One of Disclosure Day‘s spiritual predecessors, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, is also a story of strangers coming together in the face of the unknown, drawn together by danger and a search for answers. Roy (Richard Dreyfuss) becomes obsessed with the image of a mountain after a close encounter with a UFO and, after his family leaves him, goes out to search for it. In another part of the state, single mom Jillian (Melinda Dillon) also sees the mountain. As the UFO comes her way, they take her child, Barry, with them, forcing her to follow them to get her son back. The unlikely pair are united in their search for the mountain and get up close and personal with a UFO, whose inhabitants return Barry to his mom. But this was just a temporary platonic union, one driven by a force greater than their own free will. As Jillian stays back home with Barry, Roy takes off on a whole new adventure on the UFO.
While the platonic pairs in Disclosure Day and Close Encounters are united by a shared mission, Spielberg has a lot more fun bringing old exes back together in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, using their bristly dynamic for comic relief amid the action set pieces and elaborate chases. The romance between Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) is messy but entertaining because there’s a competitive streak between the two, and a leftover sense of guilt and pain over past heartache. In the original film, Marion reveals that Jones was her first love (as a teenager, no less), but when he left, he broke her heart. The pair only reunite in a farflung bar in the mountains of Nepal when Jones is trying to beat the Nazis on the trail of the Ark Of The Covenant. The pair brave capture, attempted murder, and a supernatural massacre that melts their enemies, but once the adventure is done, so is their relationship, at least for now. As a restless professor of archaeology and a sly response to the incorrigible ladies’ man James Bond, Jones is hard to pin down, and by the sequel—the notoriously divorce-infused Temple Of Doom—he’s got a new love interest played by Kate Capshaw, who would go on to marry Spielberg. It’s not until Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull decades later that Jones and Marion reunite again onscreen—perhaps out of a sense of nostalgia for old times, but also with an optimism that reconciliation is still possible years later. Even if our two adventure-stricken lovers don’t always part ways amicably, they’re still connected by their shared pulpy experiences.
Because of the imminent danger in movies like Disclosure Day, there’s no real time for their thrust-together strangers to get to know one another beyond the important details related to their mission. In other cases, like that of another of Spielberg’s most recognizable duos, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) in Jurassic Park, the pair are already in a pretty comfortable relationship when they arrive at a dino-themed amusement park filled with real dinosaurs. But no established relationship is safe from Spielberg. This time, the adventure not only brings them closer but also offers some clarity about their future. Although the paleontologist and paleobotanist share a love for all things ancient, their family goals are mismatched, with Grant’s hesitance around having kids possibly mirroring Spielberg’s own fears around fatherhood. Eventually, Grant steps up to save the grandchildren of the misguided park owner, needing to protect them from velociraptors and rogue T. rexes. United as a kind of makeshift family against chaos—complete with a rascally uncle figure in Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum)—Grant and Sattler emerge from Jurassic Park closer than ever. However, like previous and future couples in Spielberg’s filmography, the satisfaction of surviving danger and riding off into the sunset doesn’t mean the pair has it figured out. By Jurassic Park III, they’ve transitioned to friends. It isn’t until the later non-Spielberg sequels that they reunite once again—life finding a way after all.
There’s a similar satisfaction to Disclosure Day’s central, non-romantic relationship. As one more component in its message for unity, Margaret and Daniel’s teamwork represents an idealized relationship for Spielberg. It’s one that prioritizes a mission for the good of humanity over flailing personal relationships with people who don’t share their beliefs. Romantic intrigue and future goals fall by the wayside for the here and now. There’s barely any backstory to either Daniel or Margaret’s partners beyond the fact that they’re together. In both cases, there’s irreconcilable differences: Jane worries what full disclosure will do to humanity, while Jackson wants to stop moving around for Margaret’s career.
Instead, Margaret must escape Jackson while Daniel sends Jane off on her own, which allows the main pair to find purpose in finding each other—in exposing a larger truth. Yet, once Disclosure Day passes, what happens to Daniel and Margaret may resemble what happens to many of the other platonic and romantic pairs in Spielberg’s earlier blockbusters. Adventure brings people together, but it doesn’t keep them together. It’s a bittersweet conclusion to draw from these films—one that perhaps shines a light on the filmmaker’s pragmatic approach to relationships, accepting that they may end in divorce or separation, and that what matters more is the shared passion that initially draws them close. These characters’ time together may end with the credits, but the brief connection they have during their shared adventures is powerful enough to last in our memories.
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