COLORADO NEWS

Netflix documentary about Colorado’s ‘Balloon Boy’ premieres July 15

Jul 14, 2025, 4:02 PM | Updated: Jul 15, 2025, 8:58 am

It was one of those moments that we all remember where we were when it happened. If you were around in October of 2009, you likely know exactly what TV you were glued to as “Balloon Boy” allegedly floated across the Colorado sky.

Of course, there ended up being no 6-year-old stuck inside a silver balloon floating across Northern Colorado, but the hoax was such a compelling story that Netflix has turned it into a documentary.

The show is part of Netflix’s series “Trainwreck,” and it comes out Tuesday.

Netflix describes the show like this:

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. This stranger-than-fiction claim is backed up by footage from a news helicopter, which catches up with the balloon and televises the chase. What starts as a local emergency quickly escalates into a national one, as everyone from the local sheriff’s department to the National Guard scrambles to come up with a plan to safely rescue “Balloon Boy.”

As the balloon softly lands, a captivated nation prays for a miracle reunion — only to discover that no boy is 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.

Check out the trailer here…

YouTube video

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Netflix documentary about Colorado’s ‘Balloon Boy’ premieres July 15