The Reel Review
In December 1988, Bob Lazar says he began a new job reverse engineering an alien spacecraft at the U.S. military’s classified S4 facility at Area 51 in the Nevada desert. Six months later he says he lost his security clearance and faced extreme intimidation tactics after being caught with friends and family watching nighttime military test flights of the UFOs from Area 51. This documentary describes what Lazar says he experienced.
S4: The Bob Lazar Story is remarkable on several levels. It is the rare, non-sensational UFO documentary that very matter-of-factly lays out astonishing details of what Lazar says he experienced, which are admittedly pretty fantastical. Using current and archival interviews, the well-produced documentary incorporates CGI reenactments and 3D printings of some of the nine extraterrestrial spacecraft Lazar says he saw, as well as items he says he encountered inside one of the alien spacecraft. The details he shares are incredible and remarkably detailed.
In addition to his claimed physicist work learning about Element 115, a non-Earth substance he says was used to propel the spacecraft, Lazar says he read reports that described 10,000 years of Earthly visits from extraterrestrials from the Zeta Centauri binary star system located 382 light years from Earth. There are also references to galaxy hops, the appearance of alien language symbols in the spacecraft and time travel. Despite his decades-long dismissal by skeptics, Lazar and director Luigi Vendittelli provide some pretty compelling claims. Whether you believe him or not, this well-constructed documentary is a fascinating watch.
REEL FACTS
• Is Bob Lazar a whistleblower or a fraud? There are compelling facts on both sides. Neither MIT nor CalTech say they have any record of Lazar having attended their universities as he claims, but Lazar says U.S. military officials have scrubbed away much of his professional existence. Those who have worked at Area 51 verify that Lazar’s descriptions of the identification hand scanner and detailed description of the cafeteria are accurate.
• Bob Lazar and Luigi Vendittelli were on the Joe Rogan Experience the same day this documentary was released. Lazar’s appearances have been among Rogan’s most viewed episodes.
• Director Luigi Vendittelli says there is a 1942 map named the Emigrant Valley NV map, showing a mining road ending exactly where Lazar claims S4 was constructed inside of Papoose Mountain. This was removed on all future maps. The area remains heavily monitored and restricted.
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