Guillermo Del Toro Has Seen A UFO And It Was Totally Crappy

During a recent appearance at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & TV, noted mensch and The Shape Of Water director Guillermo del Toro describes an encounter he once had with a UFO. This post contains absolutely no nutritional value, but it's a good story, so just sit back and try to enjoy it.

Said del Toro (as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter):

“I saw a UFO. I know this is horrible. You sound like a complete lunatic, but I saw a UFO. I didn't want to see a UFO. It was horribly designed. I was with a friend. We bought a six-pack. We didn't consume it, and there was a place called Cerro del Cuatro, Mountain of the Four, on the periphery of Guadalajara. We said, ‘Let's go to the highway.’ We sit down to watch the stars and have the beer and talk. We were the only guys by the freeway. And we saw a light on the horizon going super-fast, not linear. And I said, ‘Honk and flash the lights.’ And we started honking.”

The director went on to explain why honking at a UFO might not be in one's best interests:

"(The UFO) went from 1,000 meters away (to much closer) in less than a second — and it was so crappy. It was a flying saucer, so clichéd, with lights (blinking). It's so sad: I wish I could reveal they're not what you think they are. They are what you think they are. And the fear we felt was so primal. I have never been that scared in my life. We jumped in the car, drove really fast. It was following us, and then I looked back and it was gone.”

Look, any time someone tells you a story about seeing a UFO, chances are you're in for a good time. But this is the first time we can recall anyone describing a flying saucer as "horrible" and "crappy", a fact that makes this tale particularly endearing. We're picturing flying saucers straight out of an Ed Wood joint.

On a tangential note: what do you folks make of the recent New York Times story regarding the Pentagon's UFO program? The reveal that aliens may exist and might even be leaving "unknown alloys" scattered around our planet is an intriguing one, largely because it indicates we could be rapidly approaching (crosses fingers) a full-blown alien apocalypse. Feel free to work through your feelings on that story (and the del Toro tale above) in the comments below.

(Note: Header photo by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons)