History Main / RoswellThatEndsWell

* In Neal Shusterman's novel ''Everlost'', Roswell is explained to have happened when a "Afterlight" boy who died in UsefulNotes/TheHindenburg crash ended up flying the ghost of the Hindenburg to Roswell for sixty years. Somehow it ends up being seen by non-Afterlights... in 1947.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roswell_city_seal.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The official city seal of Roswell, NM]]

* ''{{Series/Tracker}}'' has Cole going to Roswell chasing a fugitive who’s after an alien map stored on a crystal. The crashed ship was Vardian treasure hunters, likely also after the map. Cole doesn’t even get it, though, and it ends up stuck in the barrel of a toy blaster gun in an alien themed cafe because the waitress thinks it’s just another fake item.

Named after an Emmy award-winning [[Recap/FuturamaS3E19RoswellThatEndsWell episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', which posited that the entire incident was caused by the Planet Express ship accidentally travelling back in time and showing up in Roswell on that fateful day. The "flying disc" in question is actually a deconstructed Bender's "[[CatchPhrase shiny metal ass]]".

* ''Series/SevenDays'': the TimeTravel machine was reverse engineered from alien technology salvaged from the Roswell crash. [[spoiler: Which was an alien prison transport spaceship.]]

** In "Thor's Chariot" Carter mentions that [[TheGreys Thor's true form]] looks just like the bodies recovered from the Roswell crash. This bit of trivia never gets mentioned again.
** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in "Prometheus". A group of reporters are told by Sam that [[spoiler:''Prometheus'' was designed from reverse-engineered parts of an alien crash in Fairbanks, Alaska.]] Jonas, knowing the truth, inquires "Fairbanks?" Sam answers that it sounds a lot better than Roswell.

* ''Fanfic/EarthsAlienHistory'': In this universe, as part of the CanonWelding, the Roswell incident was the result of a [[Film/IndependenceDay Harvester]] scout ship colliding with [[Series/StarDeepSpaceNine Quark's]] time-displaced ship. And despite humanity as a whole already knowing that aliens exist by this point, the US government still chooses to cover up what happened in order to keep [[Literature/{{Worldwar}} the Race]] from learning of the crash and demanding the humans share the recovered technology.

* Historical in-jokes are par for the course in ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts''. In the third game, Roswell is where the heroes find septucentenarian Roger Bacon and vampire Hilda Valentine, having crashed when their flying machine ran out of gas.

[[folder:Film — Animated]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* The entire ''WesternAnimation/RoswellConspiraciesAliensMythsAndLegends'' animated series, of course.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has determined that an un-hatched [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1051 SCP-1051]] was the [=UFO=] recovered as Roswell. It later hatched and replaced the hangar at Area 51.

Regardless of what actually happened ([[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_incident has a good overview]] of what's known), the idea of a crashed alien spacecraft--and a subsequent government coverup - has become permanently associated with the city of Roswell in the popular imagination. The fame and ambiguity of the original incident have inspired every SpeculativeFiction series ever to [[ExternalRetcon explain]] (or just [[HistoricalInJoke make an oblique reference to]]) "what ''really'' happened", with varying amounts of seriousness. The town itself, meanwhile, has capitalized on this, building a lucrative tourist industry around the event and aliens in general.

* The entire ''WesternAnimation/RoswellConspiracies'' animated series, of course.

Regardless of what actually happened (Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_Incident has a good overview]] of what's known), the idea of a crashed alien spacecraft--and a subsequent government coverup - has become permanently associated with the city of Roswell in the popular imagination. The fame and ambiguity of the original incident have inspired every SpeculativeFiction series ever to [[ExternalRetcon explain]] (or just [[HistoricalInJoke make an oblique reference to]]) "what ''really'' happened", with varying amounts of seriousness. The town itself, meanwhile, has capitalized on this, building a lucrative tourist industry around the event and aliens in general.

* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': Referenced a couple times. When [[NebulousEvilOrganization Apex]]'s trans-Pacific maglev platform transporting Skullcrawler eggs among other goods is discovered, the intercom voice mentions one of the other trains is destined for Roswell. At the film's end, [[ConspiracyTheorist Bernie]] is trying to get in a few questions to Mark Russell about an alleged Monarch base located in Roswell.

* Mario Acevedo's ''The Nymphos of Rocky Flats'' is about a soldier who is now a VampireDetectove investigating why a large number of women at the Rocky Flats military compound have suddenly [[AllWomenAreLustful become massive nymphomaniacs]]. He subsequently finds himself stuck between vampire hunters and the Roswell aliens. Turns out that both the vampires and the aliens thought the other to be a myth. The alien ends up actually being friendly and only there to monitor human military progress and keep them from accidentally discovering that aliens are real.
* The below-mentioned ''Roswell''/''Roswell, New Mexico'' series were based on Melinda Metz' YoungAdult book series ''Literature/RoswellHigh''.

* ''Series/{{Roswell}}'', natch. The protagonists are HumanAlien survivors of the Roswell Incident, [[{{Masquerade}} masquerading]] as humans.

* ''Series/{{Taken}}'': {{Played with}}. In "Beyond the Sky", Mac Brazel discovers the wreckage of the Project Mogul high-altitude surveillance balloon on the Foster ranch in Roswell, New Mexico and reports it to the 509th Bomb Group. Although Colonel Thomas Campbell asks him to keep it quiet, Brazel tells the press that he has found a strange metal from another planet. In order to divert attention from Mogul, Campbell lends his support to the story and the ''Roswell Daily Record'' reports that the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) has discovered a FlyingSaucer. However, it turns out that an alien ship actually did crash, as a direct result of colliding with the Mogul balloon. The ship is discovered by two young boys and their father while on a hiking trip to Pine Lodge near Roswell.

* ''Series/TheXFiles''

* ''TabletopGame/ConspiracyX'': The Roswell Incident was the reason for the Watch spliting into Aegis and the Black Book. The scientists who later formed Aegis wanted to make peaceful contact with the aliens, but the soldiers who formed the Black Book shot the ship down. After the event Black Book accused Aegis of responsibility in order to sign a treaty with TheGreys.

* Supposedly, if one takes the map of the world of ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER|1}}'' (a game about an alien invasion), turns it upside-down, and places the city of Ellay where L.A. would be in real life, the protagonist's house roughly corresponds to Roswell, New Mexico.

* ''VideoGame/TexMurphy'': In ''The Pandora Directive'', Tex finds out from a former {{Area 51}} scientist that [[WorldWarThree World War 3]] was started using AntiMatter salvaged from the Roswell craft. Area 51 itself is on lockdown, after most of the staff were infected with an alien parasite and were gunned down by the guards. Worse, there's a larger vessel hidden somewhere in jungles, and its fuel tanks are full of anti-matter.

* Max and [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Xylene]] from ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' use the phrase "[[NoodleIncident we'll always have Roswell]]." However, Max was still a very young child in 1947, so there must have been a different alien incident in the same area...
** Turns out not only was it the same event, but Max himself was involved in the Roswell incident. As revealed in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', Max was the one who encountered the aliens, who were actually Blukic and Driba, and aided in their escape when they got captured.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In [[Recap/FuturamaS3E19RoswellThatEndsWell the episode]] that [[TropeNamer gives this trope its name]], the Planet Express crew accidentally {{time travel}}s back to 1947 and causes the Roswell Incident (Bender gets broken into pieces and is mistaken for a spacecraft, while Zoidberg is the alien who gets captured by the US Air Force).

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]], the mileometer from the Roswell ship is seen in a museum of alien artifacts. In the same episode, Van Statten claims that [[ETGaveUsWiFi alien tech from the incident ended up creating Broadband]].

%%* Ditto ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''.

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* Mario Acevedo's ''The Nymphos of Rocky Flats'' is (apparently) about a soldier who is now a vampire, stuck between vampire hunters and the Roswell aliens. Sounds [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot awesome]].

%%* ''Series/StargateSG1: Roswell''.

%%** The Literature/PastDoctorAdventures novel ''Devil Goblins from Neptune''.