The main thought that sprang to mind when screening Steven Spielberg’s new science fiction blockbuster Disclosure Day was how much it felt like a spiritual successor to his 1977 epic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. There a numerous parallels, not only in the mechanics but also in the substance. Once again, a handful of relatively ordinary people get swept up into a phenomenon surrounding human discovery of extraterrestrial life. And once again, it’s not so much about a specific plot at it is about humanity’s reaction.
Daniel (Josh O’Connor), a would-be whistleblower, betrays his employer Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) and steals information pertaining to classified secrets of extraterrestrial visitors, which the Wardex Corporation, in cooperation with the US government, have covered up, researched, and mined for profit and power for decades. His girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) also gets pulled into the chaos that follows, as the unscrupulous company will stop at nothing to get the data back before it is exposed.
Meanwhile Margaret (Emily Blunt), a Kansas City news anchor, experiences inexplicable personal phenomena including sudden telepathic capabilities and speaking in tongues on-air, igniting her own wild search for the truth of what’s happening.
Written out like this, the plot may not sound particularly compelling, but there’s an incredible air of mystery and wonder to all the weirdness, which plays out across the action (it’s largely a chase film) and drama (it does get pretty talky). At its heart it’s not simply just a fun adventure, but a spiritual exploration of the mystery that drives the universe.
Although she’s a supporting character, there’s a wonderful exploration here of Jane’s existential unease. She’s afraid that proof of extraterrestrials will contradict her most sacred views about humanity and the universe, rooted in her Catholicism. But people of faith should never fear truth. We should be open to proofs, even when they’re scary or threaten our worldview. Learning more about the universe, Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp assert, doesn’t inherently invalidate our beliefs. It can expand, contextualize, and even affirm them.
The film’s final moments can only be described as deeply moving, in touch with something special that is no doubt the reason many are calling this Spielberg’s best film in a long time. There’s something to be said here for Spielberg’s optimism of humanity here; a world heavily attuned to and invested in the discovery of, and contact with, otherworldly intelligence.
I can’t help but feel more cynical in this respect: actual confirmation of extraterrestrial travelers would simply be met with shrugs and memes, provided it doesn’t arrive in a way that intrudes directly in our personal lives. But that’s a critique of humanity, not of this film.
Addendum: I have to append a postcript here; my first screening was an IMAX presentation which is typical of the largescreen format that many viewers will have available to them. My second viewing was a 70mm projection, and this was absolutely – in my opinion – the superior presentation. This is what a film – especially a Spielberg film that feels like a throwback to his earlier work – is supposed to look like.
In my screening the film was also preceded with on-film trailers for Dune 3 and The Odyssey, which is also a huge value-add. The 70mm format is very limited and I know many viewers won’t have this opportunity available to them, for for those who do, I urge you to view it in this format.
