The truth will set us free. But will it really? Or is this just another nice platitude we all like to hear? We live in a very strange, post-truth era now, where the actual truth doesn’t seem to matter much, and many people are instead obsessed entirely with believing whatever “truths” they prefer all because objective truths are too scary now (e.g. vaccines, climate change, etc). I’m not sure if Steven Spielberg doesn’t know this, doesn’t understand this, or doesn’t know what to say or how to address this, because his new sci-fi film Disclosure Day is obsessed with discovering and unveiling the truth (about aliens) to the world in a time where doing this makes no difference anymore. He seems so lost in his own conspiracy theories and his faith about aliens being here on Earth, that he forgets to actually tell an interesting story with a meaningful message. He also forgets to actually make a movie that’s about aliens at all. And most importantly, he seems to have forgotten to have anything actually worthwhile to say within this movie. The ending is blatant avoidance and massive cinematic fumble, even if the rest of the movie before is quite thrilling. Sorry Mr. Spielberg, but this ain’t it.
Disclosure Day is the latest Steven Spielberg sci-fi adventure, this time it’s his own creation from notes that came to his mind in 2023. After so many iconic Spielberg sci-fi classics before: E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, War of the Worlds, Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Ready Player One, here is a new movie that is not futuristic but rather set in today’s time about the possible reality of aliens being real and already present on this planet. However, unlike War of the Worlds, this movie isn’t about the aliens or our interactions with them, it’s about the government covering up everything about the aliens. It’s closer to Close Encounters in this regard, but it’s also distant from that film in every way possible. Disclosure Day is more of a thriller about conspiracy theories & government cover-ups that plays more like Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, following a couple of people on the run with black government vehicles chasing after them. The script is by his regular collaborator David Koepp, who wrote it based on endless notes from Spielberg that he would send over. Most of it is from Spielberg getting lost in the UFO / UAP madness of the last few years – with the government releasing real “we cannot explain any of this” footage that had been top secret. What I find so strange about his misunderstanding of this story is that releasing this footage to the public, exactly as they do in this movie, didn’t actually change anything and didn’t make everyone suddenly believe.
Unfortunately, the more I sit with Disclosure Day and analyze what works & what doesn’t, the less I like it. It’s an entertaining conspiracy thriller built around a very bad screenplay. It’s uninterested in engaging with any actual profound ideas about existence, about what connects us and can unite humanity, instead offering shallow platitudes and and a generic message of “empathy will save us!” But how exactly will that save us? And what do aliens have to do with that? For most of this, he is borrowing from Arrival and much better sci-fi stories that actually dig deeper into existentialism and the idea of advanced extraterrestrial creatures. Spielberg doesn’t even seem to really care about the aliens either, relying on the classic, cliche, boring “grey alien” designs from old sci-fi stories. In his previous alien cinema creations, like E.T. or even Crystal Skull, he actually put in the effort to design unique aliens and create them from scratch for the movie. But not this time – he takes the easy way out. Disclosure Day is not really a movie about “do aliens exist? are they here?” The entire plot is “yes – they do exist, of course, but the government is covering it up until a whistleblower reveals it.” For two hours we follow Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt being chased by government thugs who don’t want them to reveal the truth. And that’s it. Once we get the truth, the film ends with a whimper. Another “huh, that’s it??” finale that will go down in history as one of the biggest disappointments in sci-fi.
It doesn’t really need to be said because it’s irrefutable – Steven Spielberg is one of the best filmmakers in cinema history who has made more than a handful of all-timer classics. He’s more than competent, always capable of making every scene exciting to watch. Disclosure Day is, for the most part, an entertaining chase thriller, with strong performances from the entire cast as their stories intertwine around the revealing of the truth about aliens being on Earth already. The first half is much more exciting and fascinating as it sets up the mystery of what Josh O’Connor is trying to do by leaking all these videos he stole from his workplace – an NGO with unlimited surveillance & money & goons designed to protect the UFO secrets ever since the Roswell, NM incident of the 1940s. Then we get introduced to Emily Blunt speaking alien words on live TV, and begin to follow the story of these two eventually meeting while the shadowy G-Men are after them both. However, where it’s going with these two and the ultimate alien reveal is where Spielberg’s movie stumbles and falls flat on its face. The emotional core of the movie, which seems to be his unifying message, is that empathy makes humanity unique. However, this is depicted entirely by scenes where Blunt’s character runs around, grabs people, looks them in the eyes, and tells them one or two lines about someone close to them.
