Summary

Spielberg’s films share a universe with alien life forms connecting iconic movies like E.T. and Jaws.
The Spielbergverse theory involves links to George Lucas’s Star Wars franchise and extends to ancient civilizations.
Evidence from various Spielberg films suggests that alien technologies influenced key events, like the mysterious disappearance of Bruce the shark.

In 2018, a very interesting theory made its way to FanTheoryWorld, a blog and podcast dedicated to sharing theories across many fandoms. This particular theory has the potential to completely alter the way in which you interact with the movies of Steven Spielberg.

Focusing on alien life forms from across his movies, the author, Erik Montgomery, makes a pretty convincing argument in his fan theory about how the, as he calls it, Spielbergverse, is related. Erik does make a point to suggest that, although not all of Spielberg’s movies are mentioned, they nevertheless remain a part of the same universe. His films based around historical events, such as Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, simply occur at a point when aliens are not known to be active on Earth.

This fan theory touches upon the typical Spielberg alien films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of a Third Kind, and World of the Worlds. It also delves into some other Spielberg classics, such as Jaws and Indiana Jones, to convey how far-reaching this theory is. Strangely, it also hinges upon a link between the Spielberg films and George Lucas’s Star Wars franchise.

Alien Encounters Throughout Humanity
Paramount Pictures

Many Spielberg films include the presence of alien life forms, even franchises that do not initially appear to do so. Although many try to forget this film’s existence within the canonical franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull establishes an alien influence upon early human civilizations. This entry conveys these aliens as relatively benevolent creatures, sharing knowledge and the existence of alien technology from the earliest points of humanity.

An earlier entry to the franchise confirms this, as hieroglyphics in Raiders of the Last Ark appear to depict C-3PO and R2-D2. This fan theory takes this as proof that ancient civilizations were aware of extended alien life forms, including those that are from the Star Wars films. More explanation will be given to the extent of the link between the Spielberg universe and the Star Wars franchise soon.

1970s Onward
Universal Pictures

Fast-forward to the late 20th century, and it is theorized that the exact same species of aliens from Crystal Skull returns to Earth in the 1977 film, Close Encounters of a Third Kind. The argument comes in the form of their striking likeliness, in facial and bodily structure. The differences in their appearances, however, are explained by being different races of the same species, in the way that not all races of humans look the same. The theory highlights the continued benevolence of humankind, but also that the US government was aware of aliens by 1977 at the earliest point, meaning that when E.T. occurs five years later, their presence does not come as a huge surprise.

Moving onto the impact of E.T., this is where the alien presence appears to become more central. Returning to Star Wars initially, during The Phantom Menace, viewers can actually see this species of aliens appear in the background, and it turns out they are called Asogians. Through this connection, it becomes increasingly clear how central the link between Star Wars and the Spielberg films is, allowing wider possibilities of alien species and technologies being able to reach Earth outside of those shown in the Spielberg universe.

The fan theory examines why the Asogians were visiting Earth in the first place, and precisely why they appeared to be collecting plant life at the start of the film. Eric argues that as more alien species were visiting Earth, more hostile groups began to take an interest, including the tripod aliens from War of the Worlds. As seen in this film, they were defeated by the microbes within plant life. Therefore, the Asogians are said to collect these plants, and introduce deadly organisms, which can be passed to all other plant species through pollen output, ready for the tripod invasion.

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How Other Spielberg Films Fit into this Universe.

With all the (known) alien encounters plotted within the Steven Spielberg film universe, the theory can expand to include some other classics. As established, it is likely that the knowledge of alien technology has been made apparent to older human civilizations, but there is a chance that some of it was left on Earth. This would explain the strange existence of the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, and the Sankara Stones. One John Hammond, CEO of InGen, from the Jurassic Park franchise, is said to be informed of these ventures undertaken by Indiana Jones, setting up amber mines as a front to partake in his own archeological digs for similar technologies. And he may have found some.

Bruce the shark from Jaws is used as the initial evidence of this. Despite being a similar size, Bruce is triple the average weight of a Great White. Hammond planned on opening a marine park in Costa Rica to show off Bruce, alongside other modified sea creatures, until he escaped and made the journey north to the cooler waters of Amity Island, New York. Following this crisis, Hammond worked harder to not only create bigger, better creatures but to ensure the same catastrophe would not occur.

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But going off the events of Jurassic Park, this obviously did not go to plan. Moreover, sticking with the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, Eric makes use of scientific evidence to establish that they were not simply made from extracted DNA from amber. Since the half-life of DNA is only 521 years long, this method could not have recreated dinosaurs. This fan theory, therefore, implies that these strides in animal modification were aided by the alien technologies left behind by aliens visiting ancient civilizations.

This, in a nutshell, is the theory that connects all Steven Spielberg films to the same universe. With alien life forms and technologies at the center of this theory, the addition of any future films would likely also rely on this point. The creator did hint in his original blog post that other movies may be entered into the theory in the future, but so far, this is where the theory currently stands.