A filmmaker who needs no introduction returns to the sci-fi genre that he has played a major role in defining over the last 50 years with his new film Disclosure Day. To celebrate, we are presenting a week of classic sci-fi films from the master, Steven Spielberg.
Across Spielberg’s vast and ranging career, sci-fi represents only around 25% of his cinematic output, but when you look at the sci-fi films in his filmography it’s easy to see why he looms so large in this genre. Close Encounters of The Third Kind, E.T., Jurassic Park, A.I, Minority Report, and War of The Worlds – each film has helped redefine what sci-fi can be. Mixing genres, themes and ideas with astounding performances and groundbreaking special effects has created a type of cinema that never fails to capture the audience’s imagination.
From the 1970s through to 2026, what sci-fi means has changed with the times for both Spielberg and his audience – using it to communicate ideas that are pertinent to their own time, and also reflect timeless universal themes and values. These range from obsession and communication in Close Encounters, to childhood wonder and friendship in E.T, to scientific breakthroughs in Jurassic Park, exploring our fears and paranoia of new technology and its application in Minority Report, using the genre as a response to global conflict in War of The Worlds, and doing a deep dive into the ethics and complexities of artificial intelligence, long before it was a trendy, in A.I (which is now 25 years old, and as a concept was conceived even earlier by Stanley Kubrick). And now in Disclosure Day, Spielberg has merged all these ideas into a single movie, tapping into our desire to explore and understand beyond what we know, and how current world events and individual experience shape our search for the truth and sense of wonder.
In these films, Spielberg presents our world in a way that’s familiar and relatable, and also reaches for wonder and spectacle at each turn. He creates pure cinema that’s timeless and always carries added weight on the big screen, in a communal setting. Whether you were too young to see these in the cinema first time around, or you’re keen to revisit a loved classic, we hope you enjoy this week as we salute a true icon, and celebrate the astounding and expansive ways cinema can reach us all.
Spielberg Sci-Fi Week runs from Friday 19 to Thursday 25 June:
- Disclosure Day
- Close Encounters of The Third Kind
- E.T: the Extra-Terrestrial
- Jurassic Park
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence
- Minority Report
- War of The Worlds
- And special guest, Jaws!
Tickets available now – Book here