With 'Disclosure Day,' the director returns to a longtime preoccupation. Two Times staffers explore his ongoing fascination with extraterrestrials.

Steven Spielberg’s fourth film about alien encounters is “Disclosure Day,” following “ET: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “War of the Worlds,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” That inspired us to take another look at what Roger Ebert thought about some of the most famous and infamous alien movies,

Steven Spielberg returns to alien storytelling with Disclosure Day, a global thriller exploring what happens when humanity learns we are not alone. It is a premise that feels distinctly Spielbergian. It is also arriving at a moment when alien stories once ...