Steven Spielberg is pushing back against online conspiracy theories that his new thriller Disclosure Day is part of a government soft launch to condition the public for real-life UFO revelations. The film arrives in theatres just months after U.S. President Donald Trump authorized the release of documents and videos detailing Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAPs), the modern term for UFOs.
Spielberg Denies Insider Knowledge
In an interview with Postmedia, the 79-year-old director firmly rejected claims that he has an inside track on government disclosure. “Unlike some popular conspiracy theories that I am the first wave to condition the general public into accepting some disclosure from the highest levels of government, I do not have an inside track. That is not true. I’m a filmmaker; a storyteller,” Spielberg said from New York City.
The film, which Spielberg conceived in 2017 after reading a New York Times article about the Pentagon’s secret UFO program, follows a cybersecurity expert (Josh O’Connor) and a TV meteorologist (Emily Blunt) as they expose a government cover-up of extraterrestrial secrets. Colin Firth plays the head of a defense contractor trying to stop them, with supporting roles from Wyatt Russell, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo.
Emily Blunt’s Deep Dive into UAP Research
Blunt, 43, prepared for her role as Margaret Fairchild by studying real-life UAP encounter reports. “The fingerprints of this experience were deep,” she told Postmedia. “I think you know when you are making something rare, and playing someone rare. This role and this experience, it not only tightened the screws on me as an actor, but it was so thrilling to be around Steven and be around that creativity.”
Written by David Koepp, Spielberg’s collaborator on Jurassic Park, the story posits that certain agencies have known about otherworldly visitations for decades and are determined to keep that secret from the public. Blunt and O’Connor’s characters become instrumental in revealing humanity’s place in the universe.
A Thematic Bookend to Close Encounters
Spielberg described Disclosure Day as a thematic bookend to his 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which followed humans attempting first contact with alien intelligence. Reflecting on the shoot, Blunt added: “It was a creative storm every day after (Spielberg’s) sleepless nights pacing around thinking about how to level up on this movie.”
Disclosure Day is now playing in theatres.
