Summaries

Synopsis

Fine Structure Constant (FSC) is the specific energy level at which a Hydrogen atom emits light. This constant appears in some of the most basic math of the universe. We have no idea where the FSC comes from yet everything in the universe is made up of it. The FSC is a mathematical constant that would appear everywhere in the universe.

In 1974, Carl Sagan & Frank drake sent an Arecibo message into space. This message contained basic math and other information to make contact with other beings. They aimed it at star cluster M13, and the message would take 22,800 years to get there.

In Oct 2017, Derek (Alex Sharp) a brilliant college student, haunted by a childhood UFO sighting, believes that mysterious sightings reported at multiple airports across the United States are UFO's. One particular sighting is over the Cincinnati International Airport of which Derek takes note.With the help of his girlfriend, Natalie (Ella Purnell), and his advanced mathematics professor, Dr. Hendricks (Gillian Anderson), Derek races to unravel the mystery.

FBI special agent Franklin Ahls (David Strathairn) is on his heels. Ahls is very keen to shut down all UFO investigations within the FBI. Ahls suppresses all FBI data related to the UFO investigations and archives the case files.

Within 2.5 hours of a sighting at the Cincinnati international airport, Ahls is down on the ground conducting his investigation. At first, the airport spokesperson tells the media that the UFO was a drone, 4-5 feet in diameter. Derek calls the spokesperson and informs him that the information he shared on the media is incorrect and gives his calculations as evidence.Derek had used eyewitness reports of the height of the UFO and its relative size, to calculate that the UFO was 88 feet in diameter.

Ahls gets to know that Derek is using public data and news reports to come up with very accurate data points on the size of the UFOs. This alarms Ahls.17 hours after the sighting Ahls gets the papers to print that the UFO was actually an 88-foot-long gulf-stream jet. Derek doesn't buy it and visits the airport himself. He finds the place still crawling with FBI agents

Derek comes back to track down the FAA audio logs for the Cincinnati ATC. He knows that ATC radio data is streamed live and is sure that some listener would have recorded the conversation at the ATC in Cincinnati on the day of the UFO event.Derek visits chat rooms to find the recorded audio clip between the ATC and an approaching plane at the airport. In the audio, there are audible beeps at specific intervals that blank out the conversation.

Derek gets reference for an ATC employee called Hal (who was mentioned in the audio) who claims that he could see the UFO. Derek calls Hal and proves to him that due to the geometry there was no way that Hal could have seen the UFO. He wants to know why Hal was lying. The phone goes dead after Hal says that he never claimed that he saw the UFO. Derek figures that Hal didn't see the UFO but heard it and the static on the audio was from the UFO. Derek listens to the audio again and finds a repeatable pattern in the file.

Derek then works out the Math to find that the pattern refers to a 14-digit chunk of the FSC. Unknown to Derek, Ahls is tapping his phone & knows Derek has cracked it. Using the data in the pattern, Derek also figures that the UFO is coming back 9 days after the current event, but he doesn't know where the UFO will arrive on its next visit. Derek is under a lot of stress at school and misses his grade exam due to his obsession with cracking the code.

Ahls works with other known scientists and mathematicians to figure out how to use the FSC to determine a location in space. Ahls says that there are 3 types of civilizations type 1, 2 and 3. Type 1 is a global civilization which can capture the energy of a star with an output of 10 to power 16 watts. Type 2 is beyond solar system, and type 3 is a galactic civilization. He says that Earth is a type 0.7 with an energy output of 10 to power 13 watts. We may become a type 1 in the next 100 years, if we don't destroy ourselves first. Ahls says that the visitors at the airport were at least a type 1, or a type 2 civilization and humans need to learn from them how to get there, as we might not manage that on our own.

Derek tells Natalia that the 3 most important questions in the world are "is there a God", "what happens when we die" and "are we alone". He argues that the UFO is their chance to make a giant leap forward.Despite everything Derek approaches Dr Hendricks to figure out the Latitude Longitude for the next UFO event. Dr Hendricks is the most brilliant mathematician he knows. Hendricks works with Derek for a few hours, but then says that "you can't force it", the solution has to come to you. Finally, the answer comes to Dr Hendricks in class and together Derek & she figures out that the unit of measurement is the wavelength of Hydrogen (21 CMS) and the numbers in the signal are indeed coordinates.

Derek gets to the location before Ahls does and records the next signal. Ahls meets Derek and admits that alien craft sightings are happening on earth. He reveals that the aliens put the FSC in their data as a language of intelligence. The new data they received has 19 digits of FSC, while humans can only measure to 12 digits. Also, the new data is 42 bits, while the old one was 14 bits. The new data has 3D coordinates in space. Ahls convinces Derek to work with him to improve the accuracy of FSC measurement.