Original subtitles

Howdy, Steven. How's it going? Good to

see you, too. Great.

>> I love the hat.

>> Well, I put it on for you. I don't know

why. I have no idea why I made that

choice.

>> When was the last time you were here?

>> A couple year About a year and a half

ago.

>> Okay.

>> I've been trying to ask questions and

I've been trying to peek, but

>> Okay. Okay.

>> that I haven't seen.

>> I I may not be able to answer too many

of your questions, but I'm going to try.

>> This is something I've Yeah.

>> Well, this is This is it. This is

Elliot's bike. You can see ET is

relatively small cuz that is not a large

basket.

>> No, he's a compact little guy.

>> a compact little guy, it's true. Of

course, when you're making a movie,

>> Mhm.

>> you don't ever think of anything being

an antiquity. You think it's a prop. So,

I look at a bike on a film set and I

say, "This is going to service the

scene. It's a prop." And then,

only history

and luck, you know, can make you look

back on something and say, "Well, today,

because it's ET, it's more than a prop."

>> Yeah. Now, this belongs in a museum.

Yeah.

>> It's like It's like that moment in

Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indy's got the

bazooka aimed at the Ark.

>> He can't do it.

>> And take a watch

and you bury it in the sand for like a

thousand years. And then, you dig it up

and it's it's it becomes priceless. You

know, it's it's that's the That's what

it's all about. So, this is not

priceless. It's a bicycle that if it

weren't for ET, you couldn't you know,

you couldn't sell this for more than

$90.

>> Yeah.

>> [laughter]

>> With something like this, cuz this was

really early on in your career, was it

intentional to save this, or was this

something you have to go back and find

years later?

>> I'm very nostalgic.

>> Mhm.

>> And I like to save things not because I

think they're going to mean something

someday to someone.

>> Mhm.

>> And when I make a movie, I I like to be

able to remember it because there's

physical things I used in the movie that

I could possess and my myself look back

and show my kids you know, years later

and and say this is a bike that we used

in the movie that just happened to

become very successful. Because I am

nostalgic, I tend to hang on to props,

costumes, sometimes vehicles.

>> This is the Amblin bike.

>> It's the Amblin bike.

>> Is ET here?

>> ET is in at Amblin.

>> Oh, yes, yes, yes.

>> ET lives with me where I live.

>> He keeps the Amblin offices warm.

>> I'm a resident now in New York City and

so ET's probably going to come to New

York with me.

>> Oh, good. ET takes the big city. That's

so nice. Yeah, the the sequel we've been

waiting for. ET, yeah.

>> Kind of like Tarzan goes to New York.

>> Exactly. I was thinking Home Alone 2,

uh, you know, Lost in the City. I'm like

ET on the in the, you know, yellow cab

would be wonderful.

>> Well, it's a whole other movie.

>> [laughter]

>> It's a whole other story.

>> What's the official name of this place?

>> So, we are the Amblin Hearth Archives.

>> Amblin Hearth Archives.

>> Correct.

>> So, these are the slates. These are

usually the eight-camera slates.

>> Austin, you have every single slate as

far back as Duel?

>> I didn't save slates

in those days. Well, I think the first

slate I saved was Jaws cuz I invented a

slate.

>> I It's at the Academy Museum right now

with the with yeah.

>> It wasn't my idea. Bernie, my mom's

husband, my mom's second husband, I was

about to make Jaws. Bernie says, "Hey,

you know those things you hit together

and it makes that sound?" He said, "Why

don't you design one with teeth? And you

raise it up and then the teeth come

together." So, I designed the slate

based on what Bernie Adler suggested and

that became our eight-camera slate and

that was the first one that I kept.

>> Oh, that's amazing.

>> This is the typewriter from Schindler's

List.

>> Are you serious?

>> Yeah.

>> Oh, wow.

>> This is the typewriter that

Oskar Stern, played by Ben Kingsley,

typed the list on.

>> Oh, that's beautiful. Jesus.

>> of the models from Close Encounters.

