Universal

This week, Steven Spielberg is taking us back to a genre he's thrived in for most of his career. While there's no doubt he's captured audiences with WWII rescue missions, terrifying shark attacks, or dashing archaeologists, having the master filmmaker dive into sci-fi always guarantees a great watch, and that's exactly what we've got with "Disclosure Day."

The new film, written by the brilliant David Koepp ("Jurassic Park," "War of the Worlds," "Mission: Impossible"), follows Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor), a cybersecurity expert who decides to blow the whistle on the Wardex corporation, whose main focus is to cover up evidence that Earth has been visited by alien lifeforms. Unbeknownst to him, a Kansas City weather reporter, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), finds that she has a part to play in all this. A part that will reopen forgotten memories and, in turn, change the future of our planet forever.

Backed by an all-star supporting cast composed of Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, and Eve Hewson, "Disclosure Day" is a great science fiction story that draws not only on Spielberg's earlier work but also presses on the nerve of conspiracy theories and humanity's place in the universe. The truth is out there, and the revered director does a brilliant job revealing it, particularly in his latest movie's third act. Now that you've made it through "Disclosure Day," here's five movies you should put on your watchlist as well.

20th Century Studios

There are moments in "Disclosure Day" when Colin Firth's head of Wardex, Noah Scanlon, barks orders in a high-tech surveillance building while agents scurry around like ants with iPads. Coordinates are called, and images on touch screens are passed from one monitor to another in a futuristic fashion. Through every sequence, it's hard not to think of Spielberg's 2002 sci-fi crime thriller, "Minority Report," a film that predicted our modern tech with creepy accuracy. 

Set in a future where a new crime division can predict murders before they happen, Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, a police officer dedicated to the new system until it turns on him. From here the hunt is on to find out why he's at risk of being put away for a murder he's yet to commit and the identity of a victim he doesn't even know.

Often skirting just on the outside or bottom half of Spielberg's top 10 movies, the pace and tension of "Minority Report" are felt throughout "Disclosure Day," as those desperate to expose the truth are stopped by higher powers that are set on keeping it a secret. Additionally, there's also the element of Firth's Noah Scanlon abusing the new advancement from outer space to pursue his targets, just like how Samantha Morton's powerful telepath is used to solve the when and how, without her approval. Ultimately, whether it's the near or distant future, Spielberg has a knack for establishing a terrifying agency with a clear need to be brought down, making the eventual takedown all the more satisfying.

Warner Bros.

The growing fear and anticipation of "Disclosure Day" centers on what could happen when something as invaluable as the truth about extraterrestrial life is taken out of the box to this level of detail and can't be put back in. The world would change forever, and life as we know it would never be the same. A similar Pandora's Box of a problem runs through what's arguably one of Spielberg's most divisive films, "A.I. Artificial Intelligence."

The story follows David (Haley Joel Osment), an android built solely to love his adoptive parents, who's abandoned when he's no longer needed. From there, he sets out on a mission with the help of a male lovebot, Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), to find the Blue Fairy and make a wish to become a real boy.

While it's clear that Spielberg and co-creator of the movie Stanley Kubrick (who passed before filming), were aiming for a "Pinocchio" in a technological age, there's more beneath this futuristic fairytale that echoes some of the most important parts of "Disclosure Day." It poses the question of what the world would be like if such advancements were truly achieved, and the answer is a pretty ugly one. "They made us too smart, too quick and too many," Law's lovebot, Gigolo Joe, tells the naive David. "We are suffering for the mistakes they made because when the end comes, all that will be left is us." Ultimately, whether it's little green men or metal ones we make ourselves, both films highlight that there are some things the world isn't ready for.

Columbia Pictures

If there's one film you're going to queue up after you've finished "Disclosure Day," it's the movie that even Spielberg himself has deemed something of a companion piece to this one. "I started getting really interested in what I would call my summation film," the legendary director told Screen Rant. "The first act in 'Close Encounters,' the second act 'E.T,' which was a very insulated, very, very insulated story, a suburban story. And then finally, 'Disclosure Day' was finally, unlike Devil's Tower and that meeting of the minds, finally the truth is there for all of us to behold."

After seeing what very much feels like a bookend movie to the filmmaker's fascination with life out in the great unknown, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is a great film to revisit or finally check off the list. Roy Neary's (Richard Dreyfuss) life-changing experience of seeing a UFO sends him on a journey to discover the truth and communicate with the unimaginable, taking a similar route to the one Daniel and Margaret finds themselves on in this new film.

The danger levels might not be quite as high in "Close Encounters," but the wonder and curiosity about finding answers to the universe's greatest question is beautifully explored here. Some excellent assistance is provided by John Williams and his legendary score, along with a carefully crafted pile of mashed potatoes. 

Universal

Years after Richard Dreyfuss made contact with beings from another world, Henry Thomas became best friends with one, and in doing so, would change cinema forever. "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" provides a different close encounter, and leans into the amazing possibilities of actually befriending someone from another planet.

Even decades later, "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" warms the heart and taps into the childhood wonder Spielberg continued to prove he had a bead on (even if it was initially banned in Scandinavia). The innocence of Elliot (Thomas), Michael (Robert MacNaughton), and Gertie (Drew Barrymore) is what makes the film such a joy to watch, as this curious creature tries to learn about the world he's desperate to be picked up from.

But just as there's an array of characters enamored by this big-eyed traveler with an even bigger glowing heart, so too is there an imposing opposition that's taking the classic route of wanting to probe rather than be pals with the poor guy. It's these government suits chasing down our heroes that are analog versions of the tooled-up henchmen that are hunting down Margaret and Daniel, and just like the G-Men were led by Peter Coyote's Keys that was driven to catch E.T, Colin Firth's Noah is an equally driven man set on keeping the alien's existence under wraps by any means necessary.

Paramount

Before Ice Cube besmirched the classic H.G. Wells story with his 0% stinker on Rotten Tomatoes, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg got together for their second and final time with their 2005 take on "War of the Worlds." Starring Dakota Fanning and Tim Robbins, the film takes core elements from Wells' 1898 tale, and does an exceptional job modernizing the invasion of extraterrestrials, whose rides are the bass-booming tripods.

"Disclosure Day" asks the question: "What if we discovered we aren't alone?" Spielberg's adaptation, thanks to Wells' dread-inducing story, asks, "What if we were totally outgunned, and just how doomed would we be?" The answer, brilliantly laid out by Spielberg, is that we'd be absolutely screwed.

While the likes of "Jaws" and "Jurassic Park" have given us characters being offed by creatures great and small, the tripods are perhaps the biggest monsters Spielberg ever put onscreen, and he doesn't hesitate in putting them to use. Turning folks to ash and sparking a wave of destruction that can be seen throughout the film via flaming locomotives or rivers of bodies, perhaps the greatest horror is Robbins' brilliant performance as the unhinged survivor Harlan, who forces Cruise's Ray Ferrier into a situation he can't escape. Just like any end-of-the-world tale, monsters come in all shapes and sizes, including ones that look like Andy Dufresne.