Disclosure Day Review - A Thrilling, Contemplative Leap Into the Unknown
- Chase Gifford
- Jun 9
- 5 min read
“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans.” – Stephen Hawking
Steven Spielberg will be eighty years old in December. It leaves a lump in the throat to think of what little time we have left to experience new Spielberg. He is as synonymous with cinema as the very cameras capturing the imagery he has ingrained in our collective memory. He is basically his very own genre. There’s something remarkable about knowing before you’ve seen a single frame that you’re in good hands with the likes of someone like Spielberg. Directed by Fincher, Villeneuve, Nolan, and Scorsese – these names elicit a sense of both calm and excitement knowing at the very least what you are about to see will be nothing short of masterfully executed. Whether it’s your kind of movie or not is of course subjective but even if you don’t like the movie you will likely see its merits.
I found myself completely ready to take this ride that Spielberg has crafted for us all and to the surprise of no one, Disclosure Day is another thrilling, cinematic adventure that demands an audience on the biggest screens available.
Generally speaking there are two versions of what a Spielberg movie can be. There’s the award seeking efforts like most recently The Fabelmans in 2022, Lincoln in 2012 and perhaps most famously, Schindler’s List in 1993. And then there’s the more whimsical, imaginative, exploratory classics like Jurassic Park somehow released in the same year as Schindler’s List. Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, E.T. the very next year, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 to name just a small few of the many amazing stories over his extraordinary fifty-five year career directing feature length films.
A kind of cinematic thread can be traced through much of his career that explores themes of wonder, fear of the unknown, a yearning for knowledge, and a kind of cathartic universal “pat on the back” as if to say the journey can be a scary prospect but the end will most certainly be well worth it. The uncertainty of a future that is moving too fast in Minority Report ending in the warmth of a rural cabin, the “engine” behind the madness finding their happy ending. A planet on the brink of annihilation finding safety in the embrace of family as they watch our very planet fight back against the invaders in War of the Worlds. And now, the idea of being alone in the universe being shattered virtually overnight as the truth fights tooth and nail to find its moment in the limelight in Disclosure Day. The journey can be harrowing, defeating and even eviscerating but determination of the human spirit often perseveres when all else falls. This is the beauty of a Steven Spielberg movie.
In Disclosure Day, a man is pursued by a shadow agency hellbent on preventing him from unearthing information that will change the very concept of what it means to not only be human but in a more general sense, to be a biological being drifting through the endless, vastness of space where its secrets have come to make contact at long last. Little do any of them realize he is only part of the puzzle as his other half resides in Kansas City as a meteorologist for a local news station. If the ultimate disclosure of earth shattering information is metaphorically locked behind a door, Dr. Daniel Kellner and Margaret Fairchild are the keys that can open it.
There is the surface level story of dangerous government secrets and silencing of whistleblowers but then there’s the much more interesting themes that explore what it means to be human. It asks gargantuan questions about life and our place in the universe. Are we alone? If we are not, what does that mean for our species and the systems we’ve created around the idea that we are supreme beings? Can religion survive such an unfathomable challenge to the pillars of religious beliefs? These are the questions Kellner and Fairchild must contemplate as they blaze toward a future where not only will the answer of “Are we alone?” be revealed, it will come with decades of irrefutable proof that things will never be the same. Can mankind handle what they have to tell us? There’s only one way to find out.
Josh O’Connor as Kellner is a fish dropped in the ocean with the most insatiable creatures circling him. But through circumstances he both remembers and can’t recall, both fueling his mission, he pushes forward with what can only be described as an invisible hand guiding his treacherous journey that will ultimately lead to her. He is terrified but understanding of the magnitude of his quest. He is calculating in his approach but often finds a tenderness in his humanity especially in the people who are trying to protect him along his journey. As Margaret, Emily Blunt is profoundly chaotic as if being mentally torn between who she is and who she is becoming through means that she doesn’t understand and absolutely terrifies her. She is brilliantly funny at times, tragic in other moments, and always commanding in her screen presence which is the heartbeat of this sometimes convoluted story.
There is a fearlessness in the way this movie carries on. I don’t think it always fits perfectly but it is always exciting, contemplative, at times scarily prophetic, and ultimately, deeply chastening. Beneath the sci-fi spectacle lies a demoralizing realization: our relationship with the unknown wasn't ruined by a panicked mistake, but by cold, utilitarian exploitation. The revelation that our modern progress was built on a foundation of systemic cruelty toward these forces turns our advancement into a Faustian bargain. It forces a heartbreaking question that we, as a species, seem fundamentally unequipped to answer: was the price of our tech worth our absolute moral bankruptcy?
There are heavier themes certainly but never lost to its contemplative nature is a desire for imagining the extraordinary possibilities of humanity at its best and most benevolent. There is the darkness that if left unchecked will envelop our very future. But more triumphant is the light which embraces knowledge and the coming together of a species ready to finally take its place among the stars.
Rated PG-13 For: action/violence, some bloody images and strong language
Runtime: 145 minutes
After Credits Scene: No
Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery, Thriller, Action, Drama
Starring: Josh O’Connor, Emily Blunt, Colman Domingo, Colin Firth
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Out of 10
Story: 9/ Acting: 10/ Directing: 10/ Visuals: 9
OVERALL: 9/10
Buy to Own: Yes.
Check out the trailer below:
