The UFO Incident (TV film 1975)

The UFO Incident is a 1975 American made-for-television biographical film starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons based on the alleged 1961 alien abduction of Barney and Betty Hill. The film aired two weeks before the Travis Walton UFO incident on November 5, 1975.

A newspaper clip with the headline stating, “Now It’s a TV Movie… Aboard A Flying Saucer! This Fall You Can See Couple’s Incredible Story Of How They Were Kidnapped by a UFO”. The article includes a photo of Estelle Parsons as Betty Hill and James Earl Jones as Barney Hill.

A newspaper clip about the film shortly upon its NBC release date on October 20, 1975:

The movie introduces us to Barney (born July 20, 1922) and Betty Hill (born June 28, 1919), two ordinary people who have had the most extraordinary experience. She is a social worker, and he is a postman. They are an inter-racial couple who are very happy with each other, but they are perplexed by a traumatic experience of which they have no memory. Two years later, they are still tormented by what happened during a trip where they have a mysterious lapse of memory which takes place after sighting a strange object hovering over their car. They wake up some time later, much farther down the road. Barney and Betty consult Doctor Benjamin Simon a psychiatrist who tries to help them find the answer. The doctor decides that the best treatment to unlock their case of double amnesia is hypnosis. Doctor Simon mentions that Barney has suffered from a childhood of racial strife and feels deep guilt about his divorce. Barney tells the doctor that he has had physical symptoms after the experience, such as strange warts on his groin. They are both tormented by mysterious nightmares that Betty begins to document. They report the incident to the US Air Force (the US Air Force actually had a project relating to UFO sightings called Blue Book). Doctor Simon places Barney under hypnosis, and he begins to relive the experience. Barney describes his and Betty’s seeing a strange object in the sky that begins to follow and then terrify them. Barney begins screaming in horror during the session as he describes his and Betty’s being abducted by the aliens from the UFO. Betty also reacts with horror describing their captive experience. She and Barney are subjected to medical experiments by the aliens, including Betty having a needle shoved into her navel. With Doctor Simon’s assistance and their strong love for each other, Barney and Betty are able to come to terms with their experience and get on with their lives. At the end of the movie, it is revealed that Barney died of a stroke on February 25, 1969, at the age of 46. Betty lived on, never having remarried.

Note: Betty died of cancer on October 17, 2004, at the age of 85.

Most of Betty Hill’s notes, tapes, and other items have been placed in the permanent collection at the University of New Hampshire, her alma mater. In July 2011, the state Division of Historical Resources marked the site of the alleged craft’s first approach with a historical marker.