Over fifty years ago, the film landscape was a very different place for many obvious reasons, but one of them was that 1975 essentially birthed what would be known as “The Blockbuster”. This began when Steven Spielberg’s Jaws hit theaters that year and was a true sensation, not only being an incredible movie but also changing the way people would see the scale of films towards crowd appeasement for years to come.
The ripple effects from the Jaws cannonball are still rolling through the industry to this day for both better and worse, and Spielberg himself post the 20th century has dabbled in and out of this spectacle. Disclosure Day, while not at the levels of your Jurassic Park’s or Indiana Jones’ of the world, marks a fascinating frontier for the legendary filmmaker, fully delivering the goods with sweeping camera work and immaculate Sci-Fi spectacle while also tapping into his classic, delicate touches of heartfelt humanity surrounding the current dark realities of the truths and paranoia surrounding our modern world. The final result is as intensely thrilling as it is emotionally powerful, tapping into a similar tonal mash-up we’ve seen within Minority Report and A.I. Artificial Intelligence, but through the eyes of our present global climate, culminating in the type of thought-provoking, awe-inspiring wonder more big-budget films should be aspiring to be.
Disclosure Day starts with its foot already on the gas as we witness Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) being taken captive during a wrestling match by the company for which he previously did cyber security, Wardex. Daniel stole top-classified digital archives from the company and has been silently keeping the life-changing knowledge of what the government has kept secret for years, and Wardex, led by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the stolen information from potentially tipping the world to its absolute brink.
Daniel manages to escape his first run-in with Wardex, saving his faith-driven girlfriend Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson) from their clutches in the process. He slowly reveals to her throughout their journey the information he’s been keeping, which contains proof of alien life beyond our own in the world that the government has been testing on and keeping secret for decades. Daniel’s plan? Full disclosure, to the entire world, no matter the fallout, as he believes 8 billion people have the right to know, and he’s working with another former Wardex employee, Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), to do so.
Little does Daniel know that far from him in Kansas City, more of the answers he and Hugo have been searching for reside in local news reporter Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt). Margaret was having a nice morning with her boyfriend (Wyatt Russell) before work until an interaction with a cardinal flying into her home seemingly activates an otherworldly connection within her.
She can now read people’s minds, speak languages she’d never been familiar with, foretell future events. The catalyst is an incident she has on live TV when she attempts to report the weather but ends up speaking some type of alien language instead. Many things are still a mystery to our characters, but they all know Margaret plays a huge role in them reaching their desired goals of uncovering the truth, and with her and Daniel sharing some sort of connection, both our leads and the audience must reckon with the truth being what’s best for what’s already a broken world.
The structure of Disclosure Day essentially revolves around the universe-altering stakes of one thrilling chase that starts the movie and never lets up on exhilarating set pieces, nor the wide range of existential questions the film brings up. The mechanics for great set pieces have never been new for Spielberg, but his command of the stakes right from the film’s get-go is truly remarkable; the camera is always searching for the most unique viewpoint to shoot a sequence in, no matter the scale of its action or weight of its poignancy. Much of the first half, in particular, revels in the espionage of its mystery, playing the cards of its reveals close to the chest, and yet still remaining all the more engaging because of the well-formed stakes surrounding our characters on the idea of disclosing this information despite knowing little about them from the jump.
Spielberg’s work with his long-time cinematographer Janusz Kamiński continues to push boundaries here. The camera work is truly frenetic, and Spielberg often opts for a plethora of tracking shots and one-takes, whether it’s simply Margaret’s rush to get ready to go on air before her other worldly speech live or closely following Daniel’s escape by driving through an abandoned building, even when the movie starts to set its sights on other ambitions, its grip is rarely lost. These elements are only ever matched perfectly with Spielberg’s immaculate blocking of his actors within each frame, making the most of every slick environment and paired with the absolute best John Williams score in years, bringing a softer but lovingly familiar touch to both the film’s thrill ride and heartfelt core within its center.
What’s bound to be the most divisive aspect of Disclosure Day is the ways in which the darker elements of David Koepp’s screenplay intertwine themselves within the wondrous atmosphere we’ve come to know and love from a filmmaker like Spielberg. The occasional tonal clash between the two elements is in part why the film is inherently of a similar vein to Minority Report and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Scenes delving into the deeper Sci-Fi elements surrounding devices that can transport people into the bodies and locations of others for a mental chat of sorts are thoroughly engaging, but there are a few moments where the tonal meld of Spielberg’s playfulness and these complex concepts can end up a bit lost or silly in their intentions, or aren’t always able to fully shade in on all their mysteries.
Ultimately, however, this ends up not mattering not only because of the prowess on display throughout but because of the ultimate message of the realities of truth that lie within both the center of this film and our own lives at large. Throughout Disclosure Day, the question looms within most of our characters and the film as a whole over what exactly the fallout would be from the reveal of life beyond our own in this universe. In various ways, Disclosure Day acts as Spielberg’s true reflection of our modern moment in society; in a world that feels like it’s constantly one more horrific tragedy away from tearing itself apart, and those in power want us to never believe what we see as reality, what exactly would the reveal of extraterrestrial life do to us? Send us over the edge and unite us in curiosity? Shroud our faith? Spielberg and Koepp smartly leave these existential queries unanswered as a true reckoning with our brutally harsh realities, but what remains most powerful about it all is the unity that can potentially lie within the empathy of truth, even at our bleakest moments. It culminates in a simultaneously eerie but wholly intimate conclusion that remains honest about our moment while providing a distinct feeling of wonder that creates the type of unfathomable emotional experience Spielberg could unveil with such precision within rewarding patience.
The cast is strong from top to bottom, from the quiet, sadistic nature of Colin Firth’s antagonist role to the faith wavering of Jane portrayed so well by Eve Hewson; every main player has at least one moment to stand out emotionally within their viewpoint of what they think such truths about what we’ve known about our existence are upending. Emily Blunt, in particular, however, gives the best performance of her career, acting out such emotional swings that are often back-to-back with each other with such impeccable precision, it’s the type of performance that makes you think about the unlimited range within an actor as she nails the thinnest tight rope walk she’s been given as a performer.
We live in a world where many have become numb to the truth within constant cynicism, and the idea of the blockbuster has become diluted in our modern landscape. Yet, the ever-growing talents of one of our greatest filmmakers continue to bring unique shades to both aspects within Disclosure Day. The film can waver a bit within the clashing tonal inflections within its screenplay, but Steven Spielberg provides the exhilarating thrills and heartfelt sentimentality we know and love from him at a blockbuster level while fully engaging with the darker complexities of our current realities regarding truth, making for what will certainly be one of the best movies of this year.
VERDICT
Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day is a thrilling, emotionally resonant sci-fi blockbuster that blends high-stakes action, sweeping visuals, and John Williams’ score with heartfelt human drama. Emily Blunt delivers a career-best performance as the story explores the fallout of revealing alien life in a fractured modern world. Though it has occasional tonal clashes, the film is powerful, thought-provoking, and one of the best movies of the year.
Lover of film writing about film. Member of the Dallas Fort-Worth Critics Association. The more time passes, the more the medium of movies has become deeply intertwined with who I am.
