Timeline

Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by David Franzoni, based on the events in 1839 aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad, during which Mende tribesmen abducted for the slave trade managed to gain control of their captors' ship off the coast of Cuba, and the international legal battle that followed their capture by the Washington, a U.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimately resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841. Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, and Matthew McConaughey star, along with Djimon Hounsou in his breakout role as Cinqué; Pete Postlethwaite, Nigel Hawthorne and Chiwetel Ejiofor appear in supporting roles. Amistad was released by DreamWorks Pictures on December 10, 1997.

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor. Over his seven-decade career, he has composed many of the best known scores in film history. His compositional style blends romanticism, impressionism, and atonal music with complex orchestration. Best known for his collaborations with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, he has received numerous accolades, including 27 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from a script by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, based on a story by George Lucas. It is the second installment in the Indiana Jones film series and a prequel to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film stars Harrison Ford, who reprises his role as the titular character. Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone and Ke Huy Quan, in his film debut, star in supporting roles. Set in 1935, in the film, after arriving in British India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult to all appearances practicing child slavery, black magic and ritual human sacrifice in honor of the goddess Kali, portrayed within the movie as a demon.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, a globetrotting archaeologist vying with Nazi German forces to recover the long-lost Ark of the Covenant which is said to make an army invincible. Teaming up with his tough former romantic interest Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Jones races to stop a rival archaeologist, René Belloq (Paul Freeman), from guiding the Nazis to the Ark and its power. Lucas conceived Raiders of the Lost Ark in the early 1970s.

1941 is a 1979 American war comedy film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The film stars an ensemble cast including Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Stack, Nancy Allen, and Mickey Rourke in his film debut. The story involves a panic in the Los Angeles area after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the Star Wars franchise and its fictional universe, the Indiana Jones franchise, and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. Lucas also served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. The recipient of two Emmy Awards and nominations for four Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, he is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster.

Richard Stephen Dreyfuss ( DRY-fəs; né Dreyfus; born October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He emerged from the New Hollywood wave of American cinema, finding fame with a succession of leading man parts in the 1970s. He has received an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe. Dreyfuss rose to prominence with starring roles in American Graffiti (1973), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), Jaws (1975), and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

Melissa Marie Mathison (June 3, 1950 – November 4, 2015) was an American film and television screenwriter and an activist for the Tibetan independence movement. She wrote the screenplays for the films The Black Stallion (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the latter of which earned her the Saturn Award for Best Writing and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Mathison later wrote The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), based on Lynne Reid Banks's 1980 children's novel of the same name, and Kundun (1997), a biographical-drama film about the Dalai Lama. Her final film credit was The BFG (2016), which marked her third collaboration with film director Steven Spielberg.

Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum ( GOHLD-bloom; born October 22, 1952) is an American actor and musician. He has starred in some of the highest-grossing films of all time, such as Jurassic Park (1993) and Independence Day (1996), as well as their sequels. Goldblum made his acting film debut in Death Wish (1974) with early small roles in California Split (1974), Nashville (1975), and Annie Hall (1977). He gained wider attention for his roles in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Big Chill (1983), and The Fly (1986).

Kathleen Kennedy (born June 5, 1953) is an American film producer who served as the president of Lucasfilm from 2012 to 2026. She co-founded the production company Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and her eventual husband Frank Marshall in 1981. Her first film as a producer was E.T. (1982). A decade later, again with Spielberg, she produced the Jurassic Park franchise, the first two of which became two of the top ten highest-grossing films of the 1990s.

Anthony Robert Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. Among his stage work, he is most known for Angels in America, which earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, as well as its subsequent acclaimed HBO miniseries of the same name. At the turn of the 21st century, he became known for his numerous film collaborations with Steven Spielberg. He received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a 2008 American action adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, and written by David Koepp. It is the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones film series and a sequel to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Set in 1957, it pits Indiana Jones against Soviet KGB agents led by Irina Spalko searching for a telepathic crystal skull located in Peru. Jones is aided by his former lover, Marion Ravenwood, and their son, Mutt Williams. The supporting cast includes Ray Winstone, John Hurt, and Jim Broadbent.

Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, he is best known for intense method acting portrayed with eccentric characters in auteurs' films. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a record three Academy Awards for Best Actor, as well as four BAFTAs, three Actor Awards and two Golden Globes. In 2014, Day-Lewis received a knighthood for services to drama.

Bridge of Spies is a 2015 historical drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers, and starring Tom Hanks in the lead role, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, and Alan Alda. Set during the Cold War, the film tells the story of lawyer James B. Donovan, who is entrusted with negotiating the release of Francis Gary Powers—a convicted Central Intelligence Agency pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960—in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a convicted Soviet KGB spy held by the United States, whom Donovan represented at trial. The name of the film refers to the Glienicke Bridge, which connects Potsdam with Berlin, where the prisoner exchange took place. The film was an international co-production of the United States, India, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962) is an American actor and film producer. Regarded as a Hollywood icon, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or, an Academy Honorary Award, and three Golden Globes, in addition to nominations for four competitive Academy Awards. As of 2026, his films have grossed more than $13.3 billion worldwide, placing him among the highest-grossing actors of all time. One of Hollywood's most bankable stars, he is consistently one of the world's highest-paid actors.

Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967) is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, an Actor Award, a BAFTA Award, and five Golden Globes. Born to actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, Dern embarked on an acting career in the 1980s and rose to prominence for her performances in Peter Bogdanovich's Mask (1985) and in David Lynch's films Blue Velvet (1986) and Wild at Heart (1990). She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as the orphan Rose in the drama film Rambling Rose (1991), and received her first Golden Globe for her performance in the television film Afterburn (1992).

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a 2023 American action-adventure film directed by James Mangold and written by Mangold, David Koepp, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth. It is the fifth and final installment in the Indiana Jones film series and the sequel to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Harrison Ford and John Rhys-Davies reprise their roles from the previous films, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelsen joining the cast. Set in 1969, the film follows Jones and his estranged goddaughter, Helena, who are trying to locate a powerful artifact before Dr.

Duel is a 1971 American road action thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg in his feature film debut. It centers on a traveling salesman David Mann driving his car through rural California to meet a client. However, he finds himself chased and terrorized by the mostly unseen driver of a semi-truck. The screenplay by Richard Matheson adapts his own short story of the same name, published in the April 1971 issue of Playboy, and based on an encounter on November 22, 1963, when a trucker dangerously cut him off on a California freeway.

The Post is a 2017 American political thriller film about The Washington Post and the publication of the Pentagon Papers. It was directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, and written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer. It stars Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post, and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, the longtime executive editor of The Washington Post, with Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Carrie Coon, Alison Brie, and Matthew Rhys in supporting roles. Set in 1971, The Post depicts the true story of attempts by journalists at The Washington Post to publish the infamous Pentagon Papers, a set of classified documents regarding the 20-year involvement of the United States government in the Vietnam War and earlier in French Indochina back to the 1940s.

The Sugarland Express is a 1974 American crime drama film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film follows a woman and her husband as they take a police officer hostage and flee across Texas while they try to get to their child before he is placed in foster care. The film was based on true events, some of which occurred in Sugar Land, Texas, where parts of the film were shot. Other scenes were filmed in San Antonio, Live Oak, Floresville, Pleasanton, Converse and Del Rio, Texas.

Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley. It stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw), hunts a man-eating great white shark that attacks beachgoers at a New England resort town. Murray Hamilton plays the town's mayor, and Lorraine Gary portrays Brody's wife. The screenplay is credited to Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 American science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. The film depicts the interconnected stories of Roy Neary (Dreyfuss), an everyday blue-collar worker in Indiana whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO); Jillian Guiler (Dillon), a single mother whose three-year-old son Barry is abducted during the same UFO manifestation; and Claude Lacombe (Truffaut), a French scientist pursuing a link between recent unexplained scientific phenomena across the globe. Close Encounters was a long-cherished project for Spielberg. In late 1973, he developed a deal with Columbia Pictures for a science-fiction film.

Amblin Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions, is an American film production company founded by filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall in 1980. Its headquarters are located in Bungalow 477 of the Universal Studios backlot in Universal City, California, with an additional office in New York City. It distributes all of the films from Amblin Partners under the Amblin Entertainment banner.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (or simply E.T.) is a 1982 American science fantasy film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial that he names E.T. who has been stranded on Earth. Along with his friends and family, Elliott must find a way to help E.T. find his way home. The film stars Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, and Drew Barrymore.

The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus based on a story by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton and Ke Huy Quan with John Matuszak, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano and Anne Ramsey in supporting roles. In the film, a group of children who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon attempt to save their homes from foreclosure. In doing so, they discover an old treasure map which takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate, while being pursued by a family of criminals who are after the treasure as well.

The Color Purple is a 1985 American epic period drama film, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Menno Meyjes, based on the 1982 novel by Alice Walker. Spielberg's eighth film as a director, it marked a turning point in his career as it was a departure from the summer blockbusters for which he had become known. It is the first film directed by Spielberg for which John Williams did not compose the score, which was done by Quincy Jones instead. Jones also produced the film alongside Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Jeffrey Boam, based on a story by George Lucas and Menno Meyjes. It is the third installment in the Indiana Jones film series and the narrative sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Harrison Ford reprises his role as the titular character, while Sean Connery co-stars as his father. Other cast members featured include Alison Doody, Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover, River Phoenix and John Rhys-Davies.

Hook is a 1991 American fantasy adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by James V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo. It stars Robin Williams as Peter Banning / Peter Pan, Dustin Hoffman as Captain James Hook, Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell, Bob Hoskins as Mr. Smee, Maggie Smith as Granny Wendy and Charlie Korsmo as Jack Banning. It serves as a sequel in a modern day setting to J. M. Barrie's 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, focusing on an adult Peter Pan who has forgotten his childhood. In his new life, he is known as Peter Banning, a successful lawyer who neglects his wife, Wendy's granddaughter Moira, and their two children Jack and Maggie. When his old archenemy, Captain Hook, kidnaps his children, he returns to Neverland to save them.

Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Michael Crichton and David Koepp, based on Crichton's 1990 novel. Starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Richard Attenborough, the film is set on the fictional island of Isla Nublar near Costa Rica, where wealthy businessman John Hammond (Attenborough) and a team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. When industrial sabotage leads to a catastrophic shutdown of the park's power facilities and security precautions, a small group of visitors struggle to survive and escape the now perilous island. Before Crichton's novel was published, four studios put in bids for its film rights.

Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the historical novel Schindler's Ark (1982) by Thomas Keneally. The film follows Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved more than a thousand mostly Polish–Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II. It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern. Ideas for a film about the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) were proposed as early as 1963.

DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks SKG and DreamWorks, is an American film studio and distribution label of Amblin Partners. The company was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action and animation film studio by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, of which they owned 72%. From 1997 to 2005, DreamWorks distributed its own films and its third-party films, with Universal Pictures handling worldwide home video distribution during that period. It has released, produced, and/or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each.

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema and is the highest-grossing film director of all time. Among other accolades, he has received three Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, four BAFTA Awards, twelve Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award, as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, an honorary knighthood in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, and the National Medal of Arts in 2023. According to Forbes, he is one of the world's wealthiest celebrities, with a net worth of at least $5.3 billion. He is one of 22 people to achieve EGOT status.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a 1997 American science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by David Koepp. It is the second film in the Jurassic Park franchise and the original Jurassic Park trilogy, and is loosely based on Michael Crichton's 1995 novel The Lost World. Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards reprise their roles from the original film with Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite and Arliss Howard joining the cast. Four years after the original film, John Hammond (Attenborough) loses control of his company InGen to his nephew, Peter Ludlow (Howard).

DreamWorks Animation L.L.C. is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. The studio has produced 54 feature films; its first film, Antz, was released on October 2, 1998, and its latest film, Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie, was released on September 26, 2025. Its upcoming slate of films include Forgotten Island on September 25, 2026, Cocomelon: The Movie on February 26, 2027, the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon 2 on June 11, 2027, Shrek 5 on June 30, 2027, Donkey on June 30, 2028, and two untitled films on September 24, 2027, and September 22, 2028.

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), on a mission to locate Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) and bring him home safely after his three brothers have been killed in action. The cast also includes Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore and Jeremy Davies. Inspired by the books of Stephen E. Ambrose and accounts of multiple soldiers in a single family, such as the Sullivan brothers and the Niland brothers, being killed in action, Rodat drafted the script, and Paramount Pictures hired him to finish writing it.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (or simply A.I.) is a 2001 science fiction drama film directed by Steven Spielberg. The screenplay by Spielberg is based on a screen story by Ian Watson adapting the 1969 short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss. Set in a futuristic society, the film stars Haley Joel Osment as David, a childlike android uniquely programmed with the ability to love. Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Brendan Gleeson and William Hurt star in supporting roles.

The Adventures of Tintin is a 2011 animated adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, who produced it with Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy, and written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. Based on the Tintin comic book series by Hergé, the film stars Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig. In the film, Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock search for the treasure of the Unicorn, a ship once captained by Haddock's ancestor Sir Francis Haddock, but face dangerous pursuit by Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine, the descendant of Sir Francis' nemesis Red Rackham.

Ready Player One is a 2018 American science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Ernest Cline and Zak Penn. Based on Cline's 2011 novel Ready Player One, it stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg and Mark Rylance. The film is set in 2045, where much of humanity uses the OASIS, a virtual reality simulation, to escape the real world. Teenage orphan Wade Watts finds clues to a contest that promises ownership of the OASIS to the winner, and he and his allies try to complete it before an evil corporation can do so.

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. In 2020, Hanks was ranked as the fourth-highest-grossing American film actor of all time. His numerous awards include two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards; he has also been nominated for five BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award. He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2020.

West Side Story is a 2021 American musical romantic drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Tony Kushner. The second feature-length adaptation of the 1957 stage musical, which was itself inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, it stars Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler, the latter making her film debut, with Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, and Rita Moreno in supporting roles. Moreno, who starred in the 1961 film adaptation, also served as an executive producer alongside Kushner. The film features music composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

The Fabelmans is a 2022 American coming-of-age drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tony Kushner. Loosely based on Spielberg's early life and beginnings as a filmmaker, the semi-autobiographical film follows Sammy Fabelman, a young aspiring filmmaker who explores how the power of films can help him see the truth about his dysfunctional family and those around him. It stars Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy, alongside Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch in supporting roles. David Lynch portrays filmmaker John Ford in a pivotal performance during the film's final scene, in his final acting role before his death in 2025.