This is long before the

the digital age. So, we had to build the

models and and these models were merely

just uh uh

uh a shape because what was important

was how the lights photographed. So, the

lights are practical. When this gets

plugged in, these lights are awfully

bright. And so, some of this stuff was

done

um

like stop motion.

>> That's so crazy. Was this the Is this

like the actual one that's behind the

mountain

>> No, no, that's the mothership. This is a

tiny version of that.

>> Oh, wow.

>> mothership. That's the one that rises

over Devil's Tower.

>> Yeah, Devil's Tower.

>> Right. And that's just part of it.

>> I rewatched Close Encounters last week

in preparation for this.

>> wow.

>> You've been keeping Disclosure Day very

under wraps. So, I'm like trying to see

if there's anything that I could like

put into like try to like be like, is

there an idea that you were getting at

in here that you're trying to put in

there?

>> It's been 50 years ago.

>> Jesus.

>> is the 50th year.

>> It holds up really well.

>> Oh, wow.

>> is this is this is the original Ralph

McQuarrie painting.

>> Mhm.

>> And the main part of the mothership can

be viewed, which I prefer prefer this

way. I like it this way.

But when it came

up over Devil's Tower, it came up this

way.

>> Yeah. But there's a world in which it

could be flown upside down.

>> Yeah, so where you invert this any way

you want. My feeling, which is not my

theory, it's it's the theory of other

people.

Um is that uh

you know, they create their own gravity.

>> That's so cool.

>> That's That's how they can go underwater

at 300 mph. It It has its its own

vacuole of of its own gravity. So, it it

there's actually it's it's zero gravity

in a vacuole around it so it can

interact in our atmosphere

>> Mhm.

>> and in this world at any speed it wants

to or any kind of 90° maneuver it wants

to make.

It doesn't come under any of the laws of

physics.

>> Is it true that that you were in the Boy

Scouts and had missed uh a sighting?

>> Yeah, I didn't see it.

>> I'm sorry.

>> What? It was I don't think it was my

destiny to see [laughter] them. It was

my destiny to make movies about it, but

not to really get a chance to see it.

And I've always said

>> intentional by their part. They were

like

>> Close Encounters on saying it's just not

fair, you know, I've made all these

movies about visitation and and and

interaction both both both benign and

aggressive.

>> Yeah.

>> And and and and it doesn't matter. I

haven't had my shot taking a look at one

of them in real life.

>> Yeah, they've been waiting. They're just

like no, he needs to make a few more

movies about it before we let them in on

it. But I do really like that in Close

Encounters, they're not aggressive. That

you don't really know their intentions.

It seems nice, but like you also have no

clue what they're getting up to.

>> You know, there's the Men in Black

theory where everybody you know, they're

they're here living in secret, but at

the same time they're here to destroy us

and and and K&J have to save the world

every single movie. And War of the

Worlds of course is the H.G. Wells

theory that they've come to

defeat us, obliterate us, and take over.

And then and then there's the there's

there's the benign intervention, you

know,

which is more along the lines of my own

belief system. Why would any off-world

entity

travel hundreds of thousands if not

millions of light years without some

kind of curiosity

>> Yeah.

>> and intention to invade.

>> Yeah, they're just trying to get the

plant samples for Close Encounters.

>> Did you have a like a hand in helping I

guess kind of give these notes

>> it, but Ralph created it. We were

shooting in India. There was this huge

electrical plant with tens of thousands

of probably 30-W light bulbs. And when

we went past the plant it looked like

this. See this little city above?

>> Yeah.

>> And at night it was kind of awesome.

>> Yeah.

>> And so I took pictures of it with my

35-mm Nikon, and I started making a

sketch of that. And then one day I was

on I was on Mulholland Drive, and you

can see the San Fernando Valley, which

is just a blanket of beautiful lights

below. I I drew a kind of saucer, you

know, kind of a half of of

of the shape of a saucer, and thought

that perhaps when it turns on, it looks

like the San Fernando Valley. And those

are the concepts I gave to McCreary. And

then he went off and really created this

from scratch.

