Are They Telling Us The Truth Through Entertainment?

Enemy of the State (1998) portrayed government surveillance. Fifteen years later, Edward Snowden’s disclosures revealed extensive real-world government surveillance programs.

That’s one of several examples I keep coming back to. They Live (1988) showed broadcast signals controlling what people see. The Matrix (1999) put September 11th, 2001 on Neo’s passport. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) portrayed masked rituals among the ultra-wealthy that look a lot like the 1972 Rothschild Surrealist Ball, a party with dismembered baby dolls on its tables. Contagion (2011) walked through quarantines, overwhelmed hospitals, and vaccine development almost a decade before COVID.

The theory behind predictive programming is that powerful groups deliberately introduce events, technologies, and agendas through entertainment before they unfold publicly. Some say it’s preparation. Others say it’s a symbolic obligation, revealing the method through fiction so the public can dismiss it as make-believe later.

My honest take is that Hollywood would never release something the people in charge genuinely wanted buried. If it made it to theaters, it was allowed to.

Taylor Swift released the song Patient Zero while plague headlines were coming out of Russia, and I’ll explain why I now close the app instead of reporting on it. Red pill or blue pill, let me know in the comments.

You’ll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[3:35] They Live, and the sunglasses that reveal the truth

[5:09] Shape-shifting clips and malfunctioning frequencies on TV

[7:15] Why the fight to put on the glasses mirrors waking people up

[8:25] The Matrix and why most people take the blue pill

[12:01] Kubrick’s death and the theory of missing footage

[14:45] Rothschild Surrealist Ball compared to Eyes Wide Shut

[16:52] Contagion portraying a pandemic nearly a decade before COVID-19

[17:49] Taylor Swift’s Patient Zero and harvesting our energy

[18:50] The mere exposure effect and normalizing the unfamiliar

[21:54] Far-fetched movie technology that became recognizable years later

With everything going on in the world lately, including a recent guest at the White House who got people talking, I've found myself thinking about some of the older movies I've watched and how strangely familiar certain scenes have become. Government surveillance. Secret societies.

Manufactured realities. Powerful people controlling what the public sees. Some of these ideas appeared in movies decades before similar technologies and events became part of our everyday lives. There's actually a conspiracy theory surrounding this called predictive programming.

The idea is that certain events, technologies, and agendas are deliberately introduced through movies, television, and music before they unfold in real life. Some conspiracy theorists believe this is a way of preparing the public for what's coming, while others suggest that revealing the truth through fiction makes it easier to dismiss.

And some of the examples are pretty bizarre. In 1988, They Live portrayed aliens hiding among humans by manipulating their perception through broadcast signals. Eyes Wide Shut depicted secretive gatherings of wealthy elites, while Contagion portrayed a global pandemic nearly a decade before COVID-19.

These movies have inspired decades of speculation about what Hollywood knows and why certain stories seem to resemble real events years later. So what exactly is predictive programming? Why do some people believe powerful groups are required to reveal their plans before carrying them out? And could some of the strangest science fiction movies actually be telling us more about our world than we realize? Today we're going to dig deep into that.

Before we jump into today's episode, I want to thank the sponsor of this podcast, my small skincare business, Arvoti.

If you've been wanting to simplify your skincare with products inspired by traditional ingredients, you can find my tallow balms, goat milk soaps, Anti-Aging and Hair Serums, cleansing oils, my handcrafted Shampoo Bar, and more. Every order helps support this podcast and my homestead, and I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who chooses to support small businesses like mine. You can browse the entire collection at Arvoti.com.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Gubba Homestead Podcast. I'm Gubba, a first-time homesteader following in the footsteps of my homesteading forebears. I discuss everything from homesteading to prepping and everything in between. And today I want to explore with you the strange world of predictive programming, the conspiracy theories surrounding Hollywood, and why some people believe we've been shown pieces of the truth through entertainment for decades.

Let's start with a movie that came out in 1988 called They Live, directed by John Carpenter. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it because the premise becomes even more interesting when you look into the conspiracy theories surrounding it. The main character discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the world as it really is.

