The fact and fiction behind Netflix series ‘The Manhattan Alien Abduction’

Netflix’s new three-part documentary miniseries The Manhattan Alien Abduction dives deep into one of the most extraordinary and unsettling cases of alleged alien encounters. According to a New York-based woman called Linda Napolitano, she was taken aboard a spaceship by aliens from her apartment in Lower Manhattan on 25 January 1989. What makes this case worth your notice is the alleged involvement of multiple witnesses — including United Nations diplomats and CIA agents — who saw the abduction unfold. The series explores the case from multiple angles and also raises questions about the reliability of human memory, government secrecy, and our obsession with the unknown. Here is all you need to know about the true story behind The Manhattan Alien Abduction, as well as its trailer, release date on Netflix and more.

Reports of alien encounters are anything but modern phenomena. Since time immemorial, in nearly every civilisation, there have been accounts of alien beings having descended from the skies in pages of ancient texts, religious scriptures, and folklore. Many are of the opinion that what ancient cultures regarded as gods — beings possessing immense knowledge, powers, and strange capabilities — were, in fact, extraterrestrials. According to theorists, these beings, with the lack of a scientific framework of early humans, were misconstrued as divine figures.

Usually, iconography — ancient Sumerian depictions of the Anunnaki or the Vimanas described in ancient Indian epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata — is used as evidence for advanced visitors from other worlds.

There are places in the world, like the Bermuda Triangle and Caddo Lake in Texas, which are particularly associated with alien phenomena.

The incident: Linda Napolitano’s alleged abduction by extraterrestrials

According to the book Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions by Budd Hopkins, at about 3 am on the morning of 30 November 1989, Linda Napolitano’s life changed forever. She says she was sleeping soundly beside her husband when a strange sensation jolted her awake. Smothered by that unshakeable, terrible feeling of suddenly not being alone, she looked around the room — and saw several small, grey beings standing at her bedside, staring at her with large, black, almond-shaped eyes.

The creatures evidently told her, by telepathy, that she was not supposed to speak. There was no reason for it, but Napolitano found herself paralysed, unable to scream for help or wake her husband. Panic set in as a blinding blue beam exploded through her apartment window and, sweeping her off the bed, whisked her out into the night, where she was sucked aboard a hovering, oval-shaped spaceship.

Onboard the craft, the New York woman remembered being taken into a chilly and sterile examination room. They laid her down on a metallic table, inserting some kind of device into her nasal passage, which caused pain and discomfort to her. Then, the experience abruptly came to an end, and she found herself back in bed as if nothing had happened.

At first, Napolitano thought the harrowing experience (hereon the Manhattan Alien Abduction case) was just a particularly realistic nightmare. It wasn’t until she found a weird lump inside her nose that she realised the nasty business might have been based on some reality. After an initial visit to see a doctor, an X-ray purportedly showed a foreign object stuck deep inside her nasal passage. By the time she sought out a specialist to have it taken out, it had apparently disappeared, though cartilage build-up suggested something had been embedded there recently.

The CIA agents and their involvement in the Manhattan Alien Abduction case

According to UFOcasebook.com, two CIA agents, allegedly bodyguards assigned to Peruvian diplomat and the then secretary-general of the United Nations, Pérez de Cuéllar, were also witnesses to the abduction. The traumatic nature of what they saw seemed to leave both men deeply disturbed. Over time, they reportedly developed an unhealthy fixation on Linda, even abducting her on two separate occasions to interrogate her. They believed she might have been a willing participant or possessed some hidden knowledge about the extraterrestrials. One of the agents later admitted to Hopkins that he became obsessed with Napolitano, believing she had gained extraordinary powers after the abduction.

Scepticism and controversy surrounding the case

Despite claims of such a dramatic nature, the Manhattan Alien Abduction case has received considerable scepticism. Firstly, critics say the involvement of notables like Pérez de Cuéllar is improbable, and secondly, no corroborating photographic or physical evidence to date has surfaced to support Napolitano’s story. Sceptics also point to the similarities that exist with many alien abduction stories, most of which include paralysis, bright lights, and invasive medical procedures, all of which can be explained by sleep paralysis or other psychological causes rather than any actual extraterrestrial involvement.

The legacy of the Manhattan Alien Abduction case

More than three decades later, the case of Linda Napolitano remains one of the most polarising and enigmatic stories in UFO folklore. Believers consider it one of the best-documented abduction cases, given the number of eyewitnesses and the alleged (and unproven) involvement of credible figures like Pérez de Cuéllar. Others view it as yet another example of the power of suggestion and the human tendency to create elaborate narratives around unexplained events.

In pop culture, aliens are usually depicted as monstrous as in the Alien franchise but sometimes they are shown as benign such as in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

The Manhattan Alien Abduction trailer

Here is a trailer for The Manhattan Alien Abduction:

The Manhattan Alien Abduction release date on Netflix

The release date of The Manhattan Alien Abduction is 30 October on Netflix.

Watch The Manhattan Alien Abduction on Netflix.

(Hero and featured image: Courtesy of IMDb)