Thanks! NASA Helpfully Explains That That New Movie About Scary Moon Aliens Isn’t Real

by Jon Bershad | 12:35 pm, September 2nd, 2011

» 21 comments

Unfortunately, the folks at NASA have a lot of time on their hands now that America has officially looked up at the glorious final frontier, shrugged their shoulders, and said “Meh.” So, they’ve been using some of their time to consult on movies. However, as the Los Angeles Times discovered, they chose not to participate in Apollo 18, a new movie that attempts to persuade audiences that a) NASA launched a secret mission in the middle of the Cold War, b) no one noticed, c) moon aliens attacked it, and d) this was all taped and those tapes have now been turned into a movie. In fact, NASA liaison Bert Ulrich helpfully takes time in the interview to explain that, no, none of that happened. Thank God! I was really worried about that one.

From the Los Angeles Times:

“But after initially touting ‘Apollo 18′ as one of its upcoming fiction film collaborations, NASA — which, for the record, says the last manned mission to the moon was Apollo 17 in 1972 — has begun to back away from the movie.

‘Apollo 18 is not a documentary,’ said Bert Ulrich, NASA’s liaison for multimedia, film and television collaborations. ‘The film is a work of fiction, and we always knew that. We were minimally involved with this picture. We never even saw a rough cut. The idea of portraying the Apollo 18 mission as authentic is simply a marketing ploy. Perhaps a bit of a ‘Blair Witch Project’ strategy to generate hype.’”

Ok, I’m going to digress a bit here. We can make fun of NASA for this quote all we want, but let me tell you about when I went to see the first Paranormal Activity. After the movie, I heard a bit of the conversation of the guy who was sitting behind us. He was eagerly telling the girl he was with, “No, that shit was real! You didn’t see any credits, did you?!”

This guy had just seen a movie released by a major motion picture company in which a demon haunts and tries to murder a couple and the simple fact that the studio had foregone a traditional credit sequence was enough to persuade him it was real. These are the same people who think that, were human beings to find undeniable proof that the afterlife exists, the footage would show up on a basic cable reality series rather than, y’know, the news. Hell, there are probably people out there who still hold candlelight vigils to mourn the victims of the Cloverfield monster.

So, yeah, we may think making astatement that, no, The Weinstein Company doesn’t have actual footage of moon aliens is stupid but, you know what? People are stupid.

(h/t The A.V. Club)

Apollo 18, NASA

Anonymous

So the Planet of the Apes documentary series is a bunch of lies ?
http://twitter.com/paulackerman Paul Ackerman

Check out Nude on the Moon – it’s a hoot(er)!
Tony the Fist

Suuuurre…that’s what they want you think.
Vasallese

Can’t wait for the conspiracy theorists to get all crazy. Wonder how long it will take them before they start calling each other douchebag? I say 5 postings
http://twitter.com/lazzzlo lazzzlo

Knock NASA all you want but they have finally activated Robonaut 2 and he’s on Twitter!

NASA just doesn’t want anyone stealing Robonaut’s thunder.
JMcCarthy

America didn’t kill NASA the democrats did. They, democrats, would rather give NASA’S budget to IllEGAL ALIENS!
Anonymous

Take the tinfoil hat off and take a deep breath before your head explodes.
AliveStillKickin

Liberals think Hollywood movies are real life…..They actually BELIEVE everything in Michael Moore’s movies is true…ROFLMAO!!!
They actually believe Sarah Palin said “I can see Russia from my house”….
Gullible….Useful Idiots!!!..
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TNIIHAE5G3O5HMBOZFAZZWK3YY aa

Come on…NASA has more pressing priorities now. Such as Muslim Outreach.
Anonymous

Fact: Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL)
with OV-95 is still powered up and is being turned into a Space Center Houston tourist
spot as we speak but they are still arguing what and how they are going to show
it off.
Anonymous

??????

like how you believe that Palin is undefeated?
Anonymous

You mean that old shit about showing a planet or moon in a crescent and a star near that MUST be a Muslim thing?

Sure, and the American Flag was designed and copyrighted by the Republican Party.
Anonymous

You must mean the ones in the movie, right?
Anonymous

Oh, come on, Jon, didn’t it occur to you that maybe the guy was just trying to make the girl?
Anonymous

Unfortunately, the folks at NASA have a lot of time on their hands now that America has officially looked up at the glorious final frontier, shrugged their shoulders, and said “Meh.”
No that was Obama saying “I wanted to be an astronaut but wasn’t smart enough to make the cut, so now I have ensured that no one can go to the moon”
Anonymous

Just one more ‘ sad ‘ reality ( casualty ) of obama’s amerika.
Anonymous

Hey “Big Eddie,”

I’ve never had the chance to say thanks for your “thumbs up” or “Likes” since I started to play in the Mediaite playground. So, thank you…

As for your comment here, I did “laugh out loud!” LOL

Your ardent admirer, Purveyor
Just some Blow Hard…

You should use “scary” in quotes… Rock Spiders….
http://www.facebook.com/people/Adam-Yohn/100000487687430 Adam Yohn

The problem is you would never know if it was a hoax or not.(not saying it is or isn’t) The same theories revolve around area 51. Nobody knows the truth and the government can tell you anything they want. As for people being stupid…Your right! The world sits and listens to news on tv and radio, they read the papers and surf the internet right? Everything we read or hear is censored by someone, somewhere. And honestly, if it is honestly the truth, the person/people are ridiculed by some top notch government official, or a person who is in some way affiliated with the government. Today’s society is stupid as a whole. People believe whatever they hear or see which is why movie producers are making movies the way they are. There is tons of money to be made where there are conspiracy theories. We all know the government lies(yes, the government!) but, we will never know the extent of these lies. What about the second man on the grassy knoll? Where is Jimmy Hoffa? I think in my own personal feeling is this…We are held accountable for our actions. Why does this not apply to government? I’ll tell you. The movie Men in Black had the perfect answer. People are scared. If you were to find out what happened to Jimmy Hoffa what would happen to you? That being said..Do you still want to know? If your neighbor was the second man on the grassy knoll….Would you tell anyone? Think long and hard about your answer. Everyone wants to know the truth because they are curious and NOSY! Kind of like the ambulance chasers. They have nothing to do with the accident scene but they just “HAVE TO KNOW” what really happened. Here is what happens with that: People arrive at a accident scene and make their own assumptions as to what really happened.I think this applies to a lot of what we are reading in the previous post. OK…I know I’m rambling on about different things but in my eyes I make sense, and I guess that’s all that matters. I’ll leave you with this…..The truth is out there. You may find it. But…..would you REALLY want to tell somebody? (NSA, CIA, FBI, DOD, etc. etc.)
Anonymous

Wrong adam. Society as a whole is not “stupid” as you defined it. The way you defined it society is ignorant. Stupid and ignorant are two completely different things. I agree that society is ignorant. And yes I would really want to tell someone the truth because I would want to know.

We are all humans and it is part of our rights as humans that we should be able to decide for ourselves what course of action to take in our lives. People are scared, yes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to decide.

Your thought process is odd and assumes too much. The bottom line is no one should be able to make a decision on my behalf without giving me the information at hand.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dayton-Franklin/1126482240 Dayton Franklin

well what did you think he was going to say? it’s not like you’ll ask “was this real?” and he’ll say DAMN YEAH MAN HOWD YOU GUYS FIND THAT FOOTAGE? of course he’ll deny it.