Disclosure Day Review

Steven Spielberg returns to extraterrestrial sci-fi with the conspiracy thriller Disclosure Day.

Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) is on the run with his girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), after stealing information and an advanced device from his employer. This coincides with Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) undergoing a sudden metamorphosis where she develops telekinetic powers and becomes able to speak foreign languages. Their destinies get intertwined as they become the key to a revelation that can change mankind.

Disclosure Day will be an interesting case study in today’s modern cinematic climate. The most successful films tend to be based on established properties, or more recently, low-budget horror movies (i.e. Obsession and Backrooms). Disclosure Day was an original idea that emphasised it was a Steven Spielberg movie, with promotional materials saying he created the story as well as directed the film.

Spielberg reteamed with David Koepp, the screenwriter of the first two Jurassic Park movies, The War of the Worlds (2005), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Two of these films featured aliens in some way. Spielberg has had a history of making alien movies, most famously Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, films that showed positive interactions between aliens and humans. Spielberg also served as an executive producer on the 2002 miniseries Taken, which depicted families affected by alien encounters from 1947 to 2002.

Spielberg repurposed some of these ideas for a modern context. It mixed a ‘70s-style thriller with popular conspiracy theories, mainly Area 51 and Grey Aliens. Disclosure Day acts as a condensed version of Taken, set against a decades-long conspiracy in which a secret organisation has covered up human contact with aliens, and characters who have been touched by aliens who want to expose the truth. Disclosure Day was a faster-paced story since it took place over the course of a few days; it was mostly a chase film where the secret organisation was trying to find them acting like the CIA in the Bourne series.

Disclosure Day would have fitted in 1990s there were plenty of films about aliens and conspiracy theories. It’s easy to think of films like Independence Day, Contact, Mars Attacks, and Fire in the Sky, whilst directors like Oliver Stone and Roland Emmerich made a lot of films where conspiracy theories play a prominent role. There were loads of ‘documentaries’ about UFOs and alien abductions in the ‘90s.

Public perception of conspiracy theorists since they have gone from wacky people believing in outlandish ideas to dangerous people who can manipulate a large audience. This made films Godzilla vs. Kong and Moonfall troublesome because they still showed conspiracy theorists were quirky weirdos who happened to be right. Disclosure Day avoids this because Daniel was portrayed as an Edward Snowden/Chelsea Manning-type figure, an ordinary tech person who believed in exposing the truth. It was an admirable attempt to modernise conspiracy theory tropes whilst avoiding the more troubling aspects of current conspiracy culture.

Disclosure Day was built on awe and wonder, something that aimed to be more optimistic. It’s what Spielberg has specialised in, and it was combined with his sentimentality. It was an idealistic film made for a cynical age, just like the other big sci-fi film of 2026, Project Hail Mary. Although Disclosure Day did become overly twee at times.

As characters, Daniel and Margaret were at different stages of their journeys. Daniel was already in the middle of his story. The film opened with Daniel being hunted by the secretive organisation because he had taken their data, whilst Margaret was a woman who could never settle or fit in. She underwent a greater personal discovery because she was scared of her recent change and being forced to confront her past. As the film unfolded, the characters realised they had a deeper connection than they expected. Eve acted as an audience surrogate because she was thrust into the conspiracy because of her boyfriend. Eve was the one who experienced the shocking truth about aliens in a powerful scene where she viewed the secret footage and saw humanity’s cruelty.

Disclosure Day aimed to be a profound film that tackled some big philosophical questions. A brewing conflict between the East and West was happening in the background, like in 2010: The Year We Make Contact and The Abyss. Despite Earth facing its destruction in those films, first contact unified humanity, and it could have the same impact on Disclosure Day. It’s harrowing to think that 2010 and The Abyss were made during the Cold War, and three years later we’ve gone back to fears of impending conflict.

The other philosophical issue involved religion. Jane used to be a nun, and the discovery of aliens raised a theological question: if aliens exist, does that disprove the existence of God or another higher power?  It was a subject that was explored in Contact, where evidence of aliens led to a religious reaction.

Disclosure Day was an earnest throwback to sci-fi that centres on big concepts. The story was blighted by moments of coincidence; it was refreshing to see this type of film again.