This article is taken from the June 2026 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Find our subscription offers here.
The US government and others have long been in possession of evidence proving that extraterrestrials are regular visitors to earth. Books, TV shows and movies about UFOs (or UAP — “unidentified anomalous phenomena” — the preferred new term) are part of a carefully orchestrated programme to gradually accustom us, the human race, to the notion that We Are Not Alone. Once we’ve been sufficiently prepared, the official “Disclosure” will take place.
Personally, I can’t even begin to imagine a government sufficiently competent to pull off that kind of cover-up, but the Disclosure movement is a real thing with many believers, and it’s the inspiration for an eagerly-awaited new Steven Spielberg movie.
Cybesecurity expert Daniel (Josh O’Connor) and several other members of Wardex, the shadowy organisation charged with safeguarding the abundant evidence of alien visitation, have gone rogue and decided to make the material public as the world teeters on the brink of a global conflict. The head of Wardex, Noah (Colin Firth), is prepared to go to any lengths to stop them because “it will upend all established order”.
Meanwhile, Margaret (Emily Blunt), a weather reporter for a Kansas City TV station, starts having a very odd day after a cardinal — a beautiful red American songbird — flies into her apartment and looks at her meaningfully. She suddenly knows what other people are thinking and feeling, and she’s fluent in other languages including, possibly, Alien. But what’s her mysterious connection to Daniel?
Spielberg has been responsible for some of the most enjoyable and intense hours I’ve ever spent in the cinema, and I wanted to love Disclosure Day. After seeing wildly enthusiastic social media responses to early screenings in the US, I had allowed myself to hope for the best.
I can only assume those describing it as a masterpiece have not seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List. Disappointingly, Disclosure Day, scripted by David Koepp, from a story by Spielberg, is, at best, OK.
The fact is that, for the most part, it’s a fairly humdrum chase movie, depicting Wardrex’s pursuit of Daniel and his girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson). Helpfully, Noah is able to keep track of him via a magic wand — sorry: “alien device” — which conveniently allows him to infiltrate minds and, to a certain extent, control them.
Fortunately, Daniel has an alien device of his own which helps him out of some sticky situations. Meanwhile Margaret provides some light relief as she tries to deal with her extraordinary new abilities.
In the last quarter of the movie, when Margaret and Daniel have joined forces, and Spielberg starts to consider what the impact of Disclosure might be on people, we get a glimpse of the much more powerful film this could have been.
Strange to say of an action thriller, but the most compelling scene is one in which Jane, a former novitiate who decided a nun’s life wasn’t for her, discusses with her mentor Sister Maura the implications of extraterrestrial life for the Christian faith.
Courtney Grace, playing the TV news anchor to whom it falls to describe some extraordinary footage being broadcast worldwide, does tremendous work, managing to convey fear, awe and wonder during her brief appearance.
Aliens have been a career-long obsession for Spielberg, who turns 80 this year. Firelight, the movie he made as a teenager, was about UAP; and he has returned to the subject several times since in his films.
He also produced the excellent 2002 TV series Taken, about alien abduction. That show features a lot of the ideas rehashed in Disclosure Day and I suggest a rewatch of it for anyone feeling let down — which may be most people. Alternatively, read the newly published Not For Disclosure, by Jonathan Caplan, a well-respected KC who also believes that We Are Not Alone.
A woman with her mind on matters extraterrestrial also features in Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day. This is based on one of the novelist’s earlier, less well-known works, and I strongly suspect that if Woolf were still around, she’d insist her name be taken off it.
Haley Bennett is Katherine, an independent-minded young woman with a passion for astronomy who wants to attend university. Her father (Timothy Spall) wants her to marry instead. Katherine accepts the proposal of soppy poet William (Jack Whitehall), despite the fact that he confuses astronomy with astrology.
Lily Allen also crops up as the suffragette owner of a printworks. Why? It’s unclear. And who exactly is Sally Phillips playing? Again, unclear. So why does an apparently fit and healthy young chap drop dead in a field at one point without any explanation? Sorry, I’ve got no idea.
Tonally, this is all over the place. Is it a comedy? A drama? A romance? I genuinely couldn’t tell, and it seemed obvious that none of the cast could either. Tina Gharavi directed and maybe at some point will explain what it was all about.
