One person’s social media post caused headaches for US officials back in 2019

A fan-favourite Netflix documentary series finale is set to reveal the ‘shocking truth’ about a major Area 51 scandal.

The Trainwreck series has been a huge summer hit for the streaming service, exploring some of the biggest stories to emerge from the United States in recent years.

Last week’s episode, titled P.I. Moms, told the tale of a reality series about a private investigation agency that was set to air on US station Lifetime, but never made it to air.

Other episodes in the series have looked into the infamous balloon boy hoax, a teenager’s party inspired by Project X, controversial politician Rob Ford and the horrifying Poop Cruise.

Viewers have praised the series for featuring interviews with those who were directly involved or affected by the incidents.

Sadly, the final episode of the series, which began its life as a 2022 exploration into Woodstock, will hit Netflix on Tuesday (July 29).

Titled Storm Area 51, the series finale will look into how a single social media post led to major precautions being put in place by the US military.

Netflix’s synopsis for the episode reads: “A viral joke about storming a secretive US Air Force base sparks a meme-fueled media frenzy and puts the military on alert in this bizarre true story.”

For those who don’t know, Area 51 is a highly classified US Air Force facility, located in the middle of a desert in the state of Nevada.

Over the years speculation began to grow about what was really happening in the facility, with countless conspiracy theories claiming tests are conducted on aliens there.

However, back in 2019, Matty Roberts made global headlines by creating a Facebook event titled ‘Storm Area 51, They can’t Stop All of Us’.

The joke from the then 20-year-old quickly gained attention, with many people determined to finally find out what actually happens in Area 51.

Promising to reveal everything from clandestine government experiments to extraterrestrial tech, the event became one of the biggest memes of recent times.

In what Netflix’s episode description calls ‘the greatest sh*tpost ever made’, hundreds of thousands of people said they were taking part.

When the day finally came on September 20, 2019, around 150 people ended up showing up at the site’s two entrances. Despite nearly two million people saying they were interested in the event, no one who actually attended was successful in entering the site.

The US air force said in a stern statement prior to the event: “Area 51 is an open training range for the US air force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces. The US air force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”

Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 is out on Netflix on Tuesday, July 29