This 1970 Film Predicted 50 Years of Alien Theories (Chariots of the Gods)

➡ “Under the Docks” is a show where Paranoid American and Sean Chris review documentaries, particularly those about conspiracy theories. They recently revisited a film based on the book “Chariots of the Gods” by Eric Von Deniken, who recently passed away. The film, which suggests that ancient structures and artwork were created by aliens, was a popular release in the 1970s. The hosts discuss the concept of cargo cults, where isolated societies saw planes dropping supplies during the world wars as gods, and they compare this to modern societies’ belief in gods or aliens.
➡ The text discusses various theories about ancient civilizations and their possible interactions with extraterrestrial beings. It explores different cultures, historical artifacts, and ancient texts, suggesting that these might contain evidence of advanced technology and alien encounters. The text also questions the interpretation of these artifacts and texts, and whether they truly depict spaceships or aliens. Lastly, it mentions the possibility of ancient stories, like the city of Troy, being based on real events, implying that other ancient tales could also be factual.
➡ The documentary discusses various ancient structures and artifacts, suggesting they might be evidence of extraterrestrial influence. It points out similarities between pyramids in Mexico and Egypt, and questions how ancient civilizations could have built such structures without advanced tools, suggesting alien intervention. The documentary also discusses the possibility of ancient aliens in the context of the Aztec calendar, Mayan sacrifices, and Easter Island statues. However, the viewer questions these interpretations, suggesting that they might be influenced by modern perspectives and biases, rather than based on solid evidence.
➡ The text discusses a film that explores various conspiracy theories about ancient civilizations having access to advanced technology. The film suggests that certain artifacts and structures, like the Nazca lines and ancient Japanese figurines, are evidence of this advanced technology. However, the text criticizes the film for its lack of evidence and its tendency to compare ancient artifacts to modern technology. The text also mentions the film’s high production value and its use of real people and locations.
➡ The text discusses a 1970s documentary that explores various theories about ancient aliens and technology. Despite the documentary’s many inaccurate claims and lack of evidence, the author appreciates its impact on popular culture and its ability to provoke thought. The author also acknowledges the documentary’s high production value and engaging content, which kept their attention throughout. Despite its flaws, the author gives the documentary a positive review, appreciating it as a product of its time and a classic in its genre.
➡ This text encourages readers to explore and purchase comic books, either in digital or printed form, from a website called ‘kill the mockingbirds.com’. The website also offers discussions on various topics, including theories about ancient aliens. The text also promotes merchandise from ‘paranoid American’, urging readers to buy and enjoy their products. The author expresses their passion for creating content and their hope that it will resonate with and inspire their audience.

They were, they were off by a half century and counting. Right? Under the docks. Yeah, under the docks. Breaking the locks, got clip. They erase all the shots. They collected dots. Under the docks. Under the docks, yeah, under the docks. Ahoy mateys. This is under the Docks with Paranoid American and Sean Chris charting through treacherous waves of documentaries to let you know if they sink or swim. If you have a documentary suggestion, go to paranoidamerican.com or kill them mockingbirds.com and don’t forget to like subscribe and share, share, share the show. And we’re going back to original form here.

We’re going to start doing some classic OG conspiracy documentaries. I think that’s kind of what got me and you in a conspiracy to begin with were these documentaries from like the 80s, maybe early 2000s. So here’s a revisit on that one. This first one up I don’t think I had ever seen before. Very familiar with the, the topic and the content. But this is a movie based on a book called Chariots of the Gods. And this came up because the, the author, Eric Von Deniken, he just died recently I think like few weeks ago as a recording this.

So it was a good chance to go back, revisit this documentary based on his book. And I guess we have to use the word documentary maybe loosely here, but when it’s in the realm of conspiracy documentaries, I think it’s self implied. So we don’t need any additional disclaimer. No, not at all. And this is getting back to the roots and as you said, not just about how we may have got into conspiracies, but kind of how, why we started the show. Right. Like the whole reason was like, hey, remember all those cool documentaries used to watch? Let’s like watch them again.

And this one for me as well, I know the information, but I’ve never seen it. Yeah. And so if you’re unfamiliar, the ancient alien stuff, basically pyramids were made by aliens. All old architecture was made by aliens. Any artwork that we come across that maybe looks weird, that was done by aliens or the artwork was portraying aliens and UFOs. You kind of get the theme here. So the Chariots of the Gods, aliens all the way down. Plot in the course. This one is actually pretty interesting. It starts up and it looks like you’re about to watch a 1970s theatrical release movie.

It says like soundtrack available on Polydor. They’re like pumping the vinyl, you know, soundtrack for you to watch this. It’s a little bit of a jam, especially for 1970s and when this thing came out, it was originally released in West Germany, I think, but when it made its release in the US this documentary made something like $26 million. And I don’t think that’s an adjusted for inflation, so it’s at least more than double that. So it was a fairly popular release. And it basically starts with this concept of a cargo cult. I don’t know how familiar you are with cargo cults, but the.

