It’s been over 20 years since Steven Spielberg last brought an alien movie to theaters, but with Disclosure Day, he’s made a comeback that feels both inevitable and nostalgic. Aliens are a staple of Spielberg’s filmography, so you’d be correct to wonder: what more could he have to say about extraterrestrials? The answer, luckily for us, is still quite a lot.
Disclosure Day explores how humanity would respond to the revelation that the UFO abductions, crash stories and conspiracy theories we’ve been hearing for decades are true. Dan (Josh O’Connor), an unlikely double-agent-type hero, uses his security clearance at his job with WARDEX to steal confidential tapes that prove not only that aliens exist but that the U.S. government knows about and studies them. Dan and his team (led by a brilliant Colman Domingo as Hugo) believe the world deserves to know the truth and plan to expose the tapes, providing full disclosure to the whole world all at once.
The true star of the show, though, is Emily Blunt, playing Maggie Fairchild, a local TV weather girl and unwilling-but-essential participant in Disclosure Day. Maggie is the true emotional heart of the film, and Blunt embodies her effortlessly. Her need for answers permeates her scenes so intensely that the audience can’t help but be completely pulled into the story.
On the surface, Disclosure Day is a film about aliens, but in reality, it’s a film about what it means to be human and how that identity would change if we weren’t alone. The stories the audience will care about most are the individuals’ experiences, at times completely forgetting this is a film about aliens. The film’s biggest downfall may be focusing on too many big-picture questions without fully answering them in the end. And, as many Spielberg movies do, the film even touches on religion—whether it’s people wanting to worship aliens as supreme beings, losing their faith, or gaining a new understanding of God because, “why would he make such a vast universe and save it only for us?” as one Nun explains.
One of the film’s quiet but great achievements is its reliance on real-life abduction stories and conspiracy theories. Spielberg doesn’t waste time on exposition of alien life; he simply assumes that stories like the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill, the Nixon-Gleason Encounter, and military UAP reports are true and that his audience is familiar (if you envision a grey, large-headed, almond-eyed creature when you think of aliens, you’re familiar enough). He spends so little time explaining the rules of this sci-fi world, he’s almost able to trick his audience into believing this story is closer to the real world than fantasy.
It would be the understatement of the century to say that Spielberg has truly mastered the craft of filmmaking, but you can’t help but feel that as you watch Disclosure Day. The film pulls you in immediately, and Spielberg never lets the momentum die down, effortlessly switching between at least three different storylines at any given moment at precisely the right time to avoid lulls while allowing each scene the space it needs.
Spielberg controls the camera with ease, creating beautiful long takes and brilliant framing that enraptures the audience into the action and connects them to the characters. Spielberg’s methods and tricks have been the hallmark of films for multiple decades, but the man himself is still the expert. So much so that it’s hard to explain this film as anything but a true blockbuster movie. It’s the kind of movie that will remind you why you love movies in the first place and will make you glad you took a trip to the theater.
