Do Aliens Exist? Steven Spielberg Believes They Do

The gist

Steven Spielberg's new film Disclosure Day explores themes of government secrecy around UFO encounters and the question of whether aliens exist. The director has evolved from making aliens a subject of wonder (Close Encounters) to believing they likely exist, citing decades of witness testimony, documentaries, and credible reporting—particularly the 2017 New York Times investigation by Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Keene. Beyond aliens, the film tackles deeper questions about faith, empathy, and what it takes to bring humanity together in an increasingly divided world.

Key takeaways

• The catalyst for Disclosure Day: The 2017 New York Times UFO story gave mainstream credibility to decades of witness accounts and shifted the conversation from tabloid sensationalism to serious journalism, prompting Spielberg to make the film now while he still could.

• Spielberg's evolution on alien belief: He didn't interview whistleblowers, instead building his science fiction story on "a very credible foundation" of thousands of reported sightings worldwide and consistency in testimony—he now believes the believers, even without personal sighting experience.

• The film as therapy: Spielberg consciously used Disclosure Day (like The Fablemans before it) as a vehicle to work through personal themes. He spent decades exploring his fraught relationship with his father through Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where the Holy Grail became metaphorical for paternal reconciliation.

• Community and empathy as antidotes to division: The film emphasizes that cinema, theater, and concerts build community in ways streaming cannot—when strangers have simultaneous emotional reactions, it creates "contagion" and shared humanity, which Spielberg sees as fragile and essential as democracy itself.

• The craft is 80% intuition: Spielberg's formula isn't formulaic. He looks for a compelling premise and a character audiences can bond with, then trusts that emotional investment to carry viewers through the entire journey, regardless of genre.

• Collaboration remains critical: After Jaws succeeded, collaborators became intimidated and stopped challenging him. He's spent decades building a core team of trusted people who will be honest, and regularly convenes with directors like Guillermo del Toro to paint model monsters and discuss filmmaking—a practice that keeps him sharp and prevents creative complacency.

• Pacing reflects story urgency, not generational attention spans: Disclosure Day opens mid-action not to appease impatient viewers but because the narrative biorhythm demanded it—eighty years of alleged UFO interaction are "coming to a head," so the story itself dictates velocity.

• On AI: Spielberg is "very critical" of AI replacing humans in creative roles but admits he doesn't know enough yet. He's spending summer 2024 undergoing AI training to educate himself comprehensively before making further judgments.

Notable quotes

"I believe in people. And I believe in people who I don't agree with."

"Movies build community, so does theater, so do concerts. Community is when we all come together, we don't know each other, but what we do know is we are having a similar reaction to what is being shown to us."

"I jumped off a cliff blindly...and then it sometimes comes to me" (on how he discovers what a film is really about).

Worth a full listen?

Filmmakers, students of cinema, and anyone interested in how Spielberg thinks about craft, storytelling, and the role of movies in society should listen; the TLDR captures the alien/disclosure angle and key career philosophy, but the full conversation reveals richer texture on his personal creative process and relationship-building with collaborators.