The Best UFO Documentaries on Netflix

Unraveling the Mystery of UFOs

The best UFO documentaries on Netflix offer scientific looks into the mysterious cases and unexplained phenomena that fascinate the world. There's no shortage of UFO, alien encounter, and mystery-related documentaries on Netflix. Some UFO documentaries like John Was Trying to Contact Aliens seek to find proof of alien life, while others like Alien Worlds focus on the 'what ifs' of extraterrestrial planets and how they would function. Meanwhile, Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know, and Ancient Apocalypse investigate the most mysterious scientific phenomena and historical evidence.

Top Secret ufo projects declassified

The best documentaries about UFOs and other unexplained phenomena on Netflix offer the perfect viewing for those looking for insight from beyond the stars. Even though the content is often entirely theoretical and often impossible to prove, the range of documentaries about the unexplained on Netflix offer unbiased and in-depth looks that often manage to separate the facts from the myths of UFOs and alien sightings — as well as highlight those encounters that science still can't explain. Additionally, many of the best UFO documentaries on Netflix also delve into the theory and statistical evidence that supports the truth indeed being out there.

archive footage from MH370 The Plane That Disappeared on Netflix

For more streaming recommendations, be sure to check out the best movies on Netflix and the best TV shows on Netflix.

Unraveling the Mystery of UFOs

Top Secret UFO Projects Declassified

One of the best UFO documentaries on Netflix is 2021's Top Secret UFO Projects Declassified. This Netflix documentary on the unexplained lives up to its namesake by exploring UFO monitoring programs implemented by various government bodies, as well as their declassified findings. Government cover-ups and conspiracies run rampant in the UFO community, but it's hard to deny some of the hard facts that this Netflix documentary uncovered. Top Secret UFO Projects Declassified is a six-episode miniseries, covering top secret government projects such as the organization MJ-12, Roswell, the involvement of the U.S. army in cover ups, and alleged sightings and secrets in Russia.

Poster for The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch

Alien Worlds and Extraterrestrial Life

Alien Worlds takes a very different approach to studying extraterrestrial life and is one of the best space documentaries on Netflix. It seeks to imagine what life would be like on other planets using a blend of science fact and science fiction. With stunning CGI visuals and an imaginative core, Alien Worlds is unique in its offerings as it takes an approach more akin to nature documentaries like that of David Attenborough's Our Planet. Alien Worlds consists of four episodes, each around 40 minutes long, and proposes a study of the fictional worlds of Atlas, Janus, Eden, and Terra.

Alien Worlds

The documentary John Was Trying to Contact Aliens follows the efforts of one John Shepherd, a technological genius living in an Arcadian community, who has spent the last three decades trying to contact extraterrestrials by sending music into outer space. After giving up on his quest, John manages to find love with a man named John Litrenta, making for a much more important story in his own world. John Was Trying to Contact Aliens is part UFO exploration and part heartwarming LGBTQ+ Netflix love story. It's decidedly one of the best UFO documentaries for viewers who want to meet a pioneer of extraterrestrial communication.

John Was Trying to Contact Aliens Netflix

Also known as Connected: The Hidden Science of Everything, this 6-episode UFO documentary on Netflix explores the unseen connections that dominate the laws of the universe. While the best UFO documentaries look outward to find answers to humanity's questions about the cosmos, Connected looks everywhere for cosmic insight, from the tiniest creatures to the largest galactic bodies. From how the migration pattern of birds can more accurately predict hurricanes than modern meteorological methods and technologies, to the mathematical patterns that emerge upon studying the distances between galaxies, host and science reporter Latif Nasser investigates how everything is, as the title suggests, connected.

host Latif Nasser in a boat on Connected on Netflix