Ordinary advertisements suddenly reveal messages telling people to obey, consume, and stop thinking independently. Money carries a message about worshipping it, and certain powerful people are revealed to be aliens disguised as humans.

But here's where the movie gets particularly interesting. The aliens aren't simply wearing disguises. They're using a broadcast signal to conceal their true appearance from the human population.

The sunglasses allow the main character to see through this artificial illusion and recognize the creatures walking among ordinary people. Toward the end of the movie, the characters discover that the signal is being transmitted from a television station. When the transmitter is destroyed, the illusion disappears, and suddenly everyone can see the aliens for what they really are.

Now, there's an entire corner of the internet devoted to the idea that certain powerful figures aren't actually human, but reptilian or interdimensional beings capable of concealing their appearances.

Some theorists believe these beings use frequencies or technological projections to appear human. And if you've ever gone down the rabbit hole of supposed shapeshifting caught on live television, you've probably seen the videos I'm talking about.

There are clips circulating online of politicians, celebrities, and television presenters whose eyes appear to change shape, whose skin seems to distort, or whose faces briefly take on unusual characteristics during broadcasts. People speculate that the frequency concealing their appearance temporarily malfunctioned, allowing viewers to catch a glimpse of whatever was underneath.

Of course, video compression, digital interference, and lighting can create strange distortions, and there's no verified evidence of anyone actually shapeshifting. Or so we are told...But I find the connection to They Live interesting because the movie portrays almost exactly what these theories describe.

In the film, the aliens have infiltrated corporations, government, and the media. People are working beside them, interacting with them, and even electing them into positions of authority without knowing what they supposedly are. John Carpenter intended the movie as a criticism of consumerism and economic power, but conspiracy theorists have interpreted it much more literally.

Some even refer to They Live as a documentary disguised as science fiction. There's also a famous scene where the main character practically has to fight his friend to convince him to put on the sunglasses. His friend resists because accepting what the glasses reveal would mean confronting an entirely different understanding of the world. I think that's an interesting part of the movie because people can become so comfortable with what they've always known that even the possibility of something different feels threatening.

And the decision to use television as the mechanism for concealing the aliens adds another layer to the story. The very thing people turn on to find out what's happening in the world is also what prevents them from seeing the truth in the movie.

Then there's The Matrix, which came out in 1999. In the movie, humanity exists inside a simulated reality controlled by machines. People go about their everyday lives believing they're free, completely unaware that the world around them has been constructed to keep them occupied.

The famous red pill and blue pill scene presents a choice between remaining comfortable inside an illusion or discovering a potentially disturbing truth. What's fascinating is how relevant some of the movie's concepts have become as technology develops. We're now living in a world where artificial intelligence can generate realistic voices, images, and videos.

Virtual reality allows people to experience computer-generated environments, while algorithms increasingly determine what information appears in front of us. When The Matrix came out, most people didn't have smartphones, social media feeds, or access to anything resembling today's generative AI. Now we're having serious conversations about how to distinguish authentic recordings from digitally manufactured ones.

There's another interpretation of the movie that goes beyond a literal computer simulation. The Matrix could represent the beliefs and assumptions we're raised with, the institutions we're taught to trust, or the systems that influence our understanding of the world. The film draws on philosophical questions that have existed for centuries, including whether our senses can be trusted and how we distinguish perception from reality. It's interesting that those ancient questions have found an entirely new relevance in the digital age.

Another movie that constantly comes up in conspiracy discussions is Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, released in 1999. The story follows a doctor who discovers a secret gathering involving masked participants, elaborate rituals, and people who appear to possess enormous wealth and influence.

What makes this movie unsettling is the suggestion that there are social circles operating beyond the reach of ordinary people, protected by their money, relationships, and positions of power. For years, people have speculated about what Kubrick was trying to communicate. Some believe he was drawing attention to secret societies and elite networks. Others interpret the film as a psychological story about desire, class, and power.

There's also a long-running conspiracy theory surrounding Kubrick's death shortly before the film's release. Some people suggest he revealed something he wasn't supposed to, although there's no credible evidence establishing that his death was connected to the movie. And then there's the speculation about whether material was removed from the finished film.

