1988, Norrköping, Sweden. Young Denise is out with her pa Uno (Oscar Töringe) for a little late-night larceny. Icy cold. They’re waiting in their car for Uno’s colleague Lennart (Jesper Barkselius), a researcher at a Swedish company that collects weather-tracking data. While fellow conspirator Gunnar runs interference, Lennart sprints to the car. And here come the police, sirens screaming. Uno grabs the documents and speeds off, leaving Lennart holding the proverbial bag.
Uno has a theory: aliens are altering Earth’s weather. Back home, the stolen data seems to confirm that aliens are indeed doing that, and with careful calculation he can discover where they’re hiding. Off he goes to accost the aliens, leaving Denise alone.
Leap forward eight years to 1996. Denise (Inez Dahl Torhaug) is still alone. Dad never returned. Denise grew up with foster parents, and she’s something of a spitfire and a social reject, contending that she was not abandoned but that aliens kidnapped her father. She gets into occasional scrapes with the law, but a friendly cop, Tomi (Sara Shirpey), extricates her and tries to keep her on the right path.
And then it happens. Denise spies a newspaper story about a car crashing through the roof of a barn. The picture sure looks like dad’s car. She investigates. It’s even got his old mix tape (classic rock, of course).
Denise decides to enlist the help of Uno’s old UFO-hunting club, dubbed UFO Sweden (the movie’s original Swedish title). She meets skepticism, especially from the pragmatic Lennart (whose exploit against his employers got him dismissed) and the veteran Gunnar, who is especially antagonistic given the police shot him in the leg those many years ago at the research center. But the congenial, rag-tag group of fellow UFO-ologists are intrigued and vote to give Denise the benefit of the doubt. Lennart reluctantly acquiesces.
Lennart begins to soften as they uncover more clues, struggle to decipher Uno’s meticulous calculations, and delve into mysteries they suspect are lurking in the bowels of Lennart’s old weather-tracking facility. They are fettered by their own personal obsessions, key among them the fact that Lennart is genuinely interested in tracking down aliens while Denise is obsessively focused only on finding her father. And she’ll go to great lengths to do so, even alienating and denigrating the people she needs to help her.
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Watch the Skies is just delightfully goofy in all the right places, and earnest in all the others.
On the goofy side, there’s the UFO club, populated by characters like chain-smoking Töna, somewhat unfocused Karl, and nerdy Mats. They have bonded over the years with coffee and pastries; they trade snarky asides. And though they endorse the pragmatic, fact-based approach that Lennart insists on, once something different comes along, they eagerly sign for adventure.
On the earnest side, there’s Denise’s journey from obsession to realization. Inez Dahl Torhaug is effective as the wild-eyed, driven teen who will react immediately, even recklessly, in her pursuit of what she believes to be the truth. But early on Lennart cautions, “Believing is one thing, but knowing is another.”
In the end, Denise must confront some truths and decide who she values most, what she eventually believes, and who really believes in her. The clever coda at the end comes from Lennart, who also observes, “If there’s one thing you’ve taught me, Denise: Knowing is one thing, but believing is something else entirely.”
Watch the Skies ends with some flashy, dramatic flourishes that land it in the realm of “fanciful science fiction.” Take it as rewarding entertainment, not plausible hard science fiction. That final scene around the table with tea and pastries? Let’s hope there’s more.
Note: I actually watched the English dub. The original actors recorded all of their lines in English (hey, it’s a required subject in Swedish schools). And then an AI fine-tuned the lip-syncing, said to be the first time this innovation was used. It works, though at times the Swedish-accented English evoked a sort of cliched ring.