Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day effortlessly weaves real-world legends and UFO mythology into a seamless narrative. Spielberg has always been fascinated by aliens and UFOs; this is the man behind Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., after all. There are thematic ties between the films, but there’s not really any direct relationship. Rather, Spielberg has turned his eye to real-world UFO lore as the inspiration for Disclosure Day.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Some of the references are easy to spot. There’s an explicit nod to the Roswell incident, for example, one of the most famous UFO conspiracies in history; what’s more, the “little gray men” design of the aliens fits perfectly with common lore. But other aspects are much more subtle, including footage of President Nixon apparently showing aliens to a famous movie star. Incredibly, that’s a real-world legend.
Jackie Gleason Was Obsessed With UFOs
The legend in question was Jackie Gleason (1916-1987), the actor and comedian often known as “The Great One.” Gleason was utterly obsessed with UFOs and aliens, so much so that he commissioned a spaceship-shaped house in Peekskill, New York. Known as the Mothership, the house was completed in 1965, and there’s even a separate cottage called the Spaceship (for pretty obvious reasons). After his death, Gleason’s collection of books, journals, periodicals, and publications was left to the University of Miami, and it includes an absolute treasure-trove of UFO documents.
Gleason was a superstar of his time, and he was extremely well-connected. Most famously, he regularly hosted celebrity and golf championships attended by then-president Richard Nixon himself. This friendship became the basis for one of the most enduring Hollywood UFO legends of all time.
Legend Claims Nixon Showed Gleason Real Aliens
The story in question was told (several times) by Gleason’s ex-wife, Beverly. According to the most common version, Nixon traveled to Florida in February 1973. On February 18 or 19, Nixon – eager to impress his friend – ditched his security escort, taking him to a secret military facility in Florida. Gleason returned home shaken, and told his wife he’d just seen proof aliens were real.
“We drove to the very far end of the base in a segregated area, finally stopping near a well-guarded building,” Gleason himself told UFO researcher Larry Warren, according to Timothy Green Beckley’s UFOs Among the Stars. “The security police saw us coming and just sort of moved back as we passed them and entered the structure. There were a number of labs we passed through first before we entered a section where Nixon pointed out what he said was the wreckage from a flying saucer, enclosed in several large cases.
“Next, we went into an inner chamber and there were six or eight of what looked like glass-topped Coke freezers. Inside them were the mangled remains of what I took to be children. Then – upon closer examination – I saw that some of the other figures looked quite old. Most of them were terribly mangled as if they had been in an accident.”
The story resurfaced in February this year, when Donald Trump began discussing the idea of declassifying UFO files. An excited Roger Stone re-shared the Nixon-Gleason story to his followers on X, clearly anticipating further revelations. A bemused Barack Obama was eventually asked whether aliens were real, and insisted they weren’t being kept anywhere “unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
Spielberg’s Disclosure Day Plays the Gleason Story Straight
Disclosure Day riffs on this scene in supposed archive footage from February 18, 1973, in which Nixon did indeed take a celebrity on a tour to see aliens. What’s more, the film also respects the version in which the aliens were “terribly mangled as if they had been in an accident.” It’s quite clear some of Disclosure Day‘s aliens had either been in some sort of accident, or else had been shot down.
Amusingly, Disclosure Day follows the Obama route; it explains there is indeed an “enormous conspiracy,” and it has been hidden even from the President of the United States. According to Disclosure Day, a president is a civilian after he’s served just eight years, meaning he isn’t to be trusted with such sensitive information. Presumably even Donald Trump can’t declassify UFO records he doesn’t have access to.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