The premise was that in some of the world wars, as the allies were flying over areas, they would drop down supplies, and there would be some areas that had absolutely no contact with the outside world. And they started looking at these planes that were flying by and dropping supplies as if they were gods. They were these chariots of the gods that were just giving. And they turned the cargo cults, because what would happen is, is that these peoples would get together. I think it was in, like, Polynesia, they would get together, and they would basically create these mock airplanes to mimic the airplanes that they saw overhead, thinking, hey, if I appease the gods, the gods are looking down on me.

And if I make a thing that looks like the thing that they gave me, they’ll see that we are honoring them, and they’ll come back and they’ll give us some more cool, free stuff. And that’s kind of where the premise of the cargo cult came from. And I. And over the course of this documentary, I think they’re really trying to make the impression that we still haven’t evolved past that, that all of the different world religions and all of the different temples that we’ve built and all ancient and modern artwork that depicts gods, that it’s really just depicting aliens, but we don’t.

We haven’t put those pieces together yet. So we’re not that much more advanced than a typical cargo culture. And the cargo cult, not only would they make a mock idol of these planes out of straw, that’s what that was really cool. Like, I show these planes made out of straw, and I’m like, that’s pretty good, man. They. They had to, like, have that plane there for a while. I don’t. I don’t see you just seeing the aircraft overhead, and you do exactly like that one straw airplane is identical to the. The airplane that probably came over there.

And. And I’m wondering if that one. Because when you see that there’s a, you know, a guy filming it all, and I’m like, well, maybe it’s his plane. You know, like that they’re getting maybe days and weeks and months to, like, replicate that. I’m pretty sure that that’s. That was, like, reenacted. You know what I mean? I’m pretty sure that those weren’t real cargo cult natives and that they probably made that plane for this shot. But it was. They were emphasizing what happened in World War II. I think it was in, like, South Pacific somewhere. So somewhere in the South Pacific, these cargo cult started erupting, and then it goes right into Werner von Braun.

So, you know, immediately all of the different conspiracy bells are going off, and it’s kind of indicating that, well, Warner von Braun thinks that there’s intelligent life out in the universe. And here’s Professor Herman Ob, and he thinks that it’s very likely that, you know, that aliens have landed on our planet sometime in the past. And these are these different appeals to authority in 1970s that were a little bit relevant. I don’t know, like, how does it hit when you see Werner von Braun show up in a documentary and someone’s like, well, if Warner says it, then, I mean, you know, I guess.

I guess it’s got to be true? Like, that guy’s never steered anyone wrong. Yeah, that kind of like sets the tone where you’re like, all right, I’m in for some bs, right? I’m in for some bull crap. The bull crap meter goes off the charts, you’re like, all right, the guy that came from Germany, Operation Paperclip, started NASA. All right, cool, cool, cool. Yeah, let’s believe him. There’s also. It’s interesting since this documentary came out in 1970 and it’s based on a book from 1968, that they make a lot of claims that if you look it up now in 2026, like, we’re more than 50 years after this has come out.

Right. So a lot of the claims they make here, you can look it up, be like, that’s. I guess that’s not really true anymore. Maybe when they put this together, there wasn’t a quick way to, like, fact check everything. So a little bit more got. So we’re going to point some of it out as we go over the course of this movie. So the general premise is that we’re still a big cargo cult. All of humans, no matter how advanced we think we are, we’re still just cargo cults because we haven’t recognized that it’s aliens that have been coming to this planet and helping humanity along for thousands and thousands of years.

One of the claims they make is, in the course of this century, man will land on Mars and It was like, damn, bro, they were, they were off by a half century and counting. Right. Like we still haven’t necessarily. If you even believe in Bar, let’s, for the sake of this documentary, let’s just assume that space is real because otherwise we’re going to have to keep going into the rabbit holes. And then they were like, and after Mars, Venus, it’s like, damn, like you guys are already making predictions that failed and now you’re making a predict that comes after that prediction.

So I just, I wonder, we’re already over a quarter of the way through this century that we’re in now and we still haven’t even done the Mars thing. So I mean, I don’t know. Again, assume space is real for a split second. Do you think that we’re capable of going to Mars or Venus right now? Not at all right now. Right. I mean we can’t. Not human beings. Maybe like a rover or one of these like bots or some kind of drone type of vehicle, but that’s about it because we don’t even know exactly what those atmosphere, those atmospheres have on there.

