The Fourth Kingdom 2017

The documentary-style program at Chapman University assembles a televised interview with Dr. Abigail “Abbey” Tyler, who recounts a chilling sequence of events that stretches from Nome, Alaska, to forces she can barely explain, culminating in an alleged alien abduction in October 2000. The story is presented as a blend of clinical recollection, personal trauma, and unexplained phenomena that challenge what Abbey believes and what others are willing to accept.

The program features perspectives from five self-narrators: Juan ‘Walter’ Pérez, Ana Martínez de Luco, Pierre Simmons, Eugene Gadsden, and Manuel René del Carmen. Through their voices, Abbey’s account unfolds against a backdrop of strange experiences that she has been chronicling for years. Abbey describes a pattern she has witnessed in multiple patients: each one reports a nocturnal figure—a white owl—watching over them as they sleep, followed by encounters with unseen beings attempting to enter their homes.

In the August 2000 timeline, tragedy strikes Abbey’s family when her husband, Will, is murdered, leaving Abbey to raise two children, Ashley and Ronnie. She begins taping clinical hypnotherapy sessions with patients who share the same haunting experiences. A chilling session involves a patient who holds his wife and two children at gunpoint, insisting on answers about an enigmatic phrase he remembers: “Zimabu Eter.” The patient’s actions explode into violence, ending in murder and suicide, and Abbey is left to grapple with whether these events point to something beyond ordinary crime or medicine.

Abbey becomes convinced that her patients are victims of alien abduction, a belief strengthened when an assistant hands her a tape recorder that captures a disturbing sound—something entering her home and attacking it, accompanied by a voice speaking in an unfamiliar language. Abbey cannot recall the intrusion herself, and the language is later identified as Sumerian by Dr. Awolowa Odusami, a specialist she consults who had connections to her late husband. This discovery deepens Abbey’s conviction that the experiences are real in some external sense, not merely the product of a troubled mind.

As another patient, Scott, insists on communicating, Abbey agrees to hypnotic sessions in the hope of uncovering more. Under hypnosis, Scott begins to hover above his bed, and a voice speaks through him, ordering Abbey in Sumerian to end her study. Sheriff August arrives on the scene, accusing Abbey of wrongdoing as Scott’s condition worsens—paralysis from the neck down is observed—and Campos, a colleague who supports Abbey, defends her. Despite the evidence, August confines Abbey to her own home under guard, tightening the sense that she is being punished for associating with dangerous, unproven claims.

A large, black, triangular object is sighted in the night sky, and a police officer witnesses the extraordinary event: people seem to be pulled from Abbey’s house, triggering a frantic response from the deputies. When they enter, Abbey and Ronnie report that Ashley has been taken. August, furious and suspicious, accuses Abbey of kidnapping and removes Ronnie from her custody, though Campos continues to stand by Abbey’s narrative, urging caution and weighing the testimonies she has gathered.

The investigation intensifies as Abbey undergoes another round of hypnosis to attempt direct contact with the beings and to locate Ashley. During the session, Abbey recalls the moment of Ashley’s abduction and confirms that she herself was abducted as well. An alien presence communicates with her, and she pleads for Ashley’s return while the entity, calling itself “God,” asserts that Ashley will never come back. The moment of abduction ends in a distorted image as a voice yells “Zimabu Eter!” before the scene cuts away. Abbey awakens in a hospital with a broken neck, and August reveals the painful truth: Will’s death was a suicide, and Abbey’s earlier belief that he had been murdered was a delusion.

With the reenactment concluded, Abbey returns to the present and claims that she, Campos, and Odusami were themselves abducted during the hypnosis—but they cannot recall the experience. When questioned about how anyone can take her seriously if she was shown to be delusional about her husband’s death, Abbey acknowledges that she must hold on to the possibility that Ashley is still alive, even as she breaks down in tears. The investigation ultimately clears Abbey of all charges, allowing her to relocate to the East Coast, where her health declines and she requires constant care.

The film leaves Campos as a practicing psychologist and Odusami as a professor at a Canadian university, with both men choosing to distance themselves from the interview. August refuses further involvement, and Ronnie remains estranged from Abbey, still blaming her for Ashley’s disappearance. The narrative closes on a somber note, illustrating how a single, unresolved disappearance can reverberate through families, professionals, and communities, and how belief, memory, and testimony can collide in the pursuit of truth.