Recently, our Steven Spielberg Fan Theory episode covered the many theories that surround the Steven Spielberg films. Naturally, connections through the films have been spotted throughout the years and today I will attempt to not only connect all of the major Spielberg films into one shared universe, but prove that it is what our universe would be if aliens had visited Earth! This new universe and the movies contained within are all the result of extra-terrestrial interference. The films that we will be looking at include, the Indiana Jones films, Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, War of the Worlds and more. I call this shared universe The Spielbergverse. I wanted to call it the Steven Universe, but it was taken. Anyway, let’s take a look at what I consider to be a shared universe consisting of Steven Spielberg movies.
First, it should be stated that Spielberg’s films that take place during historical events such as Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and Lincoln, take place at a time when alien involvement did not occur and are therefore establishing that this universe is identical to ours until aliens visit Earth. Actually, I should say until aliens return to Earth, but more on that later. For now, let’s establish a few basic connections between movies.
Let’s start with one of Steven Spielberg’s first major movies, Jaws (1975). In Jaws, we have our main character Martin Brody, played by Roy Richard Scheider, attempts to rid Amity Island of a giant shark problem.
Martin Brody was born in New York City in 1932 and went on to become Chief of Police in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. His place of origin is very important here as it is our first connection with another Spielberg property. We know of a character in the Indiana Jones movies who worked as the Director of Special Acquisitions at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 1931. Yes, Martin Brody’s father is in fact, Marcus Brody.
After obtaining his new position at the museum in 1931, Marcus decided it would be the perfect time to settle down and have a family. By the next year, in 1932, he had a son, Martin, who would inherit his penchant for getting into trouble and would eventually go on to do battle with a giant shark in Jaws.
The next connection works better if we accept that Star Wars, also takes place in the same universe as the Spielbergverse. The Spielbergverse still works without the addition of Star Wars, but adding it is a wonderful bonus that shouldn’t be overlooked. We know that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are best friends, so it makes sense that they would collaborate ideas with each other and reference each other’s work in their projects. However, as soon as something is referenced or given a nod in an official film, it becomes canon to that universe. Indiana Jones once referenced Star Wars in Raiders of the Lost Ark, seen here in this image of C-3PO and R2-D2 making an appearance as hieroglyphics.
This may seem difficult to put into canon until we consider the controversial movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Some people may consider this movie non-cannon but this movie introduced the idea of multiple dimensions and will always live on as some sort of alternate Indiana Jones dimension. In this movie, we discover that aliens are real and they are actually inter-dimensional traveling beings. When traveling through dimensions, it would be easy for them to wind up in a time long ago in a galaxy far far away. While these aliens are said to be from the “space between spaces,” we see that they have already influenced some of our history and they can travel to our universe, possibly at any point in time and space that they choose. These inter-dimensional aliens are actually the ones responsible for the C-3PO and R2-D2 hieroglyphics by passing down the knowledge of other distant civilizations to people via telepathy. This telepathic passing of knowledge is something that they seem inclined to do in this movie. This is one example of when aliens had visited humans in ancient times. It’s only recently that we see aliens returning to impact modern society, such as in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
E.T., who was given the name Zrek in the sequel that never was, Nocturnal Fears, is part of a race of aliens that have come to be known as Asogians in the Star Wars universe. They make a famous cameo as a species of alien taking part in a senate hearing in The Phantom Menace, as seen here:
The Asogians, like most races in Star Wars, have access to faster than light-speed travel. This allows for intergalactic travel and eventually takes them to Earth. During the events of E.T. we even see that they are capable of being force sensitive and even use the powers of the force for levitation, healing, and even establishing deep connections to other individuals. There is even a popular theory that E.T. was a Jedi. This may be too far of a stretch; just because someone is force sensitive, does not mean they are associated with Jedi or Sith.
At the beginning of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, we see that a group of Asogians are on Earth for some uknown mission, only to be forced to leave Zrek stranded on the alien planet.
So let’s talk about the Asogians’ mission on Earth. If we watch the opening scene of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, we see that the E.T. and his clan are gathering various plant life from Earth and also, it appears, a number of other planets. Since their spacecraft is relatively compact and containing only a handful of representatives from the species, is it could be a safe assumption that the ship takes off to join up with either a mothership, or fly to a nearby base to examine the plant life. But why are they studying the plant life of Earth, when it is the host of so many other species of creatures, not the least of which is humans? We actually see Zrek in this opening shot appear to be fascinated by human civilization and at the same time, he seems to know enough about humans that he would run away from them. I believe that the reasons the Asogians try to remain hidden from humans is because they know that people are endlessly interesting but they are still a young race and have tendencies of fear and violence to creatures that are different from them. The Asogians know that that humans still have a long way to go before they are able to accept aliens and possibly make a contribution to any outside worlds. Humans must be allowed to reach this point in their evolution first, but they may need some help surviving until then.
