- Home
- Movies
- Disclosure Day isn't a true story – so why do some people think Steven Spielberg's UFO film is based on real events?
❚ We may earn commission from links on this page. Our editorial is always independent (learn more).
Disclosure Day isn't a true story – so why do some people think Steven Spielberg's UFO film is based on real events?
The film references some widely shared conspiracy theories – from Roswell to Richard Nixon.
Universal
- Patrick Cremona
Published: Thursday, 11 June 2026 at 5:29 pm
Subscribe to Radio Times: 10 weeks for £10, including the Christmas double issue
The subject of aliens and UFOs – or UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena) as they're often referred to nowadays – is always one that is likely to prompt fierce discussion and debate.
Ad
Dating back to the Roswell Incident in 1947 – and perhaps even earlier – a number of conspiracy theories have emerged suggesting not only that aliens have visited the planet but that there has been an ongoing secret government project to cover it up.
This idea forms the backbone of Steven Spielberg's latest exploration of extra-terrestrials, Disclosure Day, which arrived in UK cinemas this week and sees him return to the subject he previously covered in his classics Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET.
Except this time, Spielberg himself is more convinced than ever that there's a degree of truth to the theories he's tapping into.
"I am much more inclined now than I was when I made Close Encounters to believe that we're not the only intelligent civilisation in the universe," he explained in the final trailer for the film.
Those quotes – coupled with the fact that the US government has recently begun declassifying some documents relating to UFOs – have led some people to rather fancifully imagine that Disclosure Day is actually a true story.
Read on for everything you need to know.
Disclosure Day true story
The first thing to note – though it hardly needs saying – is that Disclosure Day is most certainly not a true story.
While Spielberg taps into widely shared conspiracy theories – including the aforementioned Roswell Incident and the story that Richard Nixon took comedian Jackie Gleason to view preserved alien species at a secret military facility in 1973 – he is doing so as a fiction storyteller and not as a documentarian.
Screenwriter David Koepp explained the use of these incidents during an interview with the Smithsonian magazine, explaining: "We were looking for a unified theory of the UAP phenomenon."
Josh O'Connor and Emily Blunt in Disclosure Day. Universal
He added: "So we decided consciously to include as much of the lore as possible and not debunk or cherry-pick, but figure out, ‘How does this all go together?’”
Meanwhile, at the film's UK premiere, Spielberg himself said his view on the subject of alien life "has become more realistic" over the many decades that he has been obsessed with the subject.
"There's a lot of mystery and things that are undisclosed but I've become more optimistic that people are going to be able to discover things that we have not been allowed to discover," he explained.
The cast members, too, became convinced while working on the film that alien life really is out there.
"It's a real rabbit hole, and once you're open to it – and Steven has such a wealth of knowledge about it – it really opens your mind to it," actor Josh O'Connor told Radio Times.
Why do some people think Disclosure Day is based on real events?
In addition to the quotes above and the longstanding fringe popularity of the aforementioned conspiracy theories, there's other things that have led some people to believe Spielberg knows a little more than he's letting on.
That is the fact that there have been movements in recent months to declassify certain US documents pertaining to UFOs, with a tranche of documents being released in May that included descriptions of sightings across many decades.
A second tranche of documents arrived later in May and more are expected to follow, which led some people to believe that the release date of Spielberg's film couldn't just be a coincidence.
Unfortunately, those hoping for a real -ife disclosure day like the one we see in the film are out of luck – the details in the documents released so far are rather more vague than you might be hoping (and certainly don't include any aliens ready to be wheeled out for the public).
But who knows? Maybe Spielberg is right and one day we will find out that we aren't alone after all...
Disclosure Day is now showing in UK cinemas.
Ad
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
Ad
Ad
Subscribe for £1 per week
Too much to watch this autumn? Let Radio Times magazine and app do the choosing, with expert picks across TV, streaming and film.
Loading...
Ad
Loading...