Beach and Catalina Island in order to triangulate the readings. They only had five days to observe and capture proof. So did they get what they were looking for? Kind of.

“…try to find evidence that extraterrestrials have visited Earth.”

The presentation isn’t the greatest, sporting strange production values, out-of-place music, and crude green screen backgrounds that make it feel like an infomercial at times. But there is some interesting information to be gleaned throughout. The film goes over the recent military videos that showed UAPs, such as the famous “TicTac” one, where capsule-like crafts move in unusual ways and at incredible speeds. Two of Cory’s team members worked aboard the Navy vessel, which captured that video. One of the radar officers detailed how he lost his career and was ridiculed incessantly over it.

The major discovery that the team finds is in the name of the title, A Tear in the Sky. They believe that they’ve found a wormhole, which could be a gateway for the TicTac ships to come through. This news would be monumental if proven to be factual. Cory’s position seems that the government isn’t going to tell us everything they know, so private citizens and companies need to go out on their own and do the scientific research on UAPs. I’m all for it, but at the same time, I’m still a bit skeptical until it can be proven without a shadow of a doubt that we’re dealing with aliens here. The closing crawl says they are sending their findings to be published and peer-reviewed.

William Shatner is always a joy to watch (unless you’re asking one of his living Star Trek co-stars), and it’s no different here, even though he’s only giving reactions. Those reactions and his dramatic pauses are a large part of what made him a superstar, so it works. Similarly, A Tear in the Sky works as a whole despite some issues because it held my attention and made me at least ponder the possibility of strange, otherworldly things happening right under our noses.