>> I mean, it's beautiful.

Yeah, this alone I would love to hang in

my my apartment. This is gorgeous.

>> And someday I might.

Who's Who's appreciating it here? It

just sits here. Maybe

>> Yeah. No, I mean the thing that I

constantly

>> the thing that I constantly go back to

is like from just being there, I was

looking around I'm like, I feel like I'm

at the end of Raiders, where they're

just wheeling it off and I'm like, what

else is in here?

>> Well, that's where you are. And And by

the way, you know, you have to keep

remembering all these were done by

artists.

>> Yeah.

>> All this was done by by by people with

with creative vision

and not AI.

>> Wow.

>> You can create stuff like this on AI,

but what is being created on AI based on

whatever input it is also

>> from this. It's coming from, yeah.

>> is also coming from

every other possible clue in the archive

that was created by people who breathe

and have and have and have souls, you

know? And so, the whole

I'm I'm not a completely opposed to a

certain kind of use of AI, but when it

comes to replacing artists, I'm

completely opposed to AI taking the

place of somebody's own way of seeing.

>> Yeah, and I mean, it can replicate, it

cannot generate, I think is the thing.

Where it can see this and make something

similar, but it can't This is from

coming from a person with thoughts and

feelings and I'm sure there's something

in here that is tied to their childhood

that we would not know.

>> You You got it. Well said.

>> Like I I know CG was in its infancy in

'77, but that there's no CG in the film.

>> Well, there is a There's a CG test shot

in Close Encounters. And it didn't take

a a of money, but it took a lot of

computer time, a lot of computer cycles,

and it took actually a couple of months

to generate one shot of a UFO traveling

in the sky and hovering over a baseball

stadium.

>> Mhm.

>> With no detail inside the stadium, just

the stadium itself, and then flying off

again. It looked better than Saturday

morning cartoons, but not yet ready for

any primetime inclusion.

>> So, now we can move on to Raiders, which

we heard is your one of your top four

movies.

>> On Yeah, on Letterboxd, it's in my four

favorites.

>> So, these are reductions of These These

actual storyboards were about this

large.

>> Did you draw these yourself?

>> No.

>> Okay.

>> My drawings are nothing like these. My

drawings

>> Your drawings

>> are like

>> great.

>> No, that's awesome.

>> So, this is This is my drawing. I give

this to an artist,

>> and then they do this.

>> And then they turn it into this. I

storyboarded the whole movie. I story I

began storyboarding the film in 1980,

and I storyboarded every single sequence

because I had made three movies that

were so far over budget and schedule

that I promised George, when he said, "I

want you to do the

this movie with me called Raiders of the

Lost Ark, but um I don't want you to do

to me what you've done to three studios,

two of which made a lot of money, but

still was I I went way way over budget.

And I made George a promise that I would

do it on budget, and he gave me a

generous budget. I think we made the

movie for $20 million in 1980. He gave

me 84 days, healthy schedule. I think I

shot the film in 73 days. So, I was way

ahead of schedule, and the only way I

accomplished that was to literally draw

every single

>> Every single frame.

>> I I think it was it was the first time I

re- really realized that I wasn't paying

for this myself, somebody else was. And

I'm not going to stick my best friend

with a big overcharge. Our friendship

was more important than working

together.

>> Oh, that's lovely.

>> Yeah. That's the whip. That's Indy's

whip.

Pick it up.

>> I can touch it?

>> Yeah.

>> Really?

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

>> It's a picture prop, right?

>> Yeah.

>> So, this is a picture prop used in the

film, using the first film.

>> Holy Can I curse?

>> Yeah.

>> Holy

>> Yeah. [laughter]

>> I mean, this is nuts.

>> It's your show.

>> Can I pick it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I

guess. Can I pick it up?

>> Yes, you can.

>> Okay, I'm going to be very careful. Oh,

it's heavy.

>> Well, Harrison Harrison practiced on the

weapon.

