5. Alternative 3 (Christopher Miles, 1977)
Alternative 3 is a pseudo-documentary that was originally broadcast on Anglia TV in the UK. It was designed to look like a science reportage show, but was actually an entirely fraudulent hoax program. Similar to #1 on our list, this film was slated to be broadcast on April Fools Day, but never made it to air until later in June. The film purported itself to be an investigation into the "brain drain" phenomenon that was affecting the UK at the time. It argued that some of Britain's best and brightest minds were suddenly disappearing, often leaving their families and friends behind utterly confused. But things take a wild turn when their investigation supposedly uncovers a massive conspiracy in which these missing scientists and experts had supposedly been swept up. The program used a real presenter who played himself, but all the other witnesses, experts and commentators were fakes played by actors (not revealed until the credits). Like with the previous example, the film was modeled after established and trusted TV documentary series like the BBC's Horizon and Panorama, which made it credible in the eyes of viewers. The film argues that it had uncovered secrets behind a jointly operated program between the US and Soviet Union which called for the colonization of both the Moon and Mars. It is argued that the world would soon be unable to sustain human civilization due to a combination of pollution, global warming, and overpopulation. A fake doctor named Gerstein proposes three possible solutions to tackle this problem: drastically reduce the world's population, build underground bases and shelters or the colonization of Mars via bases established on the Moon. After it's original broadcast Anglia was inundated with phone calls from viewers who were experiencing 'the war of the worlds effect,' having thought the program was real. This is where it becomes interesting. Despite the fact that the end credits clearly cite the commentators as actors and all involved parties have since admitted it was a hoax, some people just found it to be too believable. After the film had been broadcast, a fake book was written which took the filmmakers arguments to even more absurd extremes. But this still wasn't enough to convince some people. The arguments made in this film have since become central to mainstream conspiracy- having been co-opted into tales about a global conspiracy that is being carried out by a secret cabal whose plan is to rule the world. Conspiracist historians have traced the perpetuation of these myths back to the work of William Cooper, who seemed to adopt the Alternative 3 arguments into his work on government conspiracies. A second book has since been written about Alternative 3 by conspiracist author Jim Keith. He argues that, while the film was in fact a hoax, it was also a prophetic revelation of a very real secret plot. If you watch the 'making of' featurette that was included with the DVD release of this program, you can hear the filmmakers themselves admit that, while the program was meant to be a hoax, it has since become pretty prophetic. They point out how global warming wasn't a mainstream concept in the late 70's and how both the pressing issues and proposed solutions they had promoted have actually come to fruition. One must be suspicious of whether this featurette is also fraudulent, though. Either way, not too many films have had an effect on the collective consciousness of the masses like Alternative 3 has managed to achieve. It's hard to say whether we'll ever know if the film was hoax that revealed a very real plot in order to discredit it's true existence, or whether it was just an accidently prophetic ruse. But like Herzog says, "it has taken on a life of it's own."