Spielberg's Closing Argument

About this episode

The episode features a discussion on Steven Spielberg's return to UFO storytelling with his film Disclosure Day, alongside guest Ernest Cline.

Steven Spielberg is  79 —turning  80 the week before Christmas —and we’re marking the moment with our first-ever guest:  Ernest Cline , author of  Ready Player One , the book Spielberg loved enough to turn into a movie. Together, we’re looking straight at Spielberg’s return to UFO storytelling with  Disclosure Day , opening  June 12 —a film he teased at CinemaCon with a line that feels like a dare:  “I believe this movie is going to answer questions and this movie is going to cause a lot of people to ask a lot of questions. All you need to get from beginning to end is a seat belt.” From there, the episode becomes a three-way conversation: Bryce lays out the big question—after  30+ projects  involving alien contact and non-human intelligence, is  Disclosure Day  Spielberg’s “closing argument,” and what does that even mean? Brent pushes the pattern-recognition angle, arguing that Spielberg’s contact stories track the cultural temperature of the moment—wonder, fear, paranoia, secrecy—and that  Disclosure Day  is arriving at a time…

People in this episode

Hosts: Bryce, Brent

Guest: Ernest Cline

Topics covered

• UFO storytelling
• Steven Spielberg
• cultural impact
• alien contact
• film analysis
• collaboration
• public curiosity

Keywords

• Steven Spielberg
• Disclosure Day
• Ernest Cline
• UFOs
• Ready Player One
• alien contact
• film
• cultural temperature
• collaboration

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Ready Player One

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