It’s hard to believe, but legendary director Steven Spielberg hasn’t graced movie-goers with a SCI-FI film featuring Aliens or UFOs since War of the Worlds (2005). Thankfully, that’s about to end with this June’s release of Universal Picture’s DISCLOSURE DAY.
Based on an original story idea by Spielberg, the screenplay is from the director’s frequent collaborator David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds). The story takes place on a global scale, and continues Spielberg’s ongoing cinematic fascination with exploring the possibility of whether there are UFOs out in the universe, and what would happen if there was first contact?
What is DISCLOSURE DAY about?
As is often the case with the more enigmatic Spielberg films, not much about the story outside of the Official Trailers has been shared … but we’ve been getting more glimpses — since December 2025.
“If you found out we weren’t alone,
if someone showed you,
proved it to you,
would that frighten you?
This summer, the truth belongs to eight billion people.
We are coming close to … Disclosure Day. “
In one official trailer, cybersecurity administrator Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) admits to stealing secrets about non-humans that he was hired to hide from the world. When meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) starts speaking in clicks on live television, it gets broadcast everywhere, and Kellner says he can understand what she’s communicating. He implies that he wants to provide full disclosure to the whole world. What does that actually mean? We can’t wait to find out.
I am much more inclined
now than I was when I made
Close Encounters to really believe
that we’re not the only intelligent
civilization in the universe.
This is a story about us.
All of us. Up against the
most extraordinary event
in human history.
How will Disclosure change us?
I believe for the better. It will remind us
of our capacity for empathy. And that there
is something bigger out there
than just ourselves.
I used to say to myself:
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of this
turned out to be true?”
I’m now thinking,
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful
for people to know:
all of this is true.”
— Steven Spielberg
Is DISCLOSURE DAY connected to Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
It’s a question fans are asking, but at this point there’s been no indication this film is connected to Spielberg’s Alien classic from 1977. In an interview featured in the June 2026 edition of Empire Magazine, Blunt confirmed at least a thematic connection when she said, “There are definitely questions posed by Close Encounters that are answered in Disclosure Day.”
Koepp added that DISCLOSURE DAY has a different tonal vibe than Spielberg’s 1977 SCI-FI classic. “It has a certain amount in common with certain ’70s conspiracy thrillers but in a completely different way from Close Encounters. This felt like Three Days Of The Condor to me. Conspiracies are fantastic for movies because they’re an onion, and you peel away layers and find out more and more.”
DISCLOSURE DAY lands in theaters nationwide on June 12, 2026.
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