From Roswell to Disclosure: Hollywood, Aliens, and the Public Imagination
To the point
Hollywood’s alien stories—from Roswell through Spielberg’s E.T. and Close Encounters—together with Barack Obama’s suggestion of possible extraterrestrials, Donald Trump’s push for released files, and scholar Priscilla Wald’s view that aliens reveal our fears, imply that any real government disclosure would provoke a broad mix of awe, curiosity, fear, and skepticism.
