The early impressions from previews of Disclosure Day were surprising, considering Steven Spielberg had returned to the genre and subject that vaulted him into the pantheon of iconic American directors.
The filmmaker, who was responsible for bringing classics like E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Minority Report and Jurassic Park to enchanted audiences, decided to return to the fertile imaginative ground of wondering what’s Out There in the stars.
Unfortunately Spielberg’s answer, at least in 2026, is to regurgitate every conspiracy theory about aliens that the UFO enthusiast crowd has dreamed up for decades, opting for the same old while ignoring the limitless possibilities of the cosmos.
The mundanities Spielberg prefers include remarkably advanced aliens who can traverse the endless galactic void but are apparently incapable of landing spacecraft on a planet without crashing, androform extraterrestrials who look exactly like the “grays” on every kitschy Roswell tourist stop sign, and the idea that some shadowy government agency is keeping all of these wondrous revelations from us because – drum roll please – we can’t handle the truth!
We know crop circles were invented by a pair of pranksters in the UK decades ago. We know precisely how they did it because they demonstrated the method on camera for journalists. But to Spielberg, crop circles are still distinctly alien phenomena.
We know the “UFO” footage captured by American jet pilots are exhaust plumes and visual artefacts. We know glimpses of seemingly physics-defying craft are ordinary objects rendered extraordinary because of the way gimbaled camera systems track moving objects, with their internal glass apertures and infrared glare saturating the sensors until saucer-like shapes appear.
We know the forced perspective of a camera zoomed in on a moving object, even a slow-flying weather balloon, creates an optical illusion of hypersonic speed compared to the ground. Few things have been as relentlessly held up as evidence, and as closely scrutinized by experts in every field from aeronautics to digital forensics. These are not mysteries and haven’t been for decades.
We know our very existence remains invisible to more than 99.995 percent of the galaxy because we’ve only been emitting clear technosignatures for about half a century, and there simply hasn’t been enough time for the light to reach beyond a minuscule pocket of the Milky Way.
Yet Spielberg thinks the most interesting answers aren’t to be found in the endless inky black of interstellar space, but right here in ‘Merica, in secret government files and footage of alien autopsies.
The problem is, those things aren’t interesting. We’ve heard them all a thousand times.
Disclosure Day follows two people with apparently superhuman abilities granted to them by aliens: Emily Blunt’s Margaret Fairchild, a meteorologist for the local Kansas City ABC affiliate, and Josh O’Connor’s Daniel Kellner, a former hacker turned cybersecurity expert who works for the Wardex Corporation.
Wardex is the government but it’s not the government. It has all the resources of a federal law enforcement agency like the FBI, but it masquerades as a separate entity for plausible deniability and because, we’re told, even US presidents aren’t privy to The Truth about aliens. (“Presidents are civilians in eight years” Colin Firth’s sinister Noah Scanlon says as he explains why Wardex handles all alien-related business.)
Most of the movie involves the Wardex baddies chasing Fairchild and Kellner through a series of summer blockbuster set pieces. There are dramatic motel room escapes, a car chase that ends with our heroes leaping onto a train, secret safe houses, lots of phone and location tracing from high-tech command centers, and repeated scenes of Fed-like black Chargers rolling up on buildings.
Wardex is intent on stopping Fairchild and Kellner before they can go public with their secret stash of stolen alien videos.
Meanwhile we see glimpses of news reports about a world on the brink of nuclear annihilation. We’re not told much except that the conflict involves the Russians (of course), North Korea and perhaps other rogue states, and that everyone’s got their fingers on their respective red buttons.
Thus, disclosure is precisely what we need to end the hostilities, unite the human race and embrace our alien friends, even though our government tortured some of them after their disastrous landing attempts in American farm fields.
For the record, I do think humanity would be united by the revelation that we’re not alone in the galaxy, but I think fear would be the primary driver. There’s no fear like that of the Other, and if people hear aliens are coming, they’ll make a run on every gun shop, pharmacy and liquor store while the world’s governments huddle together to figure out the viability of nuking incoming craft in orbit.
No one wants it to get as far as “Take me to your leader,” particularly not with who’s in charge right now.
If you’re a self-described UFOlogist who enjoys conspiracy theories and thinks Art Bell really was speaking to aliens on Coast to Coast AM, then this movie will be your wet dream. You were right! The aliens look exactly like they do on the sides of Alienware PCs, they absolutely suck at landing, and they burn circles into our crops after abducting us!
If you just wanted to be entertained and maybe encounter some innovative takes on non-terrestrial intelligent life, you will be sorely disappointed. Spielberg lost his magic sometime before Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, and we just refuse to acknowledge that sad turn of events.