Right. Oxygen or can we even breathe there? Can. Is it sustainable? I think it’s just one of those. Yeah, we’ll go there because they keep pushing back now we’re going back to the moon, you know what I mean? That’s the, the next thing. So let’s go there first again. Or let’s go there. Yeah, let’s get some good of it. I feel like too now, whenever someone brings up like, hey guys, when are we gonna go to Mars and, and Venus? You know, like we were planning ago. I feel like the, the guy running NASA, whoever’s got the checkbook, he’s like, oh, oh, I think I left my, my wallet in my other suit.

Like, I guess we can’t do that right now. Got rid of all the equipment. Yeah, well, that we’ll never, we’ll never get back to, to go there again. I forgot who said that. Like we, we lost the technology. So the, the movie goes into a whole bunch of different geographic and like cultural history. And I’m gonna be honest, man, like, even though this one’s only about an hour and a half long, they just pepper you non stop with like, here’s a culture, here’s a culture, here’s an ancient ruin, here’s the artwork, here’s a name. So I was struggling to like keep pausing, taking notes, like, re watching if, if you’re not watching it, like we are where like you have to take Notes and go back through.

Seems like this something would just be jam packed. It felt jam packed because my notes would be long enough to do like a three hour episode on this thing. So they go to Mexico and South America, then they go to Egypt, then we go to India. A lot of this is on location footage too, which is, it’s impressive to watch. And then they start talking about how all these religions were based on foreign astronauts that the original natives referred to as gods, but really they came to this planet in these sky vehicles. And then it makes this note that whatever we dismiss as fantasy, like right now, it was being reported the world over.

And my first note there was like, so if enough people tell the same story, is it, it just becomes true at a certain. Like, is Pinocchio true now? If enough people tell Pinocchio. I know it may not be the right equivalence there, but there was a, A, a logical fallacy that I immediately picked on. Well, it’s like, well, if all these people in history all built pyramids, then that’s got to be aliens, right? And it brings me back to any episode of Ancient Aliens I’ve ever seen, which usually follows that same logic. Ancient astronaut theory says, yes, I don’t hate the ancient astronaut theory.

And then, then they start talking about these Tibetan Buddhist scriptures and it makes this claim that only 100th of them have been deciphered. And I had to look that up and it was, it was like kind of middle of the BS meter, Right? So the accurate way to have stated that was that 1/100th of it in the 1970s had been translated to English. But it’s not like no one knew how to decipher or read these things. And it is interesting though, that Even right now, 2026, we’re only like 1/10 has ever been translated to English. So we still have this, this ancient text.

And the ancient texts describe these pearls or these transparent spheres or bubbles that the gods would live inside, and that basically they’re equating that to some sort of future advanced technology where astronauts could float around in like little soap bubbles, I guess. And I mean, I guess we get a lot of the orbs. The thing that’s cool about this documentary is you get a lot of the stuff you hear now, like, obviously you could tell this is the roots for a lot of people, like not just like the History Channel and stuff, but a lot of people in alien enthusiasts.

Right. One of the problems I have is as they’re going through a lot of these paintings and cave paintings and their Their thought process is like, oh, well, this looks like a rocket or this looks like a spacesuit. And I’m like, but that’s what you see as a spacesuit. Why would it be exactly the same as the suits that we make and the rockets we make? And, and I think that’s where they start losing me because I’m like, well, they, they do have sprinkles, some other stuff down the road, but in the beginning, a lot of where they’re showing, they’re like, looks like a rocket, doesn’t it? And then they show a rocket and you’re like, yeah, but why would it be like that? That more gives me like some time travel thing than some aliens.

Why would an alien have the same exact technology as us? Because they’d be having to come a long distance and our rockets haven’t even proven we could get to the moon. We’ll get into some of this in the, in the overboard. Yeah, that, that will keep coming up where they’ll show a painting and be like, doesn’t this look like an astronaut? And to be honest, more than half of them, I’m like, no, looks like some dude in like a, wearing like a feather sash or something. Like he just looks like an Aztec God. So, so then they talk about the Mahabharata, which is 6,000 years old, and it has these poems talking about vehicles that fly using Mercury and wind currents, and that one of the gods, Bima, flies away in a giant beam of light and that it’s associated with this loud noise like thunder and thunderstorms.

So again, they’re kind of nodding to, well, maybe this was a rocket, maybe this was a spaceship, maybe it was a Star Trek Enterprise, like phaser, like to bring you in and out or something. And you’ll notice a theme on this documentary and on ancient aliens and kind of in this, this sub genre in general where it’s like, man, could that be an alien? And then you never revisit that question to go any deeper than the question itself. So you have to get used to that. And by the time you’re like 20 minutes into this thing, you’re probably already acclimated.

So then they talk about Baghdad, capital of Iraq, and that they have this museum with 5,000 year old clay tablets and on these clay tablets, which are the Gilgamesh fragments, talking about creatures that came into existence in these bursts of smoke and noise. So again, they’re talking about maybe like a rocket was landing. And then they also start getting into how the story of Gilgamesh is similar to the book of Genesis, but it’s 2000 years before the Bible. And they talk about Enkidu, which is like one of the first, like, Promethean characters in all of human recorded history, and that he also has the first description of what they call a space vehicle.

