As Steven Spielberg premieres a new movie about extraterrestrials, here’s a short overview of contemporary alien conspiracy theories and the reasons scientists are now treating UFO reports with greater seriousness.
Is there other intelligent life in the cosmos?
Among the countless unresolved mysteries surrounding alien existence, Steven Spielberg has done more than any other filmmaker to shape the idea that humanity’s first contact with beings from another world could be a peaceful and deeply meaningful event — rather than a hostile invasion.
Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) are landmark films that fundamentally transformed the science-fiction genre.
Much like those movies, “Disclosure Day” has been characterized by its lead actor, Josh O’Connor, as “a film about hope and humanity and understanding,” aligning perfectly with the director’s awe-inspired perspective on the phenomenon of extraterrestrial life.
‘Overwhelming circumstantial evidence’
In “Disclosure Day,” O’Connor portrays a cybersecurity whistleblower determined to expose the truth about aliens to the world. He teams up with a Kansas City TV meteorologist (Emily Blunt), who is unexpectedly overtaken by a mysterious extraterrestrial force during a live weather broadcast.
For Spielberg, although the film will be categorized as science fiction, he does not view “Disclosure Day” as entirely fictional: “It’s much more reflective of the world as it is evolving and discoveries that are being made as we speak,” he stated in an interview with AP.
“I’ve been a believer since I made ‘Close Encounters’ 50 years ago,” Spielberg remarked, adding that given the “overwhelming circumstantial evidence” accumulated over the last several decades, he now even acknowledges that extraterrestrials may have already tried to make contact with us.
Since most sightings have been attributed to natural occurrences or hoaxes, discussing unidentified flying objects (UFOs) has long been regarded as a marginal topic, driven by conspiracy theories and popular culture.
However, in recent years, the scientific community has adopted a more data-driven, rigorous method for studying what is now referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).
As a longtime follower of accounts of alleged alien encounters, Spielberg drew inspiration from the 2023 House Subcommittee on National Security hearing on UAPs. One of the witnesses was former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch. The whistleblower testified that the government was hiding a decades-old UAP program that captures and reverse-engineers technological objects.
Since then, the Pentagon has released two large sets of declassified UAP files, with a third release scheduled for the near future. While the documents do not offer proof of alien spacecraft, alien remains, or a government reverse-engineering effort, they do show that many sightings remain unexplained due to a lack of sufficient data.
The files contain decades of reports, including a testimony from a senior US intelligence officer describing mysterious “orange orbs flaring up and down,” as well as a video captured by a US military drone over Syria in 2021, which suddenly accelerates as if entering warp speed before disappearing.
Harvard scientist views study of unexplained phenomena as a responsibility
“I do think it’s the obligation of scientists to pay attention to anomalies, especially if they are reported by reliable authorities,” Avi Loeb, a prominent Harvard astrophysicist who advocates for the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence, told DW after the release of the second batch of Pentagon files in May.
Examining the 51 new UFO videos released by the Pentagon
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“What is clear to me is that throughout recent decades, this subject was discussed extensively among military personnel, intelligence officers, people within the Pentagon and potentially also high-level politicians within the US government,” Loeb added.
He argued that even if the unknown aircraft seen in the footage had been created by humans, “if the US intelligence agencies and the Pentagon are not familiar with the kind of motion that it exhibits, at the very least it poses a national security threat, because apparently someone else on Earth was capable of developing such an object.”
The most famous alien conspiracies in modern history
For decades, UFO incidents have occupied a unique space between science fiction, government secrecy, and conspiracy theory.
The 1947 Roswell incident is arguably the most well-known case of alien conspiracy in recent history. A rancher discovered unusual debris on his property in New Mexico, and the military initially issued a press release claiming it had recovered a “flying disc,” only to later retract the statement and explain that the object was a weather balloon.
This contradiction sparked decades of speculation. In the late 1970s and 1980s, witnesses emerged claiming that alien bodies had been recovered and that the government had covered up the truth.
The US government later explained that the debris came from a classified program designed to detect Soviet nuclear tests. Despite this explanation, many conspiracy theorists believe Roswell was the site of the first confirmed alien crash and subsequent cover-up.
Area 51, a highly classified military installation used for testing advanced aircraft, is also central to many alien conspiracy theories. The secrecy surrounding the base, combined with frequent reports of strange lights and experimental aircraft, has made Area 51 a focal point of UFO mythology.
Influential alien abduction stories include the 1961 testimony of Betty and Barney Hill, a couple who both described under hypnosis being taken aboard a spacecraft and examined by nonhuman beings, after seeing a strange object in the sky while driving through New Hampshire.
A more recent chapter in UFO history emerged from testimonies by US military pilots who, in 2004, observed a white, capsule-shaped object — later nicknamed the “Tic Tac” — performing unusual maneuvers off the coast of California. Videos supporting their testimony were released to the public years later. Government investigations acknowledged that the objects remained unidentified.
Unlike older conspiracies, the Tic Tac incident involves radar data, military sensors, and official government reports, making it one of the most thoroughly documented modern UFO cases.
For Avi Loeb, following scientific methodology requires ruling out known optical phenomena before claiming technological origins; the Tic Tac sighting may simply be a byproduct of camera glare.
But even if countless sightings have been explained or debunked over the years, Loeb is not deterred from pursuing his research: “Even if one in a million objects that we look at is not from this Earth — that would be the biggest discovery ever made by humanity.”
Edited by: Brenda Haas