Disclosure Day is set in a world on the brink of a nuclear World War III. This brings parallels to the world we live in right now as we are dealing with wars and inappropriate actions by world leaders that cause unnecessary tensions between countries. The Iran War is a global catastrophe we are facing this year. In the film, there is a company called Wardex who does work for the US government and military which consists of involvement in extraterrestrial interactions and the cover up of their existence. Cybersecurity administrator Dr. Daniel Kellner stole the full archive of proof of the alien presence on earth from Wardex which has videos over the last 79 years that began with the Roswell incident. Daniel’s working for Hugo Wakefield, another ex-Wardex employee, who is involved in disclosing to the whole world the truth that we are not alone and the alien presence on our planet.
Wardex, who is against what Daniel is doing, got his girlfriend Jane Blankenship involved. They are led by Noah Scanlon who is the film's villain. Noah has access to an alien technology called “The Device” that he holds in his hand which allows him to appear to people located elsewhere and he can control their body movements. There is a sequence where he appears to Jane and controls her which is terrifying. The Device is a form of technology I love in the film. It’s also used by other characters for different purposes later on which I won’t spoil.
Parallel to Daniel’s story is the one of Margaret Fairchild, a weather presenter. She gains special abilities which include the ability to speak different languages. She suddenly speaks in Russian to her boyfriend Jackson at home and speaks Korean to a Korean professor at the TV station she works at. I like the inclusion of Korean as I watch Korean TV shows. While presenting the weather, she suddenly breaks into an alien language on TV and collapses. Moving back to Daniel, he also gains special abilities. This includes the ability to understand the alien language Margaret was speaking. This was a message by the aliens. This is where Margaret and Daniel’s stories begin to intersect. They do eventually meet and work together on the disclosure.
I think “Disclosure Day” has a great tone. When sci-fi films are done as sci-fi dramas, that isn’t my favourite sci-fi sub-genre, as it has the risk of being too slow and not very engaging for me. Steven Spielberg made a brilliant creative decision to make this film both an alien first contact story and a fast-paced thriller. While drama is one of the film’s genres, this film’s style is clearly that of a sci-fi thriller. It’s very thrilling and engaging. Action isn’t the focus of the film, but it does have action as the heroes are chased by Wardex who are trying to stop the disclosure. Daniel is involved in two exciting car chase sequences, one with his girlfriend Jane and the other with Margaret where they get pushed onto the train tracks.
Regarding Daniel’s character, we get few details of his backstory. I’m not keen on what he has done in the past for moral reasons, but more importantly his character in the present is a good hero for this story. I like the fact that the male lead of this film is born in 1990 (we see his date of birth on the screen) making him the same age as me. The female lead Margaret goes through a challenging experience in this film where she doesn’t understand what’s happening to her. She tells people she encounters facts and advice for their personal life which brings to mind the precog Agatha from Steven Spielberg’s brilliant sci-fi action thriller “Minority Report” who did something similar.
I’d like to expand on political parallels in this film I mentioned earlier. The current US administration is a dangerously incompetent one that constantly lies and is creating unnecessary division among people. In this film, the US government hired Wardex to suppress the truth about aliens which brings some similarities. In fact screenwriter David Koepp in a "Disclosure Day” interview with Polygon called “Steven Spielberg's new sci-fi movie probes a 'question of faith' about aliens and government lies” mentioned the problem of how much the current US government lies.
My biggest issue with “Disclosure Day” is that we don’t get to see enough of the aliens. I would have liked to have found out more details about why the aliens came to earth, what Wardex and the government were doing to the aliens. UFOs aren’t really featured in the film like I wanted. As an Elton John fan, I would have liked his UFO themed song “I’ve Seen the Saucers” to be included in “Disclosure Day”. The alien story didn’t offer anything new about aliens in government cover-ups. However, this film makes up for that in Steven Spielberg’s great execution.
I had earlier mentioned the full Wardex archive of alien encounters Daniel had stolen for the public good. This archive consists of videos going all the way back to the Roswell incident. We see people watching them on screens. Other videos featured on screens are those in the Wardex headquarters playing on the walls. These videos seem to be related to alien encounters throughout the world which Wardex uses to suppress knowledge of alien existence. I think the videos from both the archive and the ones playing at Wardex would be good extras for the film’s Blu-ray release. We could see some of those videos extended and perhaps even a few which were made for the film and got cut out.
I do see similarities with the 1960s sci-fi TV series “The Invaders” I like. Both of them are conspiracy thrillers about aliens on earth which the public doesn’t know about. Both Daniel Kellner and David Vincent in the show are trying to expose the truth. It differs in a major way as the film is the reverse of the show with “The Invaders” being about an alien invasion, but “Disclosure Day” has the humans being the aggressors.
I felt some of the visual effects animation wasn’t the strongest and could have been better. I thought the practical effects of the chase scenes involving a car smashing into a house and the train sequence were impressive. I have an issue with the film ending suddenly as I would like to know what happens after it. I wouldn’t call the film’s ending bad as there are good ideas involving aliens and the viewer can use their imagination of what will happen following the ending.
A theme of this film is the importance of empathy. I’m not sure if this theme came across as effectively as Steven Spielberg intended, but I welcome its inclusion. If aliens do exist and have been coming to earth for 79 years, a disclosure day could be a positively unifying moment for humanity. This message of empathy is what we need in the world right now as I’m displeased with the state of humanity at present. I don’t like the violence, cynicism and division that is so prevalent.
Disclosure Day is not the brilliant masterpiece I hoped for, but it’s also not the disappointment I feared. Steven Spielberg’s brilliant directing shines throughout the film and is more important than the issues I have with it. It’s great to have an original blockbuster in this age of sequels, adaptations, remakes and reboots. I had been wanting Steven Spielberg to make an original sci-fi film for years, so I’m glad he finally made one. This entertaining film is deeper, more intelligent and creative than the typical franchise films which are often over focused on action. I recommend “Disclosure Day” as a film to see.
