It's an invigorating chase thriller, but where Spielberg once seemed to be leading the culture, he's now following decades of lore and mythology.

Disclosure Day is designed as a standalone story, but Close Encounters of the Third Kind adds valuable context. Here's how Spielberg's UFO classics are connected.

A career of UFO curiosity and skepticism towards authority shifts Steven Spielberg's antagonists to the private sector in Disclosure Day.

As a child, Steven Spielberg stared at a meteor shower and began his love affair with the sky. The director of the 1977 classic "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" returns with "Disclosure Day," which imagines closely-held secrets surrounding alien visitations.

Is Close Encounters of the Third Kind on Netflix? Where to stream Spielberg’s sci-fi classic in 2026.

What Roy Mauritsen remembers about seeing Steven Spielberg’s "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as a boy is the looming shape of Devils Tower. For a kid growing up in Suffolk County, the peculiarly flat-topped rock formation in Wyoming — which serves as the site of a mind-boggling meeting between mankind and alien-kind — was a mysterious and mesmerizing image.

The legendary director says he's still waiting for his own alien encounter.

The release of the film comes amid the release of numerous UFO files from the US government over the last few months.