John Ford’s classic 1950 Western Rio Grande stars John Wayne as Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke, whose regiment is tasked with defending settlers in Texas from Apaches during the late 1800s. Kirby is in charge of training new recruits and soon learns that his son, Jefferson, whom he hasn’t seen in more than a decade, has enlisted as a private in the Army. Kirby informs the teenage boy (played by Claude Jarman Jr.) that he won’t be getting any special treatment and proceeds to whip him into shape. However, before long, Kirby’s estranged wife, Kathleen (Maureen O’Hara), shows up to take their son home.
A little over an hour into the film, Kirby tells his wife that he’s decided not to bring Jefferson along with him in pursuit of the Apaches in Mexico. Though Rio Grande remains beloved for a great many reasons, this scene in particular has attracted considerable attention in recent years—and not for anything that was intended by the cast or crew. If you keep your eye on the top left-hand part of the screen as Kirby’s breaking the news to Kathleen, you’ll see what looks like a UFO shooting across the sky in the background. Check out the clip for yourself below.
Did John Ford Accidentally Capture a UFO in His 1950 Western ‘Rio Grande’?
Naturally, this discovery has sparked an ongoing debate regarding what’s actually happening in that footage. While several sources claim that Rio Grande was filmed entirely on location in Monument Valley, some parts of the movie were said to have been shot at Republic Studios in Los Angeles. The zoomed-in portions of the video above make it appear as though the sequence in question was recorded on a soundstage. So, for that to be an alien craft flying around behind John Wayne, keep in mind that it would have to be a pretty tiny one.
Is that enough to rule out the possibility of a UFO in everyone’s mind? Of course not, but the fact that neither of the actors in the scene noticed or reacted to what was going on reveals how insignificant it was. After all, even a really small craft would make a noise if it was right next to you, no? The more likely explanation is that Ford captured light reflecting off of the backdrop, and probably just didn’t realize it—or care enough about it to bother reshooting the sequence.
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