How a Facebook Joke Nearly Broke the US Military: The Area 51 Storm
So get this—back in 2019, a guy named Matty Roberts, just 20 years old and working a regular job at a vape shop in California, went online after work and did what a lot of bored young people do: posted a meme. But this wasn't just any meme—it was a joke event on Facebook called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.” The idea? If enough people ran toward the top-secret military base in Nevada, maybe they’d uncover the truth about aliens once and for all.
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It was clearly a joke. He even threw in a ridiculous line about Naruto-running —you know, running with your arms behind you like an anime ninja—so they could “move faster than their bullets.” But somehow, the internet took it and ran with it—hard. The post went viral overnight. Within days, millions of people had clicked “Going” or “Interested.” The US military? Yeah, they noticed. And they were not laughing.
What started as a meme quickly snowballed into a national security concern. The Air Force issued public warnings. Journalists, YouTubers, and content creators flooded the internet with speculation. Suddenly, what was supposed to be just a funny “shitpost” became something much bigger—and more dangerous. Matty, overwhelmed and probably a little terrified, tried to pivot. He turned the whole thing into a music festival instead, calling it Alienstock , held in Las Vegas with a few sponsors onboard. Meanwhile, a smaller unofficial version still happened out in Rachel, Nevada, near the base, where about 150 people actually showed up on September 20, 2019.
No one got in. There was no dramatic standoff, no big alien reveal. Just a bunch of curious, mostly respectful visitors taking selfies by the gate. But the whole thing cost law enforcement and military agencies millions in preparation, just in case the meme became real mayhem.
Netflix’s Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 dives into this whole bizarre chapter of internet history. It captures how a single bored night and a joke post spiraled into a government-level concern. It’s kind of funny—but also kind of sad—how easily the internet can blur the lines between satire and reality. Matty didn’t make much money off the ordeal. He went right back to working retail. But for a moment, he was at the center of a cultural flashpoint that proves just how powerful a viral joke can be.
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