On October 15, 2009, a father in Fort Collins Colorado calls 911, claiming that his home-made flying saucer has escaped from the back yard, carrying his six-year-old son inside. This stranger-than-fiction claim is backed up by footage from a news helicopter, which catches up with the balloon and is live-streaming the chase. What starts as a local emergency quickly escalates into a national one, as everyone from the National Guard, to the Sheriff, and Homeland Security, struggles to come up with a plan to safely rescue ‘Balloon Boy’.
As the balloon softly lands, people pray for a miracle reunion - but instead they discover no boy inside. What appears to be a tragedy takes a sharp turn into something else. Public sympathy quickly turns into righteous outrage, as Balloon Boy quickly becomes one of America’s most infamous, and bizarre news stories.