>> Well, I could retire. This is it. Yeah,

this is kind of the everything's

downhill from here. How many of these

whips were made? Cuz

last time we spoke, I know that there's

still one out there.

>> Yeah, I I probably for the first movie,

they probably made four or five whips.

Uh but we I think one of these whips was

was carried over to Temple of Doom.

>> It smells like leather.

>> It does.

>> Oh, it's the real thing.

>> Oh my gosh.

I'll take over the mantle. It's about

time. I'm ready.

Oh, we don't need Mutt Williams anymore.

I washed my hands like three times like

within like a 10-minute span prior to

this. Have you held it before?

>> Yeah.

>> Do you want to touch it? Or you could.

>> I'm good.

>> Okay.

>> [laughter]

>> The last touch on that whip it belongs

to

>> Oh, wow. And then no one touches it

again. Where are we now? Is this

>> Jurassic Park.

>> was going to say, yeah, this this has to

be

>> So, these we have quite a few of these.

These are the maquettes of the

dinosaurs.

>> Uh-huh.

>> Um

>> ILM created all of the maquettes. And of

course, then they scanned the maquettes

into the computer. Jurassic Park was the

beginning of the digital age where the

leading characters were created on a

computer. And so, they first had to

build these maquettes including the

coloring

of the uh of the skin.

>> The Dilophosaurus.

>> Dilophosaurus. Look at the coloring.

That is carried directly over

to ones and zeros.

>> It is just so wild to me that like yeah,

what you guys did on Jurassic kind of

just set the stage for the image of

dinosaurs since. Besides when you're

coming to the archive, how often do you

take a trip down memory lane? Or is each

like are you revisiting past films when

you make a new film?

>> don't get a chance to do that cuz I'm

always working on something. I also

don't like to look back. I don't like to

I'm very nostalgic. That doesn't mean

sitting in a screening room like Gloria

Swanson and watching her silent movies

over and over again. There's very few

movies of of my own that I've directed

that I've seen multiple times. And the

ones that I've seen multiple times is

because of my kids. They want to see ET.

They don't want to see it alone. They're

going to be scared. I sit next to them.

So I've

probably seen ET more than any other

film I've ever directed because of my

children and and my grandchildren.

>> ET gets scary when you think he's going

to die.

>> [screaming]

>> And of course what I say to my grandkids

when they're young and they're watching

or even my own children, I say now I I

tell them ahead of time that ET's going

to get sick. [music]

>> Mhm.

>> And you're going to think he's dying and

it's supposed to look like that, but

he's going to be okay.

>> Yeah.

>> I I will never let any of my kids or

grandkids see that movie without them

knowing

>> That pale ET will get his

>> it's going to be okay cuz it's not a he

or she. That's the slate. That's the A

camera slate. And Dean did a great job

on this. He did a great job on Hook.

>> Now we've made our way through some of

your past films. I think we're going to

see some Disclosure Day stuff.

>> Emily Blunt plays Margaret and this is

she's the weather lady. And this is what

she wears when she's on TV doing the

weather.

>> Good morning, Kansas City.

>> This this is actually her her outdoor

uh what what she It's It's wintertime.

We made the film in the winter. So this

is what she wears outside. All the

different layers. This was designed by

Paul Tazewell who also had done West

Side Story with me and won the Academy

Award for Wicked and Joshua Connor who

plays Daniel Kelner. This is what he's

wearing.

>> I know the layering is so nice.

>> The layering's good cuz inside you can

strip down. So you take this off and you

can wear this or even this inside.

>> Now he's four different costumes.

>> And it's exactly.

>> It reminds me of the kind of like the

outfitting of Tom Cruise in War of the

Worlds. It's that really cool rough and

tumble look.

>> After all the costumes, I want to show

you this.

This is what we call the device.

Want you to hold this in your hand.

>> May I?

>> Yes.

>> Oh, that's heavy.

>> It's heavy. This is the device. This

This is a piece of off-world tech

>> Mhm.

>> that does and is capable of doing a lot

more than our characters use in

Disclosure Day. It's actually does some

extraordinary things in Disclosure Day,

but it's capable of doing a lot more

than that.

