Plot Summary

On Oct. 15, 2009, a father in Fort Collins, Colorado, speaks to a 911 operator, claiming that his homemade dirigible has escaped from the family backyard, carrying his 6-year-old son inside. But what appears to be a tragedy takes a sharp turn into something else. Public sympathy quickly turns into righteous outrage, as Balloon Boy quickly becomes one of America’s most infamous — and bizarre — news stories.