A forgotten sci-fi flop understandably lost to the sands of time stages a streaming abduction

The humble alien abduction story has been a staple of sci-fi storytelling for decades, but genuine classics are few and far between. 1993’s Fire in the Sky most definitely isn’t one of them, but at least it’s gotten the chance to celebrate its 30th anniversary by finding a brand new audience.

Per FlixPatrol, the overlooked and almost entirely forgotten extraterrestrial adventure has been beamed up onto the iTunes global most-watched list, three decades on from director Robert Lieberman’s ambitious effort failing to reach $20 million at the domestic box office on a $15 million budget, which inevitably accelerated its descent into the realm of cinematic purgatory.

Set in the mid-1970s, a group of working men see a mysterious light emanating from a forest, which they naturally decide to seek out against their better judgement. Of course, one of them ends up being hoovered up by an alien spacecraft, but it’s no surprise to discover that the rest of the gang don’t get much help from law enforcement when they say a flying saucer took their buddy.

Five days later, the abductee reappears with one hell of a story to tell, leading to an investigative mystery that was tepidly greeted by critics at the time and largely shunned by general audiences, but has nonetheless conspired to emerge as a quiet success story on-demand long after the fact. Maybe aliens are behind it, because Fire in the Sky isn’t exactly the sort of movie that holds an enduring reputation for being underrated, unheralded, or even that good.