If more than a million people stormed Area 51, would they be able to find aliens? When curiosity meets the internet, people can always try.
At the end of June, a Facebook user created an event called, “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.” Set for Sept. 20, the event promises that by banding together, raiders can find aliens hidden in the remote government facility in Nevada.
“We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry,” the event details read. “If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens.”
The “Naruto run,” from the anime series Naruto, involves sprinting forward comically with your arms outstretched behind you. What it may lack in speed, it makes up for in flair. More than a million people have responded “going” to the event, with another 900,000-plus interested.
The storming of Area 51 has quickly become a meme. This is peak 2019: Hosted by three accounts, the first of which being “S–tposting cause im in shambles,” the event combines quirky internet culture (conspiracies, tongue-in-cheek plans, anime references) and the power of the viral idea.
Most of the 2 million or so people who’ve expressed interest in the event likely have no intention of flying out to Nevada just to steal their own pet aliens. But that doesn’t mean the U.S. government isn’t taking this fast-spreading meme at least a little seriously.
An Air Force spokeswoman told the New York Times that “any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas is dangerous.” The Times also reports that at least one local inn has been flooded with reservations for late September.
Part of the Nellis Air Force Complex, Area 51 has long been shrouded with secrecy, which has led some to speculate that the location is the government’s holding ground for aliens.
By September, we’ll see whether millennials’ commitment to irony will take them all the way to Nevada. Those who get there may not actually be storming Area 51, but there still could be a gathering of extraterrestrial fans. If the Facebook event actually brings people together in real life, it’s worth even more than the memes.
—By Madeline Fry
