Steven Spielberg says he believes aliens have already reached Earth.
The director made the comment in a new CBS Sunday Morning interview with Ben Mankiewicz while discussing his new sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day. Spielberg said his belief comes from years of reading, watching documentaries, listening to witnesses, and following congressional testimony about UFOs and unidentified anomalous phenomena.
Asked whether aliens have been here and might still be here, Spielberg said he thinks “they have been here, and they are here.” He added, “And who knows, maybe they’ve always been here.”
Spielberg also told CBS that he has never had a paranormal experience or UFO sighting himself. He joked that, after making so many alien movies, he feels he deserves one.
Disclosure Day Imagines a Global UFO Evidence Leak
CBS reported that Disclosure Day imagines aliens never leaving Earth after the kind of arrival Spielberg explored in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In the new film, someone has access to an archive of visual evidence about alien activity and tries to release it to the world at once.
Spielberg described the movie to CBS as a chase story built around that data dump and the people trying to stop it. CBS described the film as part chase movie, part 1970s thriller, and part big-tech conspiracy.
Emily Blunt leads the cast as Margaret Fairchild, a Kansas City meteorologist whose life changes after she develops abilities she does not understand. Entertainment Weekly reported that Josh O’Connor co-stars as Daniel Kellner, a programmer and whistleblower drawn into the same extraterrestrial mystery, with Colman Domingo, Colin Firth, and David Koepp also central to the film’s rollout.
Close Encounters Came Up During the CBS Interview
The CBS segment also brought Spielberg back to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, his 1977 alien-contact classic. Spielberg watched a scene with Mankiewicz and talked through how Richard Dreyfuss’ character connects his mysterious vision to Devil’s Tower, Wyoming.
CBS framed Disclosure Day as a later answer to that movie. Close Encounters ends with alien arrival; Disclosure Day starts from the idea that proof of alien presence has been hidden for decades.
Spielberg told CBS that the new film takes the position of believers and the curious, including people whose lives have been changed by something they cannot explain. He also said the story looks at how disclosure would affect religious belief, including whether God would be understood only in human terms or across other worlds.
Spielberg Said His Father Helped Shape the Belief
Spielberg told E! News that his father, Arnold Spielberg, helped put the idea in his head when he was young. Arnold was an electrical engineer and read science fiction, and Spielberg said his father told him there was intelligent life beyond Earth.
“I was born believing that out there, life exists, intelligent life exists,” Spielberg told E!. He also said he wanted Disclosure Day to feel credible rather than unbelievable.
In a separate E! interview at the Disclosure Day premiere, Spielberg said his children have also thought about the subject and are open to other people’s experiences. He said his family tends to “believe the believers.”
Disclosure Day opens in theaters June 12, including 70mm and IMAX screenings, according to CBS.