Steven Spielberg has spent much of his career asking one giant question: what if we are not alone?
Now, the three-time Oscar winner says the evidence is getting harder to ignore. The 79-year-old filmmaker, whose sci-fi classics include ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,’ ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘War of the Worlds,’ says his late mother helped shape his curiosity about life beyond Earth.
Spielberg said his mother, Leah Adler, often pushed him to think bigger than humanity’s place in the universe.
Steven Spielberg Credits His Mother For Alien Curiosity
“She always used to say, ‘Let’s not be so arrogant as to think we’re the only intelligent life in the universe,'” Spielberg recalled.
He said Adler, a pianist and restaurateur, believed humans still had much to learn.
“She’d joke, ‘There must be far more intelligent planets out there,'” Spielberg said.
When he pushed back and told her humans were smart, she had a sharper answer.
“No, there’s so much more we could learn if we just open our minds and hearts,” she told him.
That spirit runs through Spielberg’s new movie, ‘Disclosure Day,’ which opens June 12. The film follows a young whistleblower, played by Josh O’Connor, who threatens to leak classified proof of alien life. Emily Blunt stars as a Kansas City meteorologist who discovers she can communicate with otherworldly beings.
Why Spielberg Thinks The Proof Is Stronger Now
Spielberg said ‘Close Encounters’ came from imagination, curiosity and belief, but not certainty.
“When I made ‘Close Encounters,’ I relied heavily on imagination,” he said. “I believed in extraterrestrial life, but I wasn’t certain if it had visited Earth.”
That has changed for him over time. With more footage, more devices and more public conversation around UFOs and UAPs, Spielberg said the question feels less far-fetched now.
“It’s become overwhelmingly clear to me that we’re not alone in this vast universe,” he said.
If a real disclosure day happened, Spielberg said he probably would not be shocked. After decades of creating alien encounters on screen, he might even feel grateful.
Spielberg Also Reflects On AI And Movie Legacy
Spielberg also discussed ‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence,’ his 2001 film based on Stanley Kubrick’s original vision. He believes the movie took decades to be fully understood because the world had not yet caught up to its ideas.
“This was before the digital age truly took off, before AI became a tangible reality,” Spielberg said.
He added that he both fears and welcomes AI as a tool, and believes Kubrick wrestled with the same tension.
Still, modern filmmakers keep Spielberg excited about movies. He praised Paul Thomas Anderson’s work and said today’s directors inspire him to keep creating.
For Spielberg, that may be the real fuel. Aliens, AI, memory and mystery all point back to the same place: a filmmaker still chasing wonder after nearly five decades.
