Steven Spielberg lives in a very hopeful universe. A universe where human beings can come together through empathy and understanding to heal the fractures we have made via borders, religion, profit, governments, and wars. Disclosure Day written by David Koepp from a story by Spielberg imagines how proving to the world that aliens have been recorded as existing on the planet for almost eighty years would be so momentous and monumental it would make “the Earth stand still” and stop the doomsday clock from reaching twelve and halt a war with the United States, North Korea, and Russia as the main players. It’s a wonderfully old-fashioned idea, and one that speaks to Spielberg’s immense humanistic qualities.
There are quite a few moving cogs in the story to make telling the story of alien life a possibility. Daniel Keller (Josh O’Connor) a cybersecurity specialist at the privately owned, but Department of Defence supported, corporation Wardex has taken all the files to prove the existence of aliens which has been a closely held secret by Wardex CEO Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth). One so closely held that the company stopped bothering to keep the President in the loop. Daniel and his mentor, Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo) have pledged to deliver the truth to the world. One of the most important humans who must be involved is Margaret Fairchild, a Kansas City, Missouri weather reporter who has her deep memory activated to be an empathetic communicator of the alien’s message – whether she knows what’s going on or not.
Added to the action-packed chase between Scanlon and his Wardex organised army is Daniel’s ex-novitiate girlfriend Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson) who has her own reservations about how telling the world of alien life on Earth will cause a massive social breakdown especially amongst the religious. There’s also Margaret’s partner Jackson (Wyatt Russell) who is relatively sure Margaret is having a mental breakdown. Those two human perspectives are part of the larger question of the reaction the world might have if disclosure goes ahead. However, in Spielberg’s world there is little doubt that the truth is far more important.
Noah Scanlan is willing to use alien technology to control the minds of those around Daniel and Margaret. Like governmental officials in Spielberg’s previous original alien contact films; Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., Scanlan’s organisation is the untrustworthy entity who refuses to see that there is more to alien life on earth beyond scientific study and control. Wardex will kill to stop the information getting out not only because it is “dangerous” but because they’ve been able to profit via mistreatment of the “grey men” who they’ve imprisoned.
As with all Spielberg’s quite personal alien epics the beating heart is shared connection and understanding. With Janusz Kaminski again acting as his cinematographer he emphasises both the majestic with what the audience can understand as equally important, the intimate. Margaret’s ability to experience the fears and anxieties of other people and allay them with compassion is something one of Wardex’s employees views as dangerously “unstoppable”. The power of looking someone in the eyes and being entirely open to their humanity is more terrifying to a world built around distrust and boundaries.
Disclosure Day is stunning filmmaking by a master who knows exactly how to create emotional and grand sequences. The cast is well chosen with Emily Blunt being a standout with a complex and complete performance. It’s also hard to imagine anyone better than Colman Domingo being the calm and wise support encouraging and protecting the “passenger messengers”.
Spielberg’s version of the world is sweetly old-fashioned in many ways. The Pentagon released and is continuing to release files relating to UFOs at this moment in real life to a muted response. America is bombing foreign countries in an illegal way right now. Disclosure Day is in many aspects more fantasy than it is science fiction. Yet, what a wonderful fantasy it is to exist in Spielberg’s idealism.
Spectacular and radically sentimental in a cynical world Disclosure Day is everything Steven Spielberg represents as a storyteller. The sentimentality in itself might be something audiences will reject, and there’s a tendency to over simplify complex issues, but I suspect Disclosure Day will be embraced because it’s coming from a unparalleled filmmaker who is using the film to look into our eyes and whisper, “All is not lost.”
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: David Koepp. Story by Steven Spielberg
Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo
Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski
Music: John Williams
Editor: Sarah Broshar