Disclosure Day

When a “person of presence” enters the room you look up and pay homage. You must acknowledge when a master is talking. This is the time to soak in all that knowledge, wisdom, and experience… right? Director Steven Spielberg introduced the concept of the summer blockbuster with “Jaws” and then again with “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” and then again with “Jurassic Park.”

He has inspired countless numbers of young filmmakers with his patented visual cues and amazing camerawork. His eye for richly layered kinetic shots is known worldwide, and when he is in the sci-fi realm you can expect a masterpiece. Well, that’s what we all thought. His newest film, “Disclosure Day,” is getting some very mixed reviews from critics and fandom alike which is a surprise since Spielberg pretty much perfected the sci-fi big budget genre. How does it stack up against his other spacefaring efforts? Is it another perfect moon landing or does it explode on the launch pad? I think it’s somewhere in-between veering slightly off course as it goes farther and farther upwards.

Unlike my previous review of the simple-storied Mandalorian and Grogu where the plot is very linear, “Disclosure Day” is a story of multiple and disparate lives under constant pressure, racing towards each other to reveal a mystery that is bigger than any of them can imagine. The decision makers can be listed on one hand. The stakes encompass every person in the world knowing the unknowable. History might be changed forever along with the reality of social dynamics, faith, and future.

This fictional movie, ironically (or is it all planned… Hmmmm), was released nearly simultaneously as the the actual U.S. government is releasing a series of info dumps to the American people about their various UFO files, videos, and statements concerning unexplained phenomena. So “Disclosure Day” is hitting us in a zeitgeist moment it seems, yet as I was watching the film I noticed that although it has a few new ideas, it feels oddly… mostly retro and a little worn… kind of like an older guy’s suit in the closet. Not outdated per se but definitely not fresh.

We are dropped right into the action with ex-cybercriminal Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) who is on the run with his backpack full of secrets. Who is he running from? That would be a mysterious organization called Wardex (acronym for Waived Reporting, Development, and Extraction) that operates outside the government but is also used from by the government for “special” operations.

Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) is the devious man behind the Wardex organization and comes face-to-face with Daniel and presents his captive Jane (Eve Hewson), Daniel’s girlfriend and interestingly an ex-novitiate . As he finds himself in the crosshairs of Wardex security, Daniel also presents an oblong object out of his backpack. Noah warns him to be careful and not to squeeze it too hard or else everyone dies. Noah offers a trade… the object for Jane.

All this is happening because Daniel has been working with a team of Wardex defectors, led by Hugo Wakefield (an earnest Colman Domingo), to release information to the world, including footage of alien encounters and brutal interrogations. This shadow group is waiting for a sign to release all the information being held back by the government from every single human on the planet exposing decades of alien secrets… the dawn of Disclosure Day.

The sign they are waiting for takes the form of Margaret Fairchild (the amazing Emily Blunt), a Kansas City meteorologist who begins to experience abilities well beyond her understanding: speaking fluent Russian to her boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell) (much like the biblical gift of tongues), seemingly becoming clairvoyant as she reads strangers minds, and during a news broadcast she speaks the language of the extraterrestrials. Later we find out Daniel is the only person who can understand it, and he becomes her translator.

The story begins in four parts led by Daniel, Margaret, Hugo, and Noah as we rush headlong into a collision at the conclusion of this high stakes storyline (less said about the details the better). But let’s just say if you are looking for alien interaction at the end, David Koepp’s script will not leave you dissatisfied (for better or worse).

Spielberg’s direction is as Spielbergian as ever. Creative angels, cameras whipping around for impossibly complex and lengthy shots, and heavily investing in J.J. Abrams’ lens flares in almost every scene. Spielberg also has a knack for letting the actors really feel their characters and create little hooks of personality that come through.

The personal touches in his movies are really what drives the plot and not so much the effects or technology. Who can forget Richard Dreyfuss creating a mountain of mashed potatoes, or Sam Neill scaring that annoying kid with a Velociraptor claw, or Karen Allen yelling “INNNNDYYYYYY” while being kidnapped on the streets of Cairo. Some of the actors in “Disclosure Day” do an amazing job with the material, especially Emily Blunt who is flat out on another plane of acting.