So, and, and to be honest, cards on the table, like, I’m open to this. I do. Like, it appeals to me, regardless of if it’s true or if it’s logical or not, that at some point, all of these stories, maybe one of them, someone was like, whoa. But, like, they’re actually describing a spaceship or flying saucer or alien. I’m not. I’m not saying 100 no on that. I’m totally open to it, but I don’t know if these are the most compelling arguments. And that inky do is the best example to. To drive this point home. And I think that’s where I’m with you the same way.

It’s like, I’m open to the idea. It’s just a way that you’re presenting it I may not totally agree with. So they, they have a couple good examples for any skeptics, I guess, of ancient alien theory. And one of them, they’re talking about this guy that was looking for the city of Troy that Homer wrote about, and this guy’s looking for it in the 1860s, and everyone thinks he’s an idiot. They’re just like, bro, it’s a. It’s a poem. You’re looking like, it’ll be like, looking for the lost city of Atlantis or something, right? People are laughing about it.

And he ends up finding it, man. Like, he. He actually interpreted Homer’s poetry as if it were literal, and he followed it like it was a map. And he actually now is kind of seen as an OG archaeologist, like one of the very first that despite everyone telling him that he was wrong, he ended up being right. And this was two. Almost 200 years ago. So they’re kind of citing this guy. His name was Heinrich Schleiman, and the fact that he was able to find this real thing. Now they’re like, well, if Homer wasn’t based on complete fiction, maybe none of it’s based on complete fiction.

And in my mind, it’s like, well, yeah, maybe there is a lost city of Atlantis that’s waiting to be found at some point. I guess I’m not completely writing that off either. Then they start talking about the obelisk of Luxor, which weighs like 400 tons, and they. They’ll drop this question how was it created? And they move on to the next. Right, so the implication is the aliens created it. Then they talk about in the Algerian Sahara Desert, there’s these ancient drawings with these gods that don’t have, like, traditional human heads. They’ve got these, like, bulb heads or, like, weird little deflated balloon heads, and that they’re floating in space, and that this.

These ones existed, like, 8 to 10,000 years before the story of Christ came up. So they’re just. Again, they’re like, look at how old these paintings are. And it’s clearly a spaceship, and it’s clearly aliens. I don’t know if you remember this part of the documentary when you see that or you do, you immediately go to, like, oh, yeah, that’s an alien. No, not at all. And there was a one part where this guy’s, like, floating, and they’re like, maybe he’s traveling through space, but it looks like he’s on a bull. And then I’m thinking, like, what if, like, he’s doing something weird and they’re deciphering it wrong? He’s doing some box saga stuff.

So then they go to Mexico, and we start looking at the Mexican temples and pyramids with. And this is all so incredibly legitimately interesting to me. Like, for example, they hone in how the. The Pyramid of Cholula. I hope I’m saying that right. And it’s not just the hot sauce, but that this pyramid in Mexico is technically the largest pyramid in the world by volume. I guess it’s just been knocked down and weathered more than, like, the. The Great Pyramid of Giza, but that is actually bigger than any pyramid in Egypt. And they start pointing out all the similarities between these pyramids and again, how big they are.

And that question is, how did they do it? Got to be aliens. And then they point out how the steps. I think it was Chichen Itza, one of the. The Mexican temples, has the number of steps that correspond to the days in the year. And in fact, there was, like, an Aztec calendar that had 365 in one quarter day. So then the question is, how did they know? Like, they didn’t have telescopes, they didn’t have advanced instruments. So, again, maybe this information had to be given to them by extraterrestrials. And they talk about how Quetzalcoatl was really an ancient alien being that came down from the sky and then returned back on a morning star.

Then they start talking about the Valley of Oaka, and they’re like, we don’t even know who the the architects are. And then they go into South America and they start talking about Machu Picchu and Sax Woman, which is actually. I got to go to both of these places before. And the rumor that this was actually somewhat offensive, but they make this claim in Chariot of Gods that the records were that it was these pale white men with beards that built Machu Picchu and that built sexy woman, and that it was basically either foreigners or aliens. And if you.

Again, if you look into that one modern, the results are a little bit mixed. It sounds like the current. Maybe this is just like woke Rockefeller education system, right? But the current idea is that. Well, that is a colonial sort of and European bias where they show up and they’re like, these stupid Mexicans couldn’t have made anything this great. This had to come from white people. So then they start, like, assuming that either another European came previously, and then that gets reinterpreted centuries later as aliens. So I don’t know. It’s. It’s all fascinating. All the questions they ask are legit.

