So much of the talk around Hollywood right now is about Disclosure Day. The big-budget sci-fi thriller sees a cybersecurity expert become a whistleblower who reveals secrets to the world about aliens. While the concept itself is intriguing, the biggest reason that people are excited about the film is that Steven Spielberg is back in the director’s chair for it. In the eyes of many, this is a return to form for Spielberg, especially since his career has so many highs.
It’s a myth that Steven Spielberg has lost his touch, as his two films from the 2020s are actually both fantastic. However, Disclosure Day is bringing him back to a subject he has broached often in the past, which is aliens. Over the years, some of the best and most memorable films about aliens have been helmed by Spielberg. He even found a way to include them in an unexpected fashion in one of his most anticipated sequels.
Although Disclosure Day has only been out in theaters for a short time, the early reviews are mostly strong, proving that Spielberg can still deliver in this genre. However, that also makes it interesting to consider which alien movies are his best and how they rank when compared to one another. There’s a reason that Spielberg is synonymous with aliens.
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Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008)
As noted, there was a highly anticipated sequel from Steven Spielberg that nobody expected to include aliens, only for it to do just that. That film is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which marked the first release in the franchise after the original trilogy, which concluded back in 1989. The film brought Harrison Ford back as Indiana Jones and sees him search for a telepathic crystal skull while going against Soviet KGB agents.
The climax of the movie reveals that the crystal skulls are alien in origin, which is why they’re shaped the way they are. The skeletons of the aliens combine to make a reanimated alien who transfers information into the villain’s head, which overwhelms and vaporizes her. It kind of comes from out of nowhere and isn’t exactly a great or overly intriguing depiction of aliens. It doesn’t help that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was viewed as a major disappointment and is viewed by many as the low point of the franchise.
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Disclosure Day (2026)
Since Disclosure Day is still so new, we don’t want to give away too much information about the overall plot. It indeed focuses on the major reveal to the world that aliens are real. The whistleblower, played by Josh O’Connor, partners up with a meteorologist, played by Emily Blunt, who has been experiencing strange phenomena, to prove the existence of aliens. As soon as the trailer was released, people everywhere were hooked, especially when Spielberg’s name was shown to be attached.
Early reviews for Disclosure Day are strong, with it being certified as fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The strongest reviews have praised the performances of the cast (Blunt and O’Connor are joined by Colman Domingo, Colin Firth, and others), Spielberg’s direction, John Williams’ score, and the visuals. There are people talking about the film being in the conversation for major accolades come awards season, including several Oscars.
For most directors, Disclosure Day would be their best sci-fi film, but it only ranks low for Spielberg because of how fantastic his history in the genre is, especially when it comes to projects surrounding aliens.
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War Of The Worlds (2005)
It’s hard to keep track of every War of the Worlds adaptation out there. Everything stems from the iconic novel written by H.G. Wells way back in 1898. Since then, there have been more than a dozen adaptations on both the big and small screens. The 1953 iteration is memorable, the TV series that began in 2019 is highly underrated, and the 2025 film starring Ice Cube quickly became infamous for all the wrong reasons. In a lot of ways, the 2005 version is the best of them all.
That 2005 iteration comes from Steven Spielberg and is his take on the harrowing events that surround an actual alien invasion. Several of Spielberg’s alien projects focus on the relationship between man and alien, the discovery of it all, and they don’t make the aliens out to be all that scary. That’s not the case in War of the Worlds, as we watch a dock worker attempt to survive an attack from extraterrestrials while protecting his children along the way. The film masterfully blends sci-fi action with the horror elements of how this impacts the world.
War of the Worlds boasts a strong cast, with Tom Cruise at the forefront as the protagonist. His kids are played by Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin, while Morgan Freeman handles the narration. The end result is a fantastic blockbuster that has a seriously high rewatchability factor. Critics also appreciated the movie, making it one of the better and more famous sci-fi releases of its decade.
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Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
Two years after changing cinema forever with the summer blockbuster Jaws, Steven Spielberg was back with an exciting follow-up. It also marked his first foray into the world of aliens and feels different from a lot of other projects about the subject matter. Close Encounters of the Third Kind focuses on various interconnected stories regarding people who have interactions with the incoming invasion of aliens. Each tale is unique, yet they come together masterfully.
There’s an everyday worker in Indiana (Richard Dreyfuss) who has an actual encounter with an unidentified flying object, a single mother (Melinda Dillon) whose son gets abducted by aliens, and a French scientist (François Truffaut) who is investigating unexplained phenomena around the world. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive for the film and it’s considered one of Spielberg’s greatest works. He had plans to make it for several years and his passion is evident in nearly every frame.
It’s hard to top E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial as Steven Spielberg’s best alien movie because, in a lot of ways, it’s the best alien film ever crafted. Rather than tell a harrowing tale of an invasion of extraterrestrials or focus on the deeper investigation of UFOs, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial centers on a single alien who takes shelter in a shed and ultimately befriends the young boy, Elliott, and his family, who live at the home. That allows the film to be somewhat small in scale and hit you emotionally.
The bond between E.T. and Elliott is one of the most touching in cinematic history. From the famous “phone home” line to the shot of the bike flying past the moon, there are just so many aspects of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial that are among the most iconic in the history of film. It ended up nominated for nine Academy Awards, including for Best Picture. The movie has also gone down as one of the most influential in the history of the industry.
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial is the perfect blend of spectacle and heart that we tend to see from the best Steven Spielberg movies, which is why it’s his greatest alien film.