“Survive what?” you may ask. Themselves, more than likely, but if a species ends up destroying itself, it probably wasn’t a great candidate for collaboration. What mankind needs help surviving are other aliens. The Asogians aren’t the only race of aliens out there, and they are also not the only race that knows about humans. In fact, humans have been known to exist for about 5 years. Or a more accurate phrasing would be that the government has known that aliens exist for the past 5 years.
In 1977 (5 years before the events of E.T.) humans were able to reach out and contact alien lifeforms in an encounter that took place on Devil’s Tower in Wyoming as seen in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In this movie we see that aliens and humans successfully make a connection with each other by means of music. The aliens eventually release the various people and animals from their ship, all of which appear to have not aged a single day since their disappearance. This would indicate either near-light speed travel (or faster) or the ability to travel to any point in time and space that they choose. Sound familiar? Yes! The aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind are actually the same race of aliens from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
In the above image we see the Alien from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Left) compared to the body and facial structure of the alien from Crystal Skull. These are definitely of the same species, and remember that individuals of the same species can have very drastic difference in both physical appearance and personality (just look at humans as an example). Even given that, these two look remarkably similar and they seem to share the same level of technology. We know that the interdimensional beings from Crystal Skull were credited in teaching the Ugha people agriculture, irrigation and technology. Despite making a woman’s eyes catch fire, these beings seem pretty generous in sharing their knowledge, just like the aliens from Close Encounters seem to be. This may also be true of them sharing their knowledge about Earth and the inhabitants that on it to other alien species.
As far as being benevolent creatures of knowledge, it is very likely that they shared some knowledge that the ancient people were not advanced enough to use. Since we see evidence of ancient civilizations recording otherworldly knowledge (see the Indiana Jones hieroglyphics picture), it’s possible that there exists ancient records of utilizing advanced alien technology. After giving knowledge of things like agriculture, irrigation and technology, it is clear that the extra-dimensional beings want to boost humanity and ensure it’s survival. As stated before, humans at the time are unable to utilize knowledge such as genetic modification so it the teachings are recorded in ancient texts. We know from the Indiana Jones franchise that alien influence can be seen in ancient times. In fact, it is likely that the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, and the Sankara stones are all artifacts of alien origin.
In fact, the Sankara stones were even said to be given to Sankara by the Hindu god Shiva on Mount Kalisa, which definitely sounds like an extra-terrestrial encounter. It is through these artifacts, hieroglyphics and actual encounters in the Indy films, that we know that aliens have influenced the ancient civilations of Egypt, Tibet, Hatay and Akator. Knowing this, we can see that alien influence is seen throughout the ancient world and any one of these sights could hold ancient alien secrets of advanced technology, just waiting to be discovered and used by modern day scientists. Enter InGen, the company responsible for successfully cloning prehistoric animals using the DNA found in the blood of insects trapped in amber, founded by the infamous John Hammond.
John Hammond is the CEO of InGen and most famously, Jurassic Park. He made his fortune running a flea circus and later opened parks in Kenya, Costa Rica and Isla Nublar. Flea circuses are actually a series of mechanical props that appear to be moved by invisible forces or nearly invisible such as a tiny flea. The whole premise of the flea circus is built on the deception that someone has trained fleas when in reality the props move on their own. John Hammond essentially built his fortune on deceiving his customers. These lies extend to the idea of cloning dinosaurs. DNA only has a half life of 521 years, so the idea of cloning anything from millions of years old amber simply doesn’t work. InGen is really just a facility that is working on genetically modifying existing animals or even creating them from scratch using advanced genetic technology, which could be considered morally different from reviving an extinct species. However, the real deceits lay in the amber mines (or alleged amber mines) throughout the world that are funded by InGen on the pretext of obtaining DNA trapped in amber.
The amber harvesting, just like Hammond’s flea circus, is just a front to what is really happening at specific dig sites. While certain sites are set up to be actual amber excavation sites, like the one we see in the Jurassic Park movie in the Dominican Republic, others sites in other parts of the globe are really archaeological dig sites with the sole purpose of obtaining ancient artifacts containing the secrets of alien technologies. Sounds preposterous, right? But is it any more insane than scientists on their own being able to magically come up with the technology to create animals from scratch in the 80’s? To leap so dramatically ahead in genetic technologies almost points to some sort of intervention. InGen is fully aware of Indiana Jones’ exploits and have reached the understanding that there are remaining alien artifacts and ancient records that could unlock future advancements in science. Even with a cheat sheet on genetic manipulation, there are bound to be hurdles to overcome. Hammond and InGen didn’t just create dinosaur-esque creatures on the first try, it would have taken them years of trying with lots of failed or successful experiments. I posit that Jaws is in fact a genetic experiment that was able to escape (which seems to be a common side effect of InGen experiments), made his way to Amity Island.
