Footage · film
Great Falls (Mariana) film
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The visual record
Illustrations, recordings and archival references — each with its own provenance. A documented source is a starting point for investigation, not a verdict on its explanation.
The original film inventory
NARA's series includes civilian films and notes possible copyright restrictions. Archival custody does not itself establish public-domain status. Linked, not reproduced here.
US National Archives ↗Link only — rights with the publisherProject Blue Book file on the Great Falls film (1950)
A letter from the Air Force Project Blue Book case file on the Mariana film, August 1950 — the official record of how the film was received and assessed. Declassified document scan.
Project Blue Book · 1950 ↗Public domain — US government workLicence terms ↗Documentary excerpt containing the Mariana film
A five-minute clip on Wikimedia Commons that includes Nick Mariana's 16 mm footage of two bright objects over Great Falls, cut into a 1950s documentary with staged interview scenes. Linked rather than copied: the uploader's public-domain claim covers the documentary, and the clip is not the raw film.
Nick Mariana · 1950; upload via Wikimedia Commons ↗Link only — public-domain claim by the uploader, not independently verifiedRobert Salas · 0:06:17
Open the source at the cited time. The episode thumbnail is video packaging, not a photograph of the reported subject.
American Alchemy / Jesse Michels ↗YouTube-hosted preview and player; not relicensedA 16 mm film taken by Nick Mariana in Great Falls, Montana on 15 August 1950, showing two bright points crossing the sky. The Air Force examined it twice and attributed the objects to jets; Mariana said frames had gone missing. The corpus mentions Great Falls only as the town next to Malmstrom Air Force Base.
The recording
| Shot | |
|---|---|
| Shot by | Nick Mariana, general manager of the Great Falls Electrics baseball club, with a 16 mm camera civilian |
| Released | 1950 — Nick Mariana (public showings); Air Force analysis 1950 and 1952 |
| Official status | Project Blue Book attributed the two objects to reflections from a pair of F-94 jets known to be in the area, a finding Mariana disputed, saying frames showing the objects as discs had been removed. |
| Kind | film |
| Where | 47.505, -111.301 approximate |
| Media rights | See each item in the visual record |
Mentioned in the corpus
Passages this record cites, with the stamp of the block each quote sits in.
“This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas 12 July 2025
- 0:06:17 ▶ Robert Salas
Falls and Melmstrom Air Force Base located near Great Falls. So at this uh site we we go underground to a what we call the launch
- 0:06:17 ▶ Robert Salas
On the map
Great Falls (Mariana) film, Malmstrom AFB / Oscar Flight. Open the full map filtered to this record.
Sources on this record
- 0:06:17 “This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas · Robert Salas ▶
Falls and Melmstrom Air Force Base located near Great Falls. So at this uh site we we go underground to a what we call the launch
- Project Blue Book report – Great Falls, Montana, August 1950 (Commons copy)
- Mariana UFO incident