After 50 Years, Spielberg Returns to the Big Question of His Career

Steven Spielberg’s new film, "The Discovery," is now in theaters. On the surface, it is another science fiction thriller from one of the greatest directors in history, but a look at the production materials shows that behind the film lies an old obsession of Spielberg’s, one that has accompanied him for more than half a century. From "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" to "E.T." and "War of the Worlds," Spielberg has returned again and again to one simple question, are we alone in the universe? In the new film, however, the question appears to have changed. It is no longer whether there is life beyond Earth, but what happens if someone proves to us that it exists, and why that truth was kept secret for so long.

According to the plot, the film centers on a television journalist and a cyber expert who discover a personal connection to a vast secret linked to visits by nonhuman beings to Earth. The two find themselves in a race against powerful forces trying to prevent the information from reaching the public. But the idea for the film did not come only from Spielberg’s imagination. According to the production materials, the spark that led to writing "The Discovery" came after an investigative report published in The New York Times in 2017 revealed the existence of a secret Pentagon program to study unidentified aerial phenomena. The report reignited broad public debate in the United States and later even led to public hearings in Congress on UFOs and mysterious phenomena in U.S. skies. Josh O’Connor as Daniel Kanner, a cyber expert drawn into the center of a global secret, courtesy of Tulip Entertainment.

Spielberg himself says that following those revelations, he began to rethink the entire subject of UFOs and aliens. According to him, for many years he asked himself whether it was time to return to stories of this kind, and the recent developments in the United States made him feel the answer was yes.

The way the film was written is no less surprising. Instead of starting with a polished script, Spielberg began writing ideas in the Notes app on his iPhone. Each day he added another passage and another thought, until a 52-page document was created that became the basis for the film. Only afterward did screenwriter David Koepp, Spielberg’s longtime collaborator on "Jurassic Park," "War of the Worlds" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," join in and turn the idea into a full screenplay. The stars of "The Discovery" at the film’s launch event in Paris, courtesy of Tulip Entertainment.

Despite all the talk about aliens, UFOs and mysterious technologies, the filmmakers emphasize that "The Discovery" is first and foremost a conspiracy thriller. Koepp says that one of the main sources of inspiration was the wave of political thrillers from the 1970s, in which one person tries to expose a major truth while an entire system works to silence him. Spielberg also sees the film as more than a science fiction story. According to him, it is a film about information, about control of information, and about the difficulty of recognizing the truth in a world where those in power can blur the line between facts and stories. In many ways, he seems to be using a story about aliens to speak about questions that concern modern society much more closely, trust in institutions, government transparency and the struggle for truth.

The film is led by Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo, alongside some of Spielberg’s most longtime collaborators, including cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and legendary composer John Williams. More on this topic, Danny Syrkin, "Without Fauda, Tehran probably would not have been made," Avi Ludmir.