Disclosure Day Review

Steven Spielberg’s Optimism Collides with an Increasingly Cynical Modern World

By: Marc Kozak

Disclosure Day

Steven Spielberg’s Optimism Collides with an Increasingly Cynical Modern World

By: Marc Kozak

Steven Spielberg has always been a humanist storyteller. Even his darkest movies are built around the idea that human beings are resilient enough to overcome the most impossible odds, that good will ultimately triumph over evil, and that our ability to empathize with other humans (or animals or aliens) is our greatest strength. Yes, there are always bad guys out there with goals and schemes that are opposed to the overall good of humanity, but if we stand together, there is nothing we can’t achieve.

If you thought that last sentence was kind of corny (and admittedly it felt corny to type), you’ve run into the main problem with Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s latest sci-fi thriller and 35th feature film. We live in a world where the bad guys often win, and those who get exposed rarely face any meaningful consequences. What’s more, there is almost no conspiracy or shocking truth that could be revealed to the general populace that would unite us all to work toward a common goal. We live in a reality that has trained us to be incredibly jaded and cynical (particularly those under the age of 30), resulting in a modern state of mind that is largely antithetical to the continued wide-eyed sentimentality of Spielberg’s work. So when he makes a movie about how a small group of people risk everything to reveal the suppressed truth about the visitation and exploitation of extraterrestrial life on Earth, it’s hard to see it as Spielberg intends it, a heroic act with emotional resonance. I have trouble imagining that many people would actually care if something similar happened in real life, much less believe that any of it was real.

Then again, isn’t it a good thing that there are still people like Spielberg out there who believe that our actions can still change people’s hearts and minds? Is it cringe to be an optimist, to want and expect the species to move forward in a positive way, or to maintain an expectation that our leaders should behave in the best interests of the people? Is the movie an example of naïveté on the part of Spielberg, or a punch in the gut that confronts us with how far we’ve fallen? A lot of the questions raised by the movie are just as (if not more) entertaining than the movie itself.

" There’s a remove from the central characters that forces us to react to the movie in almost entirely philosophical terms, which isn’t something I’m sure Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp intended. "

The premise of Disclosure Day isn’t a trick or a metaphor; it’s a fairly self-serious exploration of what would happen if it were to come out that aliens have been visiting Earth for decades. Of course there is an evil corporation – the Wardex Corporation, a secret arm of the U.S. government – that has been coordinating a cover-up, hiding away a trove of files and videos detailing alien contact that dates back to the 1947 Roswell incident. And of course, these videos show that we have been abusing these poor aliens, torturing them and stealing their technologies. All of this sadly tracks with reality.

The majority of the movie consists of Wardex chasing after one of their former employees, cybersecurity specialist Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor), who has made off with a backpack full of drives that contain proof of our long, terrible secret history with alien life. Daniel’s actions also put his relatively new girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), in terrible danger, as the two must stay on the run to avoid capture by Wardex agents (who are meant to be threatening but have the combined competency of a handful of storm troopers). Daniel is given instructions by Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), the leader of a small band of ex-Wardex employees who share a desire to get all of the information out into the open. However, Wardex’s CEO, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), has reverse engineered an alien device that allows him to possess people telepathically, using it to take control of Jane in order to find out where Daniel is at all times (and also attempt to kill Daniel once in a while).

There is a bit of religious musing along the way, as we discover Jane was once almost a nun at the Monastery of St. Clare of the Dawn, where she takes him to hide out for a while. Daniel finally shares with her the reasons that they are being chased, and she initially balks at the idea of showing the videos to the world, arguing that the world is in a bad enough state as it is – on the brink of World War III with North Korea in this particular world – and a reveal of this magnitude would only cause more harm than good. Jane’s reasoning comes from her own struggle with faith and is interesting enough, but there is hardly any time to really get into these questions, which are eventually hand-waved away thanks to the convenient phrasing of one particular Bible verse. It’s certainly something worth asking – if we are handed indisputable proof of higher life forms, would that cause us to question our own gods? Personally, I don’t think it would have the kind of impact that Jane fears and I’m not sure Spielberg does either, making these sections feel a little tacked on.

Meanwhile, in Kansas City, television meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is getting ready for work at home with her slacker musician boyfriend, Jackson (Wyatt Russell in a thankless and largely unnecessary role), when a cardinal flies in the window and stares at her briefly before flying away. This clearly does something profound to Margaret, who is suddenly able to speak in multiple languages and instinctively understand the thoughts of everyone around her. When she finally goes on air, she involuntarily starts speaking in a creepy, unknown language (that sounds like Blunt doing an imitation of the Clickers from The Last of Us), which immediately goes viral and alerts Wardex, who recognize the language as alien in origin.

So now Margaret is also on the run from Wardex, even if she doesn’t understand why, resulting in some of the best moments of the movie. Blunt is simply terrific in balancing the humor and seriousness of the situation, running for her life in the same moment that she tells a random woman that she should leave her boyfriend. She can’t stop reading the thoughts and emotions of everyone she runs into, giving them incredibly personal and specific advice while she breezes past them, just as shocked as everyone else is that she would know any of these things. Blunt is literally perfect for this role, perfectly capturing both “serious career woman” and “flabbergasted woman clearly going through something,” adding just the right amount of humor to the situation. It’s maybe Blunt’s best work to date, and her scenes are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise humorless movie.

Margaret and Daniel’s paths eventually cross and we get a few classic Spielberg action sequences – one involving a car being dragged beside a train and the other involving soldiers running into invisible objects. Both are excellent, operating on the kind of grand scale that only a few directors are capable of. All of our players finally converge for a final showdown between the whistleblowers and the Wardex Corporation, leading to the climactic final scene that will likely make or break the movie for most of the audience.

I won’t get into details, but it’s worth noting that it brought me to tears, even as I immediately started questioning exactly what it was that caused that kind of reaction. Some of it was down to John Williams’ score, while a lot of the credit should go to the absolute powerhouse performance of Courtney Grace, who does a tremendous job portraying an anchorwoman who is doing her best to keep it together during a historic news report. Spielberg clearly intends for the finale to make us believe that it’s still possible to change humanity with the simple act of revealing something on television news, a kind of optimism that I don’t share myself. Maybe part of the reason the ending is so emotionally affecting is because it allows us to mourn for a world that no longer is (or maybe never was), where transcendence was possible on a global scale and the idea of everyone coming together to push in the same direction seemed desirable instead of foolish.

Disclosure Day isn’t exactly the kind of satisfying summer blockbuster we’re used to from Steven Spielberg. There’s a remove from the central characters that forces us to react to the movie in almost entirely philosophical terms, which isn’t something I’m sure Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp intended. There are moments of movie magic that only someone like Spielberg can deliver, but there’s also a sort of stubbornness to portray the world as something other than how it really is. Then again, maybe that says more about me than it does about the movie. Still, it’s a fascinating litmus test for cynicism and a springboard into questions that will surely swim around in your head for days after the credits roll. For that alone, the movie is more than worth your while.