How did they make all this stuff? Like, why did they make all this stuff? It just. Just realize every single time in this documentary, it’s like, it’s aliens. Yeah. They don’t say it either. You just have to know, right? Like, it’s going in that I think they know their audience. They cater to their audience. Like, to me, it’s funny, though, because it kind of reminds me of hardcore religious people and hardcore alien people are kind of the same thing. It’s just that they differ on what it is. Right? If it was a hardcore religious person, they’re like, yeah, that’s God.

That’s this entity. Or there’s this. And then the aliens are like. The alien people are like, Nah, man’s UFOs, bro. Like, even at one point, they go to the Mayans and they go to one of the pits of where they were sacrificing people. And they’re like, didn’t you see how this looks like that it was made by a rocket blasting off the perfect circle and all this. They’re like, there’s no way a human can make it. Right? That was actually a wild coincidence. They’re just like. And here’s this pit where they. They did child sacrifices to the gods.

And this pit had to have been formed by, I don’t know, maybe a rocket engine. And they. And then they just cut immediately to the next thing. And the next thing is the winged God Palan K or Pakal. And this is this guy that looks like he’s sort of in a. What they claim is in a pit of a rocket, and he’s got his foot on the throttle and he’s wearing an astronaut outfit. And I’m. I swear to you, man, I, I paused it and I went. And I looked at a few images of this thing and I saw the illustration on Wikipedia and I turned it different ways and I squinted my eye.

And at no point did I see his foot on a throttle. At no point did I see him as an astronaut inside of a cockpit. It just looked like some dude in a. In a temple that was kind of just wearing like a loincloth and like a feather headdress surrounded by designs. I don’t know. I didn’t, I didn’t see that. I was like, oh, yeah, that’s. That’s clearly the gyroscope for, you know, this model. That’s the Apollo 12 gyroscope right there. Well, I think you also have to be in the 70s and baked out of your mind.

Like, I was thinking, like, people are like on acid shroom, smoking. Like, that’s when I was watching it. I was like, oh, you have to be in the zone, you know, because I could. And there was nothing like this at the time. It’s. I think it’s harder for us to like, dig in because if that was the only documentary, but now we have the luxury of time where we have all these gaps filled in. But I’m sure at that moment with how the filmtography was like, you’re like, wow, this is incredible. And you’re like, yeah, how could you move that? That’s impossible.

Like, so I can see the audience they were gauging at. Just for the record, I feel like I was in the zone when I was watching this. I’m usually in the zone. And so here’s one of the examples, right, where we’re talking about that they just keep making everything about astronauts. And it was almost like a lack of self awareness in the concept of this because they, they show this shot of what were claimed to be birdheads. He’s. These sculptures outdoors. And the narration is like, are these really bird heads? The natives maybe, like, to the natives they seem that way, but today we look at these and they could be helmets with oxygen masks.

And it was. And I was like, hold on, you’re. You’re discounting what everyone else said that they were for all this time, and you’re just like, nah, they’re not bird heads, they’re this. But you’re just saying it and then it cuts to another thing. It doesn’t say. And here’s the exact model of the astronaut helmet that we’re talking about. And here it is from a few different angles. And you don’t really get that. You just get, like, they said it was a. What if It’s B. Okay, moving on. So that. That was one, like, real clear example of that one.

And then it gets a little bit into magic and mana and electromagnetism and future technology. And I. And I think that they kind of introduced this fairly late in the documentary in terms of runtime. I think, like, well over halfway in, they start talking about Easter island and that no one knows how these huge Easter island statues got into these positions because they’re so heavy, and that they were taken from, like, 22 miles away or something. Again, like, I mean, if you compare this one of those Egyptian obelisks that came from, like, over a hundred miles away, I don’t know why the Easter island thing would require magic, but the Egyptian obelisk didn’t.

But we’re. We’re beyond the Egyptian obelisk. And they talk about these two priests in the area had the ability to control mana or some kind of magic, that they were, like, sorcerers, and that they brought the Easter island statues to life and that they moved themselves using this magic. And then when they, like, stop using the magic, that’s where they would stay. And then these magicians just disappeared and they took their mana with them, and that’s the end of the story. Then they start talking about how there’s high levels of magnetism in this area, which is supposed to be anomalous, and that maybe these ancient sorcerers from thousands of years ago were using some sort of electromagnetism that looked like magic to, I guess, like, the bumpkins, but really they were using this, like, future technology.

So, again, it’s. It’s interesting, and it’s like aliens, and then they move on. So I want to know more about that. I did. I looked into. Is Easter island more magnetic? Is it, like, anomalous in magnetism? And technically it’s true, but also they have, I guess, like, lava that. That solidified and that. That is already magnetic by default, so that there’s a reason why it would be highly magnetic. But, yes, it is magnetic in that area. And I think that that magnetism maybe leads into the speculation on they were using electromagnetism as magic thousands of years ago.