>> It looks like there's like a wood grain

kind of looking thing and then there's

an insignia here.

>> insignia here.

And that insignia

>> Is that what we see in the trailer?

>> Yes, that insignia is a crop circle.

>> Yeah.

>> I'm not sure what it says to me, but it

But you got to see the movie to see what

it says to you.

>> We made a lot of these.

>> Mhm.

>> There's three of them in the movie. And

when we were done shooting, I made sure

that we collected every single one of

them because I wanted them all to go

here. But sometimes props that are left

behind show up at the Heritage auction

catalog.

>> Yeah.

>> You know, eventually. And so things that

I think are important to hang on to, I

try to collect it all. And And And yet

it's impossible when you have a movie

that's so heavily propped to collect

everything.

>> When I was once said that one day

everything is practical, I can only

imagine how much has to be kept track of

and also how much might just from the

from just day-to-day just disappear.

>> It does disappear. And I'm not saying

anybody

steals it, but when you have a lot of

props that are not being used in the

studio, they wind up in private

possession.

>> Yeah.

>> And they show up later on at

at auction.

>> Yeah.

>> And I've actually been a bidder at some

of these auctions to try to try to

recover some of our iconography.

>> Have you recovered anything from the

auction?

>> We have a lot. Haven't we?

>> that stands out?

>> The fishing reel from Jaws.

>> Jaws. The actual fishing reel rod and

reel from Jaws.

>> Oh, like the big one on the Orca?

>> The big one that he hooks the hooks the

great white on.

>> Did you go in person? Cuz that'd be

really fun if Yeah, you you lift up the

thing, take off your mask, and it's

like, "Oh my gosh." Yeah. Then they kind

of have to give it to you.

>> But what is the mask I'm using? Who am I

Who am I going there as?

>> I'm trying to think. Like a Richard

>> Cruise Mission Impossible mask comes

off. The mask comes off.

>> Colin Firth, maybe.

>> Colman Domingo

and Colin Firth two of the greatest

actors I've worked with. You'll see for

yourselves they're they're wonderful.

>> Can you talk a little bit about who they

are? I'm guessing he is the big bad

behind either a government or

corporation

and I like that it looks like he's

taking control of people. Can't confirm

nor did I Okay.

>> with this

>> Oh, is that what Okay.

>> Can't do much without this. You'll see.

>> Okay.

>> I don't want to spoil it for

>> No, that's okay. I

>> you to have your experience.

>> The movie itself is a mystery. The

materials that we put out into the world

to entice people to come see our film,

you know, they have to be mysterious

because it also is in character with

what the film is. The film is a mystery.

The entire UAP phenomenon is a mystery.

And yet there are people I believe in

the world, not just in this country,

where the UAP phenomena is no mystery at

all.

>> Mhm.

>> The existence of

UAPs, formerly called UFOs, to a good

number of people who are able to keep

secrets

>> It's just fact.

>> It is just fact and and our movie is

exploring

you know, you know, what happens when

whistleblowers can get at those facts

and whether they are able to release the

information to the world or not, you'll

have to come see the movie to find out.

>> have been asking me when they see the

posters like, "Do you know any like

about it?" And I'm like, "I truly don't.

If I knew, I probably wouldn't tell you,

but I also do not know what's going to

happen in this film, which is really

exciting that I'm walking into it and

can't kind of like formula like

Hollywood formula brain like the story

with just like what I've been able to

garner from the trailers.

>> When I see a trailer

and I and from the trailer I've seen the

entire movie, if it tickles my fancy,

I'll probably see the movie, but it

makes me less excited about seeing the

movie if I know too much about it. And

there's so much front loading

of of plot into trailers today just to

get that opening opening number.

>> Mhm.

>> I I've never done that. I've never

really subscribed to, you know, giving

away all the secrets.

>> Yeah.

>> is something that I'm going to really

protect until we open the film on that

midnight show.

