AP / Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment Daniel (Josh O’Connor) embarks on a mission to reveal the proof that alien life exists in “Disclosure Day.”

Of the generation of filmmakers Steven Spielberg came up with, no one was more prolific or more expansive in the range of genres they explored.

“Disclosure Day,” which opens about 6 months before Spielberg’s 80th birthday, pulls many of those threads together.

It’s a movie that is both philosophical and visceral. There are (occasionally ham-fisted) conversations about the value of empathy and what impact the reality of superior beings in other galaxies may have on the belief in a supreme being.

There also are plenty of popcorn moments, scenes with the sole purpose of bringing a smile — or a jump — to summer moviegoers, something Spielberg has done since “Jaws.” Here it’s a jolting opening shot of being on the receiving end of a stomping by a professional wrestler and a multicar, multitrain action sequence (with gunfire!) that is a masterclass in building tension and editing.

It also revisits one of Spielberg’s favorite topics — does life exist beyond this planet and how will we deal with it if it does?

Before it was screened, some speculated that “Disclosure” may serve as a sequel to Spielberg’s 1977 film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” There are some structural similarities in the screenplays. Both initially jump around among seemingly unconnected characters in different locales before pulling them all together.

A powerful mind-melding device in “Disclosure” has a surface that may be reminiscent of vertical grooves on Devil’s Tower, an integral locale in “Close Encounters,” and there was a moment when John Williams’ score contained a hint of the five-tone melody frequently heard in the earlier film, also scored by Williams.

I’m guessing eagle-eyed moviegoers will find more Easter eggs in the coming weeks (if there was a clip of the Devil’s Tower encounter in the footage that fills the screen late in the movie, I missed it), but there are no overt ties between the two.

The two main characters here are Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) and Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt).

Daniel is a convicted hacker who was hired by Wardex, a military contractor scarier and more powerful than most, to protect its secrets. When he discovers those secrets involve alien encounters and that Wardex’s tactics to learn how to reverse manufacture the aliens’ advance technology includes torture, he steals the proof and plans to share it with the world.

Margaret is a bubbly weather reporter for a Kansas City television station who dreams of being an anchor. After an odd encounter with a cardinal (a bird, not a clergyman), she has an inexplicable ability to mentally connect with the people around her and speak any language. It leads to an on-air episode where she starts speaking in a language never heard on earth before, which draws the attention of Wardex’s chief Noah Scanlon with Colin Firth playing the genteel, chilling villain.

Daniel and Margaret, who don’t know each other but clearly have a connection, try to find each other and Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), the person helping Daniel expose Wardex’s secrets, while Scanlon and his minions try to stop them.

Other notable characters are Margaret’s less-than-stellar boyfriend (Wyatt Russell) and Daniel’s girlfriend (Eve Hewson), who had considered becoming a nun before they met. She mainly feels like a device to introduce the exploration of faith in David Koepp’s movie. But for a big summer movie spectacle with more than 100 cast members, at its core “Disclosure Day” is a four-character drama.

Not all of it works. Moments try to conjure that childlike sense of wonder that made “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” so magical, but it falls just short. It’s not the fault of the actors. Blunt has several powerful, emotional scenes and also plays Elizabeth with a dumbfounded matter-of-factness as she tries to comprehend this extraordinary twist her life has taken.

O’Connor is earnest and likable, a hero who’s easy to root for, which helps mightily as the story continues to put him in situations where it’s impossible to believe he could escape.

Without giving anything away, the final 20 minutes or so are filled with chilling, enthralling imagery and enough ambiguity to leave audiences thinking about what they just saw as they make their way home. It’s not a movie filled with jaw-dropping twists, but it might be better not to know too much in advance.

The running time is 145 minutes, but it never drags. With “Jaws,” if not earlier, Spielberg proved he is a master cinematic storyteller. 51 years later, that hasn’t changed.