Yeah. And. And then they started, like. Because this, like you said, is probably three quarters of the Way in. And then towards the end, I think there’s some interesting stuff there. But I mean, again, I don’t know how they were making the film. Like, when they start talking about, like, the museums that have, like, the first electricity, the first. Like, they’re like, there’s this rock that’s, like, you know, polished and. And. And shaped. And we didn’t even know about that technology until, like, you know, but we don’t know where they’re going with it. And to me, one of the.

The. When we’re going on the spaceships, I mean, you know, the little sperm spaceships, they’re showing, like, where they’re like, oh, that’s a spaceship. And I’m like, well, what is that? Like, we don’t know if that’s a tent or if that, like the. We. We’re not seeing the eyes of the artist. And then they go towards the end and they show to me, though. Like, I’m like, that’s a cave painting. Like the one. No, yeah, I know. I know what you’re talking about. I think it was like an artist’s rendition of a cave painting, right? Very 70s.

It looked like something someone would have airbrush on the side of a van. Right. And I will point out, though, that this is where, like, you know, the conspiratorial hat comes on, and you’re like, well, the drawing. Yeah, I see that they’re trying to copy and. And mimic this. But why does it have the checkerboard floor? Right? Like. Like, I’m just saying we have the checkerboard floor, and somebody associated with the film most likely drew this, and then they added it. And I’m like, oh, this is interesting. I think they were trying to, like, really a.

A rope. Adult people here. Because then you’re showing all these paintings, these crude paintings, right? Like, that look like, you know, what you’d see in preschool or kindergarten. Finger painting. I mean, not to. Sorry. Ancestors. Like, don’t, you know, don’t come for me. But then you get this. And I’m like, I get it that it was somebody that drew it, but I almost felt like they snuck it in that you’re like, wait a second. It’s. Who did that? Like, if you don’t pay attention the whole time, you’re not sure where this comes from. That. And honestly, that one probably wouldn’t move the needle for someone that was already not on the fence to begin with.

So it. I know exactly what you’re talking about. Yeah, there was like, a 1970s, like, psychedelic illustrat it was very modern. And the way that they present it makes it seem like, oh, here’s this thing from thousands of years ago. And it’s, it’s clearly not. So I’m just gonna to pepper through a whole bunch of the other claims they make because there are so many. So they bring out these hansu figurines from 5,000 years ago in Japan and they’re like, look at his weird clothing. Clearly that’s an astronaut. And then they start showing the designs from this, you know, alleged astronaut clothing on these 5,000 year old Japanese figures.

And then they overlay it with a circuit board. And I was like, oh my God, we’re back in Tartaria now. Like we’re doing the old world cities our circuits. But this again, this is just being repurposed from 1970s conspiracy culture where they were overlaying circuit boards on, you know, ancient paintings and saying that this was proof that the ancients had access to future technology in the form of circuit boards. So again, it’s like everything old is new all over again. Like, you didn’t make this up, Your grandpa didn’t even make this up. You know what I mean? This has been around for a minute.

Then they show a skull of a bison that has a hole in it. And they’re like, this had to be done by a bullet. So clearly someone in the future or some, some alien technology came here and shot this bison and then left again. I mean again, high speed projectile of any kind could have caused that. We have no idea. It was just an example. Then they get into the visions of these mountains that look like people and like stones, they don’t go all the way into mountains. Used to be giants, but it definitely, you can see that seed get planted where it’s like giants, these giant doorways and these giant caverns and these giant faces.

Maybe there were giants that roamed the earth. So again I was like, oh my God, I’ve. I recognize this conspiracy theory too. In the 2000s that dates back to the 1970s and earlier they do the Nazca lines again. What were they made for? How to be aliens. Because you could only see it from the sky and it just. And then if it finally wraps back up and it goes back to the cargo cult, which I do think was a nice ending where they are able to be like, hey, all that stuff looked crazy, right? And like we’re making all these, these guesses.

But look, here’s what people were doing. And I guess in the 1970 when this came out, the Cargo cults that we’re talking about was like 25 years ago, right? So they are closer to actual cargo cults being discovered than we are right now. Talking about when this movie was made. Yeah, that is pretty interesting. I didn’t think of that part. And as some of the aspects, it wraps it up and then I think they put a nice little bow on it with that touch. Hidden treasure overboard moments. I’ll let you go first on this one because I’ve been doing all the talking.

So you go. Let’s start with the hidden treasure first. My favorite thing was the soundtrack, but I’m a music guy. I really liked the. I like that 70s feel of that raw, like a psychedelic sounding. I. I absolutely loved it. Can I just say, I ordered the album on vinyl. I found it on ebay for like five bucks plus three dollars. Like. Like, it’s on the way already, right? Come on, man. That was. This is one of the. This is like peak 70s, 60s, 70s, where you’re like, oh, yeah, dude, these guys were baked out of their mind.

