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''Fire in the Sky'' is a 1993 science fiction/mystery film directed by Robert Lieberman, centered around a UFO abduction.

The film is based on the alleged 1975 abduction of Travis Walton (Creator/DBSweeney), a logger from Snowflake, Arizona who went missing for five days after his co-workers claimed he was zapped by a flying saucer. The plot of the film centers mainly around the ensuing investigation and manhunt that took place, headed on-screen by the fictional Detective Frank Watters (Creator/JamesGarner), as well as the drama in which Walton's co-workers, including his best friend Mike Rogers (Creator/RobertPatrick), are accused of murder by their families and neighbors. Only the climax of the film (which was dramatically changed from the real Walton's story) focuses on Walton's experiences onboard the UFO.

Not to be confused with ''A Fire In The Sky'', the 1978 TV Movie about a [[ColonyDrop comet impacting the Earth]].

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!!''Fire in the Sky'' contains examples of:
* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Released in 1993, set in 1975.
* AdaptationalVillainy: The real Travis Walton believes that the aliens were actually healing him after he had been severely injured by their craft's engines. In the movie they just torture him some more.
* AlienAbduction: Naturally since the plot is about Travis Walton's abduction.
* AliensAreBastards: Though you might want to note that humans do the same things we saw the aliens do to other living beings out of science.
* AndIMustScream: Travis while going through a painful autopsy performed on him by the aliens screams out of fear and pain. The aliens get tired of his screaming and shove a [[{{Squick}} tar-like substance]] down his throat.
** Additionally, [[spoiler:the mutilated man]] he finds in the other cocoon [[AmbiguousSituation seems]] barely sentient and it's hard to tell if he's being moved by Travis' panicking trashing or is actually trying to lean towards him.
* BestFriendsInLaw: PlayedWith because Travis and Dana get married while he and Mike are estranged, but they reconcile by the end.
* BigBad: The aliens.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Travis is left traumatized by his abduction, Mike's life is ruined, and it's widely believed the loggers' story was a hoax. However, Travis does recover to an extent and marries Dana, and he and Mike reconcile.]]
* BodyHorror: The experiments Travis is subjected to by the aliens are nothing short of violation. [[spoiler:Tubes are shoved down his throat, his jaw is violently clamped open, a sharp device is shoved into his neck, and he is forced to endure an ocular probe.]] Suffice it to say, there's a reason why many call this scene [[NightmareFuel one of the scariest ever put to film]].
* BreakTheCutie: Travis starts off as an optimistic {{Keet}}. After he's returned, he's left a joyless shell of his former self.
* DecoyProtagonist: The film initially focuses on Walters before he interrogates the loggers, at which point Mike becomes the protagonist until Travis is returned by the aliens.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Travis has two, before and after his abduction. The first has him arrive at Mike's house to say hello to Mike, his family, and his sister Dana, with whom he is in a relationship, which quickly establishes him as an optimistic, kindhearted {{Keet}}. The second has him sitting alone in a car, traumatized and lacking all of his former energy, but still signing an autograph for a kid despite his obvious discomfort, showing that he's retained his kindness.
* {{Flashback}}: Most of the first act consists of Travis' friends recounting what happened; and then, near the end, Travis' flashback of what actually happened on the alien ship.
* ExposedExtraterrestrials: Subverted. What looks to be a regular example of TheGreys turns out to be what their ''spacesuits'' look like. They are naked during the operation, but that's at least justified as being on the safety of their own spaceship in controlled environmental conditions.
* EyeScream: Travis' flashback ends with [[spoiler:a needle approaching his eye at an agonizingly slow pace]].
* GenreShift: The first and third acts are sci-fi, but the middle is mostly a cross between PoliceProcedural and small-town drama.
* TheGreys: Subverted. When Travis first sees the slumbering aliens on board their ship, at first they look like this (grey all over, naked, large heads, huge black eyes, tiny mouths) but it turns out that those are just their suits. The actual aliens look a bit different, having slightly more humanoid faces and round heads with a beige skin tone.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler: Lt. Walters initially addresses him self as from the Arizona Criminal Investigation Division. However at the end it's revealed he's actually from Montana. Montana was the alleged location of the Air Force's Project Bluebook, a catch all term for its investigative efforts related to UFO's. In other words the movie is suggesting that Lt. Walters was one of TheMenInBlack, sent to oversee and shift public attention away from the abduction story.]]
** [[spoiler: This is actually referenced throughout when he suppress the polygraph test results, and continued to present the theory The Loggers killed Travis, even though the polygraph exonerated the loggers. Additionally, you can see a look of pure frustration on Walters face when Cy discusses the results of the test. [[note]] [[DatedHistory Granted the polygraph test is just a glorified heart monitor real life.]] However, at the time and within the movie it is treated as infallible. [[/note]] It also explains why Sheriff Davis is so intimidated by Walters, refusing to stick up for the group when Walters was questioning them; even though he does so against everyone else in the film. Thankfully for all parties, everyone buys the hoax theory so Lt. Walters decides cover-up isn't necessary and simply leaves, vowing to return in they slip up.]]
* IncriminatingIndifference: The biggest reason Allan Dallis was suspected for murder was because of his indifferent attitude toward Travis.
* InscrutableAliens: Whatever the Aliens are truly after, no explanation is given. Sometimes they take people and let them die on their ship, sometimes they return them with only severe psychological damage.
* InspectorJavert: Walters is convinced that the loggers murdered Travis, and refuses to consider that they're telling the truth. After Travis is returned, [[spoiler:Watters instead decides, against all possible evidence, that they must have faked the whole thing for publicity and vows to return should they ever slip up.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: Dallis.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The only supernatural elements we see are in the {{Flashback}}s; technically, the audience can imagine that these events didn't really happen, though the film is certainly implying that they did.
* OrganicTechnology: Parts of the ship look more like a beehive than a technological space craft.
* PeekABooCorpse: [[spoiler:After Travis escapes from his cocoon aboard the alien ship, he ends up entering another cocoon and finds a badly decomposed human inside, much to his visible terror]].
* PoliceProcedural: The real focus of the film is not the abduction but the police investigation.
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: At one point the aliens bind Travis to a surface with a vacuum-sealed material, force open his mouth, and put a nasty tool up close to his eye.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The last few scenes are set 2-3 years after the abduction. The movie also ends with the note of what happened to the RealLife versions of Travis and Mike, and notes that they and Dallis later took another lie detector test and all passed.[[note]]Which, of course, means basically nothing since polygraphs can't actually tell whether someone is lying and are barely above a pseudoscience.[[/note]]
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