Mirage Men

{{Infobox film

| name = Mirage Men

| image = Mirage_Men_poster.jpg

| alt = Photo of retired Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Richard Doty and credits underneath,

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = John Lundberg
Roland Denning
Kypros Kyprianou

| writer = Mark Pilkington

| producer = Roland Dennnig
Kypros Kyprianou
John Lundberg
Mark Pilkington

| starring = Rick Doty

| cinematography = Grant Wakefield
Zillah Bowes

| editing = Roland Denning
Kypros Kyprianou

| music = Cyclobe
Urthona

| studio = Perception Management Productions

| distributor = Random Media

| released = {{Film date|df=yes|2013|06|13|Sheffield Doc/Fest|2014|03|27|United States}}

| runtime = 85 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Mirage Men is a 2013 documentary film directed by John Lundberg, written by Mark Pilkington and co-directed by Roland Denning and Kypros Kyprianou. Mirage Men suggests there was a conspiracy by the U.S. military to fabricate UFO folklore in order to deflect attention from classified military projects. It prominently features Richard Doty, a retired special agent who worked for AFOSI, the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations.{{cite web|title='Muldoon Can't Trust Anyone After Seeing MIRAGE MEN at Fantastic Fest 2013!|url=http://www.aintitcool.com/node/64308|publisher=Ain't it Cool News}}

The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Sheffield Doc/Fest{{cite web|title='Tantalizing documentary suggests UFO folklore was deliberately fabricated under a U.S. psychological warfare program.|date=13 June 2013 |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/mirage-men-film-review-568349|publisher=The Hollywood Reporter}} in the UK on 13 June 2013, its North American premiere at the 2013 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas on 22 September 2013, its Australian premiere at the Canberra International Film Festival{{cite web|title='Mirage Men – Canberra International Film Festival. |url=http://www.canberrafilmfestival.com.au/films/mirage-men |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140127050932/http://canberrafilmfestival.com.au/films/mirage-men |archivedate=27 January 2014 }} on 31 October 2013 and its Nordic premiere at the Stockholm Film Festival in Sweden on 10 November 2013.

Mark Pilkington's book about the project, also called Mirage Men, was published in 2010 by Constable & Robinson.{{cite book|last=Pilkington |first=Mark |title=Mirage Men |url=http://www.constablerobinson.com/?section=books&book=mirage_men_9781845298579_paperback |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100929211340/http://www.constablerobinson.com/?section=books&book=mirage_men_9781845298579_paperback |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 September 2010 |accessdate=1 October 2013 |year=2010 |publisher=Constable & Robinson |isbn=9781845298579 |page=320 }}

Reception

Critical reception for the documentary has been positive. Twitch Film said the film was "Scary, unsettling" and "offered profound food for thought". Electric Sheep magazine{{cite web|title='Electric Sheep Magazine – Mirage Men review by Virginie Sélavy.|date=23 June 2013 |url=http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/reviews/2013/06/23/mirage-men/|publisher=Electric Sheep}} called it "one of the must see documentaries of the year". Ain't it Cool News called the film "a real head trip" and said they were "glued to [their] seat".

Influence and aftermath

Mirage Men has been excerpted in the Adam Curtis documentary HyperNormalisation on BBC iPlayer.{{cite web|title='Mirage Men excerpted in the new Adam Curtis documentary|url=http://www.miragemen.com/}}

American novelist Ernest Cline credits the Mirage Men film as an influence on his novel and screenplay Armada in which the government has known for decades of an alien invasion and has been funding sci-fi films and videogames in order to prepare people for war.{{cite magazine |title='Sci-Fi Has Been Prepping Us for an Alien Invasion for Years |magazine=Wired |date=11 July 2015 |url=https://www.wired.com/2015/07/geeks-guide-ernie-cline/ }}

In 2025, the Wall Street Journal revealed that hundreds of Air Force personnel had been told, falsely, that there was "a secret program to harvest alien technology". The piece described it as "a long-running practice" that was "like a fraternity hazing ritual that spun wildly out of control." https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/ufo-us-disinformation-45376f7e