Steven Spielberg breaks down the most important line in Disclosure Day

The Disclosure Day director breaks down a pivotal moment from his new movie with real-life implications

For a high-concept sci-fi movie, the premise of Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day is surprisingly simple: aliens exist, and the government is keeping it a secret. However, this raises a crucial question: wouldn’t a U.S. president spill the beans? (Especially a certain current president whose public statements and social media posts have become increasingly unfiltered and unhinged.)

Spielberg’s movie has an equally simple answer, and the story behind it reveals the surprising logic that led to his daring new blockbuster.

Early in Disclosure Day, we’re introduced to Wardex, a private military company that’s been colluding with the federal government to keep the alien conspiracy under wraps since the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico incident, if not earlier. In the same breath, it’s explained that because the U.S. president can only spend eight years in White House before returning to civilian life, they are also kept out of the loop on the whole extraterrestrial thing.

For sci-fi fans, this might seem like a clever line of dialogue. But for Spielberg, it’s a fact.

“I do believe that,” Spielberg tells Polygon. “I do believe that presidents are civilians after eight years and there is no reason to read them in on what's been happening on something that is probably controlled more by deep-state contracting companies than by the elected officials.”

Yes, you read that right, Spielberg really does believe this stuff. It doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, either. In an earlier interview with Polygon, his co-writer on the film, David Koepp, made similar accusations about the U.S. government.

“What became undeniable to me,” Koepp said, “is that governments — not just the United States, but many governments — have engaged in an 80-year campaign of disinformation and suppression.”

Describing Disclosure Day, he added: “We’re not coming out in favor of conspiracies. We’re coming out in favor of truth.”

So if Spielberg and Koepp are in agreement, that still leaves one more question: Who came up with that particular line of dialogue?

“I wrote the story and David adapted the story and wrote a draft and then David and I together collaborated on about 45 sets of revisions over the next eight months,” Spielberg says. “And when you work that closely with a writer — I have no memory or recollection of who said what and who's responsible for this line or that line.”

Unlike the alien conspiracies that are sure to be revealed any day now, we may never know the answer to this particular mystery.

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Disclosure Day is in theaters now.