After the actor portraying Major Fournet runs the Montana UFO film the second time, there's banter between he and Chop (Towers) about arranging a meeting with Capt. Ruppelt in Dayton at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Just before showing the film a third time, however, the script features almost a half page of crossed-out dialogue. The omission begins right after Chop asks, "Okay. Once again, what's your opinion of this film?" and reads as follows:
FOURNET: (evading) "Some of the personnel think it might be reflections from jet planes or reflections from the water tower."
CHOP: "All right. Let's analyze reflections from jet planes. There were no tails on any of the objects I saw."
FOURNET: "True."
CHOP: "Water tower. A lot of people have sat in that ball park. How come no one has ever seen these reflections before?"
FOURNET: "I'm not arguing the point."
After a cross-out of that line, the script continues per the film and Fournet replies only, "As far as I'm concerned, I'd have to classify them as unknowns. I'll run the film again -- this time in slow motion." Chop's narration varies only slightly from the script at this point, changing a few words.
Of some interest, at the spot where Chop says, "There was something up there in that sky, and if they were not balloons, I don't know what to think," Fournet replies only, smiling, "You better get going to Dayton." In the script, his additional (crossed-out) comment is, "You've forgotten -- I'm in Intelligence." Had that snippet remained, Chop would then be seen looking at his keys, grinning. No, the deleted addition doesn't make much sense, at least on the surface, so its absence in the movie is not surprising. Certainly, it would be helpful to know the who and why behind each pre-production change, but at this late date we can only speculate.
