Steven Spielberg returns to extraterrestrials with new film “Disclosure Day,” reflecting on how movies first captured him

Steven Spielberg has returned to the subject that helped define his early science-fiction breakthrough, extraterrestrials, in his new film “Disclosure Day,” according to an NPR segment published this week. The program, originally broadcast Nov. 9, 2022, revisits Spielberg’s account of what pulled him toward filmmaking and how that early, personal engagement with movies translated into a long run of directing features that blend wonder with questions about authority and evidence.

NPR’s interview frames Spielberg’s relationship to cinema as something he describes as both instinctive and formative, saying he “fell in love with movies” and used that attraction to become a filmmaker. In the same discussion, the director is tied to earlier works that helped cement his reputation in the genre, including “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” both of which established audiences’ expectations that his extraterrestrial stories would be as much about human emotion as about faraway worlds.

“Disclosure Day” continues that orbit, NPR said, bringing Spielberg back to a theme he has revisited across decades: what happens when contact with otherworldly forces collides with institutions that claim the right to interpret, suppress, or explain information. While Spielberg’s past alien films often focused on the experience of discovery, “Disclosure Day” is described through the lens of secrecy and public exposure, with plot elements that place characters amid efforts to reveal what authorities and companies allegedly want to keep buried.

A separate review described the film’s central storyline and character setup. The review says “Disclosure Day” stars Emily Blunt as meteorologist Margaret Fairchild and Josh O’Connor as Daniel Kellner, a cybersecurity specialist-turned-whistleblower, whose actions are tied to an alleged U.S. government cover-up of alien contact and activity. The same account describes a corporate counterpart to government secrecy, with a company called Wardex portrayed as trying to suppress the knowledge, including an executive character led by Colin Firth named Noah Scanlon.

The film’s cast, as described in that review, also includes Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes, among others. The review says Domingo plays Hugo Wakefield, a Wardex defector who argues that the truth should be available widely rather than restricted. That conflict, in turn, is presented as part of a broader debate about who controls information and how quickly the public learns what powerful organizations say should remain off limits.

Outside of plot, Spielberg’s craft and personal investment are also highlighted by retrospective reporting. A Vulture oral-history piece previewed the release of “Disclosure Day” by describing how actors and long-time collaborators have characterized Spielberg’s filmmaking as intensely personal, including an ability to place aspects of himself “close to his unconscious” within his work. The same reporting ties his career trajectory to a steady flow of creative partners and a decades-long return to recurring subjects, from aliens and dinosaurs to war and public memory.

With “Disclosure Day” positioned as another entry in Spielberg’s science-fiction catalog, the NPR segment’s republishing underscores a throughline that has followed him since his early breakthroughs: a belief that the movie theater can transform private fascination into shared spectacle, while also providing a way to dramatize institutional power and the contested question of what the public is allowed to know. How the film lands with audiences and critics will follow its release, but the conversations around its themes and production history are already being set by these interviews and previews.