As much as empathy really does matter in the real world, this portrayal of it is so sloppy and so cloying that it’s laughable. She escapes every government goon after her simply by saying some basic emotional line like “your dad loves you.” This is so blatantly unrealistic it’s almost painful to watch – I dare anyone to try this with the FBI or the police and see how quickly they won’t care and will throw handcuffs on you no matter what. And yet this is apparently the entire idea behind this movie, the whole message aliens want to convey to humanity. Spielberg continues to show how out of touch he is with modern times by using Russia & North Korea as the cliche scary enemies threatening world order. This is all in the background, similar to Arrival, as the story about the truth of aliens on Earth inches closer to finally being revealed to the world. Like the other edge-of-your-seat thriller A House of Dynamite last year, the movie’s climax is also its finale. They never show us what happens next. Which is a real shame. What is the point of an entire movie built around “humanity might change if we disclose the truth about aliens” if it never once tries to actually give us any indication what these filmmakers think might happen! Isn’t that what cinema is for? It’s only “I leave that up to you” speculation & some “maybe everything will be okay?” nonsense, but we never get that far. Which is why this movie falls apart once we get to see the UFO footage. So what? This is making people emotional?
Of course – Spielberg is such a terrific filmmaker that two hours of chase scenes and mystery is thoroughly thrilling. The ending doesn’t exactly ruin the movie and everything that comes before, but it doesn’t hold up once you start to examine emptiness of these character’s drive to make a difference. However, the rest of the time there’s very little actual profoundness – it’s all banal. It is a bland, surface-level screenplay wondering “what if the truth mattered!” Yes, Mr. Spielberg, what if it actually did? A good question to explore and not just throw into the audience to try and answer! Humanity really would collapse discovering aliens are here. Religion would be questioned. Why is he so scared of exploring this? In fact, there are so many other better sci-fi stories that actually ponder these questions in complex ways, it’s a shame that Spielberg’s movie lacks any of the nuance, any ounce of complexity, anything that actually deeply and honestly and clearly examines big philosophical thoughts & ideas related to “are we alone in the universe.” Apple TV’s Foundation series adapted from Isaac Asimov’s books does a much better job of considering humanity’s place amidst the stars, and even depicting how religion evolves to follow new deities amidst new revelations. Real sci-fi isn’t afraid to take risks and to actually show us, with faith & conviction, what would happen when we encounter aliens.
I walked out of this movie disappointed that Spielberg seems to not care about showing us the truth of what would happen, only revealing merely that: truth matters. Which is a nice, easy idea to put into a movie, but will leave many viewers confused as to why he stopped so short of actually lighting up our imaginations or provoking real profound questions about our place in the cosmos. Especially when he has does this so many times before with E.T., War of the Worlds, and so on. The mostly unsubstantial Disclosure Day represents the times we’re living through when it comes to cinema playing it safe. Always way too safe. For a movie that dares to try & change the world by revealing an irrefutable reality (we are not alone), it reveals nothing of interest. Nothing grand or meaningful. He doesn’t want to rattle cages, he doesn’t want to upset religious viewers by saying their beliefs might be questioned, he doesn’t even want us to think about anything beyond “why is our government keeping secrets from us?” That’s all there is to wonder. Why doesn’t this movie want to explore anything more? Can they stop making movies that are afraid of upsetting any audience member? Can sci-fi get back to holding up a mirror to society & showing us what’s wrong, what we can do better, and what will change when we evolve? It’s time to stop simply asking questions, and start offering real answers.
**Spoilers discussed below!!**
I can’t end this without commenting on the finale and the alien footage reveal and the last scene. As a sci-fi geek who loves diving into the unknown and revelatory discoveries, this is such a frustrating cop out ending that refuses to engage with any of the ideas brought up throughout. Spielberg seems to be unable to imagine or even speculate on what might really happen if we learn that aliens are real, are here, and we’re not alone in the universe. He’s afraid of that truth. He throws in the cliche Nun character only to quickly comment on how he is not worried about religion or faith being challenged – even though all our beliefs will seriously be reconsidered. He dangles the carrot of “what would happen after disclosure!” in front of us the entire time, only to refuse to even consider the actual results of this disclosure. He doesn’t even want to tease anything, and leaving that up to us to think about is an uninspired, careless, creatively inept decision to make within this particular story. And the ending? “Listen.” To what? To who? What are we listening to? The radio? The sky? What’s the message? The two humans – so, just listen to empathy & math? Or them (the aliens) – but why listen to them? It’s such a vague and frankly negligent thing to say and not add anything more… As if that statement would make a difference. I wish Spielberg was ambitious enough to truly show us his answer.
Alex’s Rating: 5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
Read more posts in: Review, Sci-Fi
