Storm Area 51: TikTok Posts Trippy Neil Armstrong, Alien Video

TikTok U.K. has Area 51 fever, showing off a trippy and bizarre video one of its popular users made. The video features a photo of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, turning into an alien. TikTok U.K. shared the video Friday, hours after a few dozen people showed up at Area 51 in Nevada for the “Storm Area 51” gathering.

In the video, the user types out Armstrong’s name, then deletes “rmstrong” so you only see “neil A.” The user then held up a mirror to his computer screen, revealing that “neil A” backwards is “Alien.” He then uses some filter tricks to turn the photo of Armstrong into an alien. Meanwhile, the song “I Wan’na Be Like You” from Disney’s The Jungle Book. A remix of the song has been used by other TikTok users as a meme.
The Armstrong video was created by [Corey Callahan], a TikTok user with more than 111,200 fans and 3.1 million hearts.

Early Friday morning, about 75 people showed up outside the gates of Area 51 in Nevada. The U.S. Air Force and local officials were ready for the event, which was started in a viral Facebook event that more than 2 million people responded to. Many of the people who did show up were in on the joke, wearing alien masks and tin foil hats, and carrying signs with jokes like “Free E.T. from the government.”

Only a few people were detained. Ties Garnzier, 20, and Govert Charles Wilhelmus Jacob Sweep, 21, both from The Netherlands, were arrested and pleaded guilty ot trespassing and illegal parking charges. They were each sentenced to a year in jail, but prosecutors said they would only spend three days behind bars if they pay a $2,280 fine.

The original Facebook event that sparked this was created by college student Matty Roberts and the nearby towns of Rachel and Hiko both organized their own events for people who attended. Rachel set up their AlienStock music festival, although it was later called off because only a few hundred showed.

Hiko’s event, “Storm Area 51 Basecamp,” is still scheduled to continue into Saturday. The lineup of guests at the event include filmmaker Jeremy Kenton Lockyer Corbell, actor Dave Foley, writer Ken Layne, Ufologist Jane “UFO Jane” Kyle, pilot Jim Goodall, retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Richard Doty, retired U.S. Navy SEAL commander Dick “Rogue Warrior” Marcinko, actor Colby Boothman and rapper Suwanan.

Roberts is no longer involved with Alienstock, saying it could become a Frye Fest 2.0.

“Due to the lack of infrastructure, planning, and risk management, along with concerns raised for the safety of the expected 10,000+ attendees, we decided to transition Alienstock away from the Rachel festival towards a safer alternative,” Roberts wrote in a message on Alienstock.

Roberts later added, “AlienStock will be moving to a safe, clean secure area in Downtown Las Vegas as an alternative. We are not interested in, nor will we tolerate any involvement in a FYREFEST 2.0. We foresee a possible humanitarian disaster in the works, and we can’t participate in any capacity at this point.”

Photo credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images