Yet “the material feels worn and not especially interesting as it might, say, 20 years ago”. I was trying to figure out why this is. Maybe the government alien cover-up angle has been overdone. Maybe it’s the constant frustration of the quality of promised government alien information. Maybe we have seen better ideas in the past. Maybe shady government organizations don’t hold the same interest. Who knows? But something is just not connecting in “Disclosure Day.”

The most interesting ideas in the movie are the questions that will arise if aliens were proven to exist: What will societies do with the information? How will nations share findings and technology? Is there a God or have the aliens been our gods? What place does religion have in a post-disclosure world? What does it say concerning Creation or Evolution? These musings bring in another layer to the alien mythology storyline.

There is an exchange between Jane and her ex-Mother Superior about this alien conundrum. Jane asks if God loves us. Her Mother Superior respond that we are God’s supreme creation on Earth as it says in Genesis (she emphasizes “on Earth”). When Jane asks if there can be other life forms in the universe, her Mother Superior responds with a resounding Yes with the logic of why would God makes such a vast universe only for us? More on this in a bit.

“Disclosure Day” is a mixed bag of expectations. It goes heavy intrigue, alien lore and some bursts of action, but it also goes heavy on MacGuffins, coincidences, and formulas that have been done and redone throughout the years… including by Spielberg himself. You will see many parallels in “Disclosure Day” that echo the superior film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” such as people engaging in unexplainable actions, the government chasing true believers, a rendezvous that brings all characters together, bald aliens, and a tense railroad crossing scene (by the way, the railroad crossing scene in “Disclosure…” might be worth the price of admission including Blunt’s performance following the rescue… simply amazing).

However, overall, the movie is uneven—which explains why there are such mixed reactions to it online.

The offensive material is not in huge quantities which is typical for Spielberg sci-fi.

Language: Oh F*** (2), F***ing (1), F***, Sh**. God’s name is misused numerous times, including G*d d*mn. There are also a several Hell’s.

Drugs: None, but a mention of ketamine.

Violence: Shooting, chase scenes, harrowing sounds of alien torture, self harm with knife and crucifix, and an opening pro wrestling match.

Back to Mother Superior. Although her calling is to know all things biblical, Her conclusions do not mirror exactly what the Bible says about this subject. I have always been incredibly suspicious about the existence of aliens based on the purpose of the universe according to the Bible. Genesis 1:16 mentions that the stars are made “to give light on Earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness”. Psalm 19:1 also says they are created to “declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands”. This shows that just because there are many galaxies in the heavens, that it doesn’t necessarily equate to purposeful life on other worlds.

Also we know that God Himself came down as Jesus Christ in the form of a human, the author of life and creation, to suffer and die for the sins of humanity.

“For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” —Hebrews 2:10

This begs the question if there were life on other worlds did Jesus have to also take the form of an alien to die for the sins of those aliens? We would assume that aliens would need a savior as well. From the Bible’s perspective it seems clear that Jesus’ sacrifice was a one and only sacrifice for mankind, and that Earth is the focal point of end times activities when Jesus comes again in the clouds. It seems clear that the Bible argues counter to the pro-alien perspective.

With that being said, I still like a good alien film. This one was good but not great. I heard a critic call it the “last boomer alien propaganda film” and they may be right. It’s a little retro, a little worn, and it probably would have been fashionable a couple decades ago. Y’know, it’s okay to take that older suit from the closet and give it one last night out before taking it to Goodwill. That suit served you well over the years. But, as King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3, “there a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend”. And for Spielberg, it’s time for a new suit.

• Violence: Moderately Heavy— • Some blood (self-injury, beatings and other wounds) • Humans experiment on alien who shrieks in pain • Torture of aliens • Cars flip, crash, and go over cliff • Crashes into barriers • Person stabs own hand
• Vulgar/Crude language: Heavy
• Profane language: Heavy
• Sex: No sexual acts, but there is a flittering dialog, brief sexual reference and a woman reminds a man that they have had sex before (outside marriage). Kiss. Shirtless man.
• Nudity: None
• Drugs/Alcohol: A main character is revealed to have used drugs during college, particularly ketamine
• Occult: None
• Wokeism: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.