Kubrick died in March 1999, months before its theatrical release, and rumors have circulated ever since about what audiences may not have been allowed to see. The theatrical version did receive digital alterations for its American rating, although that isn't evidence of a hidden exposé being removed.

What's particularly interesting is how the film portrays the relationship between secrecy and influence. We've seen real scandals involving wealthy and powerful individuals, including Jeffrey Epstein, where questions about access, institutional failures, and accountability became major public controversies. That doesn't establish that Kubrick was revealing a particular organization.

But it does explain why people continue revisiting the movie and looking for connections to real-world power structures. The elaborate masks, rituals, and secrecy have also contributed to speculation about occult symbolism.

Some viewers believe the imagery was deliberately chosen to resemble secret societies, while others see it as a way of emphasizing anonymity and social hierarchy. Whatever Kubrick intended, he created a movie that continues generating discussions about the hidden lives of the wealthy nearly three decades later.

Now let's talk about Contagion, released in 2011. The movie follows the emergence of a deadly infectious disease and the worldwide response that follows. We see quarantines, overwhelmed hospitals, public fear, vaccine development, and disagreements about information.

When COVID-19 emerged years later, people started revisiting the film because certain scenes felt eerily familiar. Online conspiracy discussions frequently point to Contagion as an example of predictive programming. The similarities are certainly striking, especially considering that the movie was released nearly a decade before the pandemic.

But there's an important piece of background worth knowing. The filmmakers consulted scientists and public health experts to make the fictional outbreak realistic. Pandemic planning and concerns about emerging infectious diseases existed long before COVID-19. Still, there's something interesting about the relationship between fictional emergencies and public expectations.

When a major event happens, people often have some idea of what it might look like because they've already encountered similar scenarios in movies or television. A fictional story can introduce an unfamiliar situation to millions of people, including the ways authorities might respond and the behaviors society might be expected to adopt.

That brings up a question about how much entertainment influences public attitudes toward future events, regardless of whether the filmmakers intended to prepare anyone.

Why Would They Tell Us?

Here's the part of the conspiracy theory that people debate the most. If powerful individuals or institutions really wanted to conceal something, why would they put it in a movie for millions of people to see?

One theory is that presenting something as fiction makes it easier to dismiss when similar claims emerge in reality. Another is that entertainment gradually makes unfamiliar ideas feel normal. The first time audiences encounter a particular technology or social arrangement, it might seem frightening or impossible. After seeing variations of it in dozens of stories, the concept becomes familiar.

There's a psychological principle behind this called the mere-exposure effect. Repeated encounters with something can increase familiarity and sometimes make people feel more comfortable with it. That doesn't establish the existence of an organized Hollywood campaign, but it does explain one reason entertainment can influence how audiences respond to new ideas.

Some argue that revealing information through entertainment satisfies a symbolic obligation.

This is sometimes called revelation of the method. According to this belief, powerful groups supposedly disclose their intentions through movies, music, public ceremonies, and symbolism. The information is technically placed in front of the public, but it's presented in a way that most people will overlook or dismiss.

There's no established evidence that institutions are required to reveal secret plans this way. However, the theory has become popular because people frequently identify similarities between fictional events and things that later happen in the real world.

Another idea that frequently comes up in these discussions is that entertainment creates a form of plausible deniability. If someone raises concerns about a particular technology or government program, those concerns can sound like something from a science fiction movie, even when the underlying technology actually exists.

For example, government surveillance was a major theme in the 1998 movie Enemy of the State. The film portrayed sophisticated electronic monitoring, tracking, and the abuse of surveillance technology. Fifteen years later, Edward Snowden's disclosures in 2013 revealed extensive real-world government surveillance programs.

That doesn't mean the movie predicted Snowden. Surveillance technology and concerns about government overreach already existed when it was produced. But looking back, the movie certainly feels different when we know more about the capabilities governments developed. And that is perhaps the most compelling aspect of these older films. Sometimes the fictional technology seems far-fetched when a movie is released, only to become recognizable years later.

What Happens When We Stop Questioning?

I think there's a reason movies like They Live and The Matrix have remained popular for decades. They explore power, obedience, personal freedom, and the possibility that