Fire in the Sky (1993)

nTitle: Fire in the Sky (1993)

nDirector: Robert Lieberman

nCast: D.B. Sweeney, Robert Patrick, Henry Thomas, PeternBerg, Craig Scheffer, Kathleen Wilhoite

nReview:

nFire in the Sky is one of those films, like for example, ThenAmityville Horror (1979) that’s tied to a “real life story”. These stories arenusually tied up to an event that caught the attention of the media and thenpublic to such an extent that it got movie executives reved up enough to make anmovie out of it. Now there are two types of “real life stories” out there. Therenare the ones that are based on actual events that can be proven, and there’snthe ones that are based on stories that cannot be proven at all, you simplynhave to take the word of the person who’s telling it, which of course lendsnitself to stories that are based on complete and utter bullshit. And worse yet,nthere are films of this nature that mix both types: the real story with thenbullshit. The Amityville Horror is a great example; that’s the story of a kidnwho one night shot his entire family and then blamed “the devil” for hisnactions. That’s the real story. The bullshit part comes from the people whonbought the house in which these events took place. They claim that the house isnpossessed by evil spirits and that these spirits attacked them! And made thenwalls of the house bleed; these people actually claim that real lifensupernatural events took place within the house! The first part of the storyncan be proven, the kid really did shoot his entire family, that tragedy didnoccur, but can you prove the part of the story about the haunted house and thenevil spirits? Of course not; but it sure makes for a hell of a movie don’t it?nSame logic can be applied to Fire in the Sky.

nIn real life, Travis Walton was a lumberjack. He choppednwood for a living with his buddies up in a forest in Arizona. One fine daynwhile returning home from his duties, he and his co-workers claim that they sawnan extremely bright light shinning in the middle of the forest and that uponncloser investigation they discovered that it was a spaceship hovering rightnthere in the middle of the forest. Travis Walton, the most curious of the bunchndecides to get off the truck to see things from up close. At that momentnaccording to Walton and his pals, a light coming from the ship engulfed TravisnWalton and sent him flying ten feet through the air, then, his body floated offnthe ground. His co-workers left him for dead and took off on their truck, but halfnway home their collective consciences got the best of them and then they decidento go back for their friend. When they go back, they discover that TravisnWalton and the spaceship had both disappeared! Was Travis Walton abducted bynaliens? Or did he die in an accident? Was he murdered? What really happenednthat fateful night?

nSo with this story you can prove that Travis Walton did disappearnfor five whole days, but you can’t prove that aliens abducted him. So it allncomes down to can we believe these crazy lumberjacks and their story? The thingnis that these seven lumberjacks all came into town raving, crying and scared.nThey took lie detector tests that showed they were apparently telling the truth.nStill, the rest of the town remains skeptical, most of them believe thatnsomebody killed Travis. Yet five days later…Travis Walton, the supposednabductee, reappeared. His side of the story is even crazier, it takes us as farnas being inside of the spaceship, with the quintessential alien scientistsnprobing him and doing all sorts of tests on him. He says he even saw a huge aliennhangar with many spaceships in it. He says that he defended himself from thenprobing aliens with one of their own tools! He claims many things, but did theynreally happen? I’m of the opinion that none of it happened and that Travisnsimply wanted to make a quick buck off the whole story. Funny how these storiesnare always accompanied by a book deal and a movie isn’t it? Travis Walton’snbook ended up being called ‘The Walton Experience’, the movie is the one we’rentalking about right now.

nThere’s a similar alien abduction story called Communion: AnTrue Story written by author Whitley Strieber, that “real life story” isnsimilar to The Walton Experience; alien beings with huge black eyes, tests,nprobes… the whole shebang. I mean, these type of stories are some kind of a clichénalready, but every now and again, somebody wants to make some money and theynconcoct these stories to sell a book, or get a movie and sometimes they get it,nbecause bullshit or not, some of these stories are quite entertaining. WhitleynStrieber’s story ended up being called Communion (1989), and it starred none othernthan Christopher Walken, read my review for it, I also compare it to The Amityville Horror hoax story. These movies border on that tangent of reality andnunreality. And you know what? I don’t even care if they are real or not, thesentype of films entertain me. They make me “almost believe”, and that’s a hardnthing to do because I don’t know if you’ve figured this out or not, but I’m annincurable skeptic. I gotta see or feel to believe, and so far I’ve never seen anspaceship, a UFO and much less an alien, so until that fateful day arrives, Inremain a skeptic on the subject of UFO’s. But I am open to the idea of aliennlife, after all this is a huge universe we live in and in the immortal words ofnJack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China (1986), “you’d have to be somenkind of fool to think we’re all alone in this universe!” In the end, what it all boils down to withnthese types of films is: are they any good?

nMy answer to that question is that Fire in the Sky is angreat alien abduction movie; I’d rank it right up there with Close Encountersnof the Third Kind (1977), for sheer plausibility. It’s not what tale you tellnbut how you tell it and in Fire in the Sky’s case, the film is told in a verynrealistic way. The best parts of this film are of the beginning and the end. Atnthe beginning we get to see the actual abduction and the ending we see whatnactually happened inside of the alien space craft. The middle of the film isnall about how the community reacts to the story, how the story catches thenattention of the media and how these lumberjacks deal with the whole thing, sondon’t get disappointed if you don’t see any spaceships or aliens throughout thenmiddle part of the film, this part focuses on the human drama that comes as anresult of the abduction story that these lumberjacks bring forth. It goes intonthe whole thing about making them take lie detector tests and all that, butnthen, in the ending, we get treated to the inside of the ship and this isnreally the best part of the film for me. The last 30 minutes of the film arendownright frightening and gripping! These aliens are the cold, calculating scientist’sntypes who don’t give a crap about inserting all sorts of things up your orifices.nThe makeup effects work is truly excellent for these sequences, they are worthnthe price of admission; so stay all the way to the end, you’ll be treated tonsome gruesome stuff that should satisfy any true science fiction fan.

nI remember seeing this one in theaters way back in ’93 andnbeing disappointed that it had so much drama, but then, when that ending came Inremember leaving the theater both shocked and satisfied. So yeah, this one isnwell worth it. It mixes both the more fantastical elements of ‘The Walton Experience’nwith the more real side of the story dealing with having the whole townnbecoming skeptical about Travis Walton’s seemingly inexplicable disappearance andneven that part of the story was interesting as well. Was this just an elaboratenhoax that a bunch of bored lumberjacks cooked up during their lunch break innthe middle of woods? Ultimately, what this type of story shows is that if youncome up with an interesting enough hoax that’s as airtight as this one, you canngo home happy. A book and a movie is a done deal, and that aint half bad. Younmight end up with a cool movie made out of your story, like this one.

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nRating: 4 out of 5