Steven Spielberg has dismissed speculation that his new sci-fi film, Disclosure Day, is a sequel to his 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The Oscar-winning director, 79, clarified in an interview that there is “no literal, textual connection” between the two movies.
Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s first film in four years, stars Emily Blunt as a TV meteorologist and Josh O’Connor as a cybersecurity expert who uncover a conspiracy about alien existence. Fans had speculated about a link after the trailer showed a flying saucer, reminiscent of Close Encounters, but Spielberg said: “It is not a sequel in any way, shape, or form to Close Encounters.”
While both films explore cover-ups of alien life, Spielberg noted key differences. In Close Encounters, the government hides the truth; in Disclosure Day, a “deep state contracting company” is responsible. “I really don’t believe that governments can keep secrets,” he said. “But big tech companies can.”
Spielberg drew inspiration from 2023 US congressional hearings on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), incorporating language from the testimonies into the film. “We took a lot of language out of those hearings and put them in dialogue,” he said. Blunt added that she watched “pretty much every congressional hearing” in preparation.
Earlier this month, Spielberg told the BBC he believes humanity will discover whether there is life beyond Earth in his lifetime. “Yes. And I’ll accept whatever they are,” he said, adding that he has become “more optimistic that people are going to be able to discover things that we have not been allowed to discover.”
Disclosure Day, also featuring Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson and Wyatt Russell, is now in cinemas.
