Storm Area 51’s Matty Roberts And Malinda Ortega: Where Are They Now?

Trainwreck: Storm Area 51, the 2-part Netflix documentary, is a testament to how jobless people can be. I am quite sure that an incident like this could only have happened in a developed nation, because nobody has the time to indulge in such conspiracy theories, live in their own dreamland, and, moreover, act upon it in the real world in a developing or underdeveloped nation. We all love a good conspiracy theory, but in September 2019, we saw how people can take things to extreme lengths. I believe that if a 21-year-old has the right to vote and is allowed to get married by the law, then they should have the sense and the prudence to differentiate between what’s right for them and what’s not. In this particular situation, I believe the joke was not on the 21-year-old Matty Roberts, who created an event on Facebook titled “Storm Area 51; They Can’t Stop Us All,” but on those millions of people who followed him and those few who even idolized him. What’s more bizarre is that it became a national issue, and the entire state machinery ended up losing billions of dollars because of it. I mean, just imagine what would have happened to Matty Roberts had he been in any other country (let the horses of your imagination run wild). So let’s find out who Matty Roberts was, what he did, and what the repercussions of his actions were.

How did Matty Roberts come into the spotlight? 

Matty Roberts from Bakersfield, California, lived a simple life, working in a vape retail outlet inside the Valley Plaza Mall and playing video games at home. He didn’t have any purpose in life, and he’d probably be willing to do anything to thwart his boredom. I presume at such a young age you have so much to do—so much to learn and grasp—but our man, after he came back from his part-time job, went on his Facebook page and just posted memes. I am nobody to say this, but he wasted his precious time that he could have used to learn something worthwhile. So one day the brilliant Matty had come back from work, and he opened Facebook to post some funny memes on his page that was named “Shitposting, because I am in shambles.” He had watched an episode of the very famous podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” and that’s when he decided to make some funny content based on the very intriguing subject of extraterrestrial life. In the podcast, two ufologists, Jeremy Corbell and Bob Lazar, talked about how the American government was hiding secrets in Area 51. Over a period of time, Area 51 conspiracies have become an integral part of pop culture. People have stated how the American government conducts experiments on aliens and UFOs, but all these claims have remained unsubstantiated. Matty never had any serious agenda behind posting on his Facebook page. More often than not, his boredom and addiction to social media and gaming led him there. Also, he knew that there was no harm in posting slightly controversial stuff anonymously. So the boy, just for fun, created the Facebook event page.

He had less than 100 followers, so he didn’t expect it to cause a furor. But the unthinkable happened, and the next morning when Matty woke up, he saw that his page had become famous; he was getting a lot of traction, and apparently the country was filled with people who had nothing to do with their time. The event was supposed to happen on 19th September, and so it was decided that everybody would gather around Rachel, Nevada, and storm the military facility to see if the government actually had UFOs and aliens there. 

Matty’s mother, Malinda Ortega, for obvious reasons, got a little scared, because her son was the face of the nonsensical movements, and she knew that the authorities could take action against him. But Matty hadn’t broken any laws up until then. In his interviews later, Matty quite proudly spoke about how he kickstarted a worldwide phenomenon, as there were around 3.6 million people participating. I don’t think that it was worth being called a worldwide phenomenon: it was an act of stupidity; it defined how privileged these people were to indulge in such mindlessness when people around the globe were actually dealing with real issues.

Did Matty Roberts break into Area 51? 

Matty realized quite solemnly that he had landed himself in a mess. He realized that if anything untoward happened during the event, then he would be held responsible for it. Obviously he was no cult leader driven by some deep philosophy. He was just 21 years old, and as I stated earlier, the joke was on those millions of people who’d decided to become a part of what I don’t even feel was worthy of being called a “movement.” Matty shaped the entire narrative to make it feel less threatening for the authorities. When a couple of FBI agents again visited his place, he told them that he planned to have a music festival in Rachel, Nevada, not storm into Area 51. He said he did not understand the logistical issues he was going to face next. Rachel was a small town of around 50 people, and it had only one inn/hotel, owned by Connie West. 

At first, Connie was not in favor of the idea, but then she realized the kind of money she could earn in the process. Everybody believed that Sheriff Kerry Lee, the Commissioner of Lincoln County, wouldn’t give them a permit to officially organize a music concert there. But he did give the permission, and that’s when the security forces got a bit paranoid. I see the entire event as a blatant mockery of the very essence of democracy. The event got sponsorship; there were brands that were ready to fund the entire event, and everybody was excited that it was going to be one hell of an event. I believe that it was Frank Dimaggio, a well-known event planner from Las Vegas, who was against organizing the event in Rachel. Once he reached Rachel, he realized that they weren’t equipped to manage a crowd of millions. He told Matty that the responsibility would fall on him if any debacle happened. So, in a joint interview that they gave to a media outlet, Matty announced that the event wouldn’t be happening in Rachel. Instead, a “Bud Light”-sponsored event was planned in Las Vegas, and it was named “Alienstock.”

The event was a huge success, though a bunch of people did end up going to Rachel, Nevada. Those conspiracy theorists and social media influencers just wanted to take some photos, and they had no intention of storming the military base. After the event was over, Matty went back to his part-time job at the vape store, and once again his life turned extremely uneventful and mundane. 

Where Are Matty And Malinda Now? 

The most bizarre thing about the entire farce was that I do not think that Matty earned anything through his Alienstock festival or the chaos he caused on social media. He merely earned 1700 dollars from the t-shirts he had sold at the event, which was nothing compared to what other promoters made from the success of the event. In the end, Matty went back to working at the vape store at the Valley Plaza Mall. I believe that if he’d played his cards right, he could have seized the opportunity and earned a huge amount of money through it. I mean, around 10,000 people showed up for Alienstock, and believe it or not, Matty’s presence was the real crowd puller. When Matty went on the stage, people cheered him on like a hero.

As of today, Matty is 26 years old and still lives in Bakersfield, California. Both Matty and his mother, Malinda Ortega, appeared on the Netflix documentary, and probably they would have been fairly compensated for their input. Also, I believe that he could make use of the limelight the documentary gives him, obviously if he wants to. With just over 1400 followers on a private Instagram account, Matty’s presence has drastically dropped off on social media. 

Meanwhile, Malinda Ortega, who works as a hair stylist, keeps posting images of her customers’ hair transformations on her Instagram account. In 2024 she shared the news of her becoming a grandmother on her social media, so maybe Matty did get married to start a family.

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