(Credits: Netflix)

The Trainwreck anthology is screeching to a halt this week. But don’t worry, it’s not going out without a bang. Netflix exposed the underbelly of constructed reality TV with PI Moms last week. And this time around, it has upped the ante of bizarre with Trainwreck: Storm Area 51, revisiting the Facebook-driven fiasco that had headlines sweating out. But for those still out of the loop, here’s all you need to know about the next episode from the realm of the ridiculously true.

Streaming this summer got chaotically interesting, thanks to Netflix’s Trainwreck anthology. But like every good thing, the documentary is officially coming to a close with its eighth and final instalment, Trainwreck: Storm Area 51. The latest cauldron of chaos, scheduled to drop this Tuesday, on July 29th, recounts an unexpected 2019 social sensation that attracted millions of RSVPs to storm Area 51, the highly classified US Air Force base.

The event, created on Facebook by 20-year-old Matty Roberts, invited people to storm Area 51 in the Nevada desert. The Facebook event was called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop Us All.” Roberts conjured up a plan to assemble a critical mass of curious thrill-seekers, creating a human tidal wave that would crash against the base’s defences, allowing a lucky few to slip through the cracks.

The idea was to uncover the alleged extraterrestrial secrets hidden within, revealing the supposed alien tech and government research to the world. “Let’s see them aliens,” the Facebook event description read. Over 3.5million people marked the event as either “going” or “interested”. As the response quickly went out of control, generating widespread media attention, it prompted the US Air Force and military authorities to issue warnings.

An Air Force spokesperson strongly condemned the call for infiltration, telling potential attendees that the US Air Force “always stands ready to protect America and its assets.” In response, the Federal Aviation Administration closed the airspace near Area 51 for the time being, neither permitting news helicopters nor emergency medical flights. A music festival planned near the site was also moved to Las Vegas. It’s safe to say that this episode breaks the benchmark of bizarre.

Despite the massive online response, only 40 people showed up at the site before law enforcement showed them the door. But what explains the sudden frenzy of storming Area 51? Area 51, located on 38,000 restricted acres, is part of a larger 2.9million acre complex near Groom Lake in Southern Nevada. However, the curiosity stems from the fact that the details of Area 51 operations haven’t been made public.

It is described as an open training range. But the only confirmed use of Area 51 details it as a flight testing capacity, which was also utilised as an aerial gunnery range during World War II. Consequently, Area 51 has spawned countless conspiracy theories with tales of UFOs, government secrecy and extraterrestrial wizardry swirling like a cosmic storm. In 1989, Robert Lazar stepped into the spotlight, claiming he’d been recruited to tinker with alien gadgets and had even laid eyes on eerie autopsy snaps of otherworldly visitors.

The fact that the government’s grip on satellite imagery of Area 51 was so tight, as if they were trying to hide a universe of secrets, raised all the more eyebrows. In fact, it wasn’t until recently that those pixelated into view. So, if you thought the sky was the limit after Balloon Boy, Trainwreck: Area 51 will implore you to think again.