I. I love it, right? I love the way they shot the film as well. Like, I mean, granted, like, I was gonna say, I didn’t want to go too much. And when we’re going to the Plotting the course, but when you see the cargo Colts, you could see somebody is like directing them because some of the guys are, like, looking into the camera, like, directly. Like, you’re like, okay, so you know what’s going on. This is being reenacted. But still the shots are some of these beautiful places that I’ve never been and that I’ve researched in over time.

They got great shots, end of the people. I thought it was good that they actually got people that really lived in these places. From Mexico to. To Egypt, to everywhere they went to and got to. You get to actually see their faces. Not just like some picture of like, they used to look like this. That part is great. All that stuff I like. But I gotta say, to me, the equivalency I give this to is. It’s the 1970s version, but Alien version of Hebrews to Negroes, right? Where it’s like you got all this beautiful B roll.

Like now not at same level. Like, I think chairs of the God, it blows it out the water as far as, like, production value. Like, they couldn’t. Hebrews and Hebrews couldn’t even touch them. But you still get the same. Yeah, trust me, bro. You know, because then I start getting into, like. As you spoke about the skull that was shot, obviously By a gun, right? Like, it had to be a gun and a space gun, right? And you’re looking at it and you’re like, well, don’t they have those blow dart guns and things of that nature at the time? And you can see that being looked at, the size of a ball bearing doesn’t really look like a bullet.

Right. And one of the biggest problems I have in this whole film is that they constantly comparing the modern technology that they know of to this ancient technology. And I’m like, but just that you’re only bringing up, oh, he has to have a space. Who’s like this. Oh, a rocket has to look like this. And then they kind of throw in the UFO a little bit, but they’re focused mainly on, like, doesn’t that look like a space mass like we’ve seen on NASA? And it’s like, wouldn’t it be totally different? These people are coming from galaxies away, potentially.

We don’t even know exactly where. Why would it be looking exactly like the technology that we already have in the 1970s? So, yeah, just conveniently. And there was one example of the circuit board where they’re like, look at how close this circuit board is to this artwork. And I mean, I. I’ve made circuits before, and I know, like, PCB design. And the circuit they were showing was clearly like a creative, artistic version of it. It was, sure, it was a real circuit board, but it was intentionally made to look artistic. And then they’re comparing it to actual artwork.

So of course they line up a little bit. That, to be honest, that’s actually part of my hidden treasure in this movie. It are these claims of the circuit boards, the claims of the mountain giants, all of being able to see one of the origins of so many things that we still see right now that’ll come up on your. Your Instagram feed or on Tick Tock or something like, this is more than 50 years old and growing. So it just, it was interesting to have, like, a direct reminder of that. I also think that the cargo cult narrative was incredibly strong.

It holds up really well. It really makes a very solid point. I think that kind of like, adds humility back to the equation. It’s like, oh, of course it couldn’t be aliens and ancient astronauts. Like, I’m. I’m too smart to fall for that. It’s like, I don’t know, maybe we’re just in a cargo cult still, you know, and we’re. We’re attributing it to something else. And then I do think that this Movie, the documentary. Regardless of your thoughts, it’ll make you think about all these. It’ll make you reconsider some of it. Even if your ultimate conclusion is like, nah, that’s silly.

It still will make you be like, I don’t know. That’s kind of crazy. Okay. Nah, never mind. They’re. They’re being dumb about this. But the fact that it makes you go through that, I think is important. And like you said, they’ve got some absolutely fascinating shots. The fact that this came from 1970s, I can barely make it through a movie that had a high production value made in the 70s, let alone a documentary in the 1970s. And this one held my attention the entire time. And part of that, again, is just because they keep jumping from place to place to place.

It felt a little. Had that, like, Whitman Sampler feel a little bit to it, right? Like, we’re gonna give you 20 or 30 different perspectives all wrapped up into one documentary. I’m starting to realize those are probably some of my favorites. Definitely with. Without its overboard moments. So pretty much every single claim they make in here, there’s no proof, there’s no evidence. They make a claim, they pose it sometimes as a question so that they don’t have to back it up with anything, and then they move on to the next. And I. This is kind of like this Gish Gallup fallacy, where if you just load the viewer with a whole bunch of claims, then the burden is, like, on them to figure all this out.

And they make so many claims, it would take you weeks to probably research all the things that they said and come up with any definitive proof of any of it. But again, one of the examples is that since this was released in 1970, they just make so many false or inaccurate claims. I’ll give you one other example. There are so many, but they’re like, here we are in Bolivia with Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world. Well, first of all, it is definitely not the highest lake in the world. So Lake titicaca is at 12,000ft.

