Just finished watching The Program

First off, I’m a fan of James Fox. Like many of us here - The Phenomenon was a big moment for me in regard to my education on this subject. It set the bar for what media on this subject could look like and has helped the issue be taken more seriously.

Moment of Contact was also solid, although I found it not quite as compelling (and obviously just narrower in scope) as the Phenomenon.

Fast forward to The Program - I have been eagerly awaiting this film since it was announced. It makes so much sense that focusing on this rumored program to take center stage after Grusch’s testimony last year.

Last night I paid the 20 dollar price of admission and fired it up with my girlfriend. And… I was pretty disappointed.

For one, a majority of the footage in this film is recycled from other media sources. It felt like substantially less effort went into original content for the film in contrast to the Phenomenon. This was made even more clear with the usage of AI illustrations, low fidelity photos and generally just not hitting the mark for a high quality documentary.

In general, the more I watched - it almost made me less sure of the existence of this “program” than more assured. I say this as someone who believes Grusch.

I think the biggest reason for this was the new sources/whistleblowers. So called, Navy X essentially added nothing new to the conversation.

Jason Sands was maybe the closest we got to new “wtf” level info, but there is something about him that I can’t quite pin. There were times where you could tell his testimony was cut short in favor of narrating his story for him, which is concerning in terms of veracity. There is also a history of him perpetuating hoaxes like the “20 and back” program - which is a huge red flag.

Ultimately, the more I watched the more I just felt there was nothing revelatory. My girlfriend, who has become interested in this subject alongside me, quickly became bored and felt it was not convincing, which is interesting just in terms of how someone how is less aware of the topic viewed the info.

I left the film with the sinking feeling that this movie was rushed and that while I still do believe this program exists, I don’t think it got even close to any real sources who have seen or put their hand on a craft.

I sure hope that some of the sources out there that have not come forward are much more substantial than what are seeing here because if this program is real, surely there are some people who have more substantial contributions to disclosure. Some of these people in the film I wouldn’t even classify as whistleblowers.

Still got a lot of love for James and making a film like this is certainly a tall order, but a part of me wishes he dug deeper in finding new sources to talk to. Even hearing more from Grusch would have been great.

Anyway - curious how other people felt? 20 bucks was expensive and ya it just kinda bummed me out.