The first time I saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind, my world opened up. At 10, I carried around actor Bob Balaban’s diary of the film’s making, obsessed with every detail. Decades later, rewatching the movie at Colchester’s Sunset Drive-In, under the stars, I discovered it had lost none of its power to pose the thrilling question: What’s out there?
So I wouldn’t say I was the worst possible audience for Disclosure Day, director Steven Spielberg’s return to the theme of human-alien contact. If nothing else, I hoped for a taste of the magic of an old-school high-concept sci-fi movie, à la Interstellar. What I got was a little different.
The deal
Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) wants to release information about extraterrestrial contact that his employer, private company Wardex, has concealed for many decades in collaboration with the U.S. government. As the world braces for possible nuclear war, Daniel and his girlfriend (Eve Hewson) go on the run with a cache of files and a mysterious alien device. Wardex head Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) uses a similar device to pursue them via telepathic means.
Meanwhile, in Kansas City, meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) suddenly starts speaking an unknown language on live TV. She also appears to have gained a preternatural empathy, enabling her to voice the deepest emotional needs of anyone she encounters. Baffled by her transformation, Margaret is sure of one thing: She doesn’t trust the federal agents on her trail. So she, too, goes on the run, drawn inexorably toward Daniel and his group of whistleblowers.
Will you like it?
Disclosure Day has passionate fans who respond to the film’s themes of empathy and spiritual connection. More power to them — we need more empathy in the world. For me, though, the movie felt interminable for a simple reason: too much shoe leather, not enough wonder.
“Shoe leather” is a screenwriting term for mundane procedural activities that are best elided, such as the detailed orders we watch Scanlon give his underlings in scene after scene. David Koepp’s screenplay (from Spielberg’s story) is stuffed with point-by-point exposition and connective tissue we don’t need to see. Yet somehow it all ends up on-screen, killing the momentum of what otherwise might have been an absorbing political road-trip thriller in the Close Encounters vein.
Given the overall retro feel of Disclosure Day, it seems fair to compare the two films and their many plot parallels: Both are less about extraterrestrials than bureaucratic efforts to conceal them. Both have two hapless civilian protagonists who embark on converging odysseys because of an alien encounter. Both mix seriousness with moments of goofy comedy.
Yet Close Encounters enthralls us with total immersion. Our brains stay engaged through long scenes in which, for instance, the government transports equipment to Devils Tower National Monument, because those scenes are crisply edited and shot and scored for maximum impact.
Disclosure Day has a similar puzzle-box structure, with stakes that gradually emerge. But its action drags, because Spielberg gives us theological debates and cat-and-mouse chases without the atmosphere of mystery that might have breathed life into them. Too many choices just feel off, starting with the film’s opening — for no good reason — at a pro wrestling tournament. Even the score by 94-year-old John Williams fails to create a sense of the numinous.
The problem isn’t that Disclosure Day doesn’t show enough spaceships or aliens. Spielberg has already demonstrated that he knows countless ways to create a sense of wonder, starting with a simple reaction shot. What does not spark wonder, however, are scenes of Margaret using her talent to disarm cops and federal agents, all of whom react with misty-eyed astonishment to her knowledge of their innermost selves.
While Blunt clearly has fun with her role, these moments feel like they belong in a high schooler’s earnest skit about how to replace war with love. In a more tightly plotted film, or one with stronger spectacular elements — Project Hail Mary comes to mind — the wide-eyed optimism might have passed muster. But in a movie that is largely conversations, car chases and live TV broadcasts (the whistleblowers’ medium of choice, despite the present-day setting), the corniness is hard to ignore.
Because Margaret and Daniel are tools of an alien agenda, the line “Why am I doing this?” pops up with surprising frequency in Disclosure Day. That lack of organic motivation doesn’t exactly add up to relatable characters. More importantly, it may prompt audience members to wonder why they’re doing this.
In the 19th century, people believed instantaneous communication would bring about world peace. Disclosure Day assigns a similar role to empathy. As we slog through the execution of its convoluted plot, though, we may start to wonder if that laudable notion is just as dated.
If you like this, try…
Arrival (2016; Kanopy, Paramount+, Pluto TV, YouTube Primetime, rentable): Amy Adams plays a linguist learning to communicate with aliens in a sci-fi thriller that explores the empathy theme with more nuance.
Contact (1997; Howdy, YouTube, rentable): Jodie Foster gives a bravura performance in Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel about first alien contact, which offers plenty of wonder and tearful moments.
The Vast of Night (2019; Prime Video): The special effects in Disclosure Day are not a strong point, but perhaps they didn’t need to be. Oklahoma filmmaker Andrew Patterson proved it’s possible to capture some of the magic and mystery of Close Encounters on virtually no budget with his indie about a ’50s alien sighting.
This article appears in June 17 • 2026.
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