Spielberg's "Disclosure Day" Connects Alien Whistleblowers with Questions of Truth and Trust

The plot follows cybersecurity expert Daniel Kellner, played by Josh O'Connor, and weather presenter Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), who works for a local station in Kansas City. Kellner is a whistleblower at the non-governmental organization WARDEX, a fictional entity that "collects all documents, evidence, and film footage of extraterrestrial traces on Earth," as the press material states. Margaret's life changes when she identifies men in suits as a threat in a hospital and realizes they are looking for the whistleblower Daniel Kellner.

Two Chosen Ones Against WARDEX

The dramatic turning point comes through an animal: "After the encounter with a Northern Cardinal, a songbird common in North America," Margaret "suddenly starts speaking fluent Russian out of nowhere." Instead of her usual weather report, she produces only "clacking sounds" that "sound as if a woodpecker were tapping against her vocal cords." Her destination: "Northward, because that, Margaret senses, is where she must go." In Spielberg's typical backlit aesthetic, the protagonist's childhood home also appears – with the exclamation "My childhood room!" – in which she experienced an alien awakening through animal apparitions as a child.

The antagonist is WARDEX chief Noah Scanlon, played by Colin Firth. He and his organization want to prevent at any cost "whistleblowers from bringing to the public secret archival recordings of aliens guarded since 1947." Colman Domingo plays Hugo Wakefield, the leader of a group of deserters who refuse Scanlon allegiance. Alongside the characters are also Eve Hewson as Jans, "his previously unsuspecting girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson), a former nun," and Wyatt Russell as Margaret's partner Jackson.

The screenplay comes from David Koepp, "Steven Spielberg's old companion David Koepp (including 'Jurassic Park' and 'War of the Worlds')," as the production emphasizes. Behind the camera is "Spielberg's regular cinematographer Janusz Kamiński," and the music is once again by John Williams, who composed the unforgettable melody for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." "Despite a runtime of nearly two and a half hours," the film "laboriously" works its way through its themes.

Real Backgrounds: Disclosure and UFO Files

The film takes up the real "Disclosure" movement, which advocates for the release of alleged UFO files. The title "Disclosure Day" refers to the hoped-for day of truth – a motif that has been increasingly picked up in pop culture in recent years. "Even 'Disclosure Day' could become such a 'day of truth,'" the film review states. Indeed, "previously secret alleged UFO files were released by the Trump administration in May 2026" – a current backdrop that Spielberg productively draws upon.

Spielberg employs familiar visual worlds: He "issues commands from control rooms like in 'Minority Report' and stages chase sequences on trains in the best 'Indiana Jones' manner, without however convincing with narrative pace." Religious symbolism is also not lacking: deer, fox, raccoon, and aliens populate the sequences, and the film stages itself as a "salvific apparition in kitsch light." "At least the message of 'Disclosure Day' is comforting: You are not alone."

Spielberg's Legacy and the Question of Pacing

The character development, however, is mixed. "Josh O'Connor, an outstanding actor in quiet films, cannot quite assert himself as the somewhat lethargic action hero Danny; Emily Blunt too, almost always dazzling, does not get enough profile as Margaret for emotional depth." So the film remains "ponderous" and "plows" its way "through its typical thematic fields: It tears open the trench of mistrust toward state authorities, raises questions about humanism and divinity – and argues, as in 'Close Encounters,' for open-minded communication with the unknown – the aliens." That not all aliens managed to escape in time, "is what Spielberg's overlong sci-fi blockbuster now tells."

The film joins a long Spielberg tradition of positive portrayals of aliens: "'Unheimliche Begegnung der dritten Art' (1977) and 'E.T. – Der Außerirdische' (1982) paint a positive picture of the creatures from space." How nice these can be has been known at least since the "lovable bald head 'E. T.'" "Disclosure Day" continues this legacy, even if "even Spielberg [...] has made flops" – "such as most recently 'West Side Story'."