Jaws is a giant great white shark that attacked and killed 5 people (and 1 dog) at Amity Island in 1975. Jaws, affectionately named Bruce by fans, is 25 foot, 3 ton great white shark. The average great white shark is known to reach up to 21 feet in length and up to 2,400 lbs (a little over 1 ton). The size of Jaws seems to be a just a slightly bigger great white in length but the weight is triple the normal weight. This probably stems from the actual robot shark that was made in the production of the movie and it’s weight being translated to the weight of the shark in the movie. Even so, we have a more than above average sized great white shark since no living great white has been reported to reach the size of Bruce. So the question is, is Bruce really a great white shark? After all, Bruce does have very prominent jowls, something that isn’t seen in a great white.
InGen successfully created their first prehistoric animal in 1984. The lore states that John Hammond dreamed up the idea of “cloning” dinosaurs by the 1980’s, but what made him so sure this was even possible? The answer is that he had success with genetically modifying animals before. Just before the 1975 Amity Island shark attacks, John Hammond had planned to open a marine park in Costa Rica and began genetically modifying various sea creatures. One of his prized attractions would be a giant great white shark with a voracious appetite. John Hammond had this shark modified to not only be bigger, but also to have an insatiable appetite so it could eat any meal at any time of day for any performance.
Of course Costa Rica is outside the native habitat of the great white, the waters are just too warm. It much prefers to be further north. As the shark grew bigger, it became more destructive and was eventually able to escape and migrated up the east coast of United States and eventually ended up in Amity Island in New York. This long distance journey is actually not that uncommon for great whites, and certainly wouldn’t be an issue for an enhanced specimen.
After the Amity Island incident and the reports of the attack on civilians, InGen decided to implant the Lysine fail safe in it’s future specimens in case of another escape so the animals would surely die before causing another incident and risk exposure to the company.
Going back to the Asogians from E.T., they were able to learn about humans from the interdimensional beings that visited Earth in 1977. But the Asogians weren’t the only beings that were privy to this knowledge. Other, more sinister alien beings also learned about Earth and it’s inhabitants in this way and planned to invade and occupy the newly discovered planet. The Asogians know of these planet killing aliens and have enacted a plan to save the various planets that the invaders have chosen to conquer. These hostile space invaders are none other than the tripod aliens from Spielberg’s War of the Worlds.
Once the tripod aliens learned about Earth and it’s resources, they decided to conquer it and take the resources for themselves, as they had done with so many worlds before. The Asogians know that the tripod aliens needed to be stopped but don’t possess the means of combating them with brute force. In order to save the alien worlds from the greedy invaders, they developed a biological weapon that is dispersed using the native plant life of vulnerable worlds. They begin to visit the newly detected planets that would be likely targets for the invaders and collect the various samples of the flora and take it back it with them. There, they develop a virus that is harmless to the native life on the planet but is deadly to the tripod aliens and infuse it with the plant samples that they collect. Plants are a remarkable and natural means of dispersing microscopic particles like pollen, and the Asogians make use of this mechanism. Once back on Earth, the plants infect all the other plants around them and those plants also begin to disperse the virus via pollen. In this way the virus is eventually be spread throughout Earth awaiting the invaders and is in fact exactly how the tripod aliens are defeated.
It doesn’t seem to make sense that an advanced alien species that have developed invading and conquering worlds into a science and a way of life, would be overtaken by the native microbes of that planet. This is one of the very first concerns of visiting an alien world and we as humans have even developed protocols to protect us from possible alien microbes from the moon and Mars. The only explanation I can think of for being easily overtaken by Earth’s microbes, is if they were actually killed by a virus that was designed to specifically target them and get past their defenses. So what was the point of E.T.’s mission to Earth? To save it. Perhaps E.T. really was a Jedi after all. At any rate, this interaction definitely gives further meaning to “War of the Worlds.”
So there we have it, a bit of a long theory but we were able to connect Jaws to Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park, connect E.T., Indiana Jones and War of the Worlds through Star Wars, and also connect Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. These connections all prove that aliens are responsible for the Spielbergverse. They visited us during the dawn of humanity in our early civilizations teaching the various people new technologies and leaving behind a record of technologies to come. This is seems to be proven in the Indiana Jones movies and we see the results in Jurrassic Park and Jaws. Later, the same aliens returned to Earth only to trigger a chain reaction of other alien visitors who fought to either exterminate or save humanity. And so, without alien intervention we would not have the Spielbergverse and would instead be left with the world we currently live in.
Perhaps in the future I will also try to add in movies such as A.I., Minority Report and even BFG, but for now I leave you with this lengthy theory as is. I hope that we get more evidence of a shared universe in the future, but only time will tell, and until then fellow fans and theorists, keep theorizing!
Author: Erik Montgomery
Fan Theory World 
2 replies on “The Steven Spielbergverse”
great theory, but I was disappointed to find bttf wasn’t in this timeline.
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