There’s another lake called the Ojos del Salado Creek Crater lake, which is at 21,000ft. So 21,000, 12,000. They’re definitely different numbers. One of them is definitely higher than the other one. Now, if you add a qualifier and say Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake on the planet, then it becomes more true. But they didn’t say that. And that just represents so many other things that they say in this. So if you. If you’re Watching this and trying to be serious about it. They don’t really give you anything where you could bring this into a discussion and be like.

Like, here’s this fact. And someone would just be like, nah, bro, that’s totally. Where the hell did you hear that? And then you’re like, oh, you’re referencing Chariot of the gods from 1970. Okay, you’re not part of this discussion anymore. But you could get away with that in the 70s, right? You’re. They didn’t have the culture of like, oh, I’m gonna go look that up. I’m gonna Google it. Let me pull this up right now. Hey, hey, Chad. Gbt. Yeah. Oh, it looks like you’re wrong, bro. Like, you don’t have that luxury. So you could definitely tell it was made in that time frame.

So if you bring it to modern time, then, yeah, a lot of it falls apart. But I could see, like you said weeks, and I was going to say, well, back then, it probably must have been years. You would have to have years of research. You would be stuck at the library, multiple libraries, went to multiple bookstores trying to find some kind of evidence to what they’re claiming. And by the time you debunk it, it’s like, 1976, right? And. And this has already been seen by millions of people, and it’s made, like, $30 million. So, yeah.

What. And what are you going to do with the evidence of Chariot of the Gods that you disproved? What Internet are you going to post that on? There is none. You’re going to write it into your local paper and hope it spreads like wildfire from there? Lots of thoughts on this one, but does it sink or swim? So I really like the production value. I think they do the typical, like, could it be like, I don’t understand this. So probably it was aliens. Like, it’s too heavy for you to pick up, so probably aliens. And even though it has that heavy undertone, I’m gonna give it a swim because just the fact that it was made in 1970, I kind of grade them on a scale because I’m like, they didn’t have as much information or access to it.

So I could see you making mistakes and you’re not you. Only as good as the research you have. And they’re trying to make these thoughts and. And over time, without this thing, we don’t get a lot of other things, and I don’t think we get questions asked. So them asking the questions, even though it’s annoying to me that they go pose questions that don’t answer it in a lot of films. The fact that it kept my attention, the fact that they did affect culture, crazy like that. This has been in root embedded in us now, right? Like we don’t get History Channel and some of the other conspiracies like Giants and, and all the lure that we talk about now.

So I give it a swim all the way. I think we’re aligned on this one, man. I definitely give this one a swim. And it’s not because I think that it makes a compelling case, but it is incredibly interesting. It makes you think about it. I was taking so many different notes on this and again, I’ve got a soft spot, I’m realizing for these sampler mixtape style documentaries and this is just a great one. And I think the, the biggest reason that it gets a swim for me is that you don’t even have to watch the like 8 or 12 or 20 seasons or whatever they’ve got of ancient aliens and all the other alien.

You could just watch Charity of the gods from 1970 and you’re set on the next 50 years worth of alien speculation. It doesn’t quite get into like UAPs and modern UFO from like Navy intelligence reports and stuff. But when it comes to ancient aliens and ancient alien technology and cities are circuit boards and giants used to live among us. Like you could just watch this one hour and a half documentary from 50 years ago and be set and never have to watch any other History Channel episode ever. So I think that the, the way that it’s able to wrap all that research into one place and make it entertaining to watch and have it watchable 50 years after it was made, it’s a swim all the way for me.

Yeah, it’s, it’s a classic and I think that’s what we’re trying to look for. We’re trying to look for classics that can really jump off the page because you have to grade these on a scale that can’t be the same as if it came out maybe last year I might think differently because then I’m going to be like, okay, you’ve gotten all this information from ancient aliens. I don’t know if I trust that you’ve just put something together from somebody else’s work. And to me this is the original work. And if you want more original work and more classics, they jump off the page.

You should go to paranoidamerican.com we got probably the best conspiracy and occult comic books ever created and ever will be created, at least in your. My lifetime. So if you want more of that to exist, you just want to see it for yourself. Go and just grab a comic. You can get a digital version, you get a printed version. We got all kinds of stuff. And there’s plenty more content at kill the mockingbirds.com with Shawn. Chris talking about all kinds of crazy ancient alien stuff. He’s a huge proponent of that. Right? Like your last five episodes are all about ancient aliens.

So I talk about man, that’s it for us. This is under the docks. Peace. Under the docks. Yeah, under the docks. Under the docks. Under the docks yeah, under the docks. Just buy something just buy something from paranoia Marriage Just buy something just buy something from paranoia mirror get some merch, buy some art Click that link add to car, say it back need that print Nod your head, give consent buy a comic three or four Think this thought, I want more Buy a sticker from the store Think this thought I want more Just buy something just buy something from paranormal American Just buy something just buy something from paranoid American Can.

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