Trainwreck: Balloon Boy review - Netflix turns a viral hoax into a cringe rewatch

In 2009, millions of Americans stopped what they were doing to watch a homemade silver saucer drift across Colorado skies. Inside that balloon, at least according to his parents, was six-year-old Falcon Heene. The image of the UFO-like contraption became instant cable news fuel, cutting away from a live Obama press conference to cover the supposed airborne child in real time.

Trainwreck: Balloon Boy is uncomfortable. It’s chaotic. And it makes you wonder: did they fake it, or did the media make it worse? Maybe it’s both.

Netflix’s Trainwreck: Balloon Boy, directed by Gillian Pachter and produced by Ben Rumney, reopens this viral case.

It’s the latest entry in Netflix’s Trainwreck anthology, and it sticks to the formula, fast-paced, emotionally charged, and structured like a thriller.

The documentary hits the same beats that viewers remember but replays them with more personal footage and direct-to-camera regret from the Heene family.

The opening is intense. The documentary uses the real 911 call to set the tone. Mayumi Heene, Falcon’s mother, sobs to the dispatcher, explaining that her son is trapped inside a helium balloon they had built at home.

Present-day Mayumi appears next, still crying, telling the Netflix cameras:

“It was supposed to be a fun project.”

It’s a moment that feels raw but also uneasy. Are we witnessing confession, trauma, or both? The film jumps back to the family’s backstory.

Archival footage shows Richard Heene, Falcon’s father, riding a dirt bike, calling himself an “amateur scientist,” and obsessing over invention.

Neighbors Dean Askew and Tina Chavez describe Richard as smart and eccentric. The husband even asked if he was from MIT.

The couple recalls Richard dreaming about flying saucers since the late '70s.

He told people he wanted to create a way for families to fly to school and work, inspired by The Jetsons.

That dream became test day: October 15, 2009. Archival clips show Mayumi laughing excitedly while setting up the balloon:

“I’m like a kid now..yeahh yeah!”

But when the tether snaps, the tone shifts. Richard is heard screaming off-camera:

“You didn’t f---ing tie it down!”

He also yells that the saucer cost him "$100,000." The panic escalates when one of the Heene brothers shouts:

“Dad, Falcon’s in there! I saw him crawling!”

Mayumi starts crying again, whispering,

“What have we done?”

From there, the documentary becomes a chase sequence, using archival news footage and dramatic background drums to heighten the tension.

Sky9 helicopter pilot Jimmy Negri recalls seeing the balloon at 10,000 feet. “I was afraid,” he says.

The balloon was shown on every major network, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, dominating coverage and pushing all other stories aside.

Journalist Robert Sanchez sums it up:

“You couldn’t even make it up. It’s like this trainwreck, it’s horrifying.”

The line feels like a mission statement for the entire Trainwreck series.

Eventually, the saucer landed in a field. News crews sprinted toward it. Nobody was inside. The next twist came when Falcon was found hiding in the attic at home.

His adult self, interviewed in the present day, recalls waking up to a house full of strangers in suits. “One of them asked me, ‘Who are you?’” he says.

The documentary covers the infamous Larry King Live interview, where Richard Heene asks Falcon why he didn’t come out when they called for him. Falcon, eyes down, says:

“You guys said… we did this for the show.” The father stammers “Man…” while Mayumi quietly says, “No…”

But the damage was done!

Richard later claimed he didn’t hear Falcon’s answer clearly because of interference in his earpiece. Falcon, now older, looks back on the moment:

“It’s crazy how I said a single sentence and affected the whole state of the country.”

The documentary also shows their Wife Swap footage. Richard screams at Sheree Silver during the show and calls her lazy, but then later they hug like nothing happened.

Sheree says she knew Falcon wasn’t in the balloon the moment she saw the news. Her reason? “I’m psychic.”

Then the police get involved. Richard takes a polygraph while pacing and falling asleep, classic countermeasure moves, but somehow he passes. Mayumi’s polygraph is inconclusive.

In old footage, she seems to admit it was a hoax, but in the present day, she says she didn’t understand the word “hoax.” The sheriff disagrees and says she had a degree in English.

They get charged. Richard does 30 days in jail, Mayumi gets community service, and they’re fined $45,000. Their lawyer, David Lane, says the cops went too far.

He gets emotional in his interview. There’s even a moment where they talk about deporting Mayumi, which would’ve separated her from her kids.

Watching this documentary feels like watching a car crash in slow motion, you want to look away, but you can’t. Even though I already knew the story, Trainwreck: Balloon Boy kept me fully locked in.

In 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis pardoned both parents. The film closes with the family living quietly in Florida, building tiny homes and working on woodworking projects. Mayumi regains her U.S. citizenship.

Falcon, now an adult, runs his own small business. The family maintains they never meant to hoax the country.

Trainwreck: Balloon Boy doesn’t solve the mystery of what really happened that day. It focuses instead on the spectacle, the consequences, and the cringe of watching it all again.

Gillian Pachter’s direction keeps the pacing sharp, while producers Ben Rumney and the executive team shape the documentary into an emotional rollercoaster, just like the Poop Cruise episode before it.

Netflix’s Trainwreck anthology has a formula: grab the viral story, replay the footage, add emotional interviews, and leave the viewer squirming. This one fits that mold perfectly.

The result is a documentary that’s hard to look away from, even when you know exactly how it ends.