The Neuraliser, often spelled Neuralyzer, first appeared in the 1997 film Men in Black, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as agents of a secret organization policing aliens on Earth. In the movies the small metal device emits a blinding flash that erases minutes or years of memory, replaced by a cover story. Clips of its sound later circulated on soundboards and in video edits, where creators reuse the flash to mark forgetting, denial, or pretending something never happened.