Steven Spielberg introduced me to aliens. I had seen aliens in many movies and TV shows before I watched his Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the movie theater as a kid. But Close Encounters was the first film I saw back then to really treat the subject seriously for me, opening my mind up to the fact that aliens might be visiting our planet, and that—for once—they were benevolent. With Disclosure Day, Spielberg returns to the ‘benevolent aliens are here’ genre, but with a darker twist. Disclosure Day opens with Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) rescuing his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) from the clutches of Wardex, a corporation run by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth). It’s the singular mission of Wardex to suppress all knowledge of aliens on Earth. Daniel and Jane go on the run with the Archive, a physical media library of documents and films about alien visitations to Earth, starting with Roswell. Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), a TV meteorologist, abruptly starts speaking a weird clicking language while live on TV, before collapsing onstage.
Disclosure Day is somewhat familiar to Close Encounters in that it’s a chase film with people running around the country—but Disclosure Day is much better than Close Encounters in many ways. Spielberg’s new film is not only a cinematic update on the entire UFO mythology since the 1970s, but it’s also a superior thriller that’s on par with the best episodes of the X-Files that explored similar ground. The cast that Spielberg assembled here is very impressive, with the aforementioned Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place 1&2) as its lead. She’s superb as a woman who has experienced an awakening, while still being terrified at what’s happening to her. Josh O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man) is also very good as the intense Kellner, who’s lived with this dire situation for way too long and is now determined to change it.
Eve Hewson (Bridge of Spies) effortlessly transforms what should be a typically ‘by the numbers’ role of the supportive girlfriend into a real flesh and blood character. Wyatt Russell (Thunderbolts*) is also very good as Jackson, Margaret’s befuddled boyfriend, who struggles to understand the increasingly weird events that are happening around them. And both Colin Firth (The King's Speech) and Coleman Domingo (Sing Sing) are excellent as the two father figures of the opposing groups in the film. Wardex uses reverse-engineered tech from the crashed flying saucers they’ve recovered—one of which is an alien hand-held gadget that gives the user the power of remote viewing. That’s scary enough, but the user of this device can even possess a person at the remote site. Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park) do a fantastic job at using this tech in such a way that it creates a suspenseful moment within a larger suspenseful moment and it still works brilliantly.
Spielberg also doesn’t hold back on the action sequences, which are such wonderfully detailed set pieces that they are enthralling to watch. But the dramatic scenes, the conversations between great actors, are just as riveting. And by creating fully dimensional characters—on both sides of this conflict—is what makes the action scenes even better, because you’re genuinely rooting for the characters. And Spielberg, one of the legendary filmmakers still working today, knows this all too well. After all, this is the man who gave us Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Duel. He knows a thing or two about creating suspense. Disclosure Day is an extremely engaging popcorn film on the surface level, but its intelligent script, masterful directing, and superb cast manages to elevate it to another level. Whether you believe we’re being visited by aliens or not, Disclosure Day is still a vastly entertaining ride. --SF
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