>> I

>> By the way, this goes on and on. This is

just a small section, right?

>> Yeah, we have the entire floor. So that

we do our all our digitizing in house.

>> Do you hold on to film reels here, too?

>> Yes.

>> Yes, we do.

>> Oh, man.

>> So right now Zach is working on our

small gauge films, so some of Steven's

>> 8 mm

>> earliest work.

>> This is a home movie you made with your

sisters.

>> I had to put myself in my movies cuz I

couldn't get anybody else to be in them.

>> Mhm.

>> There's so much of this that is not out

there.

>> I'm 14 there, and it's my sister. I

think that could be Anne.

That was a paper mache mask we made, a

mummy mask. In The Fabelmans, they do

that with toilet paper. That's also

toilet paper.

>> And you were editing these all yourself?

>> Yeah, I know I didn't edit these

together. This was all cut in the

camera. All done inside the camera.

>> Oh, so you're like starting stopping

starting stopping.

>> I had a little butt splicer.

>> Cuz I was going to say in Fabelmans you

get that and

>> that, but this is before the butt This

this is very early on.

>> Would you ever release any of these?

>> Someday, maybe.

>> Is this the actual film that you would

have shot on?

>> Yeah, there was no negative. No, that's

where I cut in the camera. You can

always tell when you cut in the camera.

The scene just changes. I'm just looking

for an actual splice. Here's a splice

here. So this is this is a splice.

Here's a tape.

>> Mhm.

>> Can you see this in the can the camera

catch the glare? That's a tape splice.

>> Is this a war movie it is?

>> This is behind the scenes. All my

friends putting on their

their, you know, kind of

scavenged together uniforms.

>> Yeah.

>> And that's me with getting ready to

shoot with

the Bolex, my my Bolex H8. I've never

seen this. Can I have a copy? I've never

seen this.

>> Yeah, of course.

>> This is the first time I've ever seen

this.

>> Are you serious?

>> I've never saw this before. I didn't

even know where you got this.

>> Oh, this isn't

>> great that this exists. And that's my

dad and mom's station wagon that I

learned to drive on. So I'm about I'm 16

here. And I course I recreated this

whole thing in The Fabelmans.

>> Do you see any of like the traits that

you had early on still popping up in the

movies you make today?

>> No, the only trait that I see is how

much I love doing it.

>> Mhm.

>> That's the only thing I really remember

how much fun this was then and is today.

And that's that's Thunder, our dog

Thunder, Cocker Spaniel.

>> Our family dog. I got to get a copy of

this.

>> [laughter]

>> This is amazing.

>> Now, I'm glad we came in here now.

>> Okay. All right.

>> [laughter]

>> I'm geeking out on myself. I'm getting

out of here.

>> No, it's cool.

>> Well, this has truly been so lovely.

This is like the creme de la creme of

yeah, of my experiences.

Um everyone was joking that they're

going to have to drag me out cuz I'm

like we've only seen the tip of the

iceberg.

>> Where Where are all the big props? Where

are all the cars and the miniatures?

>> Um so, the cars are

at our offsite facility up in the

valley. And then the miniatures, the set

deck pieces, those are in We have

another building behind this building.

>> Do you have the ark?

>> No.

>> No.

>> George has the ark.

>> George does?

>> Yeah. Sometimes George gets the best

stuff.

>> And

>> know when you think about it, it's his

brain child. He cooked He cooked up the

whole concept of the series.

I was involved of course along with

Larry Kasdan cooking up all the set

pieces and the plot and all the all the

cool stuff inside the movie, but George

came up with the

the thing you need more than anything

else, which is the McGuffin

and and the prize

>> Mhm.

>> and the character.

>> Do you Do you have the fertility idol?

>> I have one of them.

>> Okay, that's good.

>> Good to see you, Reese.

>> Thank you so much, Steven.

>> If you want to, without cameras,

you can go take a look at some of the

other props in the other building if you

want to see that.

>> I might take you up on that. Be sure to

experience Steven Spielberg's Disclosure

Day in theaters June 12th.