Crop Circles in the Super Bowl Trailer
During the Disclosure Day Super Bowl LX trailer, one of the most striking images was a wide aerial shot of crop circles carved into sprawling farmland. The formations appeared suddenly, stretching across fields in precise geometric patterns that no human could have made overnight.
The crop circles appear in the trailer's second act, after Emily Blunt's meteorologist is overcome by the alien force during her live broadcast but before the warships descend over cities. This placement in the trailer timeline is deliberate: the crop circles seem to represent an early phase of alien contact, a signal or preparation before the full-scale arrival.
We see at least two distinct formations. The first is a massive concentric ring pattern visible from the air. The second appears more complex, featuring angular lines radiating outward from a central point, almost like a star map or coordinate system. Both appear in what looks like Kansas wheat fields, connecting them directly to the film's rural heartland setting.
The crop circles are among the first public signs that something extraordinary is happening.
What They Could Mean
The crop circles in Disclosure Day could serve multiple narrative purposes. Based on what the trailers have shown us, here are the leading interpretations:
Crop Circles in Spielberg's Work: Signs Parallels
While M. Night Shyamalan directed Signs (2002), not Spielberg, the comparison is inevitable. Signs used crop circles as the central horror device: mysterious formations appear on a Pennsylvania farm, heralding an alien invasion. Mel Gibson's former priest must protect his family as the truth becomes undeniable.
Spielberg was famously supportive of Signs and the two filmmakers have long orbited each other's work. With Disclosure Day, Spielberg appears to be reclaiming the crop circle motif for his own alien mythology, but with a key difference: where Signs treated crop circles as a source of intimate, personal dread, Disclosure Day seems to position them as a global phenomenon, part of a larger disclosure event visible to everyone.
Spielberg's own alien filmography has always favored wonder over horror. In Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the aliens communicated through light and sound. In E.T. (1982), contact was gentle and personal. Even War of the Worlds (2005), his darkest alien film, focused on human survival rather than alien communication. The crop circles in Disclosure Day feel like a bridge between these approaches: beautiful from above, terrifying from ground level.
Real-World Crop Circle History
Crop circles have been a fixture of UFO lore for decades, blurring the line between hoax and genuine mystery. Here is the real history that Disclosure Day is drawing from:
The Mowing Devil
An English woodcut pamphlet describes a field of oats mowed in a perfect circle overnight, attributed to the devil. Often cited as the earliest recorded crop circle, though its connection to modern formations is debated.
Tully Saucer Nests
A farmer in Tully, Queensland, Australia reported seeing a flying saucer rise from a swamp, leaving a circular impression in the reeds. The "Tully saucer nests" became early evidence linking crop formations to UFO activity.
The Wiltshire Phenomenon
Crop circles began appearing in large numbers across southern England, particularly near Stonehenge and Avebury. The formations grew increasingly complex, evolving from simple circles to elaborate geometric designs. This era cemented crop circles in popular culture.
Doug and Dave
Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed responsibility for many English crop circles, demonstrating how they used planks and rope. Their confession explained many formations but not all, and the debate over unexplained circles continues.
The Complexity Era
Modern crop circles have reached extraordinary complexity, with some featuring mathematical patterns like fractals, the Fibonacci sequence, and responses to signals sent into space. Skeptics attribute these to skilled human artists; believers point to formations that appear overnight with no evidence of human activity.
Fan Theories About the Trailer Patterns
Since the Super Bowl trailer aired on February 9, fans have been analyzing every frame of the crop circle footage. Several compelling theories have emerged about the specific patterns shown:
The Rural Kansas Setting
The crop circles appearing specifically in Kansas is no accident. Disclosure Day is set partly in Kansas, where Emily Blunt's character works as a meteorologist. The rural heartland setting serves multiple purposes for the crop circle storyline:
Kansas is wheat country. The state is one of America's largest wheat producers, providing the literal canvas for the crop formations. Vast, flat fields stretching to the horizon make the circles visible from miles away, impossible to ignore or cover up.
It is the geographic center of America. Kansas sits in the heart of the country, symbolically representing "middle America," the ordinary people who will bear the first evidence of alien contact. This is not Manhattan or Washington; this is the heartland, where the government cannot control the narrative.
Tornado Alley meets alien arrival. Kansas is famous for extreme weather, which connects directly to Blunt's meteorologist character. She studies the skies for a living. When crop circles appear, she might be uniquely positioned to understand that these formations are not natural phenomena but something unprecedented.
Crop Circles in Alien Cinema
Disclosure Day joins a long tradition of films that have used crop circles as visual shorthand for alien presence:
What sets Disclosure Day apart is the Spielberg touch. Where most films use crop circles as a quick visual indicator that aliens are present, Spielberg appears to be integrating them into a deeper narrative about communication and disclosure. The circles are not just set dressing; they are part of the story's central question about how alien intelligence would reveal itself to humanity.
How They Connect to the Broader Story
The crop circles are one piece of a larger puzzle in Disclosure Day. Based on the Super Bowl trailer and fan analysis, the alien contact in the film unfolds in stages:
- The Broadcast: Emily Blunt's meteorologist is overcome by an alien force on live television, speaking in an unknown language of clicks.
- The Crop Circles: Geometric formations appear across Kansas farmland, providing physical, undeniable evidence that something is happening.
- The Arrival: Warships descend over cities, completing the disclosure event. The secret is fully out.
The crop circles occupy a critical middle space in this progression. They turn a single, possibly dismissable incident (the broadcast) into a pattern. They make disclosure inevitable. Once geometric formations are appearing across the heartland, the government cannot spin the broadcast as a medical episode or a hoax. The crop circles are the point of no return.
Josh O'Connor's whistleblower character may have known about crop circles long before they appeared publicly. His conviction that "the truth belongs to 7 billion people" suggests he has seen evidence the government has suppressed. The crop circles may validate everything he has been trying to expose.
The Bottom Line
The crop circles in Disclosure Day are not just a visual callback to alien movie tradition. They appear to be a core narrative device: the physical proof that turns a single strange broadcast into an undeniable global event. Spielberg is using the most iconic symbol of UFO lore and embedding it into a story about what happens when the truth can no longer be hidden. We will find out exactly what the patterns mean